*Lessons Learned while Holding Down the Fort

by Tiffany S.
from Virtuous Daughters, June 2006~Volume 6, Number 3

Dear Sisters,

…Let me share with you a few lessons God has taught me the last few months

Selflessness--“. . . Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake
and the Gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”—Mark 8:34–37


My mother has been such a godly demonstration of loving selflessness to me these past few months. She had endured weeks of bed rest, countless needles and medicines, more than enough hospital stays, a major lack of sleep, stressful situations, and burdens I’m not even aware of, all for the sake of Christ and these two sweet little guys [premature twins]. So many women want to “gain the whole world,” but they are losing the souls of their children or maybe even their own souls. When my mom was enduring torturous bed rest (I can’t stand being in bed when I’m not sleepy!), she never complained or tried to get others to pity her. She only thought of the twins she would have as the blessing of her sacrifices. When she was receiving medicines, she always wanted to know how they would affect the twins, not what they were going to do to her. She has not been losing sleep
because of things she’s trying to do here at the house—it’s all been done because she wants healthy babies who, Lord willing, will someday be soldiers for our Lord Jesus Christ.


Do we have this attitude? I know I need to work on it. Selflessness is a heart issue, if you know what I mean. For example, punctuality is easy to work on, no matter how much you struggle in that area. You just set the clocks back, get ready for functions the day before, and so forth. It’s very practical (my kind of character quality! :)) But something like selflessness—well, that requires a godly yielding of rights and desires to Jesus and in your heart putting others first. Sometimes I tend to center “my” life around me! Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Today is my day and I’m going to accomplish my goals with my way of doing it. Girls, this was not Christ’s attitude and it certainly should not be ours. Jesus, only twelve years old, said the following to His parents: “How is it that ye sought Me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”—Luke 2:49


Gratitude--“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”—2 Corinthians 9:15 His gift truly is
unspeakable! Our family has felt very grateful during this time. First of all to the Lord for His healing hand and omniscient will. We can trust Him, no matter what. What an assuring promise!
Secondly to the body of Christ—not only our local church body, but all the Christians who have been praying and giving. I have been so overwhelmed by the love and generosity of Christians, I
cannot explain it. I’ll never forget walking down to get the mail one breezy afternoon and seeing several bags of groceries with a card attached from a family we barely know and rarely see. The next day, the exact same thing happened except it was from a different family we rarely see
and hardly know. Many meals have been prepared by gracious ladies at our church, several churches are praying on our behalf. Countless people have told us something like, “We are praying for you . . . and we have my aunt and mother praying for you, and her church, and her friend’s sister’s church . . .” Wow! :) People have also been willing to donate blood. So the Lord has been very good, and so have His people! Some of you have sent me very kind, encouraging letters
and I appreciate them so much. I was talking to a friend and told her, “I just feel so overwhelmed by the goodness of these people; I don’t know what to call it…” She said exactly how I had felt but been unable to put into words, “You feel loved.” Yes, thanks to all of you and may God richly bless your hearts of kindness.


Keeping House--“That they [older women] may teach the young women to…be keepers at home…”—Titus 2:4–5 I have a lot to learn about keeping house! I think I’ve done surprisingly well keeping up with the laundry, and fairly well on the cooking, but there are so many areas I have failed! However,
I am grateful for my mother’s wise instruction over the years that has taught me how to manage a household, because this has been a time when I have desperately needed to fall back on those lessons. And you know what, girls? Keeping house is a rewarding duty! A couple months ago, when my mother was first put on bed rest, my father took my sister and me grocery shopping. We had a very long list! :) We spent a couple hours at Wal-Mart and plenty of money! However, we planned the meals out and cooked accordingly. I told my sister one night, as we were sleepily crawling into bed after a very long day. “You and I have literally worked all day long. We woke up early,
made breakfast, cleaned up from that meal, then made lunch, cleaned up from that meal, did school, did clothes, did chores, made dinner, cleaned up from that meal, and now we’re going to bed!” :) (By the way, that day was one of those really long days!) However, we both agreed that it was very fulfilling to go to sleep knowing that we kept the house in decent order, everyone had been properly fed, and it was time to start all over again the next day! It seems like a monotonous cycle, and it  definitely can be, but we girls must remind ourselves that this is the process of raising a family. Soldiers can’t grow on empty stomachs and they have a fairly difficult time learning in a disaster house! (Although, the cleaning part is needing a little help right now and is getting doubly done! :))


I’m going to write more about helping keep house in a different article, but one last thing I’d like to share with you: we kids have done a lot of reading lately! When our parents are at the hospital (which is the majority of the day), if we have finished our school and duties, and have nothing that needs immediate attention, we sit on the couch and I read a book out loud. It’s been great! Please be
encouraged to do the same with your siblings, particularly when your parents are out. It’s a great activity—especially if the book is edifying!




So sisters, keep seeking Jesus! “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life.”