First Principles for a Woman and Chapter 9 - The Z Family Comes to Help

If only I could have brought every woman (and man) I know to hear Nancy Campbell speak this weekend.  She came up from the States to a woman's retreat to speak on "The Power of the Home".  It was incredible teaching, all based on God's Word, of course, so now in the spirit of 2 Timothy 2:7, I'm asking the Lord to "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."  I need to now think over all that she taught, ask the Lord for understanding, and trust Him to reveal Himself to me more and more.  Paul encourages Timothy in 2 Timothy to to "teach others also."  Perhaps I wasn't able to bring everyone I knew, but I took extensive notes, so I'm going to try to share a little of what she shared.  Paul said, "The Word of God is not bound!"  So it can leave the retreat, go to a blog and be shared once again in another format!

She began by talking about John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."  The two kingdoms are described, Satan's and God's.  Satan's kingdom is one of destruction where Satan is out to steal and rob.  For us, as moms and wives, he robs the home, the marriage, families.  He wants to rob us of peace, joy, courage, finances, rest, unity.....it goes on and on.  This was the interesting one - He wants to rob mothers from the home.  He literally tries to steal them out of the home where we are intended to be.

She took us back to the beginning, to Genesis where she said God lays out the first principles.  The foundations for marriage and motherhood are built in Genesis.  God does not deviate from what He establishes in the beginning of the Bible.  God made man and placed him in a garden, the first home - the prototype of all homes to come - a place of delight where we love to be, where our husbands love to be, where our children love to be, where God can dwell, a sanctuary.

When Eve was given to Adam it says in the Bible that "a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall be one flesh."  It was so interesting to notice that Adam and Eve had no father and mother to leave!  Yet, by including the words "father" and "mother", though they weren't even in existence yet, shows that fatherhood and motherhood were in the heart of God from the beginning, as was oneness.  It makes sense that Satan wants to attack these very roles that were so important to God.  Eve woke up from her deep sleep, after being created, and interestingly enough, she was a wife!  Just like that!  From the very beginning of time, she was intended to be a wife.  That would be horrid to some women, to hear their life's purpose is to be a wife!  Never!  Evidence, once again, of how Satan has attacked women and their life's purpose. 

Eve was also given the the name, "Eve" right from the beginning - "life giver".  I love that name, it is my 3rd daughter's middle name.   But Eve had no children, why give her a name like that?  Because it was God's purpose for her, the prototype for all women to come, before she was ever pregant.  Adam was speaking prophetically by God of what Eve's role would be.  She was to be a mother!  She was to embrace motherhood.  Yet, of course, this is not received well by most women.  In fact, most women don't even understand their own bodies, how they are created....to have children!  They do everything in the power to stop having children which is actually very dangerous and interestingly enough, the women who do understand their purpose in having children have a much lower incidence of all the female cancers.  It is well documented!

Enough said - suffice it to say, Satan has robbed our culture of the mothers.  He's taken away the glory of being in the home.  So many mothers seek fulfillment outside the home when they can only find true fulfillment in the home.  I was encouraged.

Ok, I'll try to carry on with Stephanie's story now....lots of reading!

Chapter 9 - The Z Family Comes to Help

This is where it all gets a little blurry - I now had 7 children under 12 years old.  We were living in a small basement apartment while we were still finishing the home Renaissance Man building.  It was the lowest time for me emotionally as I just wanted the house to be done.  I wanted to settle, to nest, to have a crib for my new baby!  We intended to move into the house and live there, while, believe it or not, we worked on the farmhouse we were about to close on.  It was an incredibly busy and, at times, very stressful time for all of us. 

During this whole time, Stephanie was now very interested in Mr. A, and it seemed the ball was in our court to have his family come visit us.  How to do that when it was just so busy?!  But, this family is like no other I know.  I can't remember all the details, but somehow I got in touch with them, or they got in touch with me, and the idea of getting together at our house must have been suggested.  By this point, we'd moved into the new house, though it wasn't 100% finished, but it was finished enough to get an occupancy permit.  It still required a ton of carpentry work, finishing touches, etc.  The "Z" family knew we needed help, knew something of our situation and therefore offered, to not only come for dinner, but to stay and help as well.  I couldn't believe it.  We found out, that one of their sons was studying carpentry.   How convenient!  Unbelievably, he offered to help us for several days in a row, to get some of the finish carpentry work done.  I was in awe.   One of their other sons also came and helped with a little bit of plumbing.  So, it turned into a dinner and work party which we all enjoyed very much, Stephanie and Mr. A, in particular.  The Z family was probably the one family out there who understood what we were going through as they were also in the middle of finishing a massive house building project.  I think that was why it was so significant that they came to help us - they weren't even done their own house!  It said volumes about the type of family they were.  We were impressed and deeply touched by their kindness.

During that whole summer we really didn't see much more of their family.  This was a little confusing for Stephanie as she thought things were going to progress a little more quickly than they were.  Instead, it was feeling long and drawn out.  As the summer came to a close I got a call from Mr. A's mom.  She asked how Stephanie was doing and I said, "Not so well.  She's a little confused where she stands with Mr. A."  Well, that must have quickly gone back to Mr. A as it wasn't too long after that that we got a call from him offering to come "help us on our house."  He knew Stephanie was still working for us.  Hmmmm...was he really coming to help us or did he have something else on his mind.......?  We thought so. 



Stephanie still worked for us