C. S. Lewis and the Daughters of Eve

Discovering Lewis (and maybe a bit of me too)

I was a middle school girl when I first picked up the Chronicles of Narnia. I marveled at the magical eternal winter. It was such an enchanting, unbelievable idea to a girl raised in the desert of west Texas. As Lucy ventures into Narnia, she is called a Daughter of Eve. I still remember the visceral reaction in my gut as I read Lucy being referred to as a "Daughter of Eve". A Daughter of Eve seemed to me an insult. But the story continued and Aslan himself refers to Lucy and Susan Daughters of Eve. To be addressed as a Daughter of Eve is an honor. 

Shocking and horrifying were my thoughts when I first realized Lewis uses Daughters of Eve as an honorific. Eve? But she's a woman! And she led the entire world astray! And we would all still be living in Eden if she had just shut up and listened to her husband or at least not had any original ideas. Why would I want to be called a daughter of Eve? I wanted to be as little associated with Eve as possible. I was running as far from Eve as I could.

I remember as an 8 year old girl knowing exactly what I would do and be if I were a boy. I would go to seminary and I would teach the Scriptures as accurately as I could. But I was a girl. Girls couldn't teach the Scripture (at least not to mixed company). I never desired to be a boy, I enjoyed being a girl and all it entailed. I wasn't even upset or angry about it, simply.... disappointed. I just knew what my calling would have been if I was a boy. And I grew up knowing it could not be.

How to Help Children Learn the Lord's Prayer

Recently, we have been helping our 5 and 3 year old memorize the Lord's Prayer. Our church says the Prayer together every week and learning it is a way to further involve our children in our church service. Don't misunderstand, I don't believe that by my children learning the Lord's Prayer, it will magically create in them awesome faith or faith at all. It won't solve all our problems or make my kids perfect. But it is a discipline, and a wonderful passage of Scripture they can fall back on.

I started working on it with our 5 year old, but did not expect the 3 year to memorize much. Wow! He surprised me, the 3 year old has the Lord's Prayer better memorized than his older brother.

My husband and I started out by incorporating the Prayer into our bedtime routine with the kids. The kids would say parts of it, but were not excited about it.

Thanksgiving Chain in Progress

I think I need to clean my camera phone lens! Please excuse the poor picture.

I am so glad we started our thankfulness chain in October this year. If we miss a day here or there, we still have plenty of time to have a nice long chain. But it's also become part of a daily habit for us as a family. My sons are usually the first to remember that we need to fill in our links for the day and love to show it off to anyone who walks through our door. During the day my sons will mention things to be thankful of as they anticipate writing them down in the evening and stapling them to our list of thanksgiving.

Nighttime Blessing for my Daughter

My daughter turned 9 months old yesterday. Our third child, our first girl. We love her, her big brothers love her and we think she is the cutest thing ever. And she is! But I want her to know she is so much more than that.