All Articles For Lubbers, MaryBeth

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.  Proverbs 31:10 There it lay. Rich. Rare. A dazzling treasure filled with fire and sparkle. Flawless, it glints and winks dispassionately inside the burglar-proof glass which encases it. The fabled Hope Diamond, now housed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., continues to hold its myriad visitors in thrall. Crowns ablaze with pearls and clustered with diamonds; sapphires, and rubies of spectacular size and clarity. Bracelets of thick, shimmering gold. Tiaras...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents. Hebrews 11:23 But there was one influence for highest good—constant, unvarying, and most powerful. It was that of a “mother in Israel” (Alfred Edersheim).  The three first years of life…are often…a period decisive for after life. It requires no stretch of imagination to conceive what the child Moses would learn at his mother’s knee… (Alfred Edersheim).  What an encouragement is suggested by this record to mothers—to make the very most...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith… II Timothy 4:7 The Olympic torch has been extinguished in Albertville. The jagged, snow-capped slopes, rising from virtual anonymity to worldwide recognition, lie in pristine silence once again. This small French village, so recently a kaleidoscope of color, resumes its quiet, small-town ways. The torch has not yet been lit in Barcelona. Even now the runners, holding lighted torch aloft, are hastening towards this Mediterranean city to open...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee…” II Tim. 1:5 How easy it is, when writing about women as mothers, so to glamorize their role that the mother-reader would wonder how she ever entertained any doubts as to her calling. One can easily call to mind a Hannah, a Eunice and Lois, a Monica, and all the other famous mothers throughout the history of the church who are instantly remembered for their equally well-known children. One could even include...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. “Meditate on these things….” I Timothy 4:15 Ours is a noise-driven culture. From earliest morning, one’s life is governed by the continuous sounds of conversation, music, and background noise. Alarm clocks beep—or sing—to us. Telephones ring. Computers click. Doorbells buzz. Headsets crackle. Television keeps up its incessant chatter, often when no one is in the room. Many of us have taken to carrying our communication noise-makers along withus attached to belt or waistband, ensuring that we are never truly free from the cacophony of...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. “Give me the single eye, Thy Name to glorify.”  Psalter Number 236

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. “…yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.” Psalm 90 Ordinarily a man must work for a living. In order to eat the bread, he must plant the wheat, harvest it, haul it to the mill, grind it into flour, and bake it as every young child knows from The Little Red Hen. And although there seems to be more and more instances of families inheriting old money, nevertheless, in the beginning someone had to have worked, and worked hard, for that money....

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. Growing up in the 1950s, I thought the King James Version of the Bible was delivered directly from the hand of God. I was more than a little disappointed when the minister would exegete Scripture, instructing how a certain word or verse in the KJV could better be translated such and such. To find out that the KJV was a translation from Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and other earlier translations cast an aura of suspicion around an otherwise perfectly elegant book. The discovery of...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. And I will put enmity…. Genesis 3:15 Bethlehem lies sleeping. The Judean hillside rises gently in the pre-dawn stillness. Sheep graze drowsily on their frosty slopes. A handful of bearded shepherds wrap their coarse outer garments ever more tightly around their shoulders to ward off the penetrating chill. Stars twinkle brilliantly. Inside a small but pristine shed another scene is played out. Mary and Joseph gaze adoringly at their newborn son. Is that a faint first glimpse of a smile playing about Baby Jesus’...

Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in Grandville Protestant Reformed Church of Grandville, Michigan. “Suffer the little children to come unto me….” Mark 10:14 If a woman doesn’t know much about fine needlework, it is probably best that she not give lessons in crocheting. If a man has never ventured out on the high seas, it is undoubtedly the better part of wisdom to let someone else give pointers on the techniques of sailing. So it is with teaching children to pray—one must himself be instant in prayer, a man or woman in close communion with God, and a...