It is a marvel to me that yet another year has gone by; and so quickly too!! The Lord is so good and ever merciful! His constant faithfulness and love is the only reason the seasons pass and our worlds continue to grow in such an invisible, yet steady way. This past week I've had so many opportunities to simply sit and reflect on all the things He's done in my little sphere of life. And in others, also. I've learned so much about waiting for and leaning on Jesus as my real, true source of life. I would tell of them all, but they would not matter to anyone but me and my Lord. It amazes and fascinates me how diverse our God is in teaching each one of us! Truly is it said in His word that "My ways are not your ways, nor are My thoughts your thoughts." Our Father is a God of surprises, laughter, joy, romance, love, adventure, blind trust, steady faith: LIFE in Jesus Christ His Son!
May this new year be a wonderful, loving adventure for you! May you fall deeper into the heart of God! May He bless you, and bring you ever closer to the Lover of your soul.
Isaiah 55:12
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wow
Since May a LOT has happened. In short (since I'm supposed to be doing school), my second oldest sister and her husband have moved across the country to Idaho, my big brother has gone into Marine boot camp, and I've been to Poland and back. God is so strange!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Bother.
I can't understand it, but the blog cut out the beginnings of the second and fourth lines....how annoying!
I suppose your imagination must fill in the blanks! =)
I suppose your imagination must fill in the blanks! =)
Soft Beauty
Pink flower petals and little green leaves strewn on the ground all about my knees,
graceful long nails and soft caresses sweetly scoop up such colorful messes.
Into a vase made simply for this
do hands slowly lower each petal in place.
Light purple irises are added to this,
this curious case of things purple and pink, oh where is the blue?
As my feet touch the earth,
so warm and so deep, that's yielded this beautiful bounty to me,
my mind is set free like the birds in the trees
and my heart breaths true love to the Creator, my King.
He's made each pink petal, each leaf, each blade,
with something sweet in mind...soft, loving beauty, maybe?
graceful long nails and soft caresses sweetly scoop up such colorful messes.
Into a vase made simply for this
do hands slowly lower each petal in place.
Light purple irises are added to this,
this curious case of things purple and pink, oh where is the blue?
As my feet touch the earth,
so warm and so deep, that's yielded this beautiful bounty to me,
my mind is set free like the birds in the trees
and my heart breaths true love to the Creator, my King.
He's made each pink petal, each leaf, each blade,
with something sweet in mind...soft, loving beauty, maybe?
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Sincerely
Sincerity.
How often do we even think about what sincerity really means?
I was reading some notes on the Psalms by C.H. Spurgeon and he made a passing comment on being sincere. Then it hit me.
Sincerity is what makes the difference in how we, as Christians, treat others. Think about it. As Christ's children we're called to live from our hearts and to act in love. Sincere love. Agape love. Selfless.
The world doesn't deal in sincerity. Everything revolves around self. "How can this further my interests? How does this help me? Am I happy with this?" etc. Insincere.
Believers are called to do the most mundane, dismal tasks with joy and a sincere desire to help others, without care to how it helps us, or if it even does help us.
Basically, sincere, true love is our motive for what we do and how we do it. It SHOULD be our motive, I should say.
Because that's how Christ lived; from His heart.
With sincerity.
Anyway, I was just pondering that this morning. Food for thought.
1 John 4:7-21
How often do we even think about what sincerity really means?
I was reading some notes on the Psalms by C.H. Spurgeon and he made a passing comment on being sincere. Then it hit me.
Sincerity is what makes the difference in how we, as Christians, treat others. Think about it. As Christ's children we're called to live from our hearts and to act in love. Sincere love. Agape love. Selfless.
The world doesn't deal in sincerity. Everything revolves around self. "How can this further my interests? How does this help me? Am I happy with this?" etc. Insincere.
Believers are called to do the most mundane, dismal tasks with joy and a sincere desire to help others, without care to how it helps us, or if it even does help us.
Basically, sincere, true love is our motive for what we do and how we do it. It SHOULD be our motive, I should say.
Because that's how Christ lived; from His heart.
With sincerity.
Anyway, I was just pondering that this morning. Food for thought.
1 John 4:7-21
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Femininity
I was thinking last night about what I wrote in my last post (To Take Care of Boys) and I realized that, yes, I said what girls are for but I didn't really talk about why that is our role and why we're the only beings on earth that can fill that role as a suitable helper for man.
Monday, January 31, 2011
To Take Care of Boys
"Uncle, I have discovered what girls are made for."
"Well, my dear, what is it?"
"To take care of boys."
Most would likely read this merry, sweet ending to Louisa May Alcott's Eight Cousins and simply think "Awww, how touching!" or at the very least smile at the sincere thought and love written in every word. But I do believe there is more, much more, to the simple statement "To take care of boys" than we would readily give credit to.
What ARE girls made for?
One of my dearest, closest friends whom God has blessed and honored me with knowing said something once that stuck fast in my mind. You may or may not think that this pertains to the subject topic, but really I think it has much to do with it.
She said, (a little paraphrasing is involved), "We girls are really engaged to one man from our very first breath. God has picked this one man for each of us (except those whom He has chosen to have serve His kingdom as singles) since before we ever thought about boys. We should behave as if we DO have a ring on our finger that means 'I am going to marry this man' before we've ever met him. We should understand and respect ourselves as one prepared to be given to that one man already. That way, when we do marry that special, God prepared man, we present to him without shame a helpmeet kept safe, unused and faithfully tended JUST for him."
With that also in mind...what ARE girls made for?!
The answer was given us in His word, as are most answers to many of life's questions.
Genesis 2:18, 22-24.
Yes, I would rather you go look it up for yourself. That way, you'll read it with your own eyes and can't even pretend I imagined this answer up. ;)
Pay close attention to verse 18.
"...I will therefore fashion a helpmeet suitable for him." (Emphasis mine.)
The conclusion?
Girls were made to help boys. For boys. Because of boys. To care for boys.
More specifically, women were created to help men in honoring and serving God.
There are most likely, rather than not, more than a few girls snorting and shaking their heads thinking "Yeah, maybe, but what about us? Can't we have a life too?"
Of course!!
But we have to ask ourselves: if we are true women of God, and Proverbs 31 women at that!, what other aim could we possibly have in life other than to serve our Lord, Jesus Christ?
The Prov.31 women didn't sit around simply keeping house and rearing children and being cheery 24/7. (Not that that is a bad thing.) She put her mind and body to work!
Furthering her husband.To help her husband. To please him. Not only because she loved him but because she understood herself to be honoring God in doing so.
And not just after she married him, but "...all the days of her life."
That implies way before she even liked boys as people and not as dirty, obnoxiously annoying specimens that happen to live on this planet. (not that guys are always like that, not in the least! We just tend to think of ya'll like that when we're younger.)
I could make many a speech about how our culture has so twisted and perverted the order God created.
Women were, and still are!, to be the homemakers, the child bearers/rearers, the helpmeet's to their husbands!!
And to be those things requires channeling our God given intellect, ambitions, love and life into the role, the very PURPOSE, of being a helper worthy of "praise in the gates."
From all that you might think, and understandably so, that I am completely against such things as working outside the home (having a career), going to college, etc.
Not necessarily.
On working outside the home: I see no problem with young ladies (unmarried) working outside the home to help take some of the burden off of their parents, Even simply for the experience perhaps, depending on the job. Particularly where buying clothes, going out, etc. is concerned. It IS nice to not have to wonder if you're taking some of the grocery money to go out for coffee with a friend or two.
On married women working outside the home...that is between you, God and your husband. Also, financial issues can be a factor. The wife might have to work just to help put food on the table.
Personally, I believe as a married woman my job will be to take care of my husband, our children and our home.
There may come a day when I will have to work outside the home, but I sincerely hope not.
Going to college: it used to be that while the young men were gleaning an education at college to equip them to wade into life fully capable of being men, and the man of the house too, that we young women were at home learning to care for the household and all that that entails.
We really, very truly, had no need to go to college.
Not that getting a more intense, perhaps thorough, education is at all bad. No, not at all!
But I ask you this: what could you possibly want to study that you cannot learn at home?
We are surrounded by technology that makes this possible.
I understand that there ARE certain things that are almost quite impossible to learn at home.
But then that begs the question: are you going to further your future in the world as a business woman...or to, in the future, be a blessed help to your husband?
We are all endowed with certain talents/gifts that will determine what we do and what skills we develop with more attention and thoroughness. But those talents were given you to be a complement to your spouse (when you attain one, if you're unmarried) and to be a help to him in furthering his ministry .
For example: I want very much to study music.
It is likely I will attend college, if I must.
But everything I can study for that course beforehand, I will. I, as of now, cannot find a way to get college level training in music from home. Though if there is a way, God willing I will find it.
Why do I want to study music?
To make a long story short, because I am convicted that God wants me to, for whatever reason. I have a feeling it will in some way promote my husbands ministry, whatever that may be. (when I say ministry, I do not necessarily mean actually going into the ministry as we recognize it today.)
I have no idea what my husband will do; not one inkling.
But I want to complete my musical education because I know it would be a failing not to nurture it to the fullest extent so that it may bless, not solely my husband (though mainly him), but those God will put around me, and God Himself, foremost of all.
Now why did I explain all of that?
To show you that just because I have the ability and the means to "go somewhere" with my gift, doesn't mean I should.
If I get my college training and never use it but to entertain my family, then it is still worth it.
You might be wondering what happens if you're in your late 20's, maybe early 30's, and you're still unmarried.
Do you just live at home?
Why not? Why should you not live at home, work, and be a help to your parents in whatever they're doing, whatever their ministry is??
If you set about being a woman that is used of God as He intended you won't be a burden.
You'll be a blessing.
And if you crave space away from them, have you ever considered turning the garage/old shed, into your own space?
And yes, I am serious. There are creative ways to remain under the umbrella of your parents while being a help to them. Though maybe not in such close proximity, hhmm? ;)
If you feel living away from home is best, that is between you and God and the godly counsel He has given you.
To take care of boys doesn't mean only your husband when you are married to him.
It also means learning to care for your father/ brother(s) in the proper, respectful and biblical way.
My mom once told me that God gives us the men in our lives before we are married as practice for when we ARE married.
How you treat your father/brother(s) will determine how you treat your spouse. Believe it or not, it will. The home is the training ground, the establishment of your character starts there and solidifies there.
This is can be a challenge. You may not find it easy to respect and honor the men in your life. But we have to.
You know all those day dreams of happily ever after and prince charming and the perfect life of love you'll live after you're married?
It won't be like that. Maybe it will occasionally in little moments, but most of the time it's just gonna be living with that one person whom you really do love with all your heart but who right now is bothering you because maybe he stomps his feet or leaves the towel off of the perfectly good towel rack, or whatever that little pet peeve might be. Learning to live with those things and yet show honor and respect 24/7 is no walk in the park.
That's why we have to start learning to think, feel and act this way now.
We have to be ready to live it out everyday. Eph.5:33 "...and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband."
Some of you might be wondering why I haven't suggested loving our men.
That's because to men, respect is love. Yes, love them! By all means we should and we need to and they need to know we love them! But respect is of more importance to them; respect is love to them. Honor is important too, just as is admiration and esteem.
Respect is to men as love is to us women. Our most deep need is to be loved unconditionally by one man (outside of Christ's never ending love). We start having that need met when we start respecting them no matter what.
That's a bit of a different topic though.
Titus 2:4b-5 "...young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored." (emphasis mine.)
Do not go solely by what I say. Never believe someone simply because what they say appeals to you or because you know them, or for any reason.
ALWAYS compare everything to the Bible.
And there's always the chance I copied a verse out wrong, but please search and pray for yourselves.
And as most of you probably thought throughout the reading of this "She's not married, why does she talk like she has been?" please feel free to critique, advise, etc.
You're right. I'm not married. But I would sure love to be someday. =)
If this has come across as do-or-die, my apologies. I'm still learning.
So...for me, the question of what are girls for was answered some time ago, though I only very recently began thinking about why I believe the way I do and what basis do I have for my manner of belief.
Now I have a question for you all: did this answer that elusive question?
I pray it did.
We were made "To take care of boys."
"To take care of boys."
Most would likely read this merry, sweet ending to Louisa May Alcott's Eight Cousins and simply think "Awww, how touching!" or at the very least smile at the sincere thought and love written in every word. But I do believe there is more, much more, to the simple statement "To take care of boys" than we would readily give credit to.
What ARE girls made for?
One of my dearest, closest friends whom God has blessed and honored me with knowing said something once that stuck fast in my mind. You may or may not think that this pertains to the subject topic, but really I think it has much to do with it.
She said, (a little paraphrasing is involved), "We girls are really engaged to one man from our very first breath. God has picked this one man for each of us (except those whom He has chosen to have serve His kingdom as singles) since before we ever thought about boys. We should behave as if we DO have a ring on our finger that means 'I am going to marry this man' before we've ever met him. We should understand and respect ourselves as one prepared to be given to that one man already. That way, when we do marry that special, God prepared man, we present to him without shame a helpmeet kept safe, unused and faithfully tended JUST for him."
With that also in mind...what ARE girls made for?!
The answer was given us in His word, as are most answers to many of life's questions.
Genesis 2:18, 22-24.
Yes, I would rather you go look it up for yourself. That way, you'll read it with your own eyes and can't even pretend I imagined this answer up. ;)
Pay close attention to verse 18.
"...I will therefore fashion a helpmeet suitable for him." (Emphasis mine.)
The conclusion?
Girls were made to help boys. For boys. Because of boys. To care for boys.
More specifically, women were created to help men in honoring and serving God.
There are most likely, rather than not, more than a few girls snorting and shaking their heads thinking "Yeah, maybe, but what about us? Can't we have a life too?"
Of course!!
But we have to ask ourselves: if we are true women of God, and Proverbs 31 women at that!, what other aim could we possibly have in life other than to serve our Lord, Jesus Christ?
The Prov.31 women didn't sit around simply keeping house and rearing children and being cheery 24/7. (Not that that is a bad thing.) She put her mind and body to work!
Furthering her husband.To help her husband. To please him. Not only because she loved him but because she understood herself to be honoring God in doing so.
And not just after she married him, but "...all the days of her life."
That implies way before she even liked boys as people and not as dirty, obnoxiously annoying specimens that happen to live on this planet. (not that guys are always like that, not in the least! We just tend to think of ya'll like that when we're younger.)
I could make many a speech about how our culture has so twisted and perverted the order God created.
Women were, and still are!, to be the homemakers, the child bearers/rearers, the helpmeet's to their husbands!!
And to be those things requires channeling our God given intellect, ambitions, love and life into the role, the very PURPOSE, of being a helper worthy of "praise in the gates."
From all that you might think, and understandably so, that I am completely against such things as working outside the home (having a career), going to college, etc.
Not necessarily.
On working outside the home: I see no problem with young ladies (unmarried) working outside the home to help take some of the burden off of their parents, Even simply for the experience perhaps, depending on the job. Particularly where buying clothes, going out, etc. is concerned. It IS nice to not have to wonder if you're taking some of the grocery money to go out for coffee with a friend or two.
On married women working outside the home...that is between you, God and your husband. Also, financial issues can be a factor. The wife might have to work just to help put food on the table.
Personally, I believe as a married woman my job will be to take care of my husband, our children and our home.
There may come a day when I will have to work outside the home, but I sincerely hope not.
Going to college: it used to be that while the young men were gleaning an education at college to equip them to wade into life fully capable of being men, and the man of the house too, that we young women were at home learning to care for the household and all that that entails.
We really, very truly, had no need to go to college.
Not that getting a more intense, perhaps thorough, education is at all bad. No, not at all!
But I ask you this: what could you possibly want to study that you cannot learn at home?
We are surrounded by technology that makes this possible.
I understand that there ARE certain things that are almost quite impossible to learn at home.
But then that begs the question: are you going to further your future in the world as a business woman...or to, in the future, be a blessed help to your husband?
We are all endowed with certain talents/gifts that will determine what we do and what skills we develop with more attention and thoroughness. But those talents were given you to be a complement to your spouse (when you attain one, if you're unmarried) and to be a help to him in furthering his ministry .
For example: I want very much to study music.
It is likely I will attend college, if I must.
But everything I can study for that course beforehand, I will. I, as of now, cannot find a way to get college level training in music from home. Though if there is a way, God willing I will find it.
Why do I want to study music?
To make a long story short, because I am convicted that God wants me to, for whatever reason. I have a feeling it will in some way promote my husbands ministry, whatever that may be. (when I say ministry, I do not necessarily mean actually going into the ministry as we recognize it today.)
I have no idea what my husband will do; not one inkling.
But I want to complete my musical education because I know it would be a failing not to nurture it to the fullest extent so that it may bless, not solely my husband (though mainly him), but those God will put around me, and God Himself, foremost of all.
Now why did I explain all of that?
To show you that just because I have the ability and the means to "go somewhere" with my gift, doesn't mean I should.
If I get my college training and never use it but to entertain my family, then it is still worth it.
You might be wondering what happens if you're in your late 20's, maybe early 30's, and you're still unmarried.
Do you just live at home?
Why not? Why should you not live at home, work, and be a help to your parents in whatever they're doing, whatever their ministry is??
If you set about being a woman that is used of God as He intended you won't be a burden.
You'll be a blessing.
And if you crave space away from them, have you ever considered turning the garage/old shed, into your own space?
And yes, I am serious. There are creative ways to remain under the umbrella of your parents while being a help to them. Though maybe not in such close proximity, hhmm? ;)
If you feel living away from home is best, that is between you and God and the godly counsel He has given you.
To take care of boys doesn't mean only your husband when you are married to him.
It also means learning to care for your father/ brother(s) in the proper, respectful and biblical way.
My mom once told me that God gives us the men in our lives before we are married as practice for when we ARE married.
How you treat your father/brother(s) will determine how you treat your spouse. Believe it or not, it will. The home is the training ground, the establishment of your character starts there and solidifies there.
This is can be a challenge. You may not find it easy to respect and honor the men in your life. But we have to.
You know all those day dreams of happily ever after and prince charming and the perfect life of love you'll live after you're married?
It won't be like that. Maybe it will occasionally in little moments, but most of the time it's just gonna be living with that one person whom you really do love with all your heart but who right now is bothering you because maybe he stomps his feet or leaves the towel off of the perfectly good towel rack, or whatever that little pet peeve might be. Learning to live with those things and yet show honor and respect 24/7 is no walk in the park.
That's why we have to start learning to think, feel and act this way now.
We have to be ready to live it out everyday. Eph.5:33 "...and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband."
Some of you might be wondering why I haven't suggested loving our men.
That's because to men, respect is love. Yes, love them! By all means we should and we need to and they need to know we love them! But respect is of more importance to them; respect is love to them. Honor is important too, just as is admiration and esteem.
Respect is to men as love is to us women. Our most deep need is to be loved unconditionally by one man (outside of Christ's never ending love). We start having that need met when we start respecting them no matter what.
That's a bit of a different topic though.
Titus 2:4b-5 "...young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored." (emphasis mine.)
Do not go solely by what I say. Never believe someone simply because what they say appeals to you or because you know them, or for any reason.
ALWAYS compare everything to the Bible.
And there's always the chance I copied a verse out wrong, but please search and pray for yourselves.
And as most of you probably thought throughout the reading of this "She's not married, why does she talk like she has been?" please feel free to critique, advise, etc.
You're right. I'm not married. But I would sure love to be someday. =)
If this has come across as do-or-die, my apologies. I'm still learning.
So...for me, the question of what are girls for was answered some time ago, though I only very recently began thinking about why I believe the way I do and what basis do I have for my manner of belief.
Now I have a question for you all: did this answer that elusive question?
I pray it did.
We were made "To take care of boys."
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