September 6, 2010 | Author: Stacy McDonald

Today, I read a review of Passionate Housewives, the book I co-authored with Jennie Chancey; and, I breathed a sigh of relief. Since writing our book, Jennie and I have read numerous reviews and received hundreds of emails from readers testifying to the fact that God is using Passionate Housewives to remind Believers of the beauty and magnitude of a woman’s role in the home. However, it is certainly not without its detractors.

Having been misrepresented at times, it was especially refreshing to read the following review by Robin Phillips, a man who seemed to not only grasp the “heart” of our book; but was also able to expound upon it so powerfully. (more…)

Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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September 5, 2010 | Author: Tiffany

At church on Sunday morning, one of our elders, while giving his sermon, asked if there were any little children who would like to come up to the front of the church and tell everyone something they know about God. Getting up in front of our large church and speaking would be scary enough as an adult, considering the nearly 1,000 people present at any given Sunday morning late service, but I couldn’t imagine how intimidating everything would be to a small child.

But, sure enough, even though most children were off in Sunday school or the other church programs, one six-year-old boy was present and eager to speak. He took the microphone and immediately began quoting a passage from the book of Isaiah.

As he went on and on, flawlessly repeating and barely stopping to take a breath, the audience was silenced and almost dumbstruck. I knew what they were thinking–what we all were thinking. We underestimate the capacities of our children.
(more…)

Category: Education, Training Children | No Comments »
Tags: children, Education, scripture

September 5, 2010 | Author: bravelass

On Friday the 13th of this year, the FDA approved a new abortion drug to be marketed under the name “ella.” Now there may be protests at my labeling it an abortion drug, but I do so deliberately and with solid evidence. [Not for young readers.] (more…)

Category: Hot-Button Issues | 1 Comment »
Tags: abortion, birth control, Planned Parenthood

September 5, 2010 | Author: Robin Smith

Editor’s note: All too often, stay-at-home motherhood is held up as a luxury for upper middle-class families, something that is a privilege rather than a God-given right. Single mothers are told to get a job, put the kids in day care, and forget about enjoying such a “luxury.” Sadly, this attitude is even commonplace in the church, which should know better. After all, helping widows and orphans in their distress is what Scripture calls “pure religion, undefiled” (James 1:27). Single mother Robin Smith has stepped up to the plate in a way that puts the rest of us to shame. May we be spurred on to help the abandoned and widowed among us with more than mere words.

It is difficult to make ends meet in today’s economy.  Many two-parent families struggle to survive on one income.  Others strive to make ends meet with dual earnings.  Single parents necessitate employment to pay the bills as well.  There are no easy answers in managing the financial responsibilities needed for a household of one or many. (more…)

Category: Biblical Womanhood, Education, For Single-Parent Families | No Comments »
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September 5, 2010 | Author: Luci McLeod

November 2008 was not the best month for me. As the days grew shorter, I grew increasingly dejected. Toward the end of the month, I was diagnosed with a condition that would make conceiving a child incredibly difficult.  I faced the prospect of at least two major surgeries to fix what was wrong.  In spite of the fact that I had a seemingly great job at a prominent think tank, a wonderful fiancé, and many caring friends, I often felt isolated and alone.

Around this time, I was seeing a doctor who I didn’t like all that much. At one appointment, though, he posed a question that would prove to be a catalyst for changing my short-term, me-centered perspective.

He asked, “What gives you comfort?”
(more…)

Category: Biblical Womanhood, Personal Testimonies | No Comments »
Tags: femininity, home, refinement, womanhood, womanly arts

September 5, 2010 | Author: Sandra King

I’m naturally an encourager. I can sit and encourage another woman on how to minister to her husband and children for hours on end. What I can’t do is waste time watching a foolish woman throwing a tantrum. What she doesn’t realize is that in the midst of her walking around the house with her bottom lip poked out because things aren’t going her way, she’s tearing down her house.

I was reading about her this morning in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 1. “The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her own hands.”

Does this woman realize the effects that her tantrum is having on her family? Let’s take a quick look at what her tantrum is doing to her children. (more…)

Category: Biblical Womanhood | 2 Comments »
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September 5, 2010 | Author: Stacy McDonald

I realize this is a very backwards way to post an article, or even link to someone else’s article; but, sometimes I do things backwards. Maybe it’s rebellion. Or maybe it’s because Gender, Morality, and Modesty: Liberated into Bondage by Robin Phillips is so good that I’m sure you’ll want to read the whole thing once you read Part Six. It’s an excellent read, and the series is worth it, but it’s long. So, here are a few great quotes to get you hooked: (more…)

Category: Femininity & Modesty | 1 Comment »
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September 3, 2010 | Author: Jennifer McBride

Here is  a great article with some excellent and insightful commentary on the Duggar family:

As we spoke to the 3 of them, one word kept jumping out at me:  Freedom.  These girls were experiencing freedom teenagers rarely taste.  Completely free to be themselves.  The exact opposite of the words so often used by media folk to describe the 19 kids.

Click here to read the whole article

Category: Biblical Womanhood, For the Unmarried | 1 Comment »
Tags: children, daughters at home, family, girlhood, myths

August 25, 2010 | Author: Jennifer McBride

Here’s a must read for all my fellow (often weary) mothers out there

I had an experience that moved me a few years ago, though. It was an evening I spent bathing my children that very literally revolutionized my perspective on mothering. Longing to tell you all about it, I shared a similar version of this post a while back. And now that we have a tiny, helpless, amazing, sweet, grunting newborn in the house again, living in the moment has risen back to the top of my priority list. I rewrote my post and share this version with you now, because I am more determined than ever this fifth time around to constantly remember that I’m gonna miss this. I long for that awareness for all mothers. You see, remembering that little truth, knowing that I am guaranteed to look back years from now and miss this arduous time mothering young children, is making these very first weeks of having a newborn some of the most precious days I have ever lived. Click here to read the whole article

Category: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
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August 22, 2010 | Author: Jasmine Baucham

Category: For the Unmarried, Foundations of Truth | 4 Comments »
Tags: marriage, womanhood

August 20, 2010 | Author: Andrea Reins

“I still want to get married but I am trying to be realistic about it. I am 28 and it seems like prospects just get slimmer and slimmer…..How do you all stay positive and keep hope that you will marry one day? I get so discouraged looking at our culture of immature and ill-prepared men and I have a hard time keeping hope about it. My Dad prays for each of us everyday that God will provide and be preparing godly spouses for each of us. All of the unmarried young men in our church either seem uninterested in marriage or quite a bit younger than me  (5-9 years).”

We received this question recently and it’s not an uncommon one. Really, there are a lot of questions within this question, but rather than say what’s already been said, and said well, let’s talk about this portion of the question- “How do you all stay positive and keep hope that you will marry one day?” The answer lies in the fact that hope is a much broader concept than just our hope of marriage. Marriage is a wonderful thing, but if we’re looking to it as the basis for our hopes, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. If we’re going to be a hopeful people, we first need to understand where hope comes from, what hope is(and isn’t), how it’s maintained and grown, and how it is lost.

(more…)

Category: For the Unmarried, What Can We Do? | No Comments »
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August 19, 2010 | Author: Kelly Crawford

Category: Mothering, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
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August 14, 2010 | Author: Jennie Chancey

Thank you to Ann over at Holy Experience for recommending this piece:

Here’s a Twilight Zone-type premise for you. What if surgeons never got to work on humans, they were instead just endlessly in training, cutting up cadavers? What if the same went for all adults – we only got to practice at simulated versions of our jobs? Lawyers only got to argue mock cases, for years and years. Plumbers only got to fix fake leaks in classrooms. Teachers only got to teach to videocameras, endlessly rehearsing for some far off future. Book writers like me never saw our work put out to the public – our novels sat in drawers. Scientists never got to do original experiments; they only got to recreate scientific experiments of yesteryear. And so on.

Rather quickly, all meaning would vanish from our work. Even if we enjoyed the activity of our job, intrinsically, it would rapidly lose depth and relevance. It’d lose purpose. We’d become bored, lethargic, and disengaged.

In other words, we’d turn into teenagers. (more…)

Category: Education, Training Children | 5 Comments »
Tags: children, Education

August 13, 2010 | Author: Jennie Chancey

From Carolyn Moynihan over at Mercatornet:

Evidence that girls are reaching puberty as early as seven years of age is in the news this week following the publication of an article in the journal Paediatrics. It is a topic that has been debated for decades…. Experts are not certain about the factors driving the trend, which has been evident since the 1950s. Among the chief suspects are excess body fat which affects the level of hormones (estrogen and progesterone) that trigger puberty; environmental chemicals; and the environment in the womb resulting from maternal characteristics — including first period before age 12, smoking during pregnancy, and being pregnant for the first time….

Another factor, cited by Leonard Sax in his book Girls On The Edge, is the absence of a girl’s biological father.

Read the rest on Mercatornet. [Not for younger readers.]

Category: Mothering, Training Children | 1 Comment »
Tags: children, Mothering, womanhood

August 12, 2010 | Author: Kelly Reins

Some of you have waged battles against the flesh, works of repentance have been done, out of obedience to parents, to the Word, and it’s a work that needs to be acknowledged, praised, rejoiced over, and seen as valuable considering you’ve gone against the flow, perhaps sacrificing relationships which would have compromised you, purposely choosing fidelity to Christ, it’s no small accomplishment. It was an excellent investment in your future, in yourself, for the household you live in now, so that you can wisely counsel as a Titus 2 (for the community of believers) and so that you have the perspectives, virtues and character, which will be needed to invest in a husband’s household and his work.

Are we thanking God for this victory? It was His accomplishment in reality.

Category: Biblical Womanhood, For the Unmarried | No Comments »
Tags: Contentment