What NOT to Wear...

She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.  She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. 

Proverbs 31:21-22

This excellent wife is prepared for winter.  And why shouldn't she be?  It comes at the same time every year.  God is a God of order and he has placed seasons for us.  We have time to prepare for winter, but we have to act. I also think this wife has placed a certain, undeniable trust in her Lord.  Winters are brutal.  More so are spiritual winters or droughts.  We ought to prepare our hearts and souls for those cold, spiritual warfare days, when depression has the tendency to set in, with the word of God hidden in our heart, putting on the full armor.  We know those days will come, just as we can expect the first frost to hit the ground; so we must prepare, stock up, buckle down, be ready.   Let us not fear the winters of this earth and of our hearts, knowing that the Lord has given us everything we need, we only need use these resources.

Ms. "Perfect" also seems to dress nicely.  Though, it is proof in these verses that is not where she places her value.  Like I alluded to above,  God is a God of order, we ought to dress ourselves nice and neatly to the glory of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31  makes that clear.  God is also a beautiful artist, he's the great coordinator.  My cousin mentioned this to me once after a trip to the zoo with the kids.  She said if you walk through the reptile house, you will see the most beautiful coordination of colors- things we often copy on our clothes.  And why shouldn't we?  God is the God of beauty. I've been blessed tremendously each time I consider my Lord and my husband when I put together an outfit.  

So let us prepare our homes and our hearts for the impending winters we will face and let us dress ourselves well, not richly, for the glory of God and the joy of our husbands!  

Disclaimer:  This is not me telling you to go out shopping, so don't blame me, but this is me telling us to go read our bibles and spend time in prayer! I can tell you it is lots of fun to dig through your closet and put together outfits you normally wouldn't put together.  Go google some reptiles images and have fun! 

Be Intentional

This is the greatest advice I can give myself.  I have found much joy and much contentment in the last few weeks by purposing to be intentional in everything I do.  What are my intentions, you might ask?  To glorify God.  Wow, Sunday School answer, right?  Wrong!  I have a terrible habit of meandering through life half awake, blindly doing menial tasks with no purpose other than the fact that they need to be done.  I am guilty of not taking pride in my roles, and when I do take pride in them, it's the selfish, self-exaltation kind of pride- the kind the God of heaven abhors.  Not the pride a blood-bought redeemed child of God ought to take in serving others and serving her Lord- so that others will glorify my Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).  So, I have tried very hard lately to not just do what I have to do because it needs to be done, but do it all as unto the Lord. (Colossians 3:17 & 23, 1 Corinthians 10:31)  Scripture doesn't suggest this principle, it commands it!

I have awakened to a joy in doing what I was made to do.  Not just as a human: to glorify God.  But as a wife: to serve my husband, to be his helper, to submit and trust him, as he submits and trusts our Lord; and as a mother: teaching Dylan about the Lord, homeschooling her, caring for Lennox; as an employee: serving my family, my father- who is my employer; as servant of God's Church and even very important as one who keeps a home organized and resourceful. 
When I know these are my God-given roles to fulfill and I am either being a false witness of His grace in me or I am being a purposeful servant of the Lord- it matters greatly!  If I will only begin a task with the mindset, "What I do matters greatly today- it matters to the Lord where my heart is when I complete this task and when I do this I am bearing His name,"- I can find great joy and contentment in even the smallest thing!  Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?

 So, why then, is it so easy to fall back into walking my blind little circles, just milling around completing tasks (or sometimes not even completing them!!)? It's. That. One. Word. Sin. Sin. Sin.  My old nature likes to fight hardily with my new identity.  We will fight this fight until we are with the Lord in glory.  I can not wait for that day!  In the mean time, being mindful, intentional and being self-aware and brutally honest with myself- that I can easily fall into that rut- is the best way for me to fight. I have written about the same thing here. I can't kid myself- and neither can you.  We have to be on guard against the ease of sin, the ease of idleness, and the ease of letting ourselves run on auto-pilot.  I think we can soundly say that if we are meditating on God's Word, meeting with him regularly in prayer, and surrounding ourselves with brothers and sisters that would spur us on to good works (Hebrews 10:24-25), and actually listening and taking care to meet the needs of others- as in our spouses and being careful to seek out ways to serve those in our body and in our community, we can beat this thing with the strength and power of the Spirit that lives in us.  This is the God of the universe- he made me, and he deserves to be the center of everything I do.  I am purposing the make that the truth in my life.  How about you?

Do you support Planned Parenthood?

Do you support Planned Parenthood? Maybe you should read this before you answer…

The following excerpts are taken from a book which brings out all of the core ideas at the roots of each of the 3 waves of feminism and firmly refutes them with the Scriptures. Radical Womanhood by: Carolyn McCulley Do not think for one minute these ideas or variations of the same have not crept into the church or modern day Christianity. When a large family walks into your church, do you rejoice in the full quiver that God has so graciously blessed the parents with, or do you gasp and recoil at the burden "that poor woman" must bear?

Margaret Sanger was the founder of the modern birth control movement and a vocal proponent of eugenics-the theory of race improvement that was at the cornerstone of Nazi Germany. Sanger believed that all evils stemmed from large families, especially large families she deemed as unfit. As she wrote in her 1920 book Woman and the New Race, “The most merciful thing that a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill.”

In 1921, Sanger organized the American Birth Control League, which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Sanger founded the birth control movement on two goals: limiting the reproduction of the “unfit” and challenging Christian teaching by creating a “new morality.” She campaigned against women breeding “those numberless, undesired children who become the clogs and the destroyers of civilization.”

…Sanger was so confident about the fruits of birth control and abortion and the new race that she predicted exactly the opposite of what came to pass:

“When motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race. There will be no killing of babies in the womb by abortion, nor through neglect in foundling homes, nor will there be infanticide… When the last fetter falls the evils that have resulted from the suppression of woman’s will to freedom will pass. Child slavery, prostitution, feeblemindedness, physical deterioration, hunger, oppression and war will disappear from the earth…”

She was utterly wrong in her account of what she believed would be the “fruits” of birth control and abortion. She failed to take into account that it was not an unborn child’s fault that these things were happening, some she deemed unworthy of life did not hold the sole responsibility for these issues. The heart of these problems were sin, they still are sin, and abortion and separating sex and marriage are sin, not a way to correct these “social issues” she abhorred. Her words still ring in my ears as I type this. Especially her inaccurate account of which I will quote to you now:

“… There will come a Plato who will be understood, a Socrates who will drink no hemlock, and a Jesus who will not die upon the cross…”

I could barely type those words. We know as Christians that there is only one Redeemer of man, there is only one way to cover the sins of God’s children, and that one way alone is by the blood of the cross. Sanger’s view was that the consequences of sin would disappear if we could only allow women freedom from “religious” guilt to engage in sex without the restraint of marriage and without the fear of pregnancy and if it ended up happening anyway, it could be done away with so as to purify the human race and end the drain that “unfit and unwanted” children are on society. We know that sinful man will always produce sinful man. God is the only one who can grant life, both physically and spiritually.

May we always seek to have our worldview come from the Bible alone and may we seek to part more and more each day from the schemes and fallacies of the world.

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4

I would rather spend the rest of my days on earth as an enemy of the world than to spend all eternity as an enemy of God.

10 Reasons I love the church God has placed me in...

10. Godly Examples: I have so many examples of godly wives and mothers around me; women doing what they are called to do in Titus 2. My husband has a great group of godly men to surround himself with that strive to fulfill their roles as husbands in Ephesians 5.

9. My daughter has a wonderful group of children that I know and love to play with. I don't have to wonder about their parent's beliefs, question their home-lives and hope she is surrounded by at least a mediocre example of a biblical family. I know their home lives, I know their values and I know that they don't separate Sunday morning from the rest of their lives.

8. My pastor's wife: I love her, she's a great friend and dear sister to me, and I have never known a more godly example of biblical submission and meekness (controlled strength) in a woman as young as her. The beauty of the love for her husband makes me want to be a better wife to mine.

7. Fellowship: I know that lots of churches get together to "fellowship" and never speak of their Lord. Well, I have had more rewarding conversations in the last year with my dear brothers and sisters in Christ than I have had in a long time. And though we joke around are get silly, we do glory our in Redeemer and can't help but speak of Him.

6. A Desire for Holiness: For the most part there is a large group in our church that has decidedly began to strive for holiness. Through our own personal studies and through the teaching of our pastor, we have grown to know the Lord in such a way that we long to know Him more and long to do what pleases Him; Men who desire to be holy in all their conduct, mortifying the deeds of the flesh, loving their wives as Christ loves the church, and being both prophet and priest in their homes. Women who desire to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord and children who would strive to honor their father and mother.

5. My Pastor: He loves the Lord and you can see it in his life. You could come by his home unannounced and see that what he preaches on Sundays is what he strives to live out for the glory of God the rest of the week. He is a dear friend and loves to have fun, and is out to prove that Christianity isn't boring. He desires to rightly divide the Word of God and pours over the Scripture each week to ensure that he is able to do so. He loves the church and does his best to protect her from all ungodliness and understands the weight of his calling to keep guard over our souls. (Plug: Pray for your Pastor!)

4. Teaching and Application: Not only does our Pastor do a great job of teaching and urging the body of believers to learn and apply all that is in Scripture, but we have other men who use their gifts of teaching to do the same. We have women in our church that strive to teach the younger women in all godliness. We have fathers that do what they are called to do in teaching and raising their children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I am thankful that teaching is held in such high regard in this body.

3. Balance: We understand that we are to be ever-reforming. We understand that God is sanctifying Himself a people. But it is our greatest challenge in holding doctrine so highly that we do not go off into idolatry of doctrine and practices. I pray that we would continue to have balance and to remember the first things first: "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto You. Matt. 6:33"

2. Truth: It is held in high regard here. We know who provides absolute truth and we understand the inerrancy of the Word and we do our best to apply these truths to our lives and pray that the Spirit would teach us all things. In a world where truth is relative, it is a wonderful solace to find a place that regards highly a word of Truth.

And the number 1 reason I love my church:

1. She's the bride of Christ and He holds her more precious to Himself than the apple of His eye, how could I not love her if I desire to be like my Lord?

Being washed by the Word...

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." Ephesians 5:25-27

I just had to devote an entry in this blog to my husband. I am so thankful to God for providing me with this man that takes seriously his high calling by God. When I see Jim's love for service and devotion to the Lord, it stirs my heart to love and serve my Lord more. I know I would not be where I am today apart from God's sovereign hand bringing Jim and I together. He desires righteousness and seeks humility, two things a man would never seek apart from the Spirit's miraculous work in resurrecting dead flesh.

He seeks to wash his wife with the water of the Word. I can glory in the fact that the Word of God is spoken in our home. I am thankful to the Lord for Jim's willingness to teach both myself and Dylan the precepts of God. Prayers are uttered in our home, always together as a family, and I know countless ones are petitioned for us by our leader before we even arise from slumber. For that, I am thankful.

Jim serves me when I don't ever deserve to be served. He loves me when I am unlovable and he makes me want to be a better Christian, a better wife, and a better mother, by never even speaking a word. But, when he needs to firmly, but lovingly reprove me, he does, and for that I am thankful.

He is a man of integrity; a man of his word. Psalm 1 comes to mind as I make this point.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day an night" Psalm 1:1-2

I have seen Jim grow so much over the years of our marriage that I could not now or ever deny the power of God. He seeks to be true and good because he loves Jesus and would never want to defame his name by bearing it. I pray that if God grants us sons, this is what they will learn from him. ("A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches..." Proverbs 22:1) He is a man of action, if you want something to get done, all you have to do is set Jim loose on it! I so value his work ethic and his servant's heart. I pray that my sanctification would continue in this area, I would desire for Proverbs 31:12 & 23 to be true of me towards my husband:

"She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life...Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land." Proverbs 31:12 * 23

Jim didn't like people so much before God redeemed him. Not at all, really. But, God saved him and now he is a deacon, which is a completely different role than he would have ever wanted to be in prior to conversion! Serving people? Jim loves his Lord's bride and seeks to honor her, protect her and build her up. His heart's desire is to serve the body of Christ. Now, I can tell you Jim was born to be a deacon. I am thankful that he takes his role in the church seriously and that he loves to do what he does.

I know wholeheartedly that God supplies our every need, and I see how true it is in the husband He ordained me to be with before the foundation of the world. I also know that by Jim teaching Dylan by Scripture and by his life what a godly man is like and by God's hand moving in her life, if it be His will, she will seek to honor her Lord by marrying a man with the same qualities as her father.

Gracious Lord, may you continue to sanctify my husband and all the men of your church to be examples of who real men are, what they do and whom they serve. May the men of the church of this age rise up and lead their wives and families and wash them with the water of the Word. And may we as women, humbly submit to the authority of our husbands, and be more precious than jewels to them, and may our submission and obedience cause our men to be known at the gates. Amen.

A Carlson Update...

Well, Tyler, this one's for you, and well for anyone else thinking what Tyler was only brave enough to say! I can write and update on our family and write of spiritual things simultaniously, because that is how we ought to live. We MUST look into our lives and see God so intermingled within every aspect of them, and if we do not see this, we are not truly living a life consecrated to Him.
You asked for it Mr. Looper! Here are some pictures of us over the last month or so and an update us in general and then more specifically, our quest to enlarge our family...

God desires that we walk in His statutes and all of His promises are true. We have lived in Fort Worth since we were married in 2003 in the wonderful home that my grandfather built in 1952. My father grew up there, I did, and then my parents graciously gave us that home in which to start our own family. Without the provision of God and giving heart of my parents, I do not know where Jim and I would be today. We lived our lives as singles believing the lies the world taught us about money, and we also had begun to carry those beliefs into our marriage. We were in sinning with our money. We were in debt on stuff we didn't need, we were not tithing regularly, and we were living beyond our means, and also not saving. All of these excerises are sin based on the principles of Scripture. God really convicted Jim and myself of these sins, and our merciful Lord granted us repentance. We began studying the bible on these subjects, we started studying Christian financial principles by different teachers and most importantly we began to apply the truths of the Scriptures to our hearts and our lives. We put into action what we had learned. We became "doers of the Word" not just hearers. It has been hard work, it takes lots of prayer and discipline, and we could not have succeeded without the power of God enabling us to do so. We were once in debt to many for things we did not need. We began paying bills one by one, until they were all but gone. We put our old home on the market, and we were able to sell it and purchase a new home within a 6 week time frame. The "old" us would have had all the debt we accrued before and then also a new home payment along with it. But God taught us patience and endurance, and delayed gratification. Thank you, Lord, for that. Our desires were to be able to move into the same town in which our church buidling resides, so that we would live within the community in which we minister and to live closer to family, friends, and our family business. The Lord has graciously provided. His ways are right and true, and if we would have gone about getting our desires on our own we would have failed and we would be in opposition to God's precepts and His will.
Just look at what Psalm 37:3-6 says,"Trust in the Lord , and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord , and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord ; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday."

We have seen the truth in that lived out in our lives. I praise God for giving us strength to obey and eyes to see what is unseen. God gave us the desires of our heart BECAUSE we took delight in Him, and because we delight in Him our desires change from worldly desires into desiring God's will. When your delight is in the Lord, your desires change into godly ones.

So, in June 2008, we moved into our new home just 8 minutes from church! It has been a wonderful blessing. Our wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ were so helpful in moving and painting. They are awesome. God's bride is beautiful and growing ever more precious in our sight. We love them and do not know what we would do without them. We are a body and Christ is our head.

We began homeschooling Dylan over the course of the past year. It has been a tremendous blessing already, in that we are able to bring Dylan to the office with us. The uniqueness of my situation allows me to fulfill my wifely duties as keeper of the home, as well as being an industrious wife (both of which are described in Proverbs 31) who helps in making our family business a successful one. Dylan has a classroom area at the office and we greatly enjoy it. We have a bible time, then I am teaching her to read using a great resource called Teach your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons by: Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox , and Elaine Bruner. We are on lesson 23 currently and Dylan can read some simple words. We are teaching her that the most important reason to learn to read is so that we may read God's Word. We are reading some abridged classics as well. We will move onto unabridged when she's a little older, at 3 1/2 years it is a little hard. We just started Black Beauty today and we recently finished Heidi. I recently reduced my work week to 4 days and it has already proven productive. Dylan and I are able to spend some great time together and I am able to teach her to do things around the house. She helps me throughout the week as well, but this seems to be our own special time together. We are able to get things done on Friday that allow us to spend our Saturdays and Sundays with Daddy. We will surely use some upcoming Fridays for "field trips". It has been a joy to take part in educating my child. I know that God calls us to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and I pray that as parents we will always take that seriously. As for us, the best way we can do that as a family personally, is to homeschool our child. I am so thankful to the Lord for giving us the unique opportunity to do what we are doing. I am also thankful to my father for providing us ways in which to do so and also catching the same vision as he sees His Lord raising up a godly heritage within his family.

Most of you either know by knowing us or by reading this blog that we have a desire to have more children, but the Lord has not yet granted our petition. We went through 2 miscarriages before we had Dylan and then 2 more after Dylan in late 2007 and early 2008. But most of you do not know we just had another loss that we did not even know about until it was too late. I had an appointment with a new doctor and we have some new treatment options. I have a blood clotting disorder that did not know about until May 2008 and I also have an issue with egg development and hormones. So there are many new medications that are out there to treat these disorders that will hopefully prevent further losses. I would not trade my miscarriages and heartache for anything. I believe my Lord knows best and I believe what 1 Peter chapter 1 says is true. I know that God addresses each one of His children's sanctifcation personally. He gives us various trials so that our faith can be purified. I love my God for that. He does not react to situations, He brings them about. When you are a child of God, there are no accidents and no tragedies. He is Truth and His Words are truth and as a believer, we ought to quietly rest in His sovereignty. I know that without His Spirit it would be utterly impossible to make those statements, so I am thankful He's given Him to us. We still hurt when these things come about, but we also rejoice! We give a testimony about our Lord, we can't help but speak of Him, we can not help but tell others of how He is working in our lives. Well it is most easy to thank the Lord when things go our way, but it is a much more beautiful testimony to sing praises to Him when they don't. Your words seem to have more weight and more richness, and more belief about them when you speak sweetly of Him when things are not all right. Trials are an opportunity to know Him more, praise Him more, and love Him more. Children are always closer and more dependent on their father when they are humbled into KNOWING they need him. Let us not forget in times of plenty that we need Him just as much as in times of want. Do not cry out to God to take this cup from you for your comfort, for He may be giving you this cup so that you may ask for more of Him.

Prayer Requests for us: That no matter what, our focus would not be turned from Christ; that I would not desire more children above my Lord and my desire and petition would be that of Hannah's in 1 Samuel 1 & 2 and that I would not just give sacrifices of praise back to God for granting my desire, but that I would give my children to the Lord fully and wholly. And if the Lord chooses not to grant us more children, that I would praise Him all the more.

I pray that our testimony and update will be a blessing to you, reader, and that you would continue to grow in your love of your Lord and that you will follow Him with all you have. But most importantly, I pray that each of us knows that nothing is more important than to give God the glory that He is due.

12 Things you should NOT do to your husband By: Camilia Brown

For all of us ladies, it is an every day struggle against the body of death we were born into and society's feminine movement does nothing to help us wage the war. Our ever present help is our loving and patient God and we must look to him to help us fight this war.

"A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones." (Proverbs 12:4)

Read at your own Risk!

"Things You Should Not Do To Your Husband.” By: Camilia Brown

1. DO NOT treat your husband as one of your children. You are not running the household, he is. So no matter how busy you think you are or how many tasks you might have to perform at once you should not address your husband in this way: “Honey come here! Do this! Hold that! Grab this! Deal with this or that!” Now I am all for asking our husbands for help when he is available to give it, but bossing him around is not becoming of a wife. We must conduct ourselves as his help meet and not treat him as if the reverse were true.

2. DO NOT act as if you are more spiritual than he is. I honestly have a hard time with women who act as if they are the spiritual leaders of their family; as if they are doing all the spiritual reformation in the family while their husbands are busy with other pursuits and just tag along with regard to spiritual matters. We’ve all heard women say things like: “Well God told me this is the best for our family so I had to take the decision, because my husband is not there yet... I am praying for him though!” Even if it were true that a woman might be more spiritual than her husband, this attitude is a usurpation of the authority that God has given the family. There is never room for this kind of behavior in a Christian home. Honestly, my thoughts are that women who set themselves up as spiritual gurus in the family and brag of being more spiritual or knowledgeable than anyone else have proved themselves to be the contrary.

3. DO NOT talk over him and in a gathering DO NOT talk more than he does. If he doesn’t talk much than talk even less. It is just not becoming to women to do all the talking as if they speak for the family.

4. DO NOT complain about him to others. Don’t make him look foolish in front of anyone and don’t talk about his weaknesses to anyone.

5. DO NOT compare him with other men. You married an individual with different qualities, different style and vision. He is not like anyone else. He is the man that God has given you the task of loving and serving, and you should consider it an honor to be able to carry out that duty. Note to unmarried ladies: Make a list with the qualities a future husband MUST have to avoid your being totally dissatisfied. If it was not that important before you got married don’t nag him or be dissatisfied about it after you get married.

6. DO NOT nag him continuously about a matter. Did you hear the expression? DRIP! DRIP! DRIP!? I don’t like it when the children come even close to being drips, so I am sure no husband would appreciate it either.

7. DO NOT make him feel he doesn’t measure up to your expectations. Encourage, don’t criticize and most important...be content!

8. DO NOT be afraid to bring to his attention sins that he should deal with or concerns that you might have in regard to his conduct. It is a wife’s duty to encourage her husband in his spiritual growth. While it is not the wife’s duty to assume the role of her husband’s conscience, she is the closest to him and can encourage him grow in ways that others cannot. Our husbands must trust that we are help meets to them and that we are honest and sober minded in our reproof.

9. DO NOT always speak your mind. This doesn’t mean we should not have an opinion, but most of the time it is better to hold our tongues rather than “state the facts.” Choose your words carefully in soberness, patience, and love. This does not mean that it is wrong to be open with your husband about your concerns or being honest when he asks our opinion. There is a greater respect and trust that your husband will show toward your opinion when you find this balance.

10. DO NOT seek out parallel lives with him. Become acquainted with whatever job he does and get involved if possible, even if by just listening to him talk about it. Don’t think about your husband’s pursuits in terms of: HIS career, HIS hobbies, HIS this, or HIS that. I hear women say: “Well he is busy with his pursuits and I with the children.” Yes we have different roles but we work together towards the same goal: to Glorify God in every area of our lives. You can’t be a proper help meet for your husband if you are not involved in everything he is doing whether you are interested or not.

11. DO NOT become too busy to listen to him or do things for him. When you start to have lots of children it can become really easy to do this, but remember you are made to be a help meet for him.

12. DO NOT let your appearance go because you have married him now. Make yourself pretty for him. Yes he loves you no matter what, but you made sure that you showed him that you care enough to look nice for him before you were married, you should care more, not less, after he actually becomes your husband. It is not a matter of keeping his affections, but rather continuing to give him all that we have to offer. 5 minutes a day is all it takes.

"I have made my share of mistakes and still do. Many of them are listed above. I am still a work in progress, so please don’t take this to mean that I think I have arrived. I thought listing a few resolutions and observations, may be helpful to someone else." -Camilia Brown