Today, we are having our first Guest Speaker!
Meet: Mrs. Lettie Burd Cowman.

Mrs. Cowman worked as a pioneer missionary with her husband in Japan and China from 1901 to 1917, during which time they helped found the Oriental Missionary Society. When Mr. Cowman's poor health forced the couple to return to the United States, Mrs. Cowman turned her attention to caring for her husband until his death six years later. Out of Mrs. Cowman's experiences and heartbreak came her first book, A devotional,"Streams in the Desert," followed by its companion "Springs in the Valley." During the next twenty-five years, Mrs. Cowman inspired several nationwide Scripture distribution campaigns and wrote seven more books. Finally, on Easter Sunday in 1960, at the age of ninety, Mrs.Cowman went to meet the God she had served so faithfully for nearly a century.
I have treasured Mrs. Cowman's writings for some time, now, I give them to you!

    "I went to America some years ago with the captain of a steamer, who was a very devoted Christian. When off the coast of Newfoundland he said to me, 'The last time that I was here.... something happened that revolutionized the whole of my christian life. We had George Muller on board. I had been on the Bridge twenty-four hours and had never left it. George Muller came to me and said, "Captain, I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec Saturday afternoon."
"It is impossible," I said.
"Very well, if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement for fifty-seven years. Let us go down to the chart-room and pray."
      I looked at that man of God and thought to myself, What lunatic asylum can that man have come from? I never heard of such a thing as this.
"Mr. Mueller," I said, "do you know how dense this fog is?"
"No," he replied, "my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life."
    He knelt down and prayed one of the most simple prayers, and when he finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder, and told me not to pray.
"First, you do not believe He will answer; and second, I believe He has, and there is no need for you to pray about it."
     I looked at him; and he said, "Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get audience with the King. Get up, Captian, and open the door, and you will find the fog gone."
     I got up, and the fog was indeed gone. On Saturday afternoon, George Muller was in Quebec for his engagement.' "

Have you ever wondered?

Have you ever wondered what God has planed for your life? If He even has a plan for your life?  Or if He does, what in the world it is, and how you can know what His will for your life is?

I know that I have wondered these things over and over again, and have asked myself, what does God want me to do? What is His will for my life? I want to honor Him, serve Him, and give Him glory, but how can I do that? How do I know?

A few days ago my father played a sermon by Mr. Voddie Baucham that frankly shocked me.
I would encourage you to listen to it and think about what Scripture says.

Feminine Dress

 We apologize that it has been so long since our last post! Please, the next time you see us disappear, bury us in email reminders!
Today's topic is Feminine Dress: What it is, but today, we are going to give you the opinion of others through quotes! If you have something to add, or have more questions, feel free to drop us a note. Rebecca, Heather and I love to hear from you! (...As a side note, are there topics you would like us to cover?)

"One of the first evidences of a real lady, is that she should be modest. By modesty we mean that she shall not say, do, nor wear anything that would cause her to appear gaudy, ill-bred, or unchaste. There should be nothing about her to attract unfavorable attention, nothing in her dress or manner that would give a man an excuse for vulgar comment. When we dress contrary to the rule of modesty we give excuse for unwholesome thoughts in the mind of those who look upon us, and every girl who oversteps these bounds makes herself liable to misunderstanding and insult, though she may be innocent of any such intention."
 ~Margaret Hale



^"In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,
But, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works."
~ 1Timothy 2:9-10

 "It seems to be the fashion nowadays for a girl to behave as much like a man as possible. Well, I won't! I'll make the best of being a girl and be as nice a specimen as I can: sweet and modest, a dear, dainty thing with clothes smelling all sweet and violet-y, a soft voice, and pretty, womanly ways. Since I'm a girl, I prefer to be a real one!" 
~ Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
To temper man: we had been brutes without you.
Angels are painted fair, to look like you:
There’s in you all that we believe of heaven,—
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting love.
~ Thomas Otway, Venice Preserved, Act i. Sc. 1.

"Why do women want to dress like men when they’re fortunate enough to be women? Why lose femininity, which is one of our greatest charms? We get more accomplished by being charming than we would be by flaunting." ~Tasha Tudor

"Modesty answers not the crude how of femininity, but the beautiful why."
~Wendy Shalit (A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue)

Fem’ninity is seen in her modesty,

Of manner and tongue as well as dress,

In her sensitiveness to propriety,

Not overly proud, or with looks obsessed
~ Godly Femininity

"The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood." 

~ Mary Mcleod Bethune

"A good woman is a wondrous creature, cleaving to the right and to the good under all change: lovely in youthful comeliness, lovely all her life long in comeliness of heart."

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Life of Tennyson, Vol. I. 

“The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”
~ Margaret D. Nadauld

"Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— ⁴ rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. ⁵ For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves"
~ 1 Peter 3: 3-5

 


I wonder.... are we, the young, Christian women of the 21st century fulfilling our role?  How are we to bring up the next generation if we do not do what we know is right in this area of modest dress and modest actions?
One does not need a husband to be a godly woman . 

If...

If you can never marry,

see all your dreams rearranged,

and still remain pure,

If you can plan and plot

and it all be overturned at a moments notice,

and still submit joyfully

If you can slave over a dinner all day

only to have a child snub it

then rise again the next day and start all over again,

If you can sweep, mop, and scrub,

and watch as your family walks through with boots and dirty hands

and welcome them home,

If you can teach the same math lesson one hundred times,

only for the child to still not get it,

and return tomorrow and try again,

If you can absorb the troubles around you,

take in the worn and weary,

and never be praised,

If you can remain calm,

while everyone around you gives in to the chaos,

If you can hold the child who got hurt,

doing something you told him not to,

If you can walk through the trials of life

and cling all the closer to God,

Then, then my daughters, you will be women.

This poem was written by Olivia

based on Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’