{A portrait of Godly Womanhood}

I AM STIRRED!
Lately i've been doing some research on Wives' & Mother's of old Preachers & Revivalists and I am completely humbled by their reverence for God & their devotion to holiness. Recently i've been indulging in the lives of Susanna Wesley & Katarina Von Bora.

Some background on each:

Susannah Wesley was the youngest of 25 brothers & sisters, and the Mother of 19 children, whom 2 of her sons are known as John & Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. She was devoted to her God, her Husband, & her Children. When I think of near-perfect Mothering & want to be inspired, I picture Susanna. Most would consider this old world influence, but I desire to raise our children under the authority & holiness of God! Not only was did she know how to spend time with each child daily, but she was a dedicated homeschooling Mother whom started "training" on the day of their 5th Birthday. She made sure they were well versed in English, Latin, Greek & possibly even French. She saw her daughters in the same light as God did, and therefore did what was a rarity in her day-she taught her daughters as well. {btw- I WANT THIS BOOK. Susanna Wesley- The Complete Writings}

Katarina Von Bora was Martin Luther's wife, the famed man of God who brought reformation to the Catholic Church. She was a run-away nun who set out to marry Luther. She was inspired by his piety and courage. She was an excellent manager of the home, and even turned part of their home, his old monastery into a hospital. She supported her Husband in his work from God, and was his constant encourager. Katarina upheld the finances & affairs of the family which helped Luther maintain his commitment and call to resound the true Gospel of Christ. Luther was often away on ministry tours & once both celibate, wrote of his marriage saying, "There is no bond on earth so sweet, nor any separation so bitter, as that which occurs in a good marriage." Luther had nicknamed Katarina, the "morningstar of Wittenberg", on behalf of her rising each morning at 4am, tending to her many wifely which included their lush gardens, orchards & livestock, which she would butcher herself.



So talking about these two fiery, well-versed ladies, my heart has been stirred even more to fulfill this holy calling that parenthood is! I could only hope that in reading my most recent post, this has put a desire in your heart for either yourself as a Mother & Wife, or for your beloved Wife to go higher.

{controversal faith}

You cannot love God if you do not have a fear of The Lord.

Those who do not know God, can not know the secrets of Heaven & Earth. It is only God who gives wisdom, worldly wisdom is false deception & a manipulation of the truth. Even if we were to tell the world the mysteries of God (1 Tim. 3:16), they could not believe it unless it is the Spirit that reveals it to them.(Matt 16:15-17, John 17:1-26)


{Psalm 25:14}
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, & He will show them his covenant.

{1 Corinthians 2:6-15}
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:

“ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

{Luke 23:34}
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

{Colossians 1:25-27}
...to fulfill the Word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles: which is Christ in you, the HOPE of glory.

{Ephesians 1:9}
Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure purposes to Himself.

What is the Mystery?
{1 Timothy 3:16}
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.

{Matthew 11:25}
At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.

{Matthew 16:23}
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

These are only just a very small amount of Scripture that talks about the Mysteries of God. I haven't even touched on the fear of The Lord. I mainly wanted to bring to the table that if you do not know the Lord, you can not know Him. Sounds repetitive I know, but now that you've read it, repeat it out loud. Now then, just think about it, the world claims all these horrible attributes of God, why? They don't know God. Well that's because of the fine example us as His Bride- the Church has made. Therefore we don't really know Him. Scary thing to claim, but I can confidently say that I truly don't know God. More than anything, this grieves my heart. But I know it's a passage from glory to glory, I do what I don't want to do & I don't do what I want to do, even though I so desperately desire to follow the voice of my Shepard! Thanks to Jesus, though we are all reconciled to God forever as Romans 5 says! This is a journey folks, & it's only by God's amazing grace that we are able to make it another minute.
So now with all that said, let's pray & diligently seek after His face while we still have time!(Isaiah 55:6)

{pregnancy & lots of 'em}

So if you're friends with me on facebook/twitter/blog, you would have known by now that Joshua & I have been trying to get pregnant for awhile. And Y-E-S, we see 5 months as awhile! A friend recommended this book to me, Supernatural Childbirth. It's pretty good, in the respects of encouraging prayer & bringing to light the power of words. Meaning this, Proverbs 18:21 says that in our words bring life or bring death, and Jackie & her Husband make the case that, if you or anyone has EVER spoken something over you about your body or about your future children, it needs to be brought before the Father & dealt with, saying that could be a possible reason for barrenness. I couldn't agree more. The book is a short read which is nice, but in all feel because of it's length, a bit lacking.

So don't laugh, buuuuuuut for the past few months, I've been scouring the net for the best baby registry. We feel God calling us into a healthier lifestyle & therefore will nurture our children with the same. i.e. mostly organic or natural based products/foods. We have a huge garden & have started to live life more frugal every since the move back to San Diego. I have a friend whose Mom has a textile business where she can virtually make anything involving fabrics/textiles by hand. Anything from curtains, baking mittens, maternity clothing to upholstery. So to say the very least, I am waaay stoked. So upon recently finding this wonderful bit of information out, I've decided that I am going to attempt to make all of our kids clothes. Bibs, cloth diapers, shirts, baby blankets, seriously everything! Also, we want our first pregnancy to be twins. We have friends whom have 1 child & seeing their zeal & deep desire for more, we just know that 1 baby for our first pregnancy isn't enough. So with that said, pray for us! God's timing is everything!

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
-Psalm 127:3-5

{soli deo gloria}

The Church says she's Pro-Life, but is she Pro-Child?

There are aproxiamtely 7,500 children in San Diego foster care right this moment. There are OVER 500 churches in SAN DIEGO County alone. If each church adopted only 15 kids, the San Diego foster care system would HAVE to close it's doors. We NEED to wake up and BE THE CHURCH to the people AS Christ IS to His Bride! This frusterates me sooo bad. People don't understand that the adoption & foster care system is a BLACK MARKET of buying and selling of kids. People respond with, " Oh, well that's just the way the system works." My response, "It is the way the world works, not God. When Jesus spoke of Heaven, He said it is FULL of children!(Matt. 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16) He also said, there are many rooms in His Father's house, and that He must go away to prepare rooms for us.(John 14:2) Another part of canon that is close to my heart is James 1:27, where it says, Pure & undefiled Religion IS this, to take care of Widows & Orphans, & to keep ourselves unspotted from this world. " Why does the Church need to wake up you may be asking yourself? Because God has fully and completely adopted us into His family. Where would we be without the love of the Father for whom He loved so much that He gave of His only Son to be our sin offering, so we could come into His Kingdom.

You may also be asking well what can you do?

• Pray, Pray, Pray
• Go here: Randy & Kelsey Bohlender, answer to the money problem
• Start foster parenting classes, if you go through Christian homestudy's, they are usually free-of-cost. (My Hubby & I went through Rancho Jireh Foster Care)
• If you decide to go through state care, instead of a private foster company, you will not recieve support or help in any way, because time costs the government money.

Don't worry if you feel you won't have the support of your friends or family, God will provide in whatever capacity He needs to in order to get His lost sheep out of the lion's den. If you have any questions, I would recommend contacting Randy or Kelsey Bohlender.