1984 March/April issue Part 4

Prayer

If the frightened chirp of a fallen sparrow reaches the Throne Room of the Lord of the Universe (and the Bible says it does) we can be sure He is not too high to pay attention to our smallest prayers.

Learn to talk to God about everything. It saves so much energy to obey Paul’s words in Philippians 4- “Have no anxiety, but in everything make your requests made known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Then the peace of God, which is beyond our utmost understanding, will keep guard over your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.”

Spread before Him in the morning all you have to do that day, all the decisions that “hang over your head” for the next week or next year, the shopping, the interviews, the children, the boss, the lawn and garden, the neighbors, school work, boyfriends, money- you name it, but be sure to name it to Him. Peace will be the result, if you name it with thanksgiving. 

1984 March/April issue Part 3

Women of Like Passions

The leader of a women’s conference asked me if I would be able to talk privately with a young woman who was in deep sorrow. She didn’t want to “bother” me, the leader said, didn’t feel she ought to take my time when there were hundreds of others who needed it. In fact, she was scared of me. Of course I said I’d be very glad to talk with her, and please to tell her I was not fierce.

After the talk, the young woman went to report to the leader.

“Oh, it wasn’t bad after all! I walked in, I was shaking. I looked into her eyes, and knew that she, too, had suffered. Then she gave me this beautiful smile. When I saw that huge space between her front teeth, I said to myself, ‘it’s o.k. - she’s not perfect!’”

                  ___________________________________________________

My daughter Valerie teaches a women’s bible class in Laurel, Mississippi. Recently she lost her place in her notes as she was speaking. She tried to find it while she was speaking, realizes she couldn’t, apologized and paused to search the page. The pause grew agonizingly long. At last she gave up and ad-libbed through the rest of the lesson. She couldn’t find the application, couldn’t find the conclusion. Leaving the platform afterwards, she was on the point of tears because of what seemed an abysmal failure. A lady came to her to say it was the best class so far. Later someone had called to thank Val for things which had helped her.

“Mama,” she told me on the phone, “I couldn’t understand why this had happened. I had prepared faithfully, done the best I could. But then I remembered a prayer I prayed that week (Walt told me it was a ridiculous prayer!)- asking the Lord to make those woman know that I’m just an ordinary woman like the rest of them and I need His help. I guess this was His answer, don’t you think?”

1984 March/April issue Part 2

About My Mother

The last newsletter told of my mother’s having had cranial surgery. I spent thanksgiving weekend with her in the hospital. It was hard to see her thin, weak, and disoriented- she whom I think of as quick-witted and alive. She will be eighty-five in June, and that kind of surgery took a great deal out of her.

Early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day I woke in her lovely little apartment at the Quarryville Presbyterian Home (she was in a hospital in nearby Lancaster, Pennsylvania). I looked around the room, so filled with her character (pictures, curios, everything exquisitely neatly arranged), I could not help wondering if she would be able to come back there. On the desk her piles of Christmas cards were lying, family letters stacked nearby, ready to be answered, and a little scrawled note to herself, reminding her of the number of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to whom she planned to send several crisp new dollar bills apiece.

My Psalm for the day was the sixty-third: “Thy true life is better than love; therefore I will sing Thy praises. …When I call Thee to mind upon my bed, and think on Thee in the watches of the night, remembering how Thou hast been my help and that I am safe in the shadow of Thy wings, then I humbly follow Thee with all my heart.” I told myself that I must not dwell on things seen, but on things unseen, and a lovely reminder of those things unseen, a verse specially for mother, came when I turned to Psalm 45:13, “In the place honor awaits her. She is a King’s daughter, arrayed in cloth-of-gold richly embroidered.”

When I went to see her later that morning, I read her the passages. I asked her what reasons for thanksgiving she could think of, and she came up with quite a long list. We sang together some of her favorite hymns, such as “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” “All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” “Praise the Savior, Ye Who Knows Him,” and “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” She couldn’t quite reach the tunes now and then, but she remembered nearly every word of every stanza. The Lord was there. I was sure He was, and I was strengthened. I think she was too.

As I write now (early December) she I out of the hospital and in the convalescent wing of the Quarryville Home, improving a little every day, looking forward to returning to her own apartment.  

1984 March/April issue Part 1

Why Christians suffer- Part 2

Steadfastness, Soundness, Hope.

Suffering is the Christians boot camp. Those who are preparing to be soldiers must give evidence that they’ve got what it takes. A grueling course of endurance tests is set for them which some survive and some don’t. Some decide early in the game that it’s not really worth it, and drop out.

In his wonderful “Grace Chapter”, Romans 5, Paul tells us that we’ve entered the sphere of God’s grace and can therefore exalt in the hope of the divine splendor that is to be ours. “More than this, let us even exult in our present sufferings, because we know that suffering trains us to endure.” (Romans 5:3)

1984 January/February issue Part 5

Questions and Answers

From a California seminar;

“What are the three or four books which have had the greatest impact on your life apart from the Bible?”

Four very important books (I can’t be sure they’re the most important) are:

Amy Carmichael, Toward Jerusalem

George McDonald, Salted with Fire

C.S Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost

Romano Guardini, The Lord

“Please explain exactly how you ‘commit’ a person or situation to God. Is it saying the words and choosing to believe against all odds that He will do it? e.g. an adult child’s salvation, a young adult on drugs, a homosexual nephew.”

This question implies that when a person has been “committed”, God will do exactly what the one who prays hopes for, viz. save the child, cure a drug habit or the homosexuality. To me, commitment means handing a person or situation completely over to God: “Here Lord. I give this to You, trusting You to do exactly what You want to do. I’m sure that will be the best thing.” We are commanded to make our request known to God (Phil 4:16). This means we pray about things we would like to see done or changed, but the trusting soul knows his requests may be “impossible” (see Matthew 26:39, 42), so he leaves them peacefully with God. God has given us freedom to choose. He will not retract the gift. The one prayed for may still refuse His offer of grace, as did many in Jesus’ days on earth. Yet we are encouraged to be importunate in prayer. We must trust the Spirit of God to lead us- to continue praying, or, in some cases, to stop. (1 John, 4:16-17) 

1984 January/February issue Part 4

News of the Aucas

A clipping was sent to me last summer telling of the Ecuadorian government’s granting title to the Auca Indians of some 66,000 hectares. This means that they will be allowed to live, hunt, and fish in that area. The Indians, said the newspaper, had “refused to understand” that the government would “give” them property which had always been the absolute possession of their ancestors. I can well imagine the bewilderment. I can picture the attempt to get them to participate in the official program when the Minister of Agriculture presents the title to them. It’s a rerun, I’m afraid, of North American history. As a tribe the Aucas are doomed.

Recommended Reading

William Kirk Kilpatrick: Psychology Seduction, Thomas Nelson, 1983.

This is a book I’ve been waiting for. The author shows how psychology and Christianity are not by any means always compatible. Psychological jargon has infected the thinking of many Christians (“self-image,” for example, has become as important as salvation; theism has been replaced by me-ism). Our society, Christian and otherwise, Kilpatrick shows, has been seduced. I want to say to everybody, “Drop everything and read this!” we need to be alerted to the ways in which the world around us squeezes us into its own mold. We need to start over and learn to think “Christianly.”

Letters Received

"You'll be happy to know that i turned over my tardy habits to my Sunday School class to the Lord. That alone was a struggle. But he has helped me one Sunday at a time to be on time. So i have not been late since the conference. So now i am trying to add next Sunday to the list."

1984 January/February issue Part 3

From Passion and Purity

How shall I speak of a few careless kisses as sin to a generation nurtured on the assumption that nearly everybody goes to bed with nearly everybody? Of those who flounder in the sea of permissiveness and self-indulgence, are there any who still search the sky for a beacon of purity? If I did not believe there were, I would not bother to write.

1984 January/February issue Part 2

Footnotes on suffering

When I wrote the piece on page one, I wasn’t suffering, nor was anyone close to me that I knew of. Today a few more paragraphs have been asked for because of change in format. My thoughts have been full of my mother. A bad fall a couple of weeks age, headlong onto the sidewalk, had resulted only in a broken tooth, it seemed. Alarming symptoms developed last week. Today she is in hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, following cranial surgery.

Tomorrow I will see her. What will is say, I, who know next to nothing of physical suffering? I can’t speak first hand of that, but never mind. The Lord took on himself all of our pains, so His word stands sure of all of them. I will read her the piece on page one if she can listen, and ask the Spirit of God to cheer her. She has known the Lord and loved His work for about 70 years. He will not fail her now.

1984 January/February issue Part 1

Why Christians Suffer.

So often Christians make remarks such as, “Isn’t it strange how God allows such awful things to happen- and she’s such a good person.” So far I’ve found twelve explanations in scripture. It isn’t all mystery, though of course God’s permission of evil in the world is fathomless to us mortals. He has told us we all need to know, however, about the why’s, and I hope to write about each of the answers in forth coming issues.

The apostle Peter writes, “My friends, do not be bewildered by the fiery ordeal that is upon you, as though it were something extraordinary. It gives you a share in Christ’s sufferings, and that is cause for joy.” (1 Peter 4:12-13 New English Bible)

1983 November/December issue Part 7

Questions and Answers

When we suffer as a result of our own sins does it have the same “nobility” as suffering from “outside”- e.g., the death of a loved one, disasters, illnesses, persecution, etc.? (This was asked in a recent seminar.)

1983 November/December issue Part 6

My Vow.

Whatsoever Thou sayest unto me, by thy grace I will do it.

 

 

My Constraint.

Thy love, O Christ, my Lord.

 

 

My Confidence.

Thou are able to keep that which I have committed unto Thee.

 

 

My Joy.

To do Thy will, O God.

 

 

My Discipline.

That which I would not choose, but which Thy love appoints.

 

 

My Prayer.

Conform my will to Thine.

 

 

My Portion.

The Lord is my portion of inheritance.

Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee more faithfully; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will, O Lord our God.

(From Gold Cord by Amy Carmichael, 1867-1957, founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship of South India.)

1983 November/December issue Part 5

Letters

“Just read your article ‘Working Mothers.’ My daughter has a master’s degree in education but has not taught school since her children came. It has been hard for them to live these six years on one salary, but they had agreed she would stay at home with the children. She loves it- keeping things in order, being available to do things as a family. They have very little money but the Lord looks after them and they know it. Last winter little Patrick was in hospital. Their insurance did not cover everything, and the father is working very hard to pay off the bills. Jeanie has lots of pressure from friends. Sometimes she wonders if she should go back to teaching, dropping her children off with a babysitter. In her heart she knows she can’t. She would be tired at night, have papers to grade, lesson plans to make, and her thought would be on tomorrow at school. Her own children- their baths and bed time stories and prayers- would suffer. If a mother has to work I think the lord will help if you rely wholly upon Him. But it’s not easy, letting Him be in control and trying to balance a job and a family. Thanks for the article.”

“I wish you could briefly address the question of wives being thankful for their husbands’ gifts- acceptance, even praise for, the ‘90% that’s right about the gift, not the 10% that’s wrong’- size, color, etc. my husband gave me a box of cigars, an electronic pinball machine, and miniature electric drill for our first Christmas. I’ve learned some valuable lessons about the nature about love since I burst into tears that Christmas. This year the gifts were the same, but the smiles and gratitude’s were genuine. I found that accepting his gifts with both hands helps me to see him grow taller and taller. It is not that I’m blind to his faults, but my eyes are wide open to his virtues. Bless the Lord, I’ve found that ‘ice water’ is as deadly to husbands as it is to plants!”

1983 November/December issue Part 4

What the Bible meant to my father.

Today I had lunch in my mother’s kitchen, and as usual she had placed a few papers at my place, things she wanted to share with me. This time it was a copy of a commencement address given by my father (Philip E. Howard, Jr., editor of Sunday School Times, a weekly magazine published in Philadelphia for more than a hundred years). This was his closing paragraph, a challenge to men graduating from Faith Theological Seminary in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1941:

“The Bible is the bread of life that always satisfies; the staff that never breaks; the sword that finds the joints in the enemy’s armor and drive’s him off; the chart in which there is no error; the compass that never deviates and always points to Christ; a telescope that gives a view of the whole course of human history; the microscope that explains the mysteries of life; the balm that soothes our pain; the medicine that cures our ills; the cordial that changes our fainting spirits; the light that shines undimmed amid the darkness of this world and points the way to our Father’s house.

1983 November/December issue Part 3

Common Courtesy

Talking with a group of seminary students I mentioned that the common rules of courtesy are often overlooked nowadays, especially to those who grew up in the past two decades, an era in which all conventions and traditions were suspect. “Mere convention” came to mean “pure hypocrisy.” If a thing was labeled “traditional” it had to be discarded as no longer “relevant,” “meaningful” or even intelligent. If a man had the temerity to hold a door open for a woman, he was sometimes labeled “sexist.” My point in bringing up the subject of courtesy was simply that it is a small way of demonstrating that deep principle, central to our Christian faith, of “my life for yours.” I asked if any of the husbands in the room made a habit of helping their wives into their chairs at the table, even when company was not present. A week later one of the men stopped me in the seminary hall. “I just want to tell you that my behavior towards my wife has been altered since last weeks lecture. And you know what? It’s changed my attitude toward her as well as hers toward me. It’s really been revelatory! Just wanted to say thanks.” I was immediately cheered. It’s always cheering to know somebody has had ears to hear, and has actually done something about what he’s heard.  

1983 November/December issue Part 2

What if my wife doesn't feel called?

This question is often asked by men who are preparing to be ministers or missionaries. I've never heard it asked by anyone who was headed for the insurance business, medicine, or an airline pilot's career. The ministry and the mission field are the ones to which people somehow believe there has to be a special call, separate and distinct from all other vocations, requiring a spiritual revelation of some kind for the wife as well as for the husband. And if she hasn't got it, there's nothing he can do about it except change his plans.

1983 November/December issue Part 1

Where will complaining get you?

When we were in Dallas a few months ago, we were the guests of our dear friend Nina Jean Obel. As we sat one morning in her beautiful sunshiny yellow and pale green kitchen, she reminded us of the story in Deuteronomy 1 of how, when the Israelites were within fourteen days of the Promised Land, they complained. Complaining was a habit which had angered Moses, their leader, to the point where he wished he were dead. “How can I bear the unaided heavy burden you are to me, and put up with your complaints?” he asked. They headed for Horeb, but when they reached the hill country of the Amorites they refused to believe the promises and insisted on sending spies to see what sort of a land it was. The spies came back with a glowing report, but the people didn’t believe that either. Never mind the lovely fruit the land offered. There were giants there. They’d be killed. There were huge fortifications towering to the sky. How would they ever conquer them?

It was the neurotic’s attitude. No answer would do. No solution offered was good enough. The promises of God, the direction of Moses, the report of the spies- all unacceptable. The people had already made up their minds that they didn’t like anything God was doing. They "muttered treason.” They said the Lord hated them. He brought them out only to have them wiped out by the Amorites. O God, what a fate. O God, why do you treat us this way? O God, how are we going to get out of this? It’s your fault. You hate us. Moses hates us. Everything and everybody’s against us.

Nina Jean said that she made up her mind that if complaining was the reason God’s people were denied the privilege of entering Canaan, she was going to quit it. She set herself a tough task: absolutely no complaining for fourteen days. It was a revelation to her- first, of how strong a habit it had become, and second, of how different the whole world looked when she did not complain. I get the impression that when I’m around Nina Jean that the fourteen- day trial was enough to kick the habit. I’ve never heard her complain.

It’s not just the sunshine and the colors that make her kitchen a nice place to be. It’s that Nina Jean is there. I’d like to create that sort of climate for the people I’m around. I’ve set myself the same task. 

1983 September/October issue Part 4

President Reagan hits Abortion in Magazine Article

Last week president Reagan did what few president’s have done while in office. He wrote a full length article for a journal of opinion (The Human Life Review). “The real question is not when real human life begins, but, what is the value of human life? (italics his) The abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure all its parts have been torn from its mother’s body can hardly doubt whether it is a human being. The real question for him and for all of us is whether that tiny human life has a God-given right to be protected by the law- the same right we have.”

1983 September/October issue Part 3

Who is Lars Gren?

He’s my husband. I’m Mrs. Lars Gren, but because I’ve been writing under the same name of Elisabeth Elliot for more than a quarter of a century, he lets me use that name on my books and newsletters. But I want to introduce him. He was born in New York, but went to Norway very soon afterwards and was there until he was ten. Didn’t know a word of English when he came back, went right into public school and got zeros for several months till he learned English to pass. He spent most of his life in Mississippi and Georgia. Was a salesman of many different products, most recently of women’s clothing.  Traveled as a manufacturer’s representative from Washington D.C, to Dallas, covering all the southeast. Then, in mid-life he decided he did not want to spend the rest of his life selling clothes and came to Gordon- Conwell Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. The story of how we met is in my book Love Has a Price Tag. We thought, when we were married, that he’d be a hospital chaplain, for which he had trained, but he began to travel with me on a part-time basis, handling me, the travel arrangements, books, and tapes. In short order it became a full- time job, so that’s what we do now, together. It’s been wonderful to see his gifts unfold in this way, and for me, the protection and authority of a godly husband have liberated me in a way I did not know during all the years I traveled as a widow. God does have the most unexpected things up His sleeves!

Forgot to say that Lars is tall, ruddy- faced, blonde, blue eyed. Not surprising- his father was Swedish, his mother (who lives in Palm Beach, a widow) is Norwegian. Lars speaks not with the accent of either parent, but pure Georgian cracker. Calls me “Lisbeth,” or “dahlin,” says, “Ah’m’on teach ya how to talk.”

1983 September/October issue Part 2

Teach your children to choose

Lars and I had breakfast with our friend Barb Tompkins in Tucson. She brought along two-year old Katy, who behaved very well throughout most of the meal. She interrupted at one point, and pestered her mother, who said quietly, “Katy, you are not in charge here. But would you like to be in charge of Baby Flo?” Baby Flo was a tiny doll she had with her.

I plied Barb with questions on how she rears her children (she has two older boys also). She said she had been helped by Paul Meier’s book Happiness is a choice, and had determined to teach her children how to make good choices.

When Katy was about eighteen months old, Barb decided to teach her to stay within the boundaries of their own property, although there was no fence. She set aside a day for this lesson and walked the boundary with the baby, pointing out where she could and could not go, explaining that to step over the line meant a spanking. Barb then sat down in a lawn chair with a book and told Katy she could play. It was not long, of course, before Katy tested the line, then stepped over. In a normal tone of voice Barb called, “Katy, would you come here, please?” That lesson had been learnt long before, so Katy came. “Katy, honey, I see you have chosen a spanking,” said the mother, and proceeded to give her one. Then she went over the lesson again, explaining why the spanking had been necessary. It was Katy’s choice.

Barb teaches her children such maxims as “People are not for hitting, they’re for loving.” And “when people say they can’t it usually means they won’t.”

It’s important, she says, not to label a child naughty or good, but to point out exactly what he did that was naughty, or what he did that was good. When correction is necessary, Barbra tries always to affirm the child in some way afterwards- “I like the way you picked up your toys this morning.”

Barb does not always use spanking for punishment. Sometimes she gives the child “time out”, which means she is put into a Port-a-crib for a little while in order to meditate on her disobedience. If the child climbs out she has “chosen” a spanking. Barb thinks that it is very important that the “time out” place not be the child’s own bed or bedroom. She doesn’t want her child to associate those places with punishment.

Katy whined for something, and Barb turned to her and said “Katy, you need to make a request.” Katy said, “May I please…”

When Katy pulled a pen out of her mother’s purse, Barb said, “That is not a choice. But these things are- which would you like to play with?”

I wrote all this in a letter to my daughter Valerie. She was thrilled. She has started using the method on her three little ones, and says it works and that I should put it in my newsletter. So here you have it.

1983 September/October issue Part 1

Ungodly Counsel


"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." (Psalm 1:1)
At a recent women's a young women told me that her husband wanted a divorce, but consented to see a Christian counselor before making it final. A member of the team in the counselling center told him that he himself  was divorced and very happily remarried. That was all the husband needed. The man whom he looked for help set the example he was hoping to find. Of course he went ahead and divorced his wife.
The 23rd Chapter of Jeremiah describes what is happening in our country today. The land is full of adulterers.

1983 July/August issue Part 4

New England Spring

There's no way around it. I'm going to write about spring time in New England for the newsletter, you'll have to read about it in the heat of summer. That's the way of scheduling of these things work.
Spring time in New England is unrecognizable most of the time. Year after year we look forward to it, long after it, and when March and April arrive feel we have a right to it. It gives us a little nod once in a while. The peepers, i have to admit, never fail us. No matter what else refuses to budge, those tiny frogs emerge from the mud and set up their tiny whistling, "whee, whee, whee, whee," a gleeful piccolo orchestra undaunted by the cold. Usually there will be a day or two, like last Saturday, where the sun comes up early and stays up and thaws things and actually makes the terrace warm enough to sit on. my mother-in-law from Palm Beach, who thinks anything below 74 degrees is arctic, sat in the sun on the chaise longue (pronounced "chase lounge" by most folks now, i notice) which Lars had dusted and carried up from the basement. He proceeded to haul brush while i raked some millions of fall's beech and elm leaves. We soon had a glorious inferno going in the middle of the yard (yes, we had gotten a permit and as instructed called the emergency number in advance to inform the city that the fire on Bay Road was on purpose). There is nothing quite so satisfying as a Saturday at home when you can clean house, bake, wash clothes and hang them outdoors, and then spend the rest of the day raking and burning. Can anyone top that for real recreation- or should i say re-creation and fulfillment?
Every morning i have studies the pussy willow outside my window, not wanting to miss the pusies this year as i have done in years past because i always look too late. Nothing is happening. A few tulips have begun, the lilac leaf buds are swelling just enough to be visible, but it's cold. That's the long and short of it. Much too cold to ride a bike without my down coat and fur hat and mittens. can't sit in the back yard this week, Next time we try it, however, if things go as they usually do here, it will be too hot. Oh, i do love New England. I wouldn't leave for anything in the world. (I might though. Lars is a southerner, loves Atlanta and Palm Beach and Mississippi and thinks Massachusetts winters are entirely too long.)

1983 July/August issue Part 3

Amniocentesis

The presidents Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research would like to see more physicians providing the service of amniocentesis for women well under thirty-five. This procedure involves the insertion of a needle into the amniotic sac to withdraw fluid which can be tested to reveal certain abnormalities in the fetus. If they are found, abortion is often recommended. I was stunned to find this statement by Richard Doerflinger of the Bishops' Committee on Pro-life Activities (quoted in Action Line, March 31, 1983): "Amniocentesis performed on a women of 32 is four times more likely to induce a miscarriage in the second trimester as it is to detect a child with Down's syndrome. The Commission argues that 'whether the benefit outweighs the risk' in such a situation 'is largely a matter of personal values.'"

"Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto me," Jesus said.

1983 July/August issue Part 2

Infanticide

In March the Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation requiring hospitals to post notices in their nurseries and in the delivery, maternity and pediatric wards which read, in part, "Any person having knowledge that a handicapped infant is being discriminatorily denied food or customary medical care should immediately contact the Handicapped infant hotline.... 800-368-1019 (available 24 hours a day)." Perhaps if this had happened sooner, the baby in Bloomington that i wrote about last January/February might not have died (Note: A federal judge has recently ruled that this regulation cannot be implemented. The decision is being appealed, and the hotline remains in operation.)

1983 July/August issue Part 1

Working Mothers

Sue Horner, wife of the president of the Barrington College in Rhode Island and herself the director of the Center for Women's concerns in that college, in a recent interview in New England Church Life, said, "Men have always been able to be involved in creative, self-actualizing work." She would like to see more women released from traditional women's work "to be involved in creative work." Creative work, in Mrs Horner's view,  does not seem to include homemaking a mothering. Why not? I would like to ask. And who, for heaven's sake, is going to do the homemaking and mothering? Mrs Horner says she felt confused and frustrated when she was doing it, and "struggled with fulfillment." Many women feel as she does. I meet them often. What i long to help them to see is that if homemaking and mothering are the tasks God has assigned to them at present, it will be in the glad offering up to Him of those tasks that they will be truly "creative" and find real fulfillment.