A Wife Clothed in Spiritual Beauty

The wife who would always hold in her husbands heart the place she held on her wedding day will never cease striving to be lovely. She will be as careful of her words and acts and her whole bearing toward him as she was before marriage. She will cultivate in her own life whatever is beautiful, whatever is winning, whatever is graceful. She will scrupulously avoid whatever is offensive or unwomanly. She will look well to her personal appearance; no woman can be careless in her dress, statternly and untidy, and long keep her place on the throne of her husband's life.


She will look well to her inner life. She must have mental attractiveness. She will seek to be clothed in spiritual beauty. Her husband must see in her ever-new loveliness at the years move on. As the charms of physical beauty may fade in the toils and vicissitude of life, there must be more and more beauty of soul to shine out to replace the attractions that are lost. It has been said that "the wife should always leave something to be revealed only to her husband, some modest charm, some secret grace, reserved solely for his delight and inspiration, like those flowers which give of their sweetness only to the hand that lovingly gathers them."



She should always care more to please him than any other person in the world. She should prize more highly a compliment from his lips than from any other human lips. Therefore she should reserve for him the sweetest charms; she should seek to bring ever to him so new surprise of loveliness; should should plan pleasures and delights for him. Instead of not caring how she looks or whether she is agreeable or not when no one but her husband is present, she should always be at her best for him.

Instead of being bright and lovely when there is company, then relapsing into languor and silence when the company is gone, she should seek always to be brightest and loveliest when only he and she sit together in the quiet of the home.

Both husband and wife should ever bring their best things to each other.

--JR Miller, a 19th century preacher, excerpt from The Family formerly titled Homemaking

The Grandest Vocation

"To be a mother is the grandest vocation in the world.
No one being has a position of such power and influence.
She holds in her hands the destiny of nations;
for to her is necessarily committed
the making of the nation's citizens."

---Hannah Whitall Smith

HomeMaking: Conquering Mt. Never-Rest

When you have a family of 10---laundry can become quite daunting.

Especially if you would like to have a life and do things like spend time with your family, clean your home, prepare meals and homeschool your children.

I think it is important to know how to keep house whether you have 2 children or 10 because it can make or break a mom. It can become very depressing if you feel like you have a mountain of work to do everyday and feel things are out of control. Not to mention that it can be very discouraging and make a mom want to give up important things like homeschooling.

Never having learned the fine art of doing laundry at this type of magnitude, I knew I had to go to the experts. A few years ago I searched online and found the answer. Here is what we have been doing for the past few years which have brought much peace to my soul...

We used to do laundry every day and try to fold and put laundry away the same day. That never worked for us. We would end up with laundry that never made it to the dressers, baskets in the family room and trying to find an article of clothing would be a challenge if we fell behind during the weekend.

Now the method I use is this:

We do laundry still every day. All of the children take turns throwing in loads--from the seven year old and up.

We have a large, rectangular table in our laundry room with baskets on it.

Each basket is labeled with a permanent black pen: Twins, Janai, Naomi, Stephen and Ravi (S&R), Joshua, Joy, Misc., etc. the miscellaneous basket holds towels, sheets, cleaning rags, etc. We have eight baskets altogether on the table, and three big circular bins to hold dirty laundry underneath.

(I am thinking about painting my laundry room this color)

When a load or two is done we simply sort (not fold) the dried clothes into the baskets. This is wonderful because I don't feel pressure to put it away that day, it is out of sight if visitors come unexpectedly, and it is organized somewhere so that if my son needs to find a pair of socks, he knows they are waiting in his basket downstairs. I also am not worried because I know we have a folding day, so I don't feel like any of the laundry is hanging over my head all week.

So once a week (or twice if there is a lot of laundry) we will have our folding party--usually as we watch educational movie from the library. After they fold, we put all our laundry away and when that is done they simply return the empty basket back on the laundry table, in it's right spot.

(This is from HGTV--they have a nice post on laundry decor ideas here)

I know this will not work for everyone and some of you might read this in horror thinking--how on earth could she do laundry that way? Well, this absolutely works for us (even though you might have another successful way of conquering Mt. Never-Rest), when you have a bigger family and still want to maintain sanity, you sometimes have to resort to different means. Many large families have their own techniques of conquering their daily loads. How we do laundry will not look like how others will with smaller families.

For a long time I tried to do laundry like my mother. She was a stay at home mom with one child who was gone all day at school. So naturally, she was able to get everything put away perfectly before I even got home. For years I tried to emulate her example--but quickly after a few children more began to realize it was something of a 'crash-and-burn' technique for our family. I couldn't keep up and felt like a failure.

Now I have everyone from the 7 year old and up learn how to throw in the loads for washing. I barely step foot in the laundry room these days because I have trained the children to do practically everything, so it minimizes my time spent in there.

This was a life-saver for us, and I just wanted to share it with you so you can 'build up your home' by keeping your laundry under control.

I hope that if you try this method, it blesses you as much as it has blessed me!

I Love Vision Forum

Vision Forum is currently giving away a free download to everyone and anyone who is interested on the Money Saving Mom's site of their The Best of the 2006 Entreprenurial Bootcamp containing 22 messages. This is an exciting value of $100! Head on over to her site for all the details---but you only have until Saturday so be sure to act fast!

(Pictured above: Doug Phillips and his family--founder and President of Vision Forum)

The Controlled Mother

Be gentle. That does not mean to spiritless. It means to be the opposite of violent, irritable, ill-tempered, and moody. Study to be so, for your own soul's sake, and as if you lived in God's presence, always keeping down every movement of anger, irritability, ill-temper, or moodiness. And be gentle,--precisely because you have much to do, much to bear, many cares to burden you, many things which continually try your temper.

Be low voiced. It is wonderful what effect a mother's gentle manner and low voice---when she teaches, or corrects, or praises--will have on a band of children. Take a school-room filled with very young boys or girls. Let their teacher be nervous, fidgety, and irritable; you will see all theses little ones thrown into a ferment and fever and agitation, which is nothing more than a kind of disorder which they catch from the teacher's manner. Let her be loud-voiced, teaching or speaking in loud, quick, nervous tones, and it is ten to one but you will see within a few minutes all these children will become restless, talkative, inattentive, and ungovernable. Now, let some quiet, gentle, calm-mannered and low-voiced person come in, and all the children will become quieted, will listen, and be ready to give their whole attention to what is said. And they will work steadily as long as the calm eye is on them and the gentle, low voice is directing them.

You will spare yourselves and your dear ones much trouble and much unhappiness by laying this lesson to heart. You can do what you like with them---if you are perfectly self-controlled. Besides, what a service you do them; and how they will bless their mother in afterlife for having taught them this gentleness!

Be patient--not only when you are suffering from aching limbs and head and heart, but when you do not succeed in making your dear ones all that you would wish. They will learn more than you think. They profit much more than you can see by your lessons, and especially by your example. Even should son or daughter of yours turn out to be every thing but what you trained them to be, the memory of their gentle, patient, loving mother will remain in their souls to their dying day, like a silent voice from the past bidding them return to God and to the the paths of their childhood.

Some say that steel beaten into its proper form and given a keen edge while cold, is more apt to preserve both form and edge forever. So is it with the temper your patient gentleness will impart to your children's souls. And this firmness, which is only one of the most precious dispositions of true manhood and womanhood, will be both of infinite value to them and of indispensable necessity.

-An excerpt from Daughters of Destiny by Noelle Wheeler

They Call Her Blessed

A woman is seen in her most sacred and dignified character as wife and mother. She has great influence over the character of individuals, over the condition of families, and over the destinies of empires.

It is a fact that many of the noblest patriots, our most profound scholars, and our holiest ministers, were stimulated to their excellence and usefulness by those holy principles which they derived in early years from devoted mothers

...our mothers are our earliest instructors, and they have an influence over us, the importance of which, for time and eternity, surpasses the power of language to describe.

--Excerpt from Daughters of Destiny by Noelle Wheeler Goforth

The Happiest Home

Where is the happiest home on earth?
'Tis not 'mid scenes of noisy mirth;
But where God's favor, sought aright,
Fills every breast with joy and light.

The richest home? It is not found
Where wealth and splendor most abound;
But wheresoe'er, in hall or cot,
Men lived contented with their lot.

The fairest home? It is not placed
In scenes with outward beauty graced;
But where kind words and smiles impart
A constant sunshine to the heart.

On such a home of peace and love
God showers his blessing from above;
And angels, watching o'er it, cry,
"Lo! This is like our home on high!"


-M.A.S.M

Valentine's Day Party for Children

Life is meant to be celebrated, so when a holiday rolls around we do our best to indulge.

My daughter Naomi, who is 11 years old, is planning this years Valentine's day party for our family. I am always looking for ideas and liked this simple tutorial:




Here are some of my past posts on Valentine's Day that have to do with celebrating with our husbands that I thought some of my newer readers might enjoy:

Valentines Day For Him

My Lover, My Friend

Homes: Schools for Eternity

All should realize the sublime idea that their houses are the schools for eternity; their children the scholars; themselves the teachers; and evangelical religion the lesson. Yes, with every infant born into the family comes the injunction from God, "Take this child and bring it up for Me!" God sent this child into the world, to be trained up in the way he should go—that is in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Those parents who neglect the religious education of their children, whatever else they may impart, are more guilty than Herod! He slew the children of others—they slay their own children! He slew only the body—they slay the soul! He slew them by hired assassins—they slay their children themselves! We shudder at the cruelties of those who sacrificed their babes to Moloch; but how much more dreadful an immolation do they practice, who offer up their sons and daughters to Satan, by neglecting the education of their souls, and leaving them to grow up in ignorance of God and their eternal destiny!

-John J. Adams, Female Piety

Refusing A Limited Vision of Womanhood

"For a Christian, having babies is not about birthing pains, changing diapers or baking cookies (though it includes all of these). Having babies is about transforming the world forever. This investment will last, not for thirty years, not for my lifetime, but f-o-r-e-v-e-r. The investment is realized on earth and pays dividends for eternity.

On earth, we pray that these children will advance the very kingdom of God. But in heaven, the souls of every redeemed child will stand with me throughout eternity before the Lord Jesus. The pressures of today (be they financial, physical, etc.) that taunt Christians to self-consciously distort God’s fruitful purpose for the womb, and to separate life from love, will seem infinitesimally small as we look back upon this whisper of a life with our children beside us in eternity.

My children can have more far-reaching implications for society and posterity than anything else I can do. Having babies and training children for Jesus Christ means my life work will last forever. I hurt for you and those sad, misguided souls who would think of prolific motherhood as reducing women to the status of “baby machine.” I refuse to accept the minimizing, selfish, materialistic, and limited vision of womanhood dispensed by the apostles of modernity and relevancy in this generation. My dream is far greater."

-Beall Phillips (wife to Doug Phillips whom is President and founder of Vision Forum)

This was in response to an email sent to their family, read the rest of her gracious reply here.

Living In His Shadow

"And God's beautiful woman is pleased to be her husband's crown.

Shunning the spotlight, she gladly gives her life behind the scenes so that her husband may be noticed and honored. She is glad when he is the center of attention, when he excels, when he is recognized, when he rises to the top.

Indeed, she delights in living in his shadow.

His promotion is her greatest reward. She desires that her husband be highly respected and esteemed, so she contentedly offers the supreme sacrifice of herself for him."

---Elizabeth George, Beautiful in God's Eyes

Pride

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.

I cheat you of your God-given destiny...because you demand your own way.

I cheat you of contentment...because you "deserve better than this."

I cheat you of knowledge...because you already know it all.

I cheat you of healing...because you're too full of me to forgive.

I cheat you of holiness...because you refuse to admit when you're wrong.

I cheat you of vision...because you'd rather look in the mirror than out a window.

I cheat you of genuine friendship...because nobody's going to know the real you.

I cheat you of love...because real romance demands sacrifice.

I cheat you of greatness in heaven...because you refuse to wash another's feet on earth.

I cheat you of God's glory...because I convince you to seek your own.







My name is Pride. I am a cheater. You like me because you think I'm always looking out for you.





Untrue.

God has so much for you, I admit.
But don't worry...

If you stick with me,


you'll never know.




-Broadman & Holman

A Special Thank You

I wanted to give a big hug and special thanks to all the readers of this blog for nominating me for Top 100 Women's Christian Blogs for 2008 over at Internet Cafe Devotions who is sister site to Christian Women Online Magazine under the Proverbs 31 category.

Of course, I must say that God gets all the glory for this blog and any recognition it receives as it is because of Him that I am even able to post! I also wanted to thank all the ladies who have also sent rewards in the past-- I want you to know that I am planning on compiling it all on one page when I have a bit of free time. I did wrestle with this decision because I didn't want it to look like I was trying to get any personal recognition-- but I do realize that many ladies have taken the time to present these awards to me and the least I can do out of appreciation to them is acknowledge it.

Dear readers, you are a wonderful encouragement to me and I appreciate all the comments, emails, rewards, articles linked to this blog, etc. as I wish I could respond to every one. I cannot express to you what a blessing it has been 'meeting' you all and wish I had time to connect with each and every one of you on a more personal level.

Thank you for making my short period of blogging a genuine pleasure!

And The Award Goes To....

I wanted to award the blogs I thought were the absolute best in Blogland. What? These blogs are done from members of my family? No...I am NOT biased!

Just proclaiming the truth!

(Okay, maybe just a little biased)

Here they are:

Steve at The Male Domain

Janai at Teen Impact

Naomi at Daughters of the King

Stephen at The Mission

Ravi at Ravi's Adventures

I love you all!!!!!

Keep up the good work!

And remember......SEMPER REFORMANDA!

(translated: we are always reforming)