Late again.
I tiptoed my way through the aisle, baby in one arm, bags and sippy cups in the other, the toddler clinging to my skirt. We not-so-quietly made our way to the seats saved by my husband, who had arrived earlier to pray for the service.
One little known Bible story with wonderful lessons on Drunkenness, nakedness, sin, pornography and the importance of hiding your eyes when you see sin.
“But mommy, shouldn’t she have had the baby by now?!?” my daughter asked, but I could see questions already forming on her face. She’d just remembered a joyful pregnancy announcement from over a year ago and was slowly realizing “nine months” had come and gone. …
Some notes from my heart after reading, “Two Men Who Talked to God” (Luke 18) from the Read-Aloud Bible Stories by Ella Lindvall with my kids this morning: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ This was me. This was me growing up. And this was me …
This article is a continuation of the article, “When Bible Reading Feels Disconnected”. If you have never had a steady, devotional time each day where you are meeting with the Lord, you may want to start there – and check back here later. You’ve been …
“But Mommy, I plugged it in…!!” It was the end of the day. The kid’s chores were finished. Their summer assignments done. They had completed their tasks and were now eager for their hard-earned 30 minutes of “tablet time”. But the four-year-old was distraught as …
How our family has done morning devos, through the various stages and ages of our children – and why we do this instead of following a Bible curriculum.
You’re trying to do school with an older kid or two or three … but Baby B isn’t sitting still in her cute bouncy seat anymore. She can climb out of the pack in play in 4 seconds flat, and screams if being left in …
I wrote this article years ago, but due to the deeply personal nature of this topic, I hesitated to post it here. For some years, this article ran with another publication. That website no longer exists, but the need for discussions around this topic is …
When our first child was born 13 years ago, we wrestled with this question: should we continue to be so involved in the church? We knew the horror stories of teens falling away, of PK’s becoming disillusioned with the church. We encountered those who fully …
For many years now, I have been searching the scriptures for marriages. Of course, we know about Sarah and Abraham. We know about Ruth and Boaz, Esther and King Xerxes, David and Bathsheba. Maybe we remember Hannah and Elkanah or even the unnamed wives—like Job’s, …
This article was written and shared over on The Journeywoman Blog several months back, but I’m just now uploading it here. We don’t often share struggles like this, and yet friends, as true as these struggles have been, can I just tell you? I love …
“But mommy, shouldn’t she have had the baby by now?!?” my daughter asked, but I could see questions already forming on her face. She’d just remembered a joyful pregnancy announcement from over a year ago and was slowly realizing “nine months” had come and gone. …
This article first appeared in The Joyful Life Magazine, under the title, “Pressing on to Maturity: How and Why to Memorize the Word (from a converted skeptic)”; Create Issue, Spring 2021 Almost eighteen years ago after responding with an eager, “Yes!” to the big …
As a homeschooling mama, I’ve spent a bit of time perusing homeschool groups, learning from moms who’ve gone before, listening, and following along to see what types of questions arise. But there’s been one question that I’ve seen over and over and over. “What Bible …
It’s been a little while since I posted here. I’m hoping to soon get back to my blogging roots here on Chronicles of Momia. But for now, this is an article I shared recently on The Joyful Life blog. If you’ve been hesitant to open …
Free Homeschool Co-op Curriculum – Everything you need in one place to help you teach your elementary co-op class.
For many years now, I have been searching the scriptures for marriages. Of course, we know about Sarah and Abraham. We know about Ruth and Boaz, Esther and King Xerxes, David and Bathsheba. Maybe we remember Hannah and Elkanah or even the unnamed wives—like Job’s, or Lot’s, or Phineas’?
But why are they there? Of the millions of marriages that took place throughout the time of the Bible, God chose only a handful to tell us about. Take David for instance. Scripture records the names of at least 8 of his wives, yet God only shares the details with us of three. Would it not seem that if God chose to include these stories, there must be something for us to notice?
Some years back, I began pondering these questions. I asked the Lord. I made notes and paused when I got to stories about a married couple. Sometimes I’d get nothing, and I’d leave it for another time to revisit. Other times, revelation flooded and suddenly I understood something I’d never seen before. With so many of these stories, there were moments when I asked him, and he spoke, and I was only his instrument to write and put into words what I saw. It is the beauty of the Word of God. And the wonder of our Lord—that he is living. That his word is living. That the Holy Spirit really does bring the word to life in time of need. Eventually, I began organizing some of these revelations and writing them out as articles. Currently, there are more than 20 marriages that I have studied, pondered, and written about (only on my laptop at the moment, but hopefully, to be shared here soon.)
In each of these marriages, I chose to focus on the wives alone, to see what we could learn from each of these women in their various marriage circumstances. That is not to say their husbands didn’t have egregious sins—many of them did. This is not to say we, as women, can’t learn from observing the shortcomings and failures of men—of course, we can. But in these articles, I chose only to look at the wife’s response and what we can learn from them. (There are other places I’ve written about marriage in general and helps in early marriage)
“But what about David’s sin?” “But what about Nabal’s foolish heart?” “But what about Samson’s disobedience? These are all valid questions, for the sins of these men were deep, and as we will discuss, our sins often do affect the lives of those around us.
But I hear the Lord’s call to Peter, “What is that to you, you follow me.” And so for these articles, this is where I choose to begin and to focus. Even if you are married to a fool—or your husband has a foolish moment—how should we respond? As the Lord’s servants, as Christian women, wives, and wives-to-be, what can we learn from those who went before us in the Bible?
These studies (which will be shared as individual articles, all linked from this page) are the result of many years of searching and studying the topic of marriage, and the specific marriages in the Bible. It is the gleanings that came in years of informal marriage counseling, of fellowshipping with brothers and sisters, struggling through these very things in relationships. It is also a representation of gleanings and lessons learned within my own marriage; words the Lord has spoken to me, examples he has held before me to notice. It is my attempt, by God’s help, to “pass along the things I’ve learned by grace” (to quote a dear older brother.)
It is not an exhaustive study of marriage by any means, nor is it a thorough study of every couple in the Bible. It is still very much in draft form as I share it here. But hopefully, as we consider these examples that God set before us, we will be challenged to love our God more deeply, to serve our husbands more fully, to bless and not to curse, to overcome evil with good. To submit with joy. To trust with expectation. To give ourselves to prayer. And to wholly lean upon the strength of our God for every circumstance that we encounter in our marriages. He is worthy of this.
May the Lord bless you as you read along and study his word—
Katherine
The following list of marriages is in random order, shared mostly according to the articles/studies I have finished first. If it’s on this list, I have something written that I will eventually share here. I will continue to add more couples (as the Lord gives light and understanding) and fill in with links to separate pages, (as time allows). Eventually, I hope to study through many of the wives listed in this list with a group of local sisters, adding additional insights gleaned through fellowship. I share this here as a springboard for anyone who may want to do the same.
Of course, there are several in this list who are not actual wives. Likely, Sarah would be horrified that I listed Hagar as a wife. Yet scripture, just like real life, is quite messy when it comes to relationships (and sometimes concubines are listed as wives, sometimes not). Still, the fact that they shared houses or beds with the men listed, seems to give us a close enough idea of marriage to be worth pondering. These are noted with an ** next to their name.
Also, to be straight right from the beginning, my husband has read all of these. We’re on the same team. He is a man of God, and we have served together in ministry for many years. Have we had moments to fight through, to pray through, to travail for each other, to wait for God to work in the other? Yes. And I’m sure he has had plenty with me. I don’t think you can do twenty years of marriage without having days of wrestling with the Lord for your spouse. Without wrestling with the Lord for your own heart to love your spouse. But these are tiny wrestlings. And what I’ve found, is that if you’re faithful to wrestle regularly with the Lord through the tiny wrestlings, He will keep you. He will keep your spouse. I’m so grateful for my husband. I truly believe that marriage, done well, in the Lord–is one of the greatest gifts the Lord has given us to experience while we’re here on earth.
