Maxwell 39: Like Sands Through an Hour Glass, so Are the Vests of Our Lives

[browngrl]

I wonder if the Maxwell's ever get tired of everything having to be a Godly sort of epic. Take this apartment thing. It is always a fair bit of work to move but on top of that there is all this emotional energy devoted to passive aggressive hand wringing. Everything in their world seems to need some sort of edict from God, a tremendous amount of prayer, and of course scheduling scheduling scheduling. It must get exhausting, no?

 

[HoneyBunny]

I can’t help but be a tiny bit concerned for Anna, so very young and living away from everyone she knows in a small apartment.  Assuming she doesn’t work (and I would LOVE it if she did, or at least volunteer somewhere) that’s a lot of lonely hours to fill, especially coming from a large family. I mean, I spent my single years living alone in a one bedroom apartment, but I worked, traveled all the time for work, and had an active social life. My apartment was a refuge for me, not a jail. 

[LurkerOverThePond]

Let's hope Jesse and Anna will invite the three Maxwell "girls" over to KC many times!

[Giraffe]

15 minutes ago, HoneyBunny said:

I can’t help but be a tiny bit concerned for Anna, so very young and living away from everyone she knows in a small apartment.  Assuming she doesn’t work (and I would LOVE it if she did, or at least volunteer somewhere) that’s a lot of lonely hours to fill, especially coming from a large family. I mean, I spent my single years living alone in a one bedroom apartment, but I worked, traveled all the time for work, and had an active social life. My apartment was a refuge for me, not a jail. 

This move might be even better for her because of that. It could help her become close to people she’s not related to, biologically or by marriage. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

20 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

This move might be even better for her because of that. It could help her become close to people she’s not related to, biologically or by marriage. 

I agree. Maybe she will make a lot of church friends. 

[mango_fandango]

There’s a post on the blog featuring someone who’s written in about the Moody books. Apparently the writer’s five-year-old daughter requested a Bible case and Bible highlighters for her birthday, cos that’s totally normal 

[Melissa1977]

17 minutes ago, mango_fandango said:

There’s a post on the blog featuring someone who’s written in about the Moody books. Apparently the writer’s five-year-old daughter requested a Bible case and Bible highlighters for her birthday, cos that’s totally normal 

Unless it's a Bible for children, with little text and lots of pictures, I don't believe any of that.

Even the brightest 5 year old are unable to read the Bible. To long strange sentences and usually little letters. It is enterely possible to force them reading that, if reading means pronouncing one syllabe after another with no sense at all.

Ridiculous, pretentious, lying fundies.

[MamaJunebug]

1 hour ago, HoneyBunny said:

I can’t help but be a tiny bit concerned for Anna, so very young and living away from everyone she knows in a small apartment.  Assuming she doesn’t work (and I would LOVE it if she did, or at least volunteer somewhere) that’s a lot of lonely hours to fill, especially coming from a large family. I mean, I spent my single years living alone in a one bedroom apartment, but I worked, traveled all the time for work, and had an active social life. My apartment was a refuge for me, not a jail. 

Maybe Jesse works from home. #hopeful

[fundiefan]

1 hour ago, HoneyBunny said:

I can’t help but be a tiny bit concerned for Anna, so very young and living away from everyone she knows in a small apartment.  Assuming she doesn’t work (and I would LOVE it if she did, or at least volunteer somewhere) that’s a lot of lonely hours to fill, especially coming from a large family. I mean, I spent my single years living alone in a one bedroom apartment, but I worked, traveled all the time for work, and had an active social life. My apartment was a refuge for me, not a jail. 

I don't know. I don't doubt it will be a big change for her and there will be a lot of adjusting to do. But, it will also give her & Jesse time to become an actual couple sharing life. He works from home, so she won't be there alone during the day. Without the obligation of being enmeshed with the Maxwells, they are free to learn & grow together, to have shared experiences - ones only they share, to have conversations and make decisions and even make a meal without Steven's influence. They are entirey removed from the near constant interaction with every single Maxwell that the family is known for. While not on the other side of the world, and they are apparently returning every Sunday, that is a deliberate action. There is enough distance for them to remain independent, not just in idea, but in practice. How they do that and if it makes an impact remains to be seen, but not being swallowed whole by the Maxwell machine can only be a good thing - I would think. 

[OhNoNike]

3 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

Unless it's a Bible for children, with little text and lots of pictures, I don't believe any of that.

Even the brightest 5 year old are unable to read the Bible. To long strange sentences and usually little letters. It is enterely possible to force them reading that, if reading means pronouncing one syllabe after another with no sense at all.

Ridiculous, pretentious, lying fundies.

I mean... I couldn’t understand the Bible quote they had on the apartment post, and I’m almost 40.

I sensed some passive aggressive response from Teri on this. I see someone else who replied. Which of you is Lauren? Heh. 
 

Spoiler

 

[freejugar]

Why titus2 exists? to line Steve's pockets

Also, I have a lot of free time now due to quarantine, and I wish I had gotten the first Moody book when Sarah gave it away for free on Amazon back then. Great snark material.

Edited June 26, 2020 by freejugar

[Giraffe]

Wow, how did that comment get through censorship?! Kudos to whoever left it. 

[Hane]

I read “Summer with the Moodys” when the freebie was offered, out of sheer curiosity. You can learn about the mindset of the Maxwell/Moody fans by reading the positive Amazon reviews: People love the books because what they *don’t* have—no cussing, no conflict, no religious diversity, no disobedience. The fans gladly give awful writing a pass as long as those boxes are checked.

The most nuanced reviews are the negative ones. That’s truly telling.

[fundiefan]

28 minutes ago, freejugar said:

Why titus2 exists? to line Steve's pockets

Also, I have a lot of free time now due to quarantine, and I wish I had gotten the first Moody book when Sarah gave it away for free on Amazon back then. Great snark material.

I read part of it. I honestly couldn't go beyond the second chapter, I think. I know it took roughly 15 minutes for me to chuck the thing. 

I agree Titus2 exists for Steve. Poor boy needs to make his family work for him so he doesn't have to work with evil women or do something he believes is wrong, like have lunch with a girl! He might get cooties. 

[mango_fandango]

All I’ve ever read of the books are the sample pages, and they’re bad enough. Like how Father’s Day is described in the first book, it’s mentioned that they have “Dad’s favourite meal”, without mentioning what that is, and gifts, with no indication as to what they were. It’s basic information that should have been in there. That kind of thing happens multiple times in the series, random paragraphs that don’t really serve any kind of purpose. The rest of that chapter deals with the kids praying about their pet-sitting business, which is the main feature of that book. 
 

 

[petrushka]

Oh to have been a fly on the wall while Jesse and Anna were courting and discussing the particulars of the first home they would share.  We will never know who first considered living outside of Leavenworth but I'd like to think they approached it as equals.  He may have felt stifled by all that family enmeshment and she may have been tired of rural Ohio life.  Maybe this is their way of having a "rumspringa", similar to the Amish allowing their adolescents a period of running around before making a decision about committing to Amish life.  Steve would never allow such a thing under his roof, so Jesse had to marry in order to gain a little freedom for a while.

[kpmom]

18 hours ago, SPHASH said:

Is there confirmation the Spinster Sisters show up at the brother's homes unannounced to clean?  I know they have pitched in for Melanie and 2nna when they were pregnant but I would hope they called them ahead to see when it was the best time to come over.

I hope so, too! 

Especially when they splashed pictures on the blog of Melanie's not perfectly clean home when they went over there to clean while she was on bed rest.  Remember the picture of the dead flies all over the window ledge?

Poor Melanie! Busted! ?

[usedbicycle]

16 hours ago, Bethy said:

I've seen two very different schools of thought among fundies on this. One is the patriarchal view that the Maxes have held to up until now, and possibly still: the wife gives it all up and becomes a part of her husband's family, and if she's lucky maybe she gets to see her family once every few years. The other is that the sons are the ones to strike out "on their own" while the daughters are expected to stay closer to family (and also nurse aging parents, when the time comes) even after marriage.

Agreed, the Bates are a good example of how the girls stayed close or eventually came back to Tennessee.  Only Alyssa has merged into her husband's fathership.

[Hane]

Their home town brings to mind a quotation from a Harlan Ellison memoir: In it, he was in the Army and being chewed out by a drill sergeant, who roared at him, “Your @$$ is gonna DIE in Leavenworth!”*
 

*The US Military Disciplinary Barracks, that is.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

3 hours ago, fundiefan said:

I can’t help but be a tiny bit concerned for Anna, so very young and living away from everyone she knows in a small apartment.  Assuming she doesn’t work (and I would LOVE it if she did, or at least volunteer somewhere) that’s a lot of lonely hours to fill, especially coming from a large family.

Lots of military wives get married VERY young and go around the world away from everyone. She'll cope! I have two friends who boarded planes with a newborn one to Germany and one to Japan. They made it. Neither were even 20 yet. In the world of not going to college marriage often happens very young. Lots of wives go to college after they have babies. So, too, do the husbands.

[OhNoNike]

3 hours ago, Giraffe said:

Wow, how did that comment get through censorship?! Kudos to whoever left it. 

I wonder if the Bible verse just made it an autopass

[Black Aliss]

I am convinced there's much more to the Jesse and Anna story than "they wanted to try living in an apartment in Kansas City". I think one or both of them is pursuing higher education, if only a certificate program. Perhaps Jesse has realized the limitations of his self-taught programming skills, or perhaps Anna has always wanted to go to college like (I think) one of her sisters did. Or perhaps Anna just put her foot down and said she was not going to have her in-laws up in her business 24/7. But I want my first theory to be true.

4 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

There’s a post on the blog featuring someone who’s written in about the Moody books. Apparently the writer’s five-year-old daughter requested a Bible case and Bible highlighters for her birthday, cos that’s totally normal 

Ohhh, I don't know. I was a pious little thing when I was five. Memorizing bible verses, planning my future as a missionary nurse, getting saved several times a year because for some reason it just never seemed to "take". I would not have been allowed to use highlighters in my bible, though.

 

[Caroline]

I too was very impressed (but incredulous) that a five year old reads the Bible.  They need to get that genius to a good private school.  The saddest part of the post is when the mom says that it's so hard to find good reading material for children. She's not looking very hard.  There's so much more than when I was young, and the classics are still available.  Why not read "A Little Princess" to your brilliant five year old? Is it because every excellent work of children's fiction doesn't mention God enough?  Or her particular vision of God?  How pathetic and sad for the kid who won't always be five.  I guess the Moodys work if you want your child to be a dull little prig.

[Giraffe]

I’m withholding judgment for a year. If Jesse and Anna move back in a year I’ll be disappointed. If they stay away or buy a house outside of the Steve approved radius I’ll be more hopeful they’re making a break for it. I’m still on the higher education speculation bus. Hopefully they reach their one year anniversary without a pregnancy!

[fundiefan]

2 hours ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

Lots of military wives get married VERY young and go around the world away from everyone. She'll cope! I have two friends who boarded planes with a newborn one to Germany and one to Japan. They made it. Neither were even 20 yet. In the world of not going to college marriage often happens very young. Lots of wives go to college after they have babies. So, too, do the husbands.

That's weird. I didn't say what you quoted - I quoted that post and responded. 

I agree, I think they will be fine. Probably much more fine than Steve would like to believe. Hard doesn't mean impossible.