Mrs. Bennett

     Matchmaker. Idealist. In love with love. The girls accuse me of being a Mrs. Bennett.  “Oh,  Mom!” I hear a lot.  I’m not as bad as the Mom in Pride and Prejudice--not as giddy and ditzy. I like her character, though, and the relationship with her husband. In the newest motion picture, I love the scene that pans  the outside of the old house, peering in through the windows lit with candles, allowing us to see the private moments of the family and the love of the parents. Mrs. Bennett is goofy, but she is adored by her husband. She wants that happiness for her girls. It’s not that she wants them out of the house. She treasures every moment they have been there. Because she is so in love with her husband, she wants the same for her daughters:  to be honored and treasured and loved.  I think my daughters get a kick out of my hopes for them. My Mom was like that with me.  I understand it now.

      I’m going to be a Mother–In-Law and I quite like it. Emily was engaged this week.  She and Jason have been dating for a couple of years now and we can see how much they adore each other.  Emily has been my stepdaughter for ten years, but I have never thought of her as anything but my daughter. She was barely a teen when Bruce and I married. I loved her from the moment I loved Bruce.  It is beautiful to see the woman she has become. We are very proud, and hopeful for a wonderful future for them.

      I have five more daughters, and so I will continue to act a little Mrs. Bennett-y. It is fun. I may still worry. There are heartaches and difficulties in life and we cannot protect them from all of them. I do pray that they will have an easier time than I did, but I feel extremely blessed to have lived through challenges, by the grace of God, and to be Bruce’s wife. I pray for that kind of love for them.

      My favorite scene of Pride and Prejudice is of Mr. Darcy coming through the dawn mist. Requited love! I want that for my daughters, but more importantly, I pray that they will first feel the awesome love of God, the intimate relationship with Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit. That they will love all of God’s creation and know that only man was made in God’s image. We are responsible for the care of the Earth and for the upholding of the sanctity of human life. We will, in heaven, love our neighbor more than we ever loved our spouse or our children while on Earth. That is pretty heavy to contemplate. But we don’t have to wait to love as Christ loved.

I pray that you know His love,

Suzy

The Abbey Farm