This Is On My Mind

How thankful I am for my home!  The place of my employment in all good things; raising my children, directing their education, helping my husband, cooking, cleaning, sewing, knitting, practicing hospitality, making a haven for my family, nurturing precious souls, reading, blogging, caring for animals.  I am thankful for the calling that God has given me as a woman.  I pray that I am worthy of it!

Again joining Rhonda Jean....

Mentoring Opportunity

I am a proponent of the Titus 2 ministry model with older women mentoring the younger women.

I was mentored as a young woman and it was very life changing for me. Over the years I have mentored young women myself. It is a wonderful way to pass along the things the Lord has taught you.

I currently mentor my daughters and as a leader of a large homeschool co-op I mentor many of these ladies as well.

I have been feeling the need to be encouraged lately and I think I have found just the thing!

Victoria Botkin is going to be doing online mentoring on Monday nights starting tomorrow night. Here is what her family's ministry website says -

How does a wife help her husband be the man Christ wants him to be? How can she inspire him to love her? How can she discover the forgotten joys of being the helper God designed her to be? Beginning March 1, Victoria, beloved wife to Geoffrey Botkin, will host weekly online mentoring sessions for women as a homemaker's resource to the worldwide Christian community. Mother to five boys and two girls, Victoria draws insight from 30 years of applying Scripture to marriage with one of America's most visionary men.

Join Victoria as she discusses subjects such as woman's great power, sinful tendencies, obedience vs. submission, independence vs. submission, freedom vs. submission, beauty, dress, makeup, respect, women's rights, hospitality, speaking words of life, managing with grace, pitfalls of perfectionism in homemaking, Hollywood expectations, trials, trust, and cultivating personality. Victoria will begin each session by responding to pressing, appropriate questions from participants. Topic headings include:

• All about Eve
• All about Sarah
• The Proverbs 31 wife
• About love
• How to help your husband love you
• How to become a wise woman

My two older daughters are going to sit in with me to listen and learn and to be encouraged.

If you think you might be interested you can go here to find out more information

An Evening Out

www.allposters.com

Last evening my sweetheart and I went out to dinner. We sat at a table for two, and feed both our stomachs and our souls. It is so wonderful to be in sync with the one you love.

We chatted about politics; there was a big election yesterday, we spoke of our children. We spoke of the Lord's work in our lives. We spoke of the last years' events in our lives.

We were through at the restaurant, but not through having uninterrupted time, so we went to a cafe type place for coffee for him, and tea for me. We spent several more hours talking and sharing our hearts, then headed home.

I am so thankful for the time together tying our heartstrings ever closer. How I love this husband God has given me.

A Godly Wife

That is the topic today for the Titus Two Blog Party...

My journey to being a godly wife started when I married and realized that I was not a very godly wife!  I wanted to be, but our personalities are different and I often wrongly thought "I" knew what was best and that is what we should do! ouch...

Neither of us is perfect, but I really had a heart to honor God by honoring my husband. The Lord graciously showed me in that in the area of submission, my submitting to my husband is really an issue of trusting God.  That when I submitted to my husband I was actually showing that I trusted God to work through my husband for my good.

When I began to put this into practice, submission, like love is a choice, my husband became the leader I had wanted him to be.  When I stopped trying to lead, God moved my husband to do it.  I have seen this in many areas.

This lead me to desire to grow in other areas.  I love to dress femininely for my husband, make sure he has meals to eat that he enjoys, I love to make sure he has coffee, even though I don't touch the stuff!

I have made the choice to not talk badly about my husband.  I don't join in men bashing sessions either! I teach my children to love and to honor their dad, and they do!

These things have caused my husband to desire to lead our family and to work hard on our behalf!

I am so grateful to the Lord for His guidance and correction.  I am thankful for the husband he gave me, I am a fortunate woman.

Some Thoughts on Proverbs 31

Becky at Hospitality Lane has a terrific post on marriage today.

It made me think of the verse in Proverbs 31 that says "the heart of her husband safely trusts her." This is early in the section on a Virtuous Wife.

While I was reading verses 10-31 today, I realized something that I can't say as if I have seen in this way before. All the "work" of the Proverbs 31 woman is for her husband and for her family.

Many people over the years have used this Proverb to shore up their arguement for women working outside the home, or for having a homebased business, etc. However I think there is something here for us that I think we are missing.

This woman is not looking for attention or recognition from anyone outside her family. In fact her efforts get her husband noticed "in the gates" at place of honor in the city.

Let's look at some verses:

Verse 11 - The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain.

He knows that she is on his side and is not going to spend money they don't have on frivolous things - she is going to be careful with what they have, in fact due to her character and skills their home will abound.

Verse 12 - She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

He is not worried about her telling her friends about all his "failings", nor is he worried that she is going to behave immodestly around others. She does not mock him or deride him.

Verses 13-19 show all her hard work on behalf of their family and home life. She is not idle.

Verse 20 shows that her priorities are right and she is looking out for others,especially those in need.

Verses 21-22 show that she has made sure that the family and the house help are clothed properly and well.

Then in the middle of this telling of her activities, verse 23 tells us "Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land." Ladies, our behavior affects our husbands reputation. Do we have a reputation for godliness, or for being a gossip? This will affect what others think about our husbands. I have known couples that the husband was not able to function in leadership positions because of their wives immaturity!

Verse 24 has us back to the wife and her sewing business!

Verse 25-27 show us her maturity and focus of her life.

Verse 28-29 show us her family's honoring of her and her efforts on their behalf. "Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her: "Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all."

Don't we all want to hear that kind of praise from our husbands?!

Verses 30-31 give us this admonition; "Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates."

She gets her reward because of her service to her family, her behavior towards the needy and her honoring behavior toward her husband. How many women pass this up, in order to get the "quick" praise of being a stylish woman or having a great haircut? I have known women who were always dressed just right and had perfect hair, and yet they were not wise women where their husbands were concerned. I recently heard that one of these marriages has ended in divorce. I am not surprised as I had witnessed words from the wife toward her husband, that made me embarrassed for him.

Ladies, we need to make sure that our priorities are the priorities God has for us. These may be very different from the ones we currently have. In all things we must seek God.

As a wife and mother I am the Thermostat for my home. I set the temperature! Is my home warm and a place of rest and delight? Or is it a cold and difficult place to be?

It is up to us ladies, we can change our lives, marriages, homelife with our careful attention to God's priorities for our lives.

Apples of Gold

I am going to be helping with a mentoring program at church called Apples of Gold. It is set as a 6 week program, but we are going to do it in 12 weeks, as there is so much to study and discuss.

Each week we will be having the study and then having a cooking demonstration and decorating ideas. This is the area I will be "mentoring".

I am not a gourmet cook by any means, but I also think that many of our young wives and mothers will be looking for healthy, delicious, and easy to make recipes. The first week we meet I will teach them to make 2 apple recipes, and then see what it is they would like to learn to do.

I am very excited to be a part of this program. I know there are many young women today who have been prepared to have careers but not prepared for being wives, mothers, and keeper of their homes.

My two teen daughters ages 15 and 13 will be providing the child care for our group. It is great for them to be able to help out in this way, using the skills they have been taught as big sisters to several little ones.

We don't start until September but I have been working on the study portion, meeting with the other ladies who are mentoring. It will be here before you know it!

The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission

Over at Girl Talk, (www.girltalk.blogs.com) Carolyn Mahaney, wife of C.J. Mahaney, and her daughters, have posted a wonderful quote by John Piper:

"A Christian woman does not put her hope in her husband, or in getting a husband. She does not put her hope in her looks. She puts her hope in the promises of God...She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focuses her attention on the sovereign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever he pleases. She knows her Bible, and she knows her theology of the sovereignty of God, and she knows his promise that he will be with her and help her strengthen her no matter what. This is the deep, unshakeable root of Christian womanhood."

You can read the whole article or listen to it at this link:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2007/2088_The_Beautiful_Faith_of_Fearless_Submission/

I love this quote! May we faithfully teach our daughters to be this kind of wife!