Laines Letters...Revisited!

Dear Sisters, It is tough being human sometimes, isn't it? So much pain involved in the whole growing process. I felt some of that pain this week. I think I feel the pain more intensely at times because I am growing in Christ, and I so want to please my Father. This child can definitely attest to certain times of growing pains. This past week was no exception. My husband had to talk to me about two areas that required my attention. As he talked, I prayed. When did he talk to me? On Thanksgiving day. While our guests were out walking, we were inside talking. I couldn't say anything to him, because everything he was telling me was absolutely true. What was he talking to me about? Stuffing and striving. "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God; let Thy good Spirit lead me on level ground." Psalm 143:10 I'll talk about the stuffing first. No, not the Thanksgiving stuffing. ~Smile~ The stuffing of a house with things. I am a terrible pack rat. I know that I hav...

Dear Sisters, I have been doing a study for myself on the verse in Proverbs which states, "A gracious woman retains honor." As I have been studying many of the verses pertaining to godly women in the Bible and their roles in the home and in the church, I have come up with a list based on those verses of a godly woman, wife, and mother - whom I aspire to grow into as I continually grow in Christ by the power of His Spirit. It also helps me to understand the role of the church as His Fruitful Bride and His Holy Spirit as our Helper and Comforter in that vital role. With all that in mind and more, here is my list of a godly woman in her many roles written in the back of my Bible. My gleanings are based on Proverbs 31, Ruth, some verses on women in Proverbs, 1 Peter 3:1-7, 1 Timothy 2:8-15 & 5:3-16, 1 Corinthians11:1-16, Song of Solomon, Psalm 113, 127, and 128, 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, and Titus 2:3-5. She loves her First Love and her First Faith - Jesus Christ her LORD. S...

Hi! My older boys are in Swaziland right now, and it is so quiet in the house without them both here. We miss them! It will be good to have them back next week and hear how the LORD answered prayers. They are planting gardens and the gospel with Bruce Wilkinson's "Dream For Africa" team. We have also passed the homestudy part of our adoption and are presently working on the dossier. This is the last part, and there is still lots to do. So I try to do a bit here and a bit there. This week I obtained our marriage license, and next week I will get our passports and birth certificates. I was talking with a friend the other day on the phone, and I mentioned to her about my fun two days with four young girls last weekend. She told me I just had to share it with you all. So here I am... First, let me introduce you to the girls. They are all sisters: there's Jessica, who is fourteen years old; Hannah, who is twelve years old; and Amber, who is nine years old. Abbie and I w...

Dear Sisters, This past week our van broke down twice, my computer crashed, my oven broke, and every one of our goats became ill. Under previous circumstances, I would have been a wreck. What were those previous circumstances? It was when I use to walk in my own strength. Instead what I felt this past week was peace, perfect peace. You see, I have given myself up to Him. I am no longer my own. I am His Bondservant and ask Him to walk through me by His Spirit. My eyes are His slaves looking for the motion of His Hand to do His will. So if all these things break down, I look to my LORD for His direction. I don't own any of this. Not even my own body. I have learned to "gird my loins with strength" each and every morning. Each day, Jesus said, "will have enough trouble of its own." So I want to be ready for the trouble of the day. How do I do that? I sit with my King each morning before I serve Him. "Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with Tru...

Dear Orlena & Sisters, You wrote ~ I have been struggling with getting up before 9! I do not sleep well at night - dreams,nursing baby etc...~ Oh, Orlena, this was me! When I made my promise to God to get up early and seek Him, I had a three week old baby and three other young children. (Two that I was homeschooling.) I was on a two hour nursing schedule that kept me up most of the night. But I had made a promise. So I got up. And I got up. And I got up. (Believe me, I use to sleep in like you wouldn't believe. Often my children were up before me.) Six years later, I am still getting up. Now I see such fruition in getting up before dawn, as taught in Proverbs 31. My home is richer for it. I hunger for His Word and thirst to get alone with Him each morning. He is the Bread of Life, and I have learned that "man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God." This is true living! And I can absorb His Word in the stillness of the...

Dear Sisters, I have received so many letters since I wrote about my parent's finances a few weeks ago. I have been praying for years that my brothers and sisters in Christ would get out of debt. Debt is slavery. It forces us to live in a way that is not good for us. The Bible is full of admonition about not getting into debt and about getting out of it. "Give everyone what you owe him: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue." Romans 13:7 "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law." Romans 13:7 All the letters that I received wanted to pay back their debt. I am so glad. How the LORD will honor this obedience to His Word. It will not be easy, but so profitable later on. I am going to share with you the "nuts and bolts" of how I helped my parents pay back their debt and put money into their savings, as so many of you have asked me to. It is my he...

Dear Sisters, My mother unearthed my great grandmother's scrapbook today. It is an old green, tattered, travel book that she pasted some of her favorite sayings, poems, a little, handmade valentine from my grandfather to her, and other odds and ends. Of course, it was a treasure for me to read. Most all of the pasted entries are from the newspaper or a magazine, so everything is yellowed with age. As I looked at the dates, I found that the oldest was 1935. It was interesting to see what women read at that time and how it must have affected their way of thinking. I thought you might also like to see what my great grandmother considered valuable, so much so that she pasted it into this old travel journal to keep for herself, her daughter, her granddaughter, her great granddaughter, and now her great, great granddaughter, my Abbie. Here are some of my great grandmother's treasures for you: The Happiest Time of A Woman's Life by Frances H. Lee What' s the happiest time...

Dear Sisters, I will never forget my first women's retreat. I had never been to a woman's retreat before, because we just never had the money. But one year my husband really wanted me to go. The LORD provided the entire sum of money and so off I went with a friend. My husband stayed behind with our very young children. It was an incredible retreat. I learned so much from the godly women who sang and shared God's Word. It was really the refreshment that I needed at the time. The last night of the retreat I was so glad that I had come and shared this with the ladies during a time of talk and testimony. Before we were to finally depart for our homes, though, the leader asked that we gather into small groups for prayer. As we held hands with our eyes closed, we were to ask the LORD if there was anyone in our life that we needed to forgive. And if so, we were to ask the LORD to help us finally forgive that person and go home free. Well, as I sat there, I quickly thought, ...

Dear Chosen Women of God, "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the Word of God." Titus 2:3-5 Today I want to talk about flexibility. It might seem like the opposite of discipline, but actually it is quite an important part of discipline. For I find that if I am only concentrating on discipline and not being flexible, I can easily become quite stiff and unbending. I use to be too flexible many years ago spending far too much time yakking on the phone, or shopping, or in front of the t.v., and not getting my work done until I was in a mad dash just before my husband came home. Then I went the other direction and had everything written down with the times that they were ...

Dear Sisters, A friend, who I have come to know over e-mail, recently sent me this beautiful letter of her first love. I asked her if I might share it with you. She graciously accepted. She writes so succinctly what I say in many words. Love, Laine *************************************************************************** FIRST LOVE My first love. That is a phrase that I have heard so many times over the years. And I don't think I ever really grasped the meaning or importance of it until this past weekend. Over the years I have been told that Jesus is my first love. Being a Christian I would just smile and agree with the statement. But in reality I never truly fell in love with Jesus. I never felt the passion and desire to be with him every waking moment, to rest in his loving arms each night, and to know everything about him, and most importantly, I didn't want him to know everything about me. But this past weekend I came to a new place in my relationship with God a...