The Simple Woman's Gazette :: Whatsoever things... {October}

~Issue 2 ~ 2022~

Inside this issue:

 

-Pages-

from my desk - greetings 

one by one - a thankful heart

sing praise - listen and worship

at the well - living water

home and hearth - the loving and the keeping

a woman's altar - pressing in and digging deeper

noteworthy - too good not to share

the archives~ from the simple woman

From My Desk...

Hello and welcome to the October issue of The Simple Woman's Gazette! To say I am blown away would be an understatement on the response I received last issue! Your kind and encouraging words were such a blessing and deeply spoke confirmation to me in starting up this little good-news gazette. Thank you!

Dear Friends,

If you read the last issue, you will notice I have added an extra page to the gazette this month. It just made perfect sense to me, since I have always been about the loving and the keeping of my home and the passing of that on to other women

As I settle into a monthly posting rhythm here at the blog, I will no longer be creating posts that stand alone, unless they are a large post with a set purpose to share. I really like doing this format as I have for years with the daybook, a once a month sharing that holds a larger offering. 

So please get a cup of something good and hot and settle in for a little visit.

xo

~One By One~

a wonderful growing season
having a stocked food supply
a diligent husband
hearing our Samuel singing beside us in church
the feedback I received from issue one of the gazette

~Sing Praise~

I knew I had to share this with you after I heard it. It could be my theme song for 2022.

Do you see the evidence of God all over your life? Haven't looked in awhile, please stop and look! 

~At The Well~

This past Sunday as we stood to begin praise and worship, one of my most favorite aspects of gathering together as a body, I had a little inside giggle with the Lord. 

First a bit of background...

You know when you begin to stretch for a workout and your muscles begin to warm easing the stiffness of that muscle that may not been worked for awhile and it feels so good. Well, as I stood up my praise and worship "muscle" was already warmed and ready to stretch. Why? Because I had made the time that morning to get up early, open my Bible, take the cap off of my highlighter, pray and begin my time with Jesus! It does not happen every single Sunday morning, but most often it does because of the habit I began building years ago.

So, as I was singing the first words at 8:30, a.m., I had been warmed up hours earlier because my praise and worship began quietly and intimately at 5:30 a.m. I have been in that place where praise and worship felt distant, forced, scattered, you know when you go through the motions without getting anywhere.

For me personally, I have felt angst and even guilt because I was reminded that it had been too long since I read my Bible, took notes, highlighted sections that spoke strongly to my life, really just not taking the needed time to sit and just be with my Savior. Not anymore and I am so happy I made the commitment and not only the commitment, but I put actions to my words. Sometimes the want-to is hot, but the follow through waxes cold.

So as I stood, my praise and worship simply felt like an extension to my morning devotion...in other words, I was already warmed through and through from spending that time earlier with Jesus and he already knew what I had just learned.

~Home and Hearth~

For this issue, I want to bring your attention to my sidebar where I wrote an eight part study entitled, Homemaking...more than dishes and laundry that you may be of interest. I wrote it months ago, but you may have missed it. Here is a quote taken from part seven, entitled, "Pocket Moments". 

"God knows your intentions and sees your heart and would be honored to have even your stolen thoughts, praise, thanksgiving, and adoration that you give or even those "pocket moments" during those run-thru kind of days. We should not set out to make this a habit, but it just has to be okay some days." 

 ~A Woman's Altar~

It is here that I want to share with you something that is near and dear to my heart. I have embarked on a personal study to learn more about the names of God and I will be using this space from time to time to share my findings. There are specific names used in the Bible that God used for himself. So come along with me as we look at these beautiful names of God.

This month, I will begin with the name, Elohim. The very first name the Lord uses to describe Himself is the name ELOHIM. Being the first name of God makes it vitally important that we understand the truth found in this magnificent name. 

This name is used over 30 times in Genesis chapter one alone and 2,570 times in the Old Testament. Every time the English word God is mentioned in the Bible (KJV), it refers to ELOHIM--our Creator." 

Wow! Don't you just love when you find out the broken down translations of words

from the original Greek text. I find that sadly, the word of God being put into the English language has some how lost some of its beauty. The words themselves are beautiful and rich and very much alive and breathing life into us when it's read. It is like water turning to wine once you have the full intended meaning I think. They are no less powerful, don't get me wrong, but I guess I love words that are full and not weakened or watered-down.

The "magnificent" name of God, Elohim! The creator, the hanger of the sun, divider of the day and night, the master artist, thinker of great and mighty things, royal planner, bringer of color, giver of life. 

I am not sure any words I share in this space each issue will do my Lord any justice. It is so very hard to put into any words how I feel about God. I believe we can only fathom the tip of the iceberg when we think of how our God created. Our minds are so small, but our thanksgiving should be large and the time that its takes to contemplate these things even larger. I speak as one who wants more of him, more of what he can place into this little mind of mine...so I search, won't you search alongside of me.

Read Genesis 1:1-4

~Noteworthy~

The Peace of Wild Things
~Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting in their light.
For a time I rest in the grace for the world, and I am free.

from the lovely 2022 calendar by Leana Fischer from May We Fly
I am so excited to see what she does for 2023! I love her work! Please check her out, she is currently working on next year's calendar with the theme, "Quiet Earth".

~ The Archives~ 

My Simplicity
{2002 journal entry}

"When I started the women's group, Lives of Simplicity, I had a vision of the beautiful word, simplicity. What that meant to me was indeed the physical simplicity that falls under the umbrella of things such as; soap making, bread baking, making food from scratch, raising animals, growing a garden, preserving your own food, etc., but, for me it goes so much deeper than these things. It is having a spirit of simplicity that begins with a thought process of how I look at and see things in life. 

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been in the company of simplicity, a love for simple things, the things that most often people just pass by either to get to the next thing or see them, but without pause, value or appreciation.

When I smell the air right before the rain arrives, the sound of the first Spring Peepers, the train off in the distance and knowing well which of the 5 roads it is crossing, the moon's glow through the skylight falling across my face as I drift off into sleep, the majesty of mountains and rolling hills, sitting by a lake shore in sweet contemplation, the brilliance of the cornfields in fall as the sun's slant lights them up...I could go on and on. These things make up the fiber of who I am, it is a state of mind and a comforted soul intertwined within an intimate ongoing relationship with God, our creator, that sets me up to be content and at peace." 

Note to add ~ Over a decade of time, Lives of Simplicity (see more about this first Yahoo group on the sidebar) evolved from a group to a blog entitled, The Simple Woman. The rest is history, but the love of simplicity will always remain.

Until next time...

In closing, I pray that this second issue of The Simple Woman's Gazette has been a blessing to you. Would you consider sharing it with others or sharing the link to my blog. I would appreciate it very much!

If you would like to drop me a line, please feel free to do so by emailing thesimplewoman@gmail.com or you could always leave a comment. 

I welcome your thoughts!

Finally brothers and sisters, whatsoever things are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable,—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—think (dwell) on these things.

Philippians 4:8