Well, I've certainly gotten off to a rollicking start haven't I. Start a blog and then not write for three weeks. My apologies to you all.
Things have been going pretty well here at the Carstensen home. Today we have been baking and cleaning in preparation for our Thanksgiving. We always look forward to getting together with our family, even though we do not actually have any blood relations here, for are we not all family in Christ?
And now I need to go mop the floors as well as other various tasks.
I hope to write more sometime very soon here.(Take note of the word "hope")
Blessings, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Election
I am so glad things are pretty much over, all the election campaigns make me feel sick, the way they mud-sling each other and promote themselves. Although I can't say that I am pleased at the outcome it is a relief just to know that it is done.
And for me anyway it doesn't really matter who the president of the United States is, the Lord is on the throne and it is Him who I serve. He is working everything out for His own purposes, this is not a mistake of His nor did He just decide to let us figure things out during the election, He did not fall asleep and leave us to our own ends(much as we deserve it). This all part of His sovereign plan and it is such an encouragement to me to know that.
"In the LORD I put my trust; How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain"? For look! The wicked bend their bow, They make ready their arrow on the string, That they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold..."
And for me anyway it doesn't really matter who the president of the United States is, the Lord is on the throne and it is Him who I serve. He is working everything out for His own purposes, this is not a mistake of His nor did He just decide to let us figure things out during the election, He did not fall asleep and leave us to our own ends(much as we deserve it). This all part of His sovereign plan and it is such an encouragement to me to know that.
"In the LORD I put my trust; How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain"? For look! The wicked bend their bow, They make ready their arrow on the string, That they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold..."
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Modest and Feminine
I have been encouraged and challenged lately in this area as I have been visiting "Feelin' Feminine". It has been a joy for me in the past few years to embrace my femininity, but it was not always that way. At the age of nine I was very much against all that, My goal then was to prove that I was as tough as any boy and I scorned anything feminine and the girls I knew who did go after those things. When I was 13 some things changed, I read " Beautiful Girlhood", which I think, really opened my eyes to who I was and what I was doing, I don't think that I had really ever thought about what I was doing as being a big deal, that was just who I was. That wonderful old book I believe was a tool that God used in my life to convict me. The church we were going to at the time really helped as well, as there was a family there with several girls who were a example to me of femininity without weakness. Since that time I am know known as the most "girly" one in my family, not necessarily in my interests (though somewhat) but in my behavior and dress. I LOVE wearing long skirts (often floor-length), and being treated as a young woman. Being a keeper at home, and not having the pressure of feeling like I have to prove that I am just as good as any guy.
I love what Peter Marshall said in his sermon "Keepers of the Springs", it never fails to challenge and inspire me.
"... (W)herever the Christian evangel has gone for nineteen centuries, the daughters of Mary have been respected, revered, remembered, and loved, for men have recognized that womanhood is a sacred and a noble thing, that women are of a finer clay...
It remained for the twentieth century, in the name of progress, in the name of tolerance, in the name of broadmindedness, in the name of freedom, to pull her down from her throne and try to make her like a man.
She wanted equality. For nineteen hundred years she had not been equal- she had been superior. But now, they said,she wanted equality, and in order to obtain it, she had to step down. And so it is in the name of broadminded tolerance a man's vices had now become a woman's. Twentieth century tolerance has won for woman the right to become intoxicated, the right to have alcoholic breath, the right to smoke, to work like a man, to act like a man - for is she not man's equal?
Today they call it "progress"... but tomorrow - they must be made to see that it is not progress.
No nation has ever mad any progress in a downward direction. No people ever became great by lowering their standards. No people ever became good by adopting a looser morality.
It is not progress when the moral tone is lower than it was. It is not progress when purity is not as sweet. It is not progress when womanhood has lost it's fragrance. Whatever else it is, it is not progress!
Our country needs woman today who will lead us back to as old-fashioned morality, to old-fashioned decency, to old-fashioned purity and sweetness, for the sake of the next generation if for no other reason.
The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge - that of being godly women. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other kind of women - Beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women, but so seldom do we hear of a godly woman - or of a godly man either for that matter. I believe women nearer fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else.
It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America.
It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth.
It is a far, far better thing in the realm of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultra-modern.
The world has enough women who know haw to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith.
The world has enough women who know haw to be smart.
It needs women who are willing to be simple.
The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant.
It needs some who will be brave.
The world has enough women who are popular.
It needs more who are pure.
We need women, and men too, who would rather be morally right that socially correct."
His Handmaiden, Laurel
I love what Peter Marshall said in his sermon "Keepers of the Springs", it never fails to challenge and inspire me.
"... (W)herever the Christian evangel has gone for nineteen centuries, the daughters of Mary have been respected, revered, remembered, and loved, for men have recognized that womanhood is a sacred and a noble thing, that women are of a finer clay...
It remained for the twentieth century, in the name of progress, in the name of tolerance, in the name of broadmindedness, in the name of freedom, to pull her down from her throne and try to make her like a man.
She wanted equality. For nineteen hundred years she had not been equal- she had been superior. But now, they said,she wanted equality, and in order to obtain it, she had to step down. And so it is in the name of broadminded tolerance a man's vices had now become a woman's. Twentieth century tolerance has won for woman the right to become intoxicated, the right to have alcoholic breath, the right to smoke, to work like a man, to act like a man - for is she not man's equal?
Today they call it "progress"... but tomorrow - they must be made to see that it is not progress.
No nation has ever mad any progress in a downward direction. No people ever became great by lowering their standards. No people ever became good by adopting a looser morality.
It is not progress when the moral tone is lower than it was. It is not progress when purity is not as sweet. It is not progress when womanhood has lost it's fragrance. Whatever else it is, it is not progress!
Our country needs woman today who will lead us back to as old-fashioned morality, to old-fashioned decency, to old-fashioned purity and sweetness, for the sake of the next generation if for no other reason.
The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge - that of being godly women. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other kind of women - Beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women, but so seldom do we hear of a godly woman - or of a godly man either for that matter. I believe women nearer fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else.
It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America.
It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth.
It is a far, far better thing in the realm of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultra-modern.
The world has enough women who know haw to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith.
The world has enough women who know haw to be smart.
It needs women who are willing to be simple.
The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant.
It needs some who will be brave.
The world has enough women who are popular.
It needs more who are pure.
We need women, and men too, who would rather be morally right that socially correct."
His Handmaiden, Laurel
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