Raising Boys in a World Filled With Temptation

Remember the post about raising girls in a world that devalues them? If not, see here. But anyways.. I came across this blog post about raising boys in a world filled with temptation. A paragraph from her post..

I know I can’t protect my boys from this because that would mean I would never take them out in public!  I do try to strictly limit their environment, though, to protect their innocence for as long as I can.  I do find it frustrating…almost infuriating, that even some Christian women don’t seem to understand just how inappropriately they dress.  Sometimes there seems to be very little difference between what women in the church look like compared to those in the world.

I found it to be a good reminder for those who are blessed with training up boys to be men and leaders in the home. Seeing as she did a much better job saying it all, I will lead you to her site so you can read it yourself! Click here for the site.

Much needed prayer request!

We have been hit with two great prayer requests this week.

1. Friends of ours, Brian and Sarah Najapfour- Sarah's mom, Joan Elshout, has terminal cancer and recently has been taken off chemo because the cancer is all in her liver. For those of you who are not medically inclined, once the cancer hits the liver that means it is also through out the rest of the body. She has been struggling with this for years now, her husband, Bart Elshout, recently(with in the past year) stepped down from his preaching in British Columbia to be with his wife in New Jersey while she under went treatment for her cancer. It was touch and go for a long time, but now the Oncologist is saying there is nothing more they can do for her. She has been taken off chemo and sent home on hospice which means they are going to make her comfortable now instead of trying to fight the disease. This past weekend she took a turn for the worst so her daughter, Sarah, was called from her husband here in Grand Rapids to New Jersey to spend time with her mom. Please pray she has the strength to be strong and encourage her mom in the Lord. Satan is still at work here trying to discourage the faithful in perceiving there is no hope but pray that she remembers to be strong in the Lord and be of good courage.. by Linda Lee Johnson....

1. Be strong in the Lord, and be of good courage;
Your might Defender is always the same.
Mount up with wings, as the eagle ascending;
Victory is sure when you call on His name.

Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And be of good courage, for He is your guide.
Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And rejoice, for the victory is yours.

2. So put on the armor the Lord has provided;
And place your defense in His unfailing care,
Trust Him for He will be with you in battle,
Lighting your path to avoid every snare.

Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And be of good courage, for He is your guide.
Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And rejoice, for the victory is yours.

3. Be strong in the Lord, and be of good courage;
Your might Commander will vanquish the foe.
Fear not the battle, for the victory is always His;
He will protect you where-ever you go.

Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And be of good courage, for He is your guide.
Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord;
And rejoice, for the victory is yours.

2. The second prayer request is about a young boy I think I have mentioned before. His name is Calvin Dedert. He has been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of this year and in the past couple of days he has been struggling, holding onto life by a thread. If you don't already read the blog his mom, Kara, has, here is the link. Please pray that the doctors are able to figure out why he is having all these tremors. Also pray that the family will be upheld by the Lord's might and power. Pray they are comforted in the Lord and are patient with the trial He has placed them in.

One last thing about Brian and Sarah Najapfour.. Brian has written a book about "Jonathan Edwards: His doctrine of and devotion to prayer" All the proceeds will go to Sarah's parents to help pay for their medical bills. They do not have insurance and the bills are extremely expensive so any assistance is appreciated. You can find the book here or if you want to contact Brian himself you can find his information here.

Raising Daughters in a World That Devalues Them: 7 Things We Must Tell Them

We don't have any children right now, but I felt the need to post this from another blog. If I had daughters this is what I would want to be teaching them. 

Seven Things We Must Tell Our Daughters:

1. You are Valuable:: She needs to know she is important and so valued that you will protect her with rules and boundaries because you love her. There is safety and comfort within those restrictions, even when she pushes against them.
2. Your Worth Isn’t Based on Your Appearance:: She needs to be told she is beautiful–not because she’s wearing a sassy outfit or new lipgloss–her worth is not found in her appearance, the opinions of others or herself. She is beautiful because she was created in the image of God. Her appearance has little to do with true beauty and her worth isn’t wrapped up in looking good or being perfect.
3. You Don’t Need a Guy:: She needs to hear starting at a young age (but it’s never too late to start telling her). She needs to be told a boy doesn’t complete her, God does. Chasing or enticing or wanting a guy doesn’t make her attractive and it doesn’t make her a woman. The only guy she needs in her life for a long time is her Dad or a father figure until God brings her a husband if that’s His plan.
4. You Are Amazing:: Our daughters need to hear we are proud of them. She is enough. Tell her out of all the girls in the world, you’d always choose her. Sadly, she will be tempted to spend a lot of time in life trying to prove her value to others. Create an atmosphere where she is loved, just like she is.
5. You Don’t Have to Believe What You Hear:: She needs to hear your affirming voice in her head. Because there will be mean girls in her life, peers with pressure and adults in her world who will let her down and have low expectations of her. She needs to hear the opposite at home, your voice will lead her to Him and she’ll know who to listen to.
6. You Have Me:: No matter what happens in life, the ups and downs that will come her way, the losses and gains, our daughters must know we are there for them. She needs to know she can talk to you about anything. Anytime. More importantly, we can show her Jesus.
7. You Can Change the World:: She needs to know she can dream big and can accomplish whatever she wishes. She can do so with God by her side and she doesn’t need a boy or society to make it happen. She can be anything she want to be with your help. Stand by her, with her and watch her fly.

If you want to read the whole post, go here. I don't know her personally but reading what she has to say makes me cry out to the Lord to stop all the violence in this world. But the Lord knows best and we need to trust He has everything in control. The best we can do is to pray for the nations to be changed and to change our young children. Train up our girls to value themselves in the sight of God, and train up our young men to value and respect these girls for who they are.
  
“Our daughters are precious, intrinsically valuable and deserve better — they deserve to be cherished and protected.” -Amy Gerwing

An Easy Job

You may think it quite an easy task, and just a pleasant life
But really it takes a lot of grace, to be a preacher's wife.
She's supposed to be a paragon without a fault in view
A saint when in the parsonage, as well as in the pew.
Her home must be a small hotel, for folks that chance to roam,
And yet have peace and harmony- the perfect preacher's home!
Whenever groups are called to meet, her presence must be there,
And yet the members all agree, she should live a life of prayer.
Through hearing people's burdens, their grief both night and day
She's supposed to spread but sunshine to those along the way.
She must lend a sympathetic ear to every tale of woe
And then forget about it, lest it to others go.
Her children must be models rare in quietness and poise,
But still stay on the level with other girls and boys.
You may think it quite an easy task, and just a pleasant life;
But it really takes a lot of grace to be a preacher's wife!

Another prayer request

This past weekend Ian preached in Hamilton, Ontario. In that congregation there is a family struggling with the illness of a loved one. He also is a member of the church and has shown great strength through this trial. He has ALS... 

What is ALS?- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a motor neuron disease, first identified in 1869 by the noted French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding about the physiology of this disease.

He found out about a year ago that he had this disease and now he is at the brink of death. Basically, the muscles in his body are giving up and will continue till his heart muscle doesn't work anymore. Mentally though he is as bright as day, he could carry a normal conversation if he could still talk. He has a blog that his daughter helps him keep up. The faith of this man and his family is an amazing gift from God. The struggles they deal with everyday doesn't seem to be as important as them being able to proclaim the love and faithfulness of the Lord to His people. This is him and his family... he has 3 children (an their spouses) and 11 grandchildren.

As we sat there visiting with him and his wife, you could see the struggle he had with wanting to join in on the conversation. His wife said he was a real talker, he loved socializing with people. But now the Lord is challenging him, testing him and his faith by taking away his ability to speak. He cannot move around, he is confined to the chair or wheelchair but he can move his head yet. In fact he has a machine he can spell words with and it will speak for him. As we were all talking, you could hear the little beep of the machine as the dot on his glasses reflects onto the machine and hovers over each letter. 

 

What an amazing technology available for him to still communicate! He cannot speak but grunts at times, but the most memorable part is his smile! He has such a winning smile that brightens up the whole room. It makes your insides feel warm as you see his whole face light up. 

If you want to follow his blog, click here. Please remember him in your prayers, as well as his family. Slowly every day he looses more and more muscle movement but mentally he is all there still.

How am I doing?

Many have asked how we are doing, or more specifically how am I doing?

I am doing good, in fact, I am doing great! I have my health to be thankful for and my loving husband who supports me in what ever I do. 

Since the miscarriage, my outlook on life, especially infant life has changed. Once upon a time I felt angry at those who used birth control because they didn't want to have a baby when it wasn't convenient for them. I felt they should trust God to take care of them if He did bless them with a child. I also felt that if God wanted them to become pregnant while the wife was on birth control He would make her pregnant while on the pill. This was before Ian and I were married. 

Now my outlook on pregnancy has completely changed. When I found out I was pregnant, I felt like a miracle had happened. Especially when friends of ours (who were not blessed with kids) were is awe at the pregnancy even more than we were. In their eyes, they had tried the 20 years they were married and it never happened. So when they see others who are blessed with a pregnancy and even a healthy born child, it is like a double miracle to them. That image has been passed on to me. Now I think of pregnancy as an amazing gift from God. Yes it can be difficult and there will be trials to overcome, but the gift given to us from the Lord to take care of and to raise up in the fear of the Lord in this evil and corrupt world is such a blessing. That HE chose me or you to become the parents of the next generation to live in this world and how you raise up that child will make a difference in how that child reacts to the evils of this world. 

Now to mention miscarriages, what if there were a certain number of babies that were predestined to go straight from the mother's womb to heaven. And what if God felt in His great wisdom to use me or you (if you have experienced this) to be the carrier of this blessed child from the start of life in the womb to life everlasting in heaven. Well you say, we don't know if the child is in heaven or not. True, but seeing as Ian and I are born into the covenant, so our children will be born into the covenant. And from that we draw the comfort of believing our child is in heaven already. What an accomplishment!! What a joy to know that the greatest burden on a mother and father's heart has been taken away from us because we were used as 'vehicles' for bringing one of God's beloved children into glory. 

As much as we still grieve over the loss of a child we so anticipated holding in our arms, we also rejoice over the comfort of knowing God has all things under control and His will is to be done no matter what. 

"He doeth according to HIS will in heaven and on earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him 'what doest thou?'" Daniel 4: 35