“Woman was the finishing grace of the creation. Woman was the completeness of man’s bliss in paradise. Woman was the cause of sin and death to our world. The world was redeemed by the seed of the woman. Woman is the mother of the human race; she is either our companion, counselor, and comforter in the pilgrimage of life or she is our tempter, scourge, and destroyer. Our sweetest cup of earthly happiness or our bitterest draught of sorrow is mixed and administered by her hand. She not only renders smooth or rough our path to the grave, but helps or hinders our progress to immortality. In heaven we shall bless God for her aid in assisting us to reach that blissful state; or, amidst the torments of unutterable woe in another region, we shall deplore the fatality of her influence.” John Angell James (1785 – 1859)
This is the opening paragraph to John Angell James’s book “Female Piety”. I picked up the book from my church’s book table on the suggestion of a friend. I thought I would read through it quickly. Ahem… I read this first paragraph through quickly, then read it again. I distinctly remember feeling a vague urge to throw up. I called my husband, and read it out loud to him. He raised his eyebrows and whistled, then smiled at me. You know, that little smile that says something like, “Wow, that must really hurt, and I’m sorry for you, and boy I’m glad that isn’t in any book I’m reading and by the way I really love you and you sure did need to hear that and I’m glad that he said it and not me, and did I tell you today how much I love you?”
So, I picked up the book a few hundred more times in the following weeks and NEVER made it past the first paragraph. I have pondered it over and over again ever since. I DID eventually make it past the first page, but I must admit that it is the opening of the book that has been most helpful and convicting to me.
Far too often I am guilty of mixing up quite the ‘bitter draught’ for my husband and children. My prayer is that through God’s grace I will become more and more like Christ in my home, that I will genuinely repent of the sin that besets my life, and that I will grow to be the ‘Finishing Grace’ of my home, for God’s glory alone.
Soli Deo Gloria! Charlotte
