Posted in Rosa of Linden Castle by Christoph von Schmid

Thank you to Christina for guest-posting her discussion this week.
I had two wisdom teeth removed last week, and I am just getting over the pain, in addition to finalizing and helping SisterLisa in publishing GGM on June 1st, so we have been busy-busy!

I am loving this book though. I love the way Lamplighters show what living a life of Deuteronomy 6 looks like. The examples of living, walking and talking your faith to your children, instead of just using 'Bible stories' and other teachers to teach the Word is so refreshing. I love how it tells of Matilda walking with little Rosa. What a sweet picture of a lovely, Godly mother.  I am going to reread that, just because it was so encouraging!

Please feel free to leave comments here, but also announce your discussion on your personal blog and invite your readers to share in it!

blessings!

Rosa of Linden Castle, by Christina   Chapters 1-3

I enjoy the Lamplighter books immensely. This was a little slower at the start, but soon had me enraptured! Edelbert and Matilda sound like wonderfully devoted parents. I always marvel at the description of a person being pious. Would that we all would strive to be more pious and Christ-like!

I really enjoyed picturing Matilda’s method of introducing her daughter to God and His wonderful world. It was not in taking her to Sunday School, or in reading the pop culture books of the day, but instead of walking with her and talking with her day in and day out as we are instructed in Deuteronomy 6. It was in pointing out the wonders around them and drawing her heart to the truths of God’s presence. It was in investing a deep respect for the awesomeness of God into Rosa’s life! In this day and age we are so quick to look for an easy way to do things and even strive to delegate the remarkable task of raising children in the nurture and admonition of God to others. I would love to be more like Matilda and delight more in my duty to my children!

Through her mother’s diligent instruction Rosa learned the beloved words of the Scripture and to acknowledge God in all things and at all times. She also learned by her mother’s example to consider the needs of others before her own. She grew to be more like her mother in generosity and in tender kindness. The story of Rosa’s release of her own desires to bless a widowed mother was convicting and touching. There are so many times when I want things (or situations to be different) and feel frustrated at my inability to obtain them. If I were more like Rosa I would be not only happy with what I have, but willing to share what I have with those who are in greater need.

Rosa was often rewarded with fresh fruit from the garden and I was impressed that she knew to always ask before picking the flowers or partaking of any other delight. She was taught to be immediately obedient to any command and that so with a cheerful heart. Matilda was obviously a master at tying heart strings!
Rosa was taught not to revel in her outer beauty, but to endeavor to let Christ shine through her by means of a meek and quiet spirit. The reader is often reminded that not only were these lessons taught to young Rosa, but they were lived by her mother. I pray that my own example will be ever improving and impressing upon my own children’s hearts and minds.

Can you imagine the death of your mother? Even more injurious such a loss would be at the tender age of 14. Rosa was yet a very young lady when her mother became ill and died. It is a blessing that she was by that time so well-trained, but a tragedy that she was left with such a huge emptiness in the place that her mother had fully filled in the previous nearly decade and a half of her life. The bigger a role a person has in our lives, the more their absence is felt when they are gone!

Was it not touching how unselfish the mother was in her last moments? She did not express fear or pity for herself. On the contrary, she left her husband and daughter with such warmth and love and exhortation that they must have been encouraged even in the face of such a traumatic time. What a goal to have, to leave this world with a sense of the love of life in Christ rather than in the struggle with death.

Following her mother’s death, Rosa’s father became a bigger part of her life. Due to his frequent absences he had entrusted the greater portion of her upbringing to Matilda. Now he shares with Rosa a number of things including a story of an enemy and a friend of whom Matilda had little or no previous knowledge. Ironically, on that very day, the enemy’s wrath rose again against Edelbert after a long time of it having lain dormant. It is good that Edelbert had shared this story with Rosa just in time or she might have been impossibly confused by the sudden tragic seizure of her father by his enemy. This reminds me that we must constantly be preparing our children for that which they may need to face in the future. This will take a great deal of guidance from God!

I will be curious to see what adventures or tragedy may next befall the dear father and daughter. Will she lose her father now too? Will she ever see him again? What will become of the enemy and what will become of the friend of which the father spoke?

In the meantime, may I remember to refrain from self-pity and be singular in my daily tasks. May my priority be to point each of my children Heavenward to a relationship with God and also heart ward to a relationship with their father and me. I challenge each of you to do the same… build the family that God has placed YOU in with an urgency towards preparation and to do so with both reverence AND delight!

You can read more from Christina on her blog, The Perils of Parenting and Other Ponderings.