Beholding and Becoming

It might have something to do with the fact that my nickname since high school has been Jennabee and bees buzz about the pages.  It might have to do with the fact that I have four boys and Ruth Chou Simons has six boys--an "unexpected boy mom."  It might have something to do with the fact that I love beautiful things or that peonies are one of my favorite flowers.  Or it might be all of those combined!  Whatever it was, I didn't want to put down Beholding and Becoming once I got my hands on it.  I just wanted to sit flipping through gorgeous page after gorgeous page.

Besides the exquisite artwork painted by the author, Ruth Chou Simons, the message was resounding in my heart.

Do it all?  Everything for God's glory?  I mean, it's one thing to read that and apply it to a job.  You know "work at everything as to the Lord and not for men."  But what about laundry, and dishes, and cleaning the bathrooms?  What about once again getting this guy off the table?

"To our all-seeing God, everyday faithfulness is an act of worship and not just an act of survival (page 38)."  As a mom to four little boys this means so much because there are always and only "unremarkable daily tasks [that always go] unnoticed."  When everything feels like survival mode and extinguishing fights and feeding the masses, I must remember who I am doing it for.  Yes I am serving my family, but I'm serving them for the purpose of pointing them to God.  I'm serving them because I serve God their Father.

"Recognizing that my home is a mission field--equal to a remote land or culture--changes the way I think about the people right before me and my reasoning about why God has placed me there (page 69)."  EQUAL TO! These children living here are just as worthy of being my life's work and spreading the gospel to them and through them as any other place on Earth.

But honestly the book isn't even about parenting.  It's about what we fix our eyes on.  You know the saying, "The eyes are the window to the soul?"  It's like that.  What we are looking at and focusing on is what we are becoming.  Too often we fail to focus on anything of quality.  We fail to realize that everything we are gazing at we are transforming into.

I look forward to sitting down and savoring this book again.  I need to go through it slowly.  I need to soak in it and turn my eyes to my Creator.  I need to become like Him and so I need to really take the time to behold Him.  And then I need to do it again and again and again.

Blessings my friends!

Jenna

Here's my review of Beholding and Becoming from Goodreads:
Beholding and Becoming: The Art of Everyday Worship by Ruth Chou Simons
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You become what you behold. That's the general theme of the new book "Beholding and Becoming," but the author goes so much deeper than that. Throughout the book I would find myself pausing to savor the truth being spoken.

I'm a mom of four little boys. Ruth Chou Simons is the mom of six boys. While not much of her book addresses motherhood in particular I still felt she was talking to me as she called us to use our homes to minister in even the mundane tasks just as we would if we were on a foreign mission field. Our families are worth that.

I would highly recommend this book as one of encouragement if you, like me, find yourself with your gaze being turned from Christ and fixed on the demands around you.