Book Bites: Elizabeth Prentiss

This is an excerpt of Elizabeth Prentiss's father, Edward Payson, as he was dying from tuberculosis.  His painfully failing health (non-stop coughing and one arm withered) caused him to be confined to his bed which was drastically different from his active life as a pastor.  He wrote:

O what a blessed thing it is to lose one's will.  Since I have lost my will I have found happiness. There can be no such thing as disappointment to me, for I have no desires but that God's will might be accomplished. Christians might avoid much trouble if they would only believe what they profess, viz., that God is able to make them happy without anything but Himself. They imagine that if is such a dear friend were to die, or such an such a blessing removed, they should be miserable, whereas God can make them a thousand times happier without them. To mention my own case, God has been depriving me of one blessing after another, but as every one was removed He has come in and filled up its place, and now, when I am a cripple and unable to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before or expected to be, and if I had believed this twenty years ago I might have been spared much anxiety. 

(shocked silence)

Have you ever read anything like it?

Each time I read those words I feel like God must be infinitely better than I imagine him to be.  I want to see God how Edward Payson saw him (and now sees him perfectly).  This inspires me to trust God for joy when things feel bleak.  Disappointment is hard.  Really hard.  But Payson experienced happiness as possible in God alone.  Not health. Not easy circumstances. Not conflict-free relationships. Take courage my feeble heart!  (And lose your strong will!)

P.S.
Some more seriously crazy quotes from this guy online here. (Read these!)
And a little biography business here. (Skim it if you have time.)

Book Corner: Elizabeth Prentiss

Elizabeth Prentiss: More Love to Thee
Author: Sharon James

Trust me, the book jacket does not help. I prefer it plain hard-cover!

What kind of read is it?
Biography. Easy to read because of the way it tells her life as a story.  Set in 1800s America.  Good for you if you're interested in topics of Biblical womanhood, marriage, parenting, serving the church, and faith when the floor falls out from under you.  This book was heart-wrenching, real, and so helpful to me.

Why did I read it?
Elizabeth Prentiss wrote the classic Stepping Heavenward, which I read years ago.  I mainly decided to prioritize it over other books because Sarah W. recommended it, and I wanted to try reading a biography for fun.  (And it was fun!)

Favorite quotes from the book?

I love, dearly, to have a Master.  I fancy that those who have strong wills, are the ones who enjoy God's sovereignty most. (p.158)

...but when we are not sending any branches upward, we may be sending roots downward.  Perhaps in the time of our humiliation, when everything seems a failure, we are making the best kind of progress. (p.205)

What will I remember most about this book?

Hopefully a lot of it.  Especially E.P.'s example of submitting to God's will over her own, even when it's painful.  This book was a well-timed help for me in that.  But I know I am still in need of more grace to put it into practice.

"Let us take our lot in life just as it comes, courageously, patiently and faithfully, never wondering at anything the Master does. ... He has some reason for doing so ...if you have real faith in Him, you will not insist on knowing this reason." (p.211)


P.S.
The girltalk blog did an interview with Sharon James that starts here.

Florida: Days 3-4

Day 3:

Magic Kingdom at Disney World

Best rides: Peter Pan, Space Mountain, Pirates

The teacups ride makes me miss my sista

Magical

Waiting for Peter Pan ride

So excited to walk through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse!

In front of the top room in the treehouse

 Day 4:

Universal Islands of Adventure Day (aka: rides for Bert, HP for Beki)

Best Rides:
(BERT) Dragon Challenge, Hulk, HP Forbidden Journey

(BEKI) HP Forbidden Journey, Cat in the Hat, Hippogriff Coaster, Spiderman

Walking into Hogsmeade for the first time = joy

About to enter the Hogwarts castle to ride "The Forbidden Journey" !!!

 P.S. The ride glitched while we were on it (our first ride of the day) and we were stuck in our seats in front of a bowl-shaped screen for a long time.  Bert guesses it was 30 minutes, and I guess it was 60.  But either way it was relaxing because the seats were pretty comfy.  Our consolation prize was a special ticket to come back later to ride it without waiting in any lines!  Overall, the ride/castle was amazing.
(My preference would have been less spiders and more Hermione though.)

Inside the Weasley Joke shop (it was so tiny)

Inside Honeydukes

Sigh

Drinking Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks

The INCREDIBLE Hulk

This is inside the Dr. Suess 'island.'  Very whimsical and the themed to a T.

Sweet room of refuge for aching feet

Our hotel had a neat interior

Coming home to Gwen (and Oakley) = BEST EVER!!!

 It was a fun trip, for sure.  We are thankful that we were able to 'get away' but it was a little harder than I expected to be away at times.  Philippians 4:13 proved very helpful - I can do ALL things through him who strengthens me.  So, anytime I caught myself saying, "I can't do this!" I told myself the truth about the situation.  Very helpful.  All things is a lot of things.

Florida: Days 1-2

Giant trees that arched over the road 

"The Sink" is where the gators roam free, and people walk around and look at 'em

More giant trees, and lots of trailing moss

A nice gator cooling himself in the pond beneath us

The lovely guest room we called home for two nights

Steph made us her award-winning breakfast burritos while Pete packed lunches - we got the royal treatment!

Steph was finishing The Hunger Games and didn't budge from her spot until it was done :)

Bert made me this lovely sand chair

Siesta Key, FL
April 29, 2012

Not pictured:

Delicious breakfast at The Flying Biscuit

Smelling gardenias in the backyard

"love bugs"

Mason, their cute dog

Tubing down the Ginnie Springs river with college kids

Swimming in a natural spring and feeling the cool, bright, clear water (while crazy people scuba dived in the caves that open up there)

Not seeing tons of gators up close and personal because the water was so low they had retreated

Dinner at Emiliano's (cuban food)

Learning my lesson about putting sunscreen on TOO early (rubs off shoulders onto shirt during 2+ hour car ride to the beach).

Listening to Stuff You Should Know about coffee and anti-matter something-or-other

Watching "We Bought a Zoo" and eating Papa Johns

Talking lots about eye surgery, medical ethics, ER stories, Florida culture, missing Gwen etc. So fun!

Reading Goals

I made this stack of goals in February.

1 accomplished

10 personally owned

1 read before, want to re-read

2 borrowed/bestowed

8 nonfiction (though 3 story-based)

4 fiction

And of course, since I made the stack, I want to add:

Austenland

Bridge to Terabithia

The Sunday Philosophy Club

Peace Like a River (re-read)

and more.

But it's a good start, at least.

(Thanks for the inspiration Shay!)

(blurry)

Even though it's blurry, I like this picture because that is one of Gwen's normal expressions

crumbs

"No Bible - no breakfast."

-Piper

"Do I spend all my life thinking about my comfort?!"

-Mary

"I should be a vessel of wrath."

-Sarah, discussing Romans 9 and the amazing grace of Jesus

"There is nothing inside of us that is good, and yet God still pours out amazing grace."

-B Merch.

Transitions

Jami left a week ago, and we miss having her smiling face around!

It's always hard to say goodbye and see a season of daily friendship end, but it's exciting to look to the future and know 'my times are in His hand.' (Psalm 31)

Special days with Daddy

"Can you hold her for a second?"

Sunny afternoons are hard to beat

Actually listening to the story for the first time :)

Furball transformed

From this:

To this:

Cons:

freaky looking

Pros:

furniture and floors without fresh clumps of hair on them everyday

no more matting (ouch)

clean unmentionables area (well, this IS a major perk)

get to skip the spring shedding season of horror

See?  See?!  It's worth it! 

She seems content with the new hair-do.

The groomers just said she was MAD about being restrained while they cut her hair, she didn't really care about the actual cutting.  When I went to pick her up, the floor looked like an Oakley explosion!

We were kind of shocked to find that she has a regular cat body underneath all that fur.

And her stripes (which we hadn't seen since she was a kitten) are so pretty.