Virtuous Girlhood

My Grandma

You can learn a lot from the elderly! They are the people with the most wisdom! The next time you are with your grandparents, ask them questions! Ask them! I have filled pages, and pages upon pages with stories from my grandmother! She grew up in the Great Depression and was the second oldest so you can imagine what wisdom she gives us! She is the best grandmother in the world! Sometimes we young people think, oh, we’re smart; we do not need older people’s advice! Well, you know what happens? Right. We fall flat on our face! So, next time, not only ask your grandparents for stories but also for advice! I am blessed to have a grandmother who honors our parents’ decisions and encourages us to honor and respect my parents. Here is one of her stories:

The New Piano

“One day when I was coming home from school, I heard “You Are My Sunshine” coming from a piano in my house! Well, I walked into the house and there in the living room was Diane, my little sister, playing a piano! It had just been delivered to us and both of my sisters, Nancy and Diane, took lessons and were really good!”

Well, I hope you get lots of stories from your grandparents!

Blessing,

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

Tagged!

Well, I was tagged by the Yen Family and Kathryn! Here are 6 random things about me!

• I love sewing and cooking!
• I love to blog, write stories and articles.
• I am learning web design and WordPress blog design.
• I love doing photography!
• I love being with my family.
• I believe that you need chocolate to stay alive!

I tag:

Miss Anna

Miss Dawn

Miss Talyor

Mrs. Mathews

My Parents

Miss Katie

And anyone who wants to do it.

Here’s what to do!
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag sixish people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Have fun!

Blessings,

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

Loving Our Younger Siblings

Loving Our Siblings By Hayle Weikert and Lara Bode (used with permission)

(The bulk of this article was written by Hayley; Lara’s thoughts are italicized)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, against such things there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit”. Galatians 5:22-25 (KJV)

“Be quiet!” “Can’t you see that I’m busy?!” “No, no, no!” All to many time I find myself snapping at my younger brothers and sisters. I’m sure many other ‘big sisters’ struggle with this same thing. I have prayed many times for the Lord to help me with this struggle. God has given us answers to all of our struggles and problems in His Word- and I’d like to share a few verses with you that can relate to this subject. (See above)

1. Love- When we show true love to our brothers and sisters, they ‘pick it up’; they know when we are really being loving, and also when we aren’t. We can show love in so many ways! For example, my little sisters said the other day, “Hayley does this look nice?” Not taking time to see her expectant face, I said “Not really,” and I went about my chores. Then I noticed something on the cover of a magazine. It said “Exhort one another daily”. How unloving I had been! I could have shown love by just saying something that could have lifted her up! So I told her, “You do look cute.” And you know what? She did! “Charity [love]….. is kind”- 1 Corinthians 13:4.
2. Joy- I heard someone say once, “A joyful Christan is a public praise to God”. Isn’t that neat? We can be a public praise to God just by being joyful. Joy is something I’ve been trying to have in my life. To have joy we don’t have to be silly, but we can sing, and laugh, and praise the Lord! “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns… singing and making a melody in your heart to the Lord” - Ephesians 5:19. Try to remember back when you were a little child. For me, there were a few older children that I escpecially liked. And the reason I liked them was because they were…. joyfull!!! Everyone (except those who are grumpy!) likes a joyful person! If we are loving and joyful with our brothers and sisters, think how much more peace we can have in our homes!!!!!!!!!!! And that brings us to the third Fruit of the Spirit.
3. Peace- What a beautiful character quality to “add to our faith”. How simple yet difficult it is to live out the saying “Be at peace with ourselves!” We must not only contribute to a peaceful home, but we must make peace. This is so important!!!!!! Dad often reminds me that I can either greatly contribute to or greatly detract from the measure of peace in our home. When things are hectic and I get frazzled, our house is not a very peaceful place. But if I keep calm, usually everyone else does also. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace makers…..” - Mathew 5:9
4. Long- suffering (patience)- Being patient is so hard when your siblings do not cooperate! But we need to learn to hold our tongues! I so appreciated the chapter in Dear Princess “Long-suffering with Joy.” Isn’t that a perfect combination? It is really easy to be ‘grudgingly patient’, but we need to be joyfully patient! I often excuse my own impatient actions by thinking “When I have my own children, I’ll be patient with them! If they acted like my little sister is acting right now, I would just spank them! Then I would not have to put up with this irritation!” Well, that’s just silly! My little siblings are in many ways my ‘character builders’; I need to be patient with them even when they’re in the wrong. (Dear Princess, by Mary Landis, is available from Rod and Staff publishers. It is a wonderfully encouraging book for young ladies.)
5. Gentleness- The world would be so harsh and hard if nobody had any gentleness! “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient….’ -2 Timothy 2:24 With God’s help, let us practice a gentle and quiet spirit with our brothers and sisters. Gentleness is such a rare character quality, and something which I really struggle with! In a pushy, loud world were nearly everyone is clamoring to get her own way, a gentle spirit is so wonderful! How would you like to have a big sister who was always harshly ordering you around? I am sure you would not like that! Sisters, let’s work toward gentleness!
6. Goodness- I must say for my part, I do not do very well showing goodness towards my younger brothers and sisters, yet I want goodness shown to me! So I must do unto others as I would have them do unto me! “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”- Psalm 23:6 The Lord has shown so much goodness to us; we should show it to others!!!
7. Faith- Faith in God will help us to accomplish the rest of the fruits of the Spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, and self- control. But we can’t just have faith alone; we need to add other characters to our faith! “….giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.” - 2 Peter 1:5-7
8. Meekness- The definition of meekness in my Bible reads, “Yielding everything to God.”, but I think that we should yield our rights to others also. Once we made our yellow triangles with “yield” on them. Mom used them for an object lesson- it was an excellent reminder to yield our rights to each other. “The meek shall eat and be satisfied; they shall praise the Lord, that seek Him”. - Psalm 22:26
9. Temperance- To tell the truth, I’m not very sure what this would have to do with loving our siblings, so I’ll skip this one! This one is a little harder to relate, although I had a few ideas. Temperance means self-control, I think self-control is very helpful in displaying the rest of these character qualities: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faith, and meekness.  Also, a person who lacks temperance is undisciplined ; her life is not a good testimony to others. In a world that lives for instant gratification- (i.e. I’ll do this ungodly thing now because it’s fun- who cares what happens later) - it is very important that our lives are disciplined, so we can be a Godly example to our little siblings! Now we are finished going through the fruits. Sometimes I feel that I cannot wait for my own children! But if we do not practice loving attitudes now, how will we handle our own children? So let’s practice loving attitudes now, in preparation for being a wise, and godly mother!”

Wow what a great article! Hope your encouraged by it!

Blessings,

A daughter of The Most High,

R.J.

A Beautiful New Look!

Just to let you know, Godly Girlhood.org has a beautiful new look along with some new features, such as a poll and a poetry page, as well as more recipes and articles than before! Here is the new website:

Godly Girlhood

Blessings,

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

Hurricanes

Well, since hurricanes are in the news, I have a couple of questions for you:

1. Do any of my readers live in hurricane/damaged states? Or, have you ever been in a hurricane? Or, do you live in a state were hurricanes have hit in the past?

2. Have any of you ever helped people after a hurricane?  Before my parents met, my dad went down with a couple of friends to Florida during Hurricane Andrew to help people. 

I would love to hear about your experiences! Please pray for the victims of Ike and that upcoming hurricanes would not do a lot of damage.

Blessings,

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

Website Of The Month!

I decided to do a website of the month: Drum roll, please…….

Issacharian Daughters! by Mrs. Genevieve de Deugd!!!!!!!

It is a wonderful website with so much articles, and resources! I just found the web site last week and was greatly encouraged by it! They also have a newsletter!

Here is a hint for next month’s “Website Of The Month”

1. Its site is beautiful and feminine.
2. It is all about being a virtuous maiden.
3. It has many wonderful articles and resources.

Any ideas of other websites for young girls or young ladies?????? If so, PLEASE drop me a line! If you are interested in getting your web site (you young ladies or moms!) on my “Website Of The Month” please, e-mail me at virtuous at virtuousgirlhood dot com

(Please replace the at with a @ and a dot with a . Thank you!)

Have fun!
Blessings,

A Daughter of The Most High God,

R.J.

Good Websites

Here are some really good websites:

• Maidens Of Virtue
• The King’s Daughter
• Godly Girlhood
• Visionary Daughters
• With All Of Thy Heart
• Amelia’s Aprons
• Biblical Womenhood
• Vision Forum
• A Homemaker’s Daughter
• Issacharian Daughters

I have probably given you enough!

Blessings,

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

Recipe #13

Spaghetti

1 - 2 lb. box spaghetti noodles (or 1 - 1 lb. box if your family size is smaller)

1 - 29 oz. can of prepared tomato sauce

1 package of ground beef or turkey

1 bag of salad ( you can mix it with spinach and other greens and your younger siblings (or your children) will never know!

First, boil half a pot of water, with the lid on. When boiling, add noodles and cook for 8 minutes. Drain. Then cook meat. Put in noodle pot with sauce and heat. Then add spaghetti noodles. Mix. Serve over salad and top with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

Please Pray!

Well, he is in the hospital again! Poor baby! Please pray for little Noah Estes! You can read his story HERE:

Please pray for the rest of the Estes Family! They have 8 children (counting Noah) and I am sure are very worried about him.

Thank you!

A daughter of The Most High,

R.J.

Their home business is HERE

Some Good Books

Here are some good books to read to your younger siblings or younger children.

• The Miller Family Series. This is a very good series about a family with 6 children. They deal with issues like: Sibling rivalry, obedience, lying, stealing, right choices, and more! There are 5 books in the series.
• Teach Them To Your Children. This is a short story collection that is very good! They have such charming illustrations and the most wonderful stories!
• The Moody Family Series. This is a series about a family with 6 children who homeschool! It is a wonderful series.
• Little Jewel Books. These are cute little books that are for children 0-6 and are quite cute and, best of all, teach little ones about God.
• Tiger And Tom and Other Stories for Boys. These are very good stories; there are about 20 in the book. They deal with: Obedience, lying, stealing, peers, peer pressure, and more!
• The King’s daughter and Other Stories for Girls. These are very good, as well! I think that all children should have both this book and Tiger and Tom on their shelves.
• The Laura Ingalls Wilder Series- This series will captivate everyone…even young children! It is about pioneers!
• The Caroline Quiner Years- This series is about Laura’s Ma! Again, this is about pioneers and just as heartwarming and captivating as Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Well, I guess that gives you enough, eh?

Blessings,

R.J.

They Saw Fireproof!

Last Saturday (9/27/2008) Mom and Dad saw Fireproof! Mom wrote about it on their blog, HERE:

From what they have told us, it was great! I myself cannot wait to see it in DVD! So Sherwood Baptist Church, please hurry up and make it available to own on DVD. We own Flywheel and Facing The Giants - such great movies!

Thank you, God, for people with a mission to make godly movies that do not have to be fast forwarded!

Looking forward to it!

Blessings,

A daughter of The Most High God,

R.J.