A Quiet Simple Life | Sallie Borrink

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

A Quiet Simple Life

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Small Tasks and the Sabbath


Today was a day described well by this quote:

I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
Helen Keller

My day was filled with small tasks – laundry, meals, cleaning out the refrigerator, more laundry, cleaning the bathroom, ironing the sheets, etc. But they are important tasks nonetheless because they allow me to demonstrate my love to my husband in giving him a clean and orderly home.

They also demonstrate my commitment to be a good steward of the materials blessings that God has given to us.

Last Sunday the pastor spoke on the Sabbath rest. He talked about how God reflected on His creation work and how we too should use the Sabbath to reflect on the good work we have done during the previous week.

I love to climb into bed Saturday evening and know my house is cleaned up, my laundry is caught up, our business is organized and ready for Monday, and I have made preparations for the next day. There is something about waking up on Sunday and knowing I get to REST and not feel guilty about it that is so wonderful!

I am so glad God in His great wisdom and compassion gave us a day to rest and to reflect on the good works He has allowed us to accomplish.

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Winter Mornings


There are winter mornings when the cold without only adds to the warm within, and the more it snows and the harder it blows, brighter the fires blaze.
Emily Dickinson

We had a beautiful snowfall this morning. Large, fluffly flakes swirling and dancing to the ground. I could have stood and watched it for hours.

Winter is the cozy time of year and I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of being snug in my home. This afternoon while the snow was still falling I spent some time on the couch under a soft warm blanket, reading an old book. Can life get much better than that?

Sometimes it is indeed the simple things that are the most enjoyable.

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The Enchanted Cottage | A Favorite Movie


Yesterday I shared a quote about love from one of my very favorite movies, The Enchanted Cottage. Released in 1945, it stars Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire. My favorite quote from the movie is:

A man and woman in love have a gift of sight not granted to other people.

Here are a few tidbits about the movie from the Turner Classic Movie website:

Robert Young told Leonard Maltin that he considered The Enchanted Cottage to be “the best love story that’s ever been written. [It] was one of those films I hated to see end. I wanted it to go on and on and on. It was such a joy to do.”

Anyone who has ever been in love can relate to the sensation that one’s partner becomes more beautiful as one’s love deepens. The Enchanted Cottage illustrates this phenomenon to full and lovely effect.

Young loved this picture so much that later he named the home he built in California “The Enchanted Cottage.”

This is a hard movie to find! It is out of print and none of our local rental places carry it. Every time I want to see it I have to do an interlibrary request from a library over an hour away! One of these days I will buy one on eBay or Amazon, but they usually are very pricey since it is rare. I keep hoping it will come out in DVD, but it hasn’t yet. (Late update: It is now available.)

That’s all I want to tell you about the movie, because to share any of the plot would really ruin the movie for you. But if you can find it, rent it. It is well worth a watch. Keep the hankies handy and be prepared to be blessed with an encouraging message.

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It Only Took Me Thirteen Years!


I recently finished a large cross stitch project and took it to Michael’s to be framed. While that may not be anything amazing in and of itself, it IS amazing in that it took me thirteen years to finish it! It is a beautiful wedding sampler with our names, date, church name, etc. on it. It is composed of primarily rich roses, pinks and greens. It will be a beautiful testimony of our marriage covenant and love as it hangs in our living room.

I can imagine at this point that some careful blog reader is saying to himself or herself – but wait! Your blog says you’ve been married for eight years. How could it have taken you thirteen years to finish the sampler?

Back in the day, I was seeing someone who summarily dumped me. Being the kind of woman who could hear her biological clock ticking at age 24, I was naturally very disappointed. But one day shortly after the dumping, I was in a local cross stitching store and saw this sampler hanging on the wall. I thought it was so beautiful I had to make it. Of course, I had no boyfriend, let alone a groom! But I decided I would start on it in faith and trust that someday, by God’s grace, I WOULD have a name to put on there with mine. (And I comforted myself with the thought if no groom ever appeared, it would make a really nice gift for a friend.)

So I worked on it fairly steadily for a while until life got in the way and it got set aside, only partially begun. A few years later, David came into my life and I did have a groom’s name to put on it! I wish I could say I whipped it out and finished it right away, but I didn’t. I worked on it from time to time, but could never really get moving on it again. Finally, I decided that 2005 was” The Year of Finishing Projects So I Don’t Have to Look at Them in Their Unfinished State Anymore”. The sampler is my first major accomplishment in this area and it feels SO GOOD to have it done!

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