Glimpses At the Classics - Anne of Ingleside

Today, I want to share a passage from Anne of Ingleside by L.M.Montgomery with you. This is probably longer then most of the passages I will share. It was so hard to figure out how to edit it! I wanted to put three whole chapters because I love this passage so much.

We find our little Anne of Green Gables, all grown up and married, with a home of her own and six children. She is having a particularly bad day, and ends up snapping at her children. How familiar is this scene? There are times I find myself burdened by the trifling cares of a day and end up working myself into shortness of temper. Lets look in on Anne -- she's losing it!

"Diana, is it necessary to be forever reminding you not to twist your legs around the piano stool? Shirley, if you haven't got that new magazine all sticky with jam! And perhaps SOMEBODY would be kind enough to tell me where the prisms of the hanging lamp have gone!" Nobody could tell her . . . Susan having unhooked them and taken them out to wash them . . . and Anne whisked herself upstairs to escape from the grieved eyes of her children. In her own room she paced up and down feverishly. WHAT was the matter with her? Was she turning into one of those peevish creatures who had no patiencewith anybody? Everything annoyed her these days. A little mannerism of Gilbert's she had never minded before got on her nerves. She was sick-and-tired of never-ending, monotonous duties. . . sick-and-tired of catering to her family's whims. Once everything she did for her house and household gave her delight. Now she did not seem to care what she did. She felt all the time like a creature in a nightmare, trying to overtake someone with fettered feet..."

Now, lets stop spying on Anne for a moment. I think she needs some time to gather her senses, don't you? This passage makes me think about the way I handle myself in these situations. I think I have already shared with you that I don't always handle them correctly. This is a moment when we need to turn to prayer, a beloved hymn, or a Scripture that is dear to us.

I Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

I am sorry to say that Anne did not flee to Christ in her time of need. Through a series of circumstances and heart-strugglings, she reclaims her joy in being Mrs. Blythe and mother to her little brood. Lets take a peek at her again. Gilbert, her husband, has just fallen asleep.

"Anne was not sleepy. She was too happy to sleep just yet. She moved softly about the room, putting things away, braiding her hair, looking like a beloved woman. Finally she slipped on a negligee and went across the hall to the boys' room. Walter and Jem in their bed and Shirley in his cot were all sound asleep. The Shrimp, who had outlived generations of pert kittens and become a family habit, was curled up at Shirley's feet. Jem had fallen asleep while reading "The Life Book of Captain Jim" . . . it was open on the spread. Why, how LONG Jem looked lying under the bedclothes! He would soon be grown up. What a sturdy reliable little chap he was! Walter was smiling in his sleep as someone who knew a charming secret...

The rash had quite gone from Shirley's neck. Gilbert had been right. He was always right. Nan and Diana and Rilla were in the next room . . . Diana with darling little damp red curls all over her head and one little sunburned hand under her cheek, and Nan with long fans of lashes brushing hers. The eyes behind those blue-veined lids were hazel like her father's. And Rilla was sleeping on her stomach. Anne turned her right side up but her buttoned eyes never opened. They were all growing so fast. In just a few short years they would be all young men and women . . . youth tiptoe . . . expectant. . . a-star with its sweet wild dreams . . . little ships sailing out of safe harbour to unknown ports. The boys would go away to their life work and the girls . . . ah, the mist-veiled forms of beautiful brides might be seen coming down the old stairs at Ingleside. But they would be still hers for a few years yet . . .hers to love and guide . . . to sing the songs that so many mothers had sung. Hers . . . and Gilbert's..."

I have so often looked at my loved ones while they are sleeping and given silent prayers of thanks to God for giving them to me for now. I love this passage because it speaks of the love that Anne has for her family, but it honestly shows the little trials that we face, and how we sometimes don't handle them in the best way. As Christians, we know what we are supposed to do! Thanks be to our Father in Heaven for His mercy and compassion to sinners like ourselves.