Stepping Heavenward

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss is undoubtedly one of my favorite books. I'm reading it now for the fifth or sixth time and I plan on reading it once every year (maybe twice). If you are a wife and mother who long to love the Lord more, this book provides precious encouragement on your journey heavenward. Written in the form of a journal, Katy comes to faith in Jesus and, through battles with her own sin and various life circumstances, is molded into a vessel who seeks to honor God above all things.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

"I have heard Mother say that we might love an earthly object as much as we pleased if we only love God better" (p. 175).

"Yes, I suppose I am as happy in my dear precious husband and children as a wife and mother can be in a fallen world, which must not be a real heaven lest we should love the land we journey through so well as to want to pitch our tents in it forever and cease to look and long for the home whither we are bound" (p. 278).

If the name Elizabeth Prentiss sounds familiar, it's likely because of the well-known hymn she wrote, More Love to Thee, O Christ. I've included the lyrics because they are as clear a window into the writer's heart as they are into that of the book's protagonist.

More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee!

Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee.

This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to thee;

more love to thee, more love to thee!

Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;

now thee alone I seek, give what is best.

This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee;

more love to thee, more love to thee!

Let sorrow do its work, come grief and pain;

sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain,

when they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to thee;

more love to thee, more love to thee!

Then shall me latest breath whisper thy praise;

this be the parting cry my heart shall raise;

this still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee;

more love to thee, more love to thee!