Time is a precious commodity.

It is time we came to an understanding. I have always said that if there is one thing I wish our family could do without, it's the internet. Not e-mail, but the whole rest of the world wide web. There was a time when we did without, and enjoyed ourselves. Can we get there again?

Today I sat on the couch and informed my daughter that the old run-down house she wants is up for sale. There I was with Sarah on my right, Elijah on my left, and Tom across from me on the chair. We began a conversation about how we could buy this house for Sarah (we can't but it's a nice dream) and it would be a nice dowry for her. (No, you do NOT hear wedding bells yet, don't even think it.) That led to a discussion about what dowries biblically are meant to be (protection for the bride, and something for her to fall back on in case her hubby died or turned out to be a wife-deserting scumbag) compared to what they became in American history (totally turned over to the husband to enhance his estate, leaving her with nothing if he turned out to be that worthless scumbag).

Tom got up, to go do whatever pastors do on Saturday nights (go to bed early), leaving me to supervise the bath/shower routine. Josiah took his place on the chair, then Lizzie snuggled up between me and Sarah, and Abby snuggled in on the other side, between me and Elijah. We continued to speculate on how we could get that house for Sarah, with Josiah adding a half-dreaming plan or two of his own. (Seriously, if I had the money I'd get it, if it were structurally sound enough to be worth fixing--old houses are so much more "alive" than the factory made, cookie cutter houses of today.)

The point of this post is not to discuss the topic of tonight's conversation, but to emphasize the fact that a conversation took place at all. Sarah did NOT have her laptop in her lap, I was NOT on my computer, and NObody had mp3 players plugged into their ears. I was snuggled up with some of my most favorite people in the whole world, just talking.

It was nice.

If, in a year or two, you come back here and still don't find anything new, it's because I'm doing something more important: spending time with the people I love the most.

P.S. In case you think I'm being extreme, here's a good video to watch: A Journey Home. Set aside 45 minutes of your time to watch this with your family. Seriously. I've been praying for a long time for something similar for our family. Tom hardly ever watches a video with us, but he found this one, watched it, recommended it to me, we watched it with some of our children, then I watched it yesterday with the rest of our children.

About commenting...

I enjoy having people comment on my blog. However, I am no longer allowing anonymous comments to stand. You can sign in on a blogger account, or you can give yourself a nickname. But if you make an anonymous comment, I will automatically delete it.

The reason is this: Recently an anonymous person has been making comments that scorn and mock everything I stand for. This person appears to have no use for Christians or Christianity. Now, if this person would have asked honest questions, and wanted honest answers, I would gladly have engaged in dialog with him/her. But this person appeared to have his/her mind already made up, and no amount of reasoning would have had any affect on him/her.

I know that some people will disagree with what I have to say on this blog. I have always expected that. But my comment box is not the place to hide behind anonymity while attacking my God and my faith.

You can comment now

No matter who you are. But if you prove yourself to be a troll migrating from a certain someone's blog, I am going to find out how to block you! But I took off the "no anonymous comments" stipulation.

Changes and additions

"My Favourite Blogs" in my sidebar has been changed. It is now titled "Important People in My Life." These people are important to me, not because they post regularly (a few seem to have given up blogging). They are not important because I have met them (a couple of them I have never met, and two of them I haven't seen in years). They are important because they are part of my greater family--the family of God--and I have grown to love them either through real life or through their blogs. Because they are important people, I have listed their names rather than their blog names. Go visit them to find the blog names you might be accustomed to seeing.

Here are the additions:

Christy: I had her linked before, but she, for some inexplicable reason, deleted that blog. Now she has started a new blog, in which we learn that she is looking forward to one of life's greatest events: her own wedding!!! Congratulations, Christy, and I really hope you keep this blog!

Melissa: I met Melissa through an internet forum she started, about homesteading. About four years ago, we got to meet her and her family in person at their home in southeast Ohio. She is a dear friend, and we hit it off right away. Melissa is the most frugal person I have ever enjoyed knowing. She manages to make her home and family look like they should grace the covers of those really nice country homes magazines while living on a shoestring budget. They have a gorgeous house on a gorgeous piece of property. It is so beautiful that they were once offered enough money to retire on if they sold it. (I sincerely doubt they will ever sell.) I believe they were offered close to ten times what they had put into it up to that point.

If I stopped talking about Melissa at that point, I would fail to tell you this important fact: People, not things, are what Melissa is all about. When you go to her house, you feel like you are home. You notice the clean, clutter-free house, but you aren't afraid to sit down in it. They want you there, and they take time to make you feel special. Melissa loves her children's friends, and likes having them over, even to the point of having 25 girls for a sleepover. And all those kids love her, because they know they matter to her.

I want to be hospitable like that, but I sadly fail too often.

(Melissa is a down-to-earth, old-fashioned sort of person, and I was not really surprised to learn that she cooks on a wood stove because she wants to.)

Sarah: My dear, zany daughter has started blogging. I love her more than she knows, and need to show her that more. She has a heart for God, and, though I look forward to seeing what God does with her future, I am really enjoying what God is doing in and through her now. If we were teens at the same time, I would really have admired her, but she would have be extremely annoyed at me. She is not the "daughter just like me" that my mother wished on me. (I hope I never get one of those!)

Read and enjoy, and comment if you like.

The Maxson Family

I have never met Victor and Bethany Maxson, but Bethany's family attends a church we used to attend when we lived in Texas. I had her old blog on my sidebar, but now that she's married she has a new blog. I think it should be interesting to read about the lives of these young Christian newlyweds as they live and work and grow together. So far they have some lovely pictures of their honeymoon on South Padre Island.

You know, I think I'm getting old. Victor and Bethany look so young!!!!

Name change

After several months of deliberation, I have decided to come out from hiding behind a screen name. From henceforth and forevermore, I will now be known in the blogworld as I am in the real world by my real name: Cathy.

"Pearl" came from my middle name, Margaret, which means "pearl." I chose to use an alias when I first started blogging because at that time I only knew two people who blogged, and that's what they did. I thought that's what all bloggers did. As time went on, however, I found that more of the bloggers that I knew used their real names. So I've decided that's what I'll do, also. I feel more honest that way, especially since I have been using my husband's and children's real names. I hate to have everyone think that Pastor Tom Newton of Calvary Baptist Church in Ontario is married to someone named "Pearl" when my real name is Cathy!

Signed,
Cathy

More blog changes

I am still playing around with betablogger. I have applied labels to all my posts, so that now you can read them by category. I hope this is helpful. The list of categories is on the sidebar.

Pearl

Changes and additions

I upgraded to beta blogger, and am having fun with this new, easier way of doing things. The picture for my profile will probably change now and then. I couldn't find where my son Josiah put my picture on my computer. I'm hoping to put it there eventually, and also have some of my children now and then. Currently I have a huge cherry tree there. Yes, cherry tree. The kind they make furniture with. One of my sons took that picture when we went on a hike in the Gateneau mountains in Quebec.

The first addition is a young girl named Christy. She has a blog called Long Journey, which has made good reading so far. She reminds me of Esther Ellis, and is another encouragement to me.

The second addition is a young girl named Bethany. She must have moved to Texas sometime after we left, because I did not have the pleasure of meeting her family. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed reading her blog and getting to know her that way. Her blog is called Psalm 37-4.

I have been praying that God will raise up godly young people who will sell out to Him and seek to change their world by obeying Him and letting their light so shine (Matthew 5:16). These two girls are trying to do just that. I hope you will join me in praying for them and other young people you know. This world seems to get darker and darker. They are not going to have it easy in the years to come. May God give them grace to go boldly forth in the power of His might.

Pearl

Who are you?

You lurk around on the internet, hitting here and there, looking at all sorts of who knows what. Every now and then you hit my blog. Maybe you did a google search. Maybe you linked from another site. Maybe you heard about me from a friend or family member.

I have a program that lets me see where in the world you might be--Malaysia, the Philippines, the UK, Holland, Germany, Japan, Korea, China, South Africa, the United States (I can tell which state), Canada (I can tell which province), to name some off the top of my memory.

I can also tell, if you did a search, what your key words were. My all-time favourite key words used so far by you, the lurker, are: "best time to do laundry in Ontario"!

Now, this is entirely voluntary, but if you'd like to, please say hi.

Pearl

Link for Family Camp 2006

My oldest son was in charge of recording sermons and special music for Family Camp. He has put them all on mp3 files, which you can find here and on the sidebar link I just added. When listening to these, please remember that this is the first time he's done this. He apologizes for the way "O Worship the King", sung in French, turned out. The volume for the keyboard was too loud. Also, if you can't get the site now, try later. He says a lot of traffic (more than 6 or 7 hits at once) will slow it down.

Please look past our "oops-es" and get a blessing from the preaching of the word.

Pearl

What's in a name?

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold (Proverbs 22:1).

This post should have been made when I first started this blog. I thought I'd explain why this blog is called "Of Great Price" and why my screen name is "Pearl."

My theme verse is this: "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies" (Proverbs 31:10). That's where I got the "of great price" idea. I can't remember what I originally wanted to call this blog. It was something about rubies, but that name was already taken on this blogger system.

My screen name, Pearl, is the meaning of my middle name, Margaret. In the comment box on my very first blog (entitled "New to Blogging"), my mother wrote this:

Pearls symbolize purity, charity, honesty, wisdom and integrety. The ragged, rough grain of sand, transformed over time slowly growing into an object of great value and beauty.

That is what I trust the Lord is doing in my life: transforming me into an object of great value and beauty. Right now there is still too much of the ragged, rough grain of sand in me, but I have this promise:

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

Pearl

If you're thinking of spamming my blog...

...be forewarned that you will be automatically deleted. Although I was not able to post here during the past eight months, I did keep tabs on the place through my e-mail. Some unsavory characters posted links to porn sites, while others used my blog to promote their own agendas and/or favorite websites. Rather than taking the time to sort good from bad, I have adopted the policy of deleting any and all posts containing links to other sites.

This is MY blog, and I will post the links I think are necessary.

Thanks.

Pearl of Grace

New to blogging

I'm not sure how this works, I'm still trying to learn. My purpose will be to take a passage of Scripture and describe my attempts to work it out in my own life. I'm going to center on passages that reflect my desire to be a godly wife and mother. I don't plan to be on here often, so this may move rather slow. I have purposely limited my time on the internet for the sake of my family.