As many of you have read on my husband’s page we’ve had quite a lot of sickness in our house/family these past couple of weeks. Blake was in the hospital with pneumonia and bronchitis (praise the Lord he is finally well! 🙌🏻). I’ve had tonsillitis, Adam currently has double pneumonia, and our middle daughter currently has bronchitis.
Due to this I’m going to be reposting a popular series from earlier in the year this week! Please pray for our family to be well, and everyone stay healthy out there!
Please enjoy this series from the archives
A Letter from Senior Tempter Grinwell to Apprentice Mothwick
(Department of Youthful Vanity and Deferred Obedience)
My dear Mothwick,
Your current assignment concerns the young unmarried woman, and I must tell you, this is fertile ground for our work.
She stands at the crossroads of her life, with energy, beauty, and time on her side.
If guided rightly by us, she will squander all three before she ever realizes what she has lost.
Begin with her vanity.
Feed it daily.
Make her believe that her worth is measured by her reflection, her physique, her followers, and her attention.
Encourage her to live at the gym, but never for discipline or health.
Let it be for display.
Athletic wear works beautifully here.
Tell her it is modest enough because it is “functional,” while ensuring it clings, reveals, and invites admiration.
Her grandmother would blush, which is precisely the point.
Next, you must cultivate selfishness.
Convince her that this season of life is exclusively for herself.
Whisper constantly that her twenties are for “finding herself,” “living her truth,” and “protecting her peace.”
Make sure she equates sacrifice with loss and service with oppression.
Marriage, in particular, must be framed as a trap.
Children should be painted as burdens.
Speak often of freedom, but never define it.
Flood her mind with endless reels and posts glorifying singlehood as superior.
The algorithm is one of our greatest allies.
Let her absorb the idea that she does not need a man, that dependency is weakness, that submission is archaic.
Make her believe she is self-made, self-sustaining, and self-sufficient.
Encourage the roar.
Noise keeps her from listening.
Be especially careful with Christian young women.
They are more dangerous if they wake up, so we must keep them busy.
Let them attend church, but keep them cynical about marriage.
Help them believe they are “waiting on God” while quietly despising the very institution He designed.
Allow them to speak loftily of standards and discernment while their hearts grow cold to the idea of companionship.
Encourage friendships that blur healthy lines.
Deep emotional bonds without accountability serve us well.
The more she pours her affections sideways, the less she will desire covenant.
Let these relationships become her emotional substitute.
She will call it sisterhood.
We know better.
Now comes the most delicate part.
Whisper to her that she has all the time in the world.
Fertility should feel distant, optional, theoretical.
Convince her that biology is a myth and consequences are negotiable.
Let her flutter away her most fruitful years chasing self-expression, experiences, and career validation.
By the time she feels the ache of loneliness, it will be far more difficult to reverse course.
Promote the heathen fantasy of a soulmate.
This idea is invaluable.
Make her believe there is one perfect man who will meet every expectation without effort or conflict.
Ensure her standards grow increasingly unattainable.
He must be godly but exciting, strong but sensitive, wealthy but present, ambitious but available, spiritually mature but endlessly affirming.
If no man measures up, she will remain safely alone and increasingly bitter.
If she ever senses dissatisfaction, point her back to herself.
Tell her she needs more self-care, more travel, more independence.
Never let her ask whether obedience would bring peace.
If you succeed, Mothwick, she will wake up one day in her thirties wondering where the years went.
She will tell herself she is content, empowered, fulfilled.
But deep down, she will feel the quiet grief of missed purpose.
And by then, we will have done our work well.
Proceed diligently.
The harvest here is plentiful.
Your devoted superior,
Grinwell
This ministry runs solely on the generosity of readers like you. If you’ve been enjoying my work for a while would you consider becoming a PAID SUBSCRIBER?
