by Alaina | Jul 4, 2021 | Grace Notes, Sunday Scripture
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm . . .
Deut. 5:15
Happy Independence Day! In America it is the 245th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when what was to become America first made her break with England. I love the 4th of July holiday. I know—I realize I love just about every holiday, but Independence Day is especially special to me.
Growing up I loved reading historical fiction and my favorite was always the historical fiction set at the time of the Revolutionary War. There is just something dashing and romantic about a nation coming into being, something about 13 little undeveloped colonies saying they believe in their freedom and independence so much that they were willing to sacrifice all they held dear, to take on the strongest nation in the world, for the chance—a slim chance—of having total freedom, both religious and financial.
We largely ignore how close to complete defeat we were for most of the Revolutionary War. We barely made it. There were many, many times when the colonists gained a victory not through their own strength, but rather through acts of God, when nature would cooperate at just the right time and just long enough for the colonists to escape, or just long enough to set up armaments before the British would realize what was happening.
There are so many things that should not have aligned but for divine intervention. God used those 56 men who were willing to sacrifice everything to birth this nation. They committed high treason. If they had been caught by the British, they were dead men. Still they willingly forged ahead, debating and negotiating among themselves for days on end, culminating in the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document that would go down in history as one of the most pivotal documents of all time. How intelligent and brave these men were!
This Independence Day, let’s pause and remember what these ordinary men, that God used in an extraordinary way, did and thank God for this great nation and for the blessings He has bestowed upon her. If America would like to remain a great nation, America must remember her great God, for there is no freedom but through Him.
by Alaina | Jul 3, 2021 | Grace Notes
I am by nature a tighter wound, anxious type of person. I would not describe myself as a worrier per se, but I do get nervous about all the details coming together. For example, growing up I took dance lessons. All year we would practice and at the end of the school year we would have a recital. The other girls would get nervous of performing in front of an audience. Not me. I got nervous about all the other things—would I be able to make my costume switch in time? Would my hair hold up and not fall out on stage? What if my tights got a runner in them? I wasn’t worried about performing—I had control of that. I knew the dances and could perform them well. But things like an earring falling out on stage—that was out of my control and made me nervous.
I love the water. I grew up on the Allegheny River, playing and swimming in the water all summer long. About a half mile up river from where we lived there were some large rocks that would create ripples in the water—they weren’t rapids exactly, even though they sounded big and we did refer to them as “Killer Falls”—and right below the “rapids” was perfect fish habitat. We usually could find a few bass, catfish or even a walleye or two. We would float down to Killer Falls on air mattresses, then Dad and I would snap on our masks and snorkels and plunge into the water to see what we could see, leaving my mother to sun herself on the air mattresses in relative peace and quiet.
We recently went to the beach. One of the days we were there, we decided that rather than just looking at the water all day we would spend some time in the water—we did a snorkeling excursion. As I said, I love the water but I was very apprehensive about snorkeling in the big, wide ocean. I mean the river is only so deep—therefore nothing all that large can grow in it. But the ocean? Have you seen pictures of those creepy lantern fish? Never mind that they dwell far deeper than we would be swimming but they could still surface just to creep me out! And sharks! Sharks live in the ocean! Why were we presenting ourselves as living shark bait!? I’m little—I certainly look like shark food!
I can’t tell you why I started to let my mind run away with me as we sailed out to where we would be snorkeling. I wasn’t super worried about drowning or getting lost at sea; I am a proficient swimmer and no tour boat is going to let a passenger get lost, but it could happen! All these were things that I knew most people were worried about, so I decided to worry about them. I had never been snorkeling in the ocean so I didn’t know what it would be like but I decided to get ahead and start worrying about it.
We sailed to our destination and they handed out life preservers, goggles, snorkels, and fins. I jumped in and swam over to where the group was waiting. When I got there I looked down and the sight took my breath away! Schools of fish were on both sides of me. Yellow fish, silverfish, fish I did not know, and way, way more than I had ever seen in my river snorkeling trips, let me tell you! Below the fish were coral—actual real coral growing in the wild! And just like that I was in heaven!
We made our way behind the tour guide and saw more fish and barracudas. I tapped my husband’s arm excitedly and tried pointing to everything I saw. He had no idea what I was doing but he put up with me anyway—I just couldn’t contain my excitement! About halfway through our swim, I realized that I wasn’t scared at all. I wanted to swim the whole ocean and see everything there was to see: from the beautiful to the ugly, and everything in between! Being in the water with the snorkel in my mouth felt as natural as getting dressed. My fears about seeing a shark? I mean how cool would it be to see a shark up close and personal!!
I realized something at that moment. I wasn’t scared of the water, be it ocean or river. I may not want to go swimming in alligator and snake infested water in the Amazon … but I wasn’t scared. I don’t think this was a case of me being brave and overcoming my fears. I don’t believe these things were ever actually my fears. These were learned fears and behaviors from others—not from within myself. I grew up on the water, grew up in my youngest years going to the beach and playing in the ocean—years when I was too young to be scared or know of all the risks. As I grew I began realizing there were risks. I was already less afraid because I knew certain pitfalls, was confident in my abilities, and, yes, an accident could happen but car accidents happen all the time and we don’t think twice about getting in our cars.
This made me question if there were other areas of my life where I had been telling myself a fear-based narrative when actually it’s not something that I am afraid of. What are the things that I think I should be afraid of and have adopted the fear? I am afraid of heights. At a solid 5 feet tall it doesn’t take much height to make me feel the ground is very, very far away. But the water? Why did I think I was scared?
How many things have you steered away from trying because you are afraid? Have you ever done that particular thing before? Don’t write it off because it’s something you are afraid of! There will be things that you are not naturally inclined to do that will take a lot of effort to overcome the fear, but don’t confuse what you are innately afraid of with things you have learned to fear for no good reason! If it’s as safe as getting in a car, then try it! You may uncover a whole new world that is waiting for you.
One last note—remember how I was worried about sharks? After we finished snorkeling, we were taken to an island to hang out on the beach. My husband and I were wading in the water when we heard a little boy shout, “ Shark!” Everyone froze and looked to where he was pointing and sure enough, a little two-foot-long shark had found its way into the swimming area. He swam in a wide U veering away from anyone he saw until he made his way safely out into the open ocean. So there you have it—fears about seeing a shark when snorkeling were superfluous, but then realized when we were swimming unabashedly in the ocean a short time later!
P.S.
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by Alaina | Jun 27, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Philippians 4:12
Contentment- it is harder than learning patience! I fought against anything having to do with contentment for a while because in my mind contentment equaled complacency and I didn’t want to be complacent. As if. There was very little chance of this happening as my natural tendency is quite the opposite direction of complacency! I needed to learn the secret of being content.
There was a seemingly never ending stretch in my work life in which I was very unhappy. Like absolutely miserable. I was unhappy with the work I was doing, unhappy with the amount of money I was making, unhappy with the hours it was necessary for me to work. I thought if I just had a 9-5 job and didn’t have to work evenings anymore I would be so happy. I thought if I could make just a little more money every paycheck that would help out so much. I thought, I thought, I thought…. Now intellectually I knew that things would not make me happier. More money is always nice but all of my needs, and many of my wants, were met. So I knew that this stuff wouldn’t make me content, but I wanted it anyway.
Fast forward a few years and my situation has changed, I have a job that I love, I work hours that I like, and yes the money could still be more, but I have come to fully appreciate that it always can be more. I am happy in my day to day life while still wanting more eventually, but God has taught me, and I’m sure will continue to teach me, how desiring to grow and do more in life mustn’t steal the joy from our everyday life.
I was sitting in church a few weeks ago and our Pastor mentioned a verse that I have heard many times but this time I had a perspective shift. The verse is Philippians 4:12, Paul is writing and he says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
Now I had always looked at this verse as Paul saying he had learned how to be content in having nothing after he had been used to living in plenty. But I don’t think that that is all this verse is saying. In fact if you take out that little section in the commas it would read, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether living in plenty or in want.” He had learned to be content living in plenty. He had learned. He wasn’t content because he had plenty. He still had to learn to be content while having plenty. This is the thing about plenty, the more you have, the more you realize you could have. The desire for more doesn’t turn off once we have more than we once did. It’s a job, a process, something we have to invite the Lord into our hearts to fix. Because the desire for more was planted within us by Him, we are filled with a desire for another world, and so often we try to fill that desire with things of this world. C.S Lewis said it well, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” The desire for more is a craving only He can satisfy.
This doesn’t mean we don’t ever desire more, but I think it means that even while desiring more we still are grateful for everything we have now. When we focus first on Him, our priorities will fall into place. He will fill up our hearts with contentment when we remember to focus on what, and Who, matters most.
by Alaina | Jun 24, 2021 | Book Nook, Uncategorized
Summer is here and that means longer days stretching out into beautiful evenings (we hope!). For me that sounds like the perfect reading paradise! If your reading list is a little lackluster this summer or, if you are like me, are simply looking for a new historical fiction title to add to your summer reading list, here are a few of my favorite historical fiction reads that I have recently enjoyed.
The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
If you read Ms. Cleeton’s other books you won’t be disappointed by this one either! Instead of Cuba, this historical fiction story is set in the Florida Keys right before a catastrophic hurricane that hit the Keys during Labor Day weekend of 1935.
This story follows three women, each from different walks of life. Helen, a Keys native, is in the late stages of pregnancy and has been married to an abusive husband for nine years. With the baby’s arrival so close at hand, Helen feels a strong desire to protect her baby and escape the abuse—but is now the right time?
Next we meet Elizabeth, the spoiled daughter of one of New York’s social elite but since the crash her family has fallen from the high-up social circles of the day. With Elizabeth’s father and brother gone, and her mother mentally unwell, it falls to Elizabeth to fix the family’s financial situation which includes debts to one of New York’s most notorious men. Trying to find a different option than the one readily in front of her, Elizabeth goes to the Keys to find the only person she has left—her older half-brother. If she can find him, he may be able to save her—but will she be able to find him?
Then there is Mirta, a Cuba native, who finds herself quickly married off to an American man who has many secrets. Mirta is trying to navigate what a marriage with this man will look like—will it look like her parents’ marriage or will it be different? And what of all his secrets? Is Mirta supposed to live in the dark her whole life or is it possible to have a marriage of equals with this man?
The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
This book was so well done! Indigo Girl is the true story of Eliza Lucas, a 16 year old girl left to run her father’s three plantations in South Carolina in 1739. The family’s finances are not looking good, her father has borrowed against their land to advance his military career, leaving Eliza with a mess on her hands. She needs to find a cash crop quickly or risk losing her family’s land—and her freedom when she is forced to wed to relieve the family’s financial burdens.
Growing up in Antigua, Eliza has seen the process of indigo making and knows it to be a very tricky process, but it could be just what she needs to save herself and her family. Will she be able to pull it off in time? Fans of America’s First Daughter and My Dear Hamilton will love this historical fiction work .
Rebel Spy by Veronica Rossi
This story kicks off in Grand Bahama where the main character, Frannie Tasker, has grown up. She has been living there under the hand of her cruel stepfather, and has been dreaming of a chance to escape. Then one night the opportunity comes in the form of a shipwreck and a stolen identity. Before Frannie can second-guess herself she goes for it, escaping to America.
Never one to simply sit around, Frannie, now known as Emmiline Coats, soon covertly joins the Rebels’ side as a spy for Washington. Based on the little known facts of the true lady agent in the Culper spy ring, who was known as 355, this book takes a rather imaginative look at the possible identity of Agent 355. You will learn the events of the Revolution that Agent 355 is credited with stopping—events that if they had gone differently could have changed the outcome of the war.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
I read The Alice Network and really was not impressed, therefore I was unsure about picking up The Rose Code, but I am so happy I did! This piece of World War 2 historical fiction rotates between three friends who were all working on different aspects of the operation to break the Enigma. We meet Mab, who is a firebrand and has secrets she desperately wants to keep hidden. We meet Beth, a mousy little thing, who is used to living under her mother’s thumb but who has an incredible mind. Lastly, we meet Osla who is sick of being treated like a silly debutante and wants to use her language skills to help her country.
The story opens with Beth in a mental institution. How did someone like her end up in a place like that? And worse, what if she can’t escape before an experimental procedure is done on her brain? The story alternates between that point and five years earlier when they are working day in and day out to break the code in order to beat the Nazi’s and every decoded message could mean life and death to thousands of people.
Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand
I talked at length about this book last year (see the full post here) but here is a quick overview of this historical fiction novel. This is a story set in Nantucket in the turbulent year of 1969. Ms. Hilderbrand does a great job of bringing the sights and sounds of Nantucket to life so that you can just about feel the sand under your feet! This story rotates between the four women of the family. I connected quite quickly to each of the characters in this book, and the struggles each of them face—unlike some books where I feel like I am just getting immersed in one person’s world when the narrator changes. Mrs. Levin struggles with the worry of a mother as her son is overseas fighting in Vietnam. Blair, the eldest daughter, is pregnant and struggling with loneliness as she must remain close to home this summer when usually she is at the seashore. Kirby, the middle daughter, is swept up in the civil rights and women’s rights protests of the day, which brings her close to some events that occur at the end of summer—an event we have come to know as Chappaquiddick. Last but not least, we meet Jesse, the youngest of the family who feels very much lost in the shuffle in light of everything her siblings have going on. Follow the Levin family on a summer that they, and America at large, will not soon forget.
by Alaina | Jun 20, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25
Today is Father’s Day. Two years ago on Father’s Day was the last time I would ever see my grandfather on this side of heaven. My mother called me two days later and told me the news—Grandpa was dead. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 92 ½, just a few days after being at the doctor and being told he had a clean bill of health. There isn’t much more we could have asked for . . . only a few more days would have been nice. Then a few more, and a few more, always just a few more. An infinite timeline is what we would have asked for. It was not to be.
I remember the impact of those words, “Grandpa died,” as they hit my ears. I remember being surprised at a small and sudden sense of relief—one of the days I had been dreading for years had arrived, and I was still alive! This was instantaneously followed by the realization that now I would have to live the reality of my grandfather’s death. Up until then I had lived in the “before”, before my world changed. We had been in the “while”—while grandpa was still alive. From now on we would live in the “after”; after I lost one of the people whom I loved most on this earth.
The thought crossed my mind that I didn’t want to love anyone ever again and thus spare myself the terrible pain I was then experiencing. The feeling of wanting to shut myself off passed pretty quickly but still there lingered the fact that my life as it had been, whole, with the people I dearly loved had started to be dismantled. My world had felt pretty much whole before his dying, and now there was a gaping hole. And I knew this was just the beginning, that one-by-one more and more of the people I love would leave this life and enter the next, leaving me behind. I had already lost a dear neighbor, and two uncles, and now Grandpa. Life wouldn’t be the same.
As I reflected that life would go on like this, with more and more people stepping out of this life and into the next, it occurred to me that maybe I was looking at it backwards. Perhaps the purpose of life is not to start whole and strive to keep as close to one piece as possible, but rather maybe life is about giving away as much of ourselves as possible, like Jesus did.
He came whole and unblemished to this world. He grew up, from a babe, to a child to a man. Then he started dismantling his life. He left his family and carpentry and started traveling around teaching. He gave himself to the masses: teaching, preaching, praying, healing, and helping people—ultimately sacrificing himself for us, to save our souls, as he died on that crude cross. Aren’t we supposes to be like that?
Maybe we are to be like the flowers of the field in more than one respect. Maybe besides trusting God to provide for our needs, we should live our lives like a dandelion. We arrive on earth bright and full with many little petals all fresh and pure. Then, with every person we love, that we welcome into our hearts, we are in essence tearing off a petal and giving it away. The goal is not to stay a bright flower but to end up the bald little dandelion head at the end of our lives; having loved, and been loved, and giving as much of ourselves to people as possible, to as many people as possible, so that they may come to know the love of Jesus that we bask in as Christians. God, who loved us so much that He gave His Son for us, what purer love can there be. Perhaps life isn’t at all about ending up whole at the end of our lives, but rather about ending up empty, having given away every part of ourselves that we could, knowing we have done all that we could for others and for Him.
