Home is Beautiful

Check out my new blog, "Home is Beautiful"!

Here is an excerpt:

"Hello, my name is Kelsey. I am 19 years old. When I became a Christan almost four years ago, the Lord began to open my eyes, and teach me the things of true value. 'Home is Beautiful' is an expression of one of the things the Lord has made precious to me. If your interested in reading my story, you can read about it on my other blog, Freely Feminine. Other related posts on my change of heart are 'Hearts Turned to Fathers' , 'What Kind of Woman Shall I Be?' , and 'Feminism Unveiled'.

This blog is intended to be a sort of hope chest, a journal, and maybe a small resource of inspiration to young women and mother's who are home-keepers.


"That (the aged women) may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."

-Titus 2:4-5"


I am still planning to write on this blog as the Lord leads me. God bless you!

Dreams of a Home

I dream of a home.
I cannot honestly deny,
My sweet and gentle dreaming,
Attended with a sigh.
How delicately I paint it,
This little house, so fair,
But still, I tread it lightly,
Neither too much thought I dare.
A light and dancing hope,
To wispy for much use,
Yet, its little strain of life,
It does not quickly loose.

But a stronger dream still
Resides within my soul.
Tis one I'm not ashamed,
To let fill my heart up whole.
It is that my little home,
Whether cottage, hut, or tent,
Be in anothers eye, a mighty fortress strong
By which knees to Jesus are bent.
A refuge, a noble castle, seen with the eternal eye.
A victorious battleground,
Where enemies of the gospel die.
A small kingdom of honor and praise,
Directed toward our King.
A place where glory, and love are given voices to sing.
They will call it 'Triumph',
Jesus attaining it's name,
It's memory giving hope, to the spiritually lame.

Able to be quiet and still,
Able to rise up and fight.
Filled to the sky and bursting
With God's heavenly light.
It's knights, and noble maidens,
Resting at Jesus' feet,
Showing the world that is where,
Joy and the human soul meet.
The Dwelling of servant-warriors.
That's what I want it to be.
And I hope such you will find it,
If ever my home, do you see.

Miss Virginia

Recently, I went with my family and church group to a nursing home. It was the first time I had been in one since my Grandma died when I was 6. I smiled with awkward eagerness as they wheeled in a handful of 'grandmas and grandpas' to sing hymns with us, listen to a sermon, and visit.

I've read stories in the past about nursing homes, and how there is always that one woman there who is still so radiant, so in love with Jesus Christ, that you can't conceive an angel more beautiful. So, somewhere lingering in the back of my mind was an expectation to see her. I imagined she would have a multitude of Christ-following adventures to share, and her testimony would greatly strengthen my faith.

I did see her. But she was not the most beautiful one in the room. In fact, she was probably the least. Her face was greatly wrinkled and her teeth had almost all fallen out. She didn't open her mouth to speak forth the glories of Christ she had seen in her life. Her mind wasn't even entirely there, and she was easily confused, seeming to think her earthly father was coming to see her soon. Her name is Miss Virginia.

At first, Miss Virginia didn't capture my attention more than any of the others in the room, except that she seemed more tangible feeble than the others and I pitied her, and my mom was sitting next to her. She joined in the hymns with rest of us, and seemed to know them all by heart. But when all the children began to sing 'Jesus Loves Me', Miss Virginia began weeping. I looked over. She was absolutely bawling. My mom reached out and took her hand, her own eyes filling with tears. Somehow, even though she couldn't tell us, we all knew what she was weeping for.

Miss Virginia's life is nearly spent. I believe that Jesus Christ stands at her side, and is holding her hand, pointing into eternity, and with a smile, whispering "My child, that's for you!". With all the eagerness and trust of a child, she delights in it! You can see it in her eyes that her joy could not be doused, though all the forces of Hell were to rail against her! When the children began to sing, every tear she shed testified to the truth proved through her whole life, that truly, Jesus had loved and continues to love her. I could see dancing in every single tear that streamed down her cheek, the glorious jewels of Christ's faithfulness to her. And as the children sang, she was thinking of all the wonders that Jesus would do in each of their little lives, just as he had done in hers. The earthly testimony of her Lord's faithfulness in her own life is drawing to it's finish, and is therefore as great as any person living can boast. No one can take that from her. She is living in the time of life that people dread to think of, let alone live. The waning years of life seem so hopeless, that we avoid thinking of them if we can. But hers are radiant, because I believe that in her spirit, she is consumed with memories of her Lord. She is the most fragile woman I have ever seen in my life, and yet the most victorious. Truly Jesus Christ has overcome the world!

To tell you that Miss Virginia is beautiful would defeat my purpose. I cannot tell you that after all of this, that she was anymore physically beautiful than when I first saw her. But for the first time in my life, I believe I saw beyond beauty. In fact, in her weakness and slightness, I saw more to glory in than any human beauty I've ever seen. This life is so very short, today, I am a young woman, with strength and energy, tomorrow, it will be gone, and I will be an old woman. Not nearly as much as I imagine separates me from Miss Virginia. Someday, so much sooner than I could think, I will be like her, having the barrier between me and my most beloved Lord Jesus as thin as paper, and I will know, just one more push of the paper, just a few more breaths separate me from eternity with Him! If Miss Virginia could speak clearly to us, I believe she would tell us of the unspeakable rapture of the soul when that glorious sight is finally in view! May we never allow our youth and any beauty that testifies to it, to shade and hinder that glory in our minds.

Let youth fade and beauty flee,
Only let me draw nearer to eternity.
Hinder me not, trouble and strife,
As though weighty in this brief life.
My dawn draws near, the night is near spent.
Oh dust, receive back the little you lent.
To the glorious heavens quickly I go,
How mighty the land I henceforth shall know,
And if lingered a thought of the life that I leave,
It dropped when I saw Him, arms open to receive!!!!!!

Princess of Princesses

When I was little, I saw a hot pink bumper sticker that read “What Part of Princess Do You Not Understand?”. You might as well have stuck it to my forehead. Ask any of my family or childhood friends, and they will tell you that I embodied that statement. After all, I was a princess! It was my right to dress adorably, have first pick of everything, be considered faultless on all occasions, and be the unchallenged center of attention. And wasn't it my duty to share my “wisdom” and “advise” (and trust me, I had a lot!) with anyone I saw needed it? I imagined that everyone saw me the way I saw myself: a beautiful, generous and benevolent princess. ;)

Fast forward a few years, and I can now look back at my royal fallacies with a fond shake of the head and an embarrassed chuckle. But recently they have struck me as more than an amusing child's daydream, but as a root of selfishness that has continued far longer than I suspected.

Christian young women are often told that they are princesses, because they are the daughters of the King of Kings. That seems logical. It also seems to identify with the deep need within us to be a princess. We all want to be beautiful, we want to have fine things, and most of all, we want to have someone to selflessly love and adore us, some one who would charge the mighty dragon, considering us worth every wound and scar, if only they might obtain us as their treasure. These things in the physical can be good, and our heavenly Father delights to give us good things, but these things in an earthly sense pale in comparison to these things in a spiritual sense. I want to be beautiful, Christ within me can make me beautiful. I want fine things; what better things can I obtain than the things of heaven? And I know that it is God's pattern for my husband to courageously love me as a knight does a maiden because Jesus Christ himself laid the foundation, doing all these things for me. It's not wrong to want to be a princess. But I see an attitude rising up unchecked in Christian young women. I call it the “Princess of Princesses Syndrome”, and I have it too.

There are two kinds of princesses in stories: First, there is the humble, sweet princess, who always looks around her, feeling it is an honor and a privilege to care for the needs of others. She has a decorum and duty that she soberly feels and seeks to accomplish at all times. In sharp contrast, there is the second kind of princess. This princess is just as beautiful as the first, but she views her position through the lens of entitlement rather than responsibility. The world is there to serve her, to make her feel more beautiful, more special, more anything she craves at the moment. She is selfish and cranky, a constant drain on those around her, and yet she never knows a bit of it. In fact, in order to keep comfortable, she mentally turns all the complaints of those she is hurting into the big, bad dragon that her prince will save her from. Poor, poor princess, she has no more obtained the beauty and love she craves than the dragon itself.

Maybe you've heard the feminist phrase, “I am Woman, Hear Me Roar!”. I'm afraid that all to often, we cry “I am Princess, Hear Me Roar!”. Now I believe we are to be princesses. But not in that others are forced to feel it. I have seen many times in young women, and catch frequently in myself, that we desire so much to be a princess, that we think all about us must feel it in order for it to be so. “You can't treat me that way, I'm a princess!”, I proclaim teasingly (or sometimes not so teasingly) to my 15 year old brother, only to go away and realize, to my horror, than rather than uphold God's pattern of how we should treat one another, as I thought my assertion did, I was placing myself in His throne! Why do we treat each other with honor and decorum? Why are we to be gentlemen and ladies to one another? It is to glorify Christ. And He is only glorified when self is denied. He called me to deny myself, take up my cross and follow him. Was it denying myself to tell my brother how or how not to treat me? I had told myself that I was just helping him to become a Christ-like gentleman. But what was uppermost in my mind was how he was going to treat me. If I wanted to express true selflessness, Jesus showed me, I will encourage my brother to be chivalrous, but in the interest of others, not myself.

My adoptive father is the King of Kings, and I am His daughter, but I am not his only daughter. I must wish that my Father be honored and delighted in me, rather than being delighted in myself, and He is delighted when I lose sight of myself and look instead to my fellow princesses and princes, seeing how I can honor them, and then look to the broken, poor and hungry beyond the castle gate, and with the humility of Christ, go among them as a servant.

Philippians 2:3-7

“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant...”

This “Princess of Princesses Syndrome” is nothing new. It's just another bud on the tree of selfishness. And praise God, Jesus is an expert at dealing with selfishness. He was is the true heroic knight, and He will, and has, saved us from the wicked dragon of self, that we might become, for His sake, humble, servant-hearted princesses. All glory be to him forever and ever!

Art Katz: And They Crucified Him

http://www.youtube.com/user/setapartlife

Stop Dating Jesus

Isaiah 54:5

"For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called."

True Love. Art, music, and literature testifies that from the beginning of time, mankind had dreamed of true love. From Romeo and Juliet to Pride and Prejudice, we never cease to be enthralled with it. We can envision the concept in a moment: a knight in shinning armor steps out onto the battle field to protect his love, the one maiden in all the land that can captivate his heart. Just thinking about it can stir us deeply and with this in mind, we feel we have the strength to stay out of the dating game and wait for courtship, walking around with a secret delight. There is nothing wrong with that, but how often do we apply this only to our earthly romances? Don't many of us try and just date Jesus?

How many times can our opinions on dating go out the window when it comes to Jesus? It's not like we don't want a relationship with him, we do! We realize that spiritually, he is all we want in a husband, but we still want to be free to date around and see other people. We want to be able to "date" movies, popularity, and other friendships at our leisure. We don't want to be married to Jesus, because then we have to fully pledge our life to him. No husband would be happy if his wife dated around, even if it was casual "friend" dates, and rightly so. So, to keep control of our life and our time, we are content to merely date Jesus.

But he's not content just to date us!

Jesus wants to be our all in all, he wants to be the sole desire of our heart. He died for us and gave all he had for us. How many of us would be happy if we did all that for someone, and in return, they only gave us a tiny corner of their heart? It brings to mind Revelations 3:15-16, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold or hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

James 4:4
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

If we think we can date Jesus and our own interests without any problem, we live in an illusion, our Lord will not tolerate other lovers. Like a groom, Jesus waits for a Bride that will live solely for Him. But who are we that we think that the Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of the whole universe, would be content to sit like a dog at our feet, gratefully taking the left-over crumbs of our life? Do we have no sense of who we are and who he is? The Psalmist understood when he said in Psalm 84:10, "...I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." That is the miracle of it. We would be receiving far more than we deserve the be an unnoticed servant, but our Lord has made a way for us to come into his presence, to be his bride, imparted with his very being and changed from our filthy rags to spotless, without blemish, beautiful in the sight of a holy God! It is the greatest love story that could ever be! It is time that we, as the church and individuals, become discontent with just calling Jesus our Lord and Husband. We must desire that it becomes reality in each one of our lives. We must be willing with a repentant heart to joyfully lay down all lovers but Jesus Christ. All glory be to him forever and ever!

Leslie Ludy: Reviving Etiquette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce6GUsK1EAs