Above Rubies

The newest issue of Above Rubies came in the mail today. I always look at this magazine with a bit of amazment when I get it. It represents all that has changed in me in the last year. It represents to me how close we all actually are, despite the illusion of differences.

This magazine is a small magazine published by a woman and her family. A very biblical family. I have always been on the fringes of religious traditions, and publications that involved extensive biblical rhetoric tended to not be on my reading list. And yet here I stand with a magazine saturated with verses and prayers and it is my most cherished reading.

As far as I perceive myself from fundamental Christian movements, I find I am living my life in much the same ways as they. Stephen and I feel whatever souls we are given to care for, we will be honored to do it. We want to raise our family with a permeating spirituality. We want our children to feel sacredness in even the most ordinary tasks. I want my children to know they are more than their material body, and they have higher purposes. We want to make our own place on our own plot of land, growing our own food and building our shelters as a family. We want to homeschool. All the things that these women do, I do or want to do.

But most of all, we have in common the belief that mothering is a sacred calling. That is what the magazine is devoted to: uplifting and inspiring mothers in answering such a calling. And it does that with a vengeance.

The title comes from this verse from Proverbs:

"A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman

Who is he who can find her?

She is far more precious than jewels

And her value is far above rubies or pearls."

When I think of that, I think of all the mothers out there, perhaps wondering what their true purpose is because they have been told mothering is not one, or perhaps wondering if someone else could do their job better, or wondering if the fact that they had a breakdown at lunch means they aren't fit to be a mother. I want to tell them all how precious they are, how beautiful they are, how beautiful what they are doing is. They are loving and teaching the next generation, and those will love and teach the next generation. The more children are loved and taught, the more they will love and teach, until one day the world is love.

"A mother's heart is the child's schoolroom"

Our hearts are our degrees. Our love is our work. Our children are our reward.

And there is no price on what we do.

It is above rubies or pearls.