Hi dear sisters! First things first: I want to get this out of the way so we can move on to the good stuff! Everyone calls me Missy, even though my real name is Melissa Anne (with an E, just like Anne of Green Gables; it’s important), and when I grow up I want to be a gypsy.
Life has never been extremely hard for me; I have great parents and have never really known what true hardship is. But lately I have become very discontent and impatient about a certain area in my life. A certain area of... cough cough… singleness. My discontentment for the husband that I did not have reached the point far past frustration last week, and I knew my attitude was out of control! I did not feel pleasing to God, let alone pleased with myself.
Then out of the middle of nowhere I began to see weaving pop up everywhere! (God tends to be good at that sort of thing). The heroines in all the literature I was reading wove, poems I read talked about weaving, and the music from the Prince of Egypt was stuck in my head… “A single thread in a tapestry- though its color brightly shines- can never see its purpose in the pattern of the grand design.”
I decided to take up this art of weaving; I figured there must be something God wanted to teach me… since it was constantly showing up! I found out that weaving is the most time consuming art there is, and it takes a lot of PATIENCE! Each thread is so delicately placed over and under again, that if you get ahead of yourself the design can be totally thrown off. It didn’t take me long to realize that God was sending the very clear message of “BE PATIENT MISSY!” Patience itself became, “material for sacrifice”, as Elizabeth Elliot so eloquently suggests. 2 Samuel 24:24 says, "... I will not offer to the Lord my God whole offerings that have cost me nothing..." By choosing patience instead of discontentment I was giving something of myself up, and learned that contentment comes from obedience.
I began to look towards my beloved Bedouin women of the Bible for examples. I was surprised by how many stories I found concerning weaving. The Hebrews practiced it in the wilderness while building the Tabernacle (Exodus 26:1), Rahab hid the two spies on top of her roof by placing stalks of flax over them (Joshua 2:6), and the Proverbs 31 woman worked with her hands in delight while weaving. This reoccurring them of contentment in the home, and working with your hands seemed to be reflected in these women’s lives. Titus 2:5 says women should be, “Self-controlled and pure, to be busy working at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands so that no one will malign the word of God.” I took this as my cue. This season of singleness that we are in is only a single thread in the King’s grand design, but such a beautiful and important piece!
Still so much more to say, but shall have to wait for another night….
Love all you ladies,
Going Green!
Miss
October 12, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Ooo Miss, this makes me want to get my hands into the art of weaving! ...2 Sam 24:24 is a statement dear to my heart. How true that contentment comes from obedience. Thank you for sharing a part of your life with us; it's quite lovely to see our season of singleness from this perspective.
October 12, 2009 at 11:39 PM
Missy, I only understood the tip of your weaving ice berg, before.
Thank you for sharing your home-made loom with me. And for sharing a greater part of your heart, here!
You are beautiful, inside and out!