Dianne won’t like me writing this, but I’m going to do it anyway.
She gave a great presentation to the MOMS (Making Our Mothering Significant) group at the Downtown campus on Tuesday. I know it was recorded; I’ll point to it when it is available online.
It was God-honoring and ‘as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.’ She told the truth about how hard it is, and how good God is. She reminded those 35 or so moms where their real hope must be.
And I get to experience the blessing of that kind of wife!
She had shared her remarks with me before she spoke, but as she spoke I was reminded of something Pastor John had preached about and then wrote about. It is a great description of Dianne:
The next thing to see about Christian womanhood, after hope in God, is the fearlessness that it produces in these women. So verse 5 says that the holy women of old hoped in God. And then verse 6 gives Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as an example and then refers to all other Christian women as her daughters. Verse 6: “And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.”
So this portrait of Christian womanhood is marked first by hope in God and then by what grows out of that hope, namely, fearlessness. She does not fear the future; she laughs at the future. The presence of hope in the invincible sovereignty of God drives out fear. Or to say it more carefully and realistically, the daughters of Sarah fight the anxiety that rises in their hearts. They wage war on fear, and they defeat it with hope in the promises of God.
Mature Christian women know that following Christ will mean suffering (2 Tim. 3:12). But they believe promises like 1 Peter 3:14, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,” and 1 Peter 4:19, “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” That is what Christian women do: They entrust their souls to a faithful Creator. They hope in God. And they triumph over fear.
John Piper, This Momentary Marriage, pp. 97-98.
Is her (or my) first response always fearlessness? Certainly not. But I have seen her wage war on fear in the midst of some pretty frightening circumstances: disabled son, prematurely born son, Stage IV cancer. I know where her hope lies.
The Works of God 
Thank you and Dianne for coming and speaking to us. I was truly blessed by your story. I’ve been reading your blog for about a year now, so it was fun to put a face to a name. Praise God for you and your wife’s ministry!