Snow fall softly

Snow fall softly now. I am ready for your fluffiness to envelop me. Wind, rain and the gray colors of winter are here. I suppose the trees are still lookin' a bit spiffy but let's ignore that, I'm in a poetic mood. I want fluffy snow. That being said...Thanksgiving is almost here. We had a meal at my parent's house last Saturday with my parents, Travis, Erin and Herb. Our turkey and it's accesories were scrumptious. It's nice to enjoy and remember how our country began back with that first meal in 1621. God has done wonderful things for our country but how fast we forget them.

It's interesting to note that the Pilgrims did not like the Church of England. Thus, they left it and became the separatists. Whatever the reason, be it right or wrong, they were independent thinkers, people who were guided by their convictions and desire to live a life in the world but not a life that was of the word.

People have so many misconceptions about Pilgrims (puritans). We think for instance that they wore drab, unfashionable, boring clothes. We think that the puritans were against sex. The list goes on and on but I just picked out these two things. I think it's easy for Christians today to forget what the puritans stood for and really lived out. We like to put on our pietistic faces, dress in ultra-conservative or unfashionable clothes, look down on others sins and think how righteous we are in these works. The puritans were anything but unfashionable. Granted, the women's bellies and boosoms were probably not falling out of their clothes but they were fashionable and well dressed. They didn't go around in drab black clothing, that was just for Sundays. They dressed in the clothes and styles that were popular then: colorful clothes, powdered wigs, fancy coats and shoes. How about the Puritans and their view of sex? An influential Puritan leader said that sex was "one of the most proper and essential acts of marriage". There was a case of a Puritan woman complaining to her pastor and then to the whole congregation that her husband was neglecting their sex life and the church proceeded to excommunicate the man! Thomas Hooker wrote: " The man whose heart is endeared to the woman he loves...dreams of her in the night, hath her in his eye and apprehension when he awakes, museth on her as he sits at the table, walks with her when he travels...She lies in his bosom, and his heart trusts in her, which forceth all to confess that the stream of his affection, like a mighty current, runs with full tide and strength."

So, let's be like the Puritans..let's live in the world. On the surface the Puritans looked like anyone else you may see walking around (um, except for the Indians, and for the fact that they were in the wilderness of America alone.) but talk with them and look at their families, their way of living, their ordering in the home, the way they educated their children, their Sunday activities and you would see a stark contrast between them and the world they lived in. Oh, and most of this stuff I brought up is from a fantastic book: WORLDLY SAINTS: The Puritans As They Really Were by Leland Ryken. It's a fantastic book sure to inspire and encourage everyone in their faith while living in this world.