Wedding Bells Ahead :)

"Come, let's be a comfortable couple and take care of each other!
How glad we shall be, that we have somebody we are fond of always, to talk to and sit with." ;)
~Charles Dickens

This Saturday, December 11, 2010, will be the first wedding of in "Our Group"! Meredith Alexander has long been an inspiration to the young ladies in our circle who personally know her, and to many other young women around the world with her blog: Striving To Serve at Home.
The very first week our family began attending our home-church, it was the Alexander's last week there, and so I have not been able to get to know Meredith as well as I wish I could, however, I still look up to her as a shining example of what godly womanhood can be, and count her among the young women who inspire me and who I want to be like someday! :) Meredith chose to stay at home after graduating high school, but, contrary to what many would like to believe, she has had one of them most vibrant lives of any young woman I know! I cannot count how many times I have got on her blog and come away inspired and renewed by what I read. Most people, when they think of a "Stay at home daughter" conjure up some picture of knitting needles and freshly baked cookies, and someone playing the harp. (Not that I have a problem with any of those things! :) But Meredith has started numerous businesses, run a tractor service, baked cheesecakes for a tea house, and absolutely poured forth creativity, all the while choosing to live under her father's household during her single years! Meredith's devotion to the Lord, and her family, has been so encouraging to witness!
The amazing courtship story of Meredith and Stephen has been such a blessing to me, especially as I often wonder, "Is there *anyone* around for me?". Her story really shows God's amazing plan for our lives! Click here to read the story. I don't know about the other girls, but Meredith has been a bit of a celebrity in our midst! ;) I do feel like I have been watching a wonderful movie and finally, finally, the lovely Princess has found her Prince "once upon a time".

So tomorrow we are going up to their area to help with the wedding. Tomorrow the weekend of the Princess's bridal festivities will begin. Sleeping Beauty has been awakened, Cinderella has tried on the glass slipper, and since the Lord Jesus has been in every detail of their relationship so far, I have full confidence that Meredith and Stephen will live Happily Ever After. :) ~Rachel

Blocked For Glamour? Maybe After All! ;)

Recently, a friend of ours set up a website for her wedding. But Morgan Wilson told me on Sunday, that their computer blocked it for "glamour"! :P I found that so funny, and then thought, wow! I wonder if I'll ever qualify for a "glamour blockade"? ;)
Last night I was reading the latest issue of the Above Rubies magazine. As I do every time, I skim the articles, and then study the pictures of the families, seeing how many kids they have, what their ages are, how many girls, etc. And then I read about the young women who are being "Above Rubies helpers". These young women come to stay at Mrs. Nancy Campbell's home, and help with the ministry and magazine. Many of them are near my age. And it set me to thinking about two things. The first thought that entered my head was, "Oh wow. That would be really cool, to do something like that." And it does seem so....grand to be a Christian young woman and be an intern in some ministry like that, or do a missions trip for several months, or something equally interesting.
And then the second thought entered. "But you know, your life could sound like that." and was closely followed by, "Some girls are chosen to do the "glamorous" things!"
Often times, we young ladies spend too much time gazing pensively over the fence to the green grass on the other side. We see some girls in the certainly intriguing position of office helper to a well-known ministry, or some other such thing, and we begin to devalue the place God has prepared for us right now. I will admit, that as a young lady, telling someone: "I worked in the Above Rubies ministry the past 3 months" sounds a whole lot more....amazing than: "I spent my summer working in our home, working in our garden, and in our family business." And yet...is it so much more valuable? I beg leave to say that if your heart is right, it doesn't matter what you are doing- to Jesus, you will be an amazing success! Too many times I know I am guilty of understating the ministry the Lord has portioned for me, in lieu of wishing I was "one of those girls". Really, if I stopped and described my family as the intricate workplace it is, I'd be truly surprised. So here it goes: "I have spent my summer working in our family business as the office manager, learning to make my own clothes, preserving the harvest from the garden for the winter, hosting multiple families in our home, hosting church every Sunday, finishing my remaining school-work, editing a book I am hoping to publish very soon, and ministering in many other ways." That all is honest-to-goodness truth. The same summer I so blankly described before. When presented this way, suddenly my life appears almost as glamorous as those young ladies in the homeschool magazines! This may not sound quite so dainty as you may like to hear, but in speaking of the season the Lord has placed us each in, we can say with the assistant coach in "Facing the Giants", "It don't have to be perfect. It don't have to look pretty. It can look like a dyin' duck!"
But as long as our heart is in it, and our minds are focused on Christ, I have a feeling the glamour will no longer matter. So next time anyone asks you how you have spent your summer, try thinking of your life in Jesus' eyes, and I am certain you're description will sound amazing to your own ears as well as their's. :) -Rachel

A Few Thoughts

Hello! Recently I have been reading a book called "Preparing To Be A Helpmeet" by Debi Pearl. It has been a great encouragement to me, and renewed my vision for how I will use my single years. One thing that really stuck out to me, was the idea of using these years to learn and store up as many skills and as much information as you possibly can. The author stated that if God has plans for you to be a farmer's wife, you'd better learn how to make cheese and butter, plant a garden, and preserve food. If he has plans for you to be the wife of a man who loves to be hospitable, you had better learn to cook for alot of people on a shoestring budget. And since we don't know God's plans for us, it is advantageous to learn all of these things, for we never know when we might need them. I think of the verse in 2 Tim. 4 where it says "..Be ready in season and out of season." I may not think I'll ever need to know a certain skill I have an opportunity to learn, but you know what? It doesn't hurt to learn it in the "out of season" time, and keep that knowledge for "someday". Another thing that challenged me is this: I desire to marry a man of valour and godliness. A man with a very strong vision for his family and his walk with the Lord, and who is a true man. That is all a very noble idea, but it becomes a bit selfish if I am not now preparing to be the woman that such a man will need. And so that is something I am working on also. It would be dreadful to marry a wonderful man like that and let him discover later that I was ill-prepared for anything useful! (I'm not saying I am that way, but it is just a thought you know.) Even after I technically "graduate", I will focus even more on storing up knowledge. It is an exciting thought! It almost gives me the feeling of a race to see how well I can prepare and how much of a true godly woman I can become before my "Prince" comes to get me! :) -Rachel