Voices: You've Come a Long Way Baby!

Yes, we have come a long way, but you can go a long way in the wrong direction. I, personally, can't help but to think that is exactly what we have done.

Women wanted their "rights"! Over the last several decades we have demanded them, took them and even abused them.

Where has it gotten us?:

• Divorce rates have greatly increased
• We had virtues such as: chastity, virginity, and fidelity
• Very few children were born out of wedlock
• Abortion has been legalized and in some cases even paid for by our government
• Sexual addictions and STD's were uncommon

That is just to name a few! From that list it really doesn't sound like we have made our lives any better, but if you talk to a lot of people they would say that we have made progress! In some ways we have, but overall I am not sure it has been worth the price we have to pay now, or the price my children will have to pay.

Speaking of children! What precious gifts!!! Years ago they were seen as precious gifts, sometimes now (not always, but more so than 50 years ago) children are seen as an inconvenience. I, for one, am a "Stay-at-home" Mom! Someone said that I don't have a job and one of my children was quick to answer, "Yes she does!". I had to ask him what was my job, and he said keeping and teaching us. You see I am not only a mom that stays at home, I have chosen to home school my children. I love being with them and teaching them, and am very glad God entrusted me with them!

I believe that what most people believe true womanhood to be is a far cry from what God intended true womanhood to look like. I am not saying that if you have a job outside the home you can't be a true woman. I would never say that. As long as each of us are following God's direction for our lives and it is in accord with what the Bible teaches we are all capable of achieving true womanhood!

We all generally have a misconception of what will bring us happiness. We have tried so many things to fulfill our lives, but you see God has made us all (women and men) to have a void in our lives that only HE can fill. We try to fill it with money, people, things, power, and who knows what else... but none of those things will ever do. That void we feel is for God, and try as we may, it will never be filled by anyone or anything other than Him!

Regardless of who's wife you are, who's mom you are, who's daughter you are (on earth), you are a Child of God. He created you and will fill your every longing.

I don't have a problem with going a long way, but let's make sure we are going in the right direction!

Realizing I still have a long way to go,

Jennifer

Voices: From Him, Through Him, To Him

Romans 11:33-36 (ESV)
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might by repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen

Oh the depth of our Heavenly Father! And we as true women (and men) are doing well when we realize that the God we serve is bigger than us. We can't possibly know everything that He is doing and why, but we can trust that He is in control and He knows why He is doing what He is doing!

In each and every circumstance of our lives God is doing an amazing work. We don't know everything, but we do know that He has revealed to us exactly what we need to know! Nothing more, nothing less....

We don't understand God's plans sometimes, but how many times is it that through the very times we struggle to understand why we are going though hardships that we grow to know our Heavenly Father so much better!

True women (and men) trust God's definition of good and not their own and know that He can use the good the bad and the ugly of their pasts for His glory! Nothing is beyond what God can use for His glory!

Many times we stuggle with our past, but let us all remember that God allowed everything that come into our paths and He has a good purpose for each of us to fulfill through what we have experienced! As we move forward we need not to let our experiences shape us, but let us shape our experiences through God and His Word!

Since we are convinced that from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things - let us go our about our daily lives intentionally looking for opportunities to use what He has given us. We can know and trust that He is in control, everything is being filtered by him, and for His greater purpose will everything be used!

What a blessing that God, who is so much bigger than us, can use us, who are so small, to be a part of His Great Big Plan!

Working Humbly for Him!
-Jennifer :)

Voices: The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood

Every woman wants to be a "True Woman". Oh how often do we sell ourselves short in our estimation of what it takes to become a REAL WOMAN! We have tried to practically become men to be a true woman, and then on the opposite end of the spectrum we have tried to become so helpless that we can't hardly breathe for ourselves to be a true woman!

John Piper says in the book voices of the true woman movement that, "...true womanhood is a distinctive calling of God to display the glory of His Son in ways that would not be displayed if there were no womanhood." There are in fact differences between man and woman - we are very much equal but we were created to be different. Some aspects of God's glory couldn't be revealed without womanhood.

There are many women in the Bible that display true womanhood, these women are not wimpy, they are strong and courageous. These women are strong and courageous because they have good solid theology! Piper also says that, "Wimpy theology makes wimply women!" How true is that? We don't know what we believe, so we don't know how to act. When that is the case we are blown around like a ship at sea. We need to know what it is we actually believe and why we believe what we believe! Now that is what makes for a true woman.

She knows that she is created equal, but there are complemenatry differences that man and woman have! Not only do we not know what we are to be and do - we diminish who God is with our wimpy theology! Let's face it, with wimpy theology we have a wimpy God, and our God is not at all wimpy! He is big enough to handle all of lifes twists and turns and it is time that we give Him the credit He is due for being big enough and strong enough!

God created us with one purpose in mind - that is to display the fullness of the glory of His son! When we reduce womanhood to looks or sexuality we not only do not understand true womanhood, we don't understand God and we diminish the glory of Christ in our lives!

Let's grow in knowledge of the Lord and not be wimpy women (or men) with wimpy theology! After all it is who we are - and we can do what we are created to do when we come to know and be familiar with our Creator.

Growing in Him to be a True Woman!!!
Jennifer

Is it time for "Spring Cleaning"?

I have been Spring Cleaning my house and while doing so I have been reminded of something I wrote some months back, bear with me while I share it with you!

How many of our lives and houses are just ONE BIG MESS? I am going to use the illustration of our houses and compare it to our lives!

If you come over to my house (especially if I know that you are coming) it seems as though my house is well kept and everything in order and mostly free of clutter, and clean! For the most part the clean is true, but I can stack and hide junk with the best of them! To the eye it looks pleasing and orderly - it looks like I have it all together as far as keeping house goes! Oh there are cobwebs and dust on the hard to read places that get dusted every great once in a while, but that is normal, right?

What about my life, WOW - same scenario as my house! It looks like I have it all together down the the smile on my face! But it can look orderly, but just like in my house - I and only I know (well and of course my all knowing Heavenly Father knows too) where my stacks of junk and clutter are! We have a way of hiding those, and sometimes we are so good at hiding them - we even hide them from ourselves!

Those stacks of clutter or junk are the things we really don't know what to do with, and even if we do we don't want to do it! Am I alone here, or are you with me? Sometimes we'll run up on them and realize they're there, but we leave it because we don't want to deal with it and plus no one even knows they're there!

Sometimes some more of that same type of junk comes in our lives - you know what we do? Grab it and run it over to the respectful stack and let it grow even larger!

We have cobwebs and dust in our lives too. In those hard to reach places that take a lot of time and effort to reach. We allow them to get that way and remain that way because just getting to them is hard enough, not to mention cleaning them! What is it in your life? The "stacks" or the "cobwebs" - you know what they are: bitterness, unforgiveness, childhood hurts, betrayal, selfishness, laziness, immorality - the list could go on and on. Just think about it!

Oh our bodies are clean because of the blood of Jesus on the cross - just like our houses may be clean! But are we free of clutter and cobwebs?

Just like cleaning a house so it is with fixing our lives - tackle the clutter - one stack at a time, get to those cobwebs in the hard to reach places - then remember it is easier to constantly work to keep something in order that to have to reorganize and deep clean every once in a while.

Our God is a God of order and to be a useful tool for Him we have to have our lives in working order for Him! He is ready to tackle those hard to reach places with you and those "stacks" you have! Are you ready to make a difference in the world? You have to start by making a difference right now with yourself!

Like I said God is ready, and I know that you will not be disappointed in the outcome! It may be hard to deal with issues you have been ignoring, but dear friends so worth it! Spend some time with God in prayer and in His Word. Ask Him to reveal to you those places that could use some "Spring Cleaning"!!!

I wonder if our lives would be just like my house, in way more need of the cleaning and organizing that I thought!

With Much Love,
Jennifer

Reflections....

God is amazing. This time last year I was about to embark on a new adventure - the adventure of homeschooling my children! It is definitely a calling - a mission if you will. I was scared to death when I received the curriculm in the mail. I think that I could have sat down and cried over the books because I was so overwhelmed, and my kids were going into... well they were starting Kindergarten.

You have heard of the show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" Well I wondered, and I wasn't sure I was going to make it past K-5! Now here we sit at the last day of our first year of school and with the help of God it was a huge success. I set big goals for the boys (and myself) and we reached every one of them! Now I am excited about next year and can't wait to get the books in!

I have learned a lot in Kindergaten, really I have! It is amazing all the stuff I am catching this time around that I didn't get when I was in school myself. Just like life and God and the Bible - we learn something new and exciting everytime we open His Word, even if it is something we have read 100 times before. There is always a fresh Word from Him! It is there for our taking - we just have to pick it up and partake of the blessings!

I was reading the devotional that we read everyday at the start of school' and at the end of each devotion it has a info box about our amazing world. One in particular talked about the moon having no light of it's own. The moon was like a mirror and it reflected the sun's light. A profound thought crossed my mind and I thought, "Wow, we are just like the moon".

We have no light of our own - we are all mirrors and made to reflect the Son's light. We are supposed to be a display of His splendor (Isaiah 61:3) Regardless of what we reflect we are still mirrors. We are reflecting something, and I can think of nothing more awesome than to reflect the love, mercy, grace, hope, and salvation of Jesus Christ to others!

Reflecting,
Jennifer

Be Holy, because I am Holy!

What a thought. Speaking of thoughts, are our thoughts holy? What does it even mean to be holy? Jerry Bridges in "The Pursuit of Holiness" says, "To live a holy life, then, is to live a life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. It is to live a life characterized by the '[putting] off of your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires... and [putting] on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness' (Ephesians 4:22-24).".

Do we do try to do that? Do we even want to do that? We are a new creation in Christ Jesus - but why is it that we (myself included) want to be a new creation with old habits? We are indeed a new creation instantly with our bodies being a temple in which the Holy Spirit indwells, but the act of being holy is a continual process that we must take responsibility for!

It is the least we can do - it is our reasonable act of service to be holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). After all Christ DIED for us, can't we LIVE for Him?

Let us try it today - put off our old self, and put on the new!

Growing together,
Jennifer

Are We Impacting Our Culture Or Is Our Culture Impacting Us?

We are doing a family series at church. Part of it includes raising the next generation, and how it isn't just my responsibililty to only raise my children and you to raise yours. But as believers we have a joint responsibility to impact the children around us. The old saying: "it takes a village to raise a child", is true!

The culture is definitely making an impact on many many of those of us in the world and even in the church. Sadly, it's voice seems to be louder than most of the Christian's voices out there! I have written before about just taking a look around and we will see that there is much work to be done!

My heart has been breaking for our youth. They are surrounded with so many lies each and everyday. It is harder now for them than ever to take stands and do what is right. Where is the support and encouragement for doing right for them? Instead of encouraging they usually get made fun of, enticed more and just shunned. I hate it, it isn't right and even though it is an uphill battle I am trudging up the mountainside!

Jesus says in Luke 10:2 "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." There is an abudance of work to do, are you ready to join me in impacting a culture that is seeking to destroy us?

Working Together For His Glory,
Jennifer