From the Hearts of Our Readers
My Dear Skye,
How is everyone in your household? I’m sorry to hear you have had colds! This fall I was sick off and on for at least a month, but I think it has finally left. Praise God! We normally have our share of colds, too, but thankfully everyone is feeling fine.
How was your Christmas? I think I mentioned ours in my note, didn’t I? Do you do anything for New Year’s? I always make plenty of New Year’s goals, resolutions, and prayers. A couple for this year were:
- to develop the habit of rising before the sun
- to develop a better prayer life
- to keep up with my pen pals
- to learn 100 verses to hymns
- to be a better servant to others
- to spend more “fun time” with my brothers
- to walk outside everyday (but Sunday) for at least 10 min.
- to learn to iceskate.
I realize that not one of these will come to pass without the will and guidance of God. Praise Him because He does not leave us in our weakness, but gives us His strength through the Holy Spirit!
God has been working in my life in many areas—may I share them with you?
First, I am s-l-o-w-l-y learning the necessity of getting up early! Just today I read a chapter on the verse in Proverbs 31:15 in the book The Excellent Woman (copyright 1800’s?), which really convicted me. Part of it reads, “Early risers will not often be found among those whose habits are irregular and disorderly. The practice of beginning the work with the commencement of the day is almost always found in conjuction with punctual and diligent habits, and with the love of order and management.” This is so true of me. When I get up late and don’t have time for God and adequate time for getting myself ready for the day, everything is off-schedule, rushed, and nothing gets done! What a meaningless life I would live if it was made up of days like this!
Another thing the book said was that one should have so much to do (spending time with God, serving others, daily tasks, etc.) that you must get up early. Idle, lazy lives can never glorify God.
Secondly, God is showing me not to be an unstable, double-minded friend. I’m not sure if you ever feel this way, but I find it so easy to change my personality, attitudes, even language with different people I’m around. (Hopefully never in a bad way—just a different way.) With those who are more “conservative” I tend to cover up my faults and seem sweet and godly. With those who are worldly I tend to act more at-their-level and try to hide my convictions/differences. Both are wrong. I know I need to believe what the Lord has shown me through His Word and my parents, and live this way before all people alike.
Thirdly, I have been realizing my weakness or inconsistency in prayer. Prayer is really so vital in a Christian’s life. Requests for prayer on many different things literally bombard me and I end up crumpling and not praying for anything. Please pray for me that a true love and desire to talk to God would reign constantly in my soul. “We pray without ceasing when we unceasingly retain true love and true desire in our hearts. Love, hidden in the soul, prays constantly, even when the mind is drawn another way.” —Anonymous.
I really desire to spend time talking to God and lifting up petitions to Him because I know this is what He wants from me. So often we turn this into a task like having a list we recite or watching a clock for “15 minutes of prayer” each morning. How would I like it if my friends treated me like that?!
Wow—I have so far to go; and it is only by th~ grace of God that I have come so far.
Dear Princess is such a blessing to me. Each issue gets better and better. I do appreciate all the work you and Abigail do for it. I’m sure it is touching more souls than just mine!
Amy Zander’s interview was excellent! Now I really want to meet her. Just think, we used to live only about two hours from each other a year and a half ago.
Mrs. Spinks’ poem was beautiful—one I’d like to frame and hang in my room to constantly remember. How easy it is to forget your “royalty.” I’m a princess—I really am!
Heather Eley’s story was incredible. Praise be to God for the way it worked out! I wonder if I could be that strong if my mother died. I’m sure it took a lot of strength to cling to God and trust Him, yet our God is faithful and holds us in the palm of His hands all the days of our lives. Heather’s testimony was a true blessing.
We are finally starting to feel a little settled in our home. We have loads of remodeling to do (and cleaning!) but it is truly a fun place to live. We are so excited to garden again this spring. We are planting a lot because of the potential problems in the year 2000 (computers). We aren’t packing up and moving, or stocking gold and guns, but we are trying to become a little more self-sufficient—a good way to be anyway!
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” (Isaiah 40:28)
With prayer,
Amy Molinero
Potsdam, New York
Dear Abigail,
Greetings in the everlasting name of our Savior!… I’ve thought of you often and decided to take this bit of spare time [today] to sit down and write….
The Lord has been teaching me many things… well, it would take pages and pages to tell all of it! I’ll try to write enough to give you a small part of the picture…. I’ve really felt recently that I need to spend more time with my Lord in prayer and Bible reading. I once heard a saying: “you are as real as your quiet time.” So this is something I really desire to improve on!
We have been as busy as bees lately! October 24th marked the one-year anniversary of our family moving to Idaho. In that one year, we’ve moved five times! First in town, for about 6 months. Then we lived in the travel trailer for four months. Next we spent a month in a motel (doing the motel laundry in exchange for our rent!) Then we lived with some friends for a month. Now, here we are on our own property, in our own mobile home! We’ve been cleaning, sorting, packing and unpacking, remodeling and settling in. It’s really starting to look and feel like home now!
The Lord has been teaching our whole family about faith—trusting in God to provide our needs. He has blessed us in so many ways, so we know it must have been the Lord’s hand. Sometimes we get discouraged, but it helps to remember Who is in control.
I’m looking forward to the next issue of DP. I’m so glad you wanted to send me an issue last summer, it’s really been a blessing. May the Father in Heaven bless you in all you do!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Rachel Deathrage
Grangeville, Idaho
Dear Abigail,
Greetings in the precious name of Jesus!…
We have been very busy this past week. We are having a lot of work done on our house, and today, after 3 days of work, a man finished redoing a wood floor for us. It was kind of a busy weekend because the floor she was working on, we couldn’t walk on until after he was done and it dried and the floor happened to be in the most central room in the house. So… up went ladders to the bedroom windows, so we could get to different rooms of the house. It was quite an adventure. To top it off we all were sick with the flu before that and we all still felt a little weak and tired. We had a small, little day-trip planned, so we could leave the house while the guy was doing our floor, but we got sick and couldn’t go.
I think the Lord was trying to teach me contentment, because I really wanted to go. And then I got sick and when I got better I was so thankful for my health. The Lord is showing me that I need to be content with what I have and not take my health, my home, the food I eat, and my family for granted. He’s blessed me with so much. My contentment needs to be placed in Him and not in anything I do or have or anywhere I go.
Earlier this week I had been battling with not feeling close to the Lord and not feeling like I had grown at all the week before. I was just feeling very dry. Mom and Dad encouraged me when I talked to them, and told me to not strive, but to rest and they said the Lord sometimes has those times for us just to rest in Him, praise Him, and “live” what He’s already taught me. I can’t go higher if I’m not walking in what He’s already shown me. They also said that God is building the foundation in my life, and the foundation to a house is the most important part, yet unseen. I need to walk by faith, not by sight. It was a great encouragement to me and I have been blessed this week and am feeling closer to the Lord.
“Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.” (Psalms 40:16) I need to rejoice and be glad in the Lord, and magnify His name continually. I need to be so thankful for my salvation and that I’m able to seek Him.
Well, I don’t want to close and cut this short, but I have to go to bed and if I don’t finish now, who knows when it will get sent?
May the Lord richly bless you.
With much love in Christ,
Angie LeFevre
Cambridge, Ohio
Dear Friends—
Merry Christmas!
My heart rejoices in seeing the Lord’s blessing upon the works of your hands! He will faithfully reward our walking in obedience to Him and surrender to His will with the powerful works of His own hand in and through our lives. Bless you for continuing in your work in faith….
Our family has been through another deep trial that brought many tears and much pain. Thanks be to God who is our dearest Comforter. We have come through, triumphing in faith—our falterings come when we wonder what the future holds; but we have an almighty God who loves us dearly and who also holds the future in His hands. Please pray for us. Nothing hurts more than when it touches your own home and family.
The Lord is faithful. His plans and ways are so beyond our human reasonings. When things are beyond our control and beyond our efforts to right (the problems) because they are in His control and it is in His right hand of power to right all that’s wrong.
Thank you for the story of the Eley family. It was a great encouragement. The time is coming when we will be asked to back our beliefs and faith with all of ourselves—-our very lives. Indeed, it is already come because those who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. God’s protection over our souls is greater than any danger that faces us. He is God and what He has spoken, He surely will do.
Unto Him be all the glory and honor! May it be reflected in all its beauty in His bride, His beloved church.
In His Love,
Holly Hageinan
Telford, Pennsylvania
Dearest Skye,
I trust that the Lord has been faithful to strengthen you through your recent trials. Your attitude through this is an inspiration and a great tribute to the grace of God. I’ve just finished reading Amy Carmichael’s Gold By Moonlight (have you read that?), and her passages on suffering are both tender and bracing:
“Wind means stress and strain. ‘The elastic limit’ of each kind of tree is known to the engineer, and he deals accordingly with his timber. So does the Creator of the trees, the Commander of the winds, know ‘the elastic limit’ of His several trees. And He knows the weight of the winds…. ‘Nothing but the Infinite Pity is sufficient for the infinite pathos of human life,’ but that is only half a truth. Nothing but the courageous love of God is brave enough to trust the soul of man to endure as seeing Him who is invisible; and nothing but the grace of God can carry that soul through in triumph.
“I have as much grace for you as I have green for My trees.
“And now, 0 my soul, settle it with thyself that thou wilt listen to no hard reports which the ills of this present time may make to thee concerning thy Lord, for ‘nothing can come wrong from my Lord in His sweet working.’ Not clouds and dark woods, for they are lighted; not the deep ravine, for it leads to the heights; not snow, for it can cherish; not ruin, for ‘He can make one web of contraries’; not rough waters, for they cannot overflow me; not steep mountains, for when I said, ‘My foot slippeth,’ Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up; not dark woods again, for I do not build my nest in any tree on earth; not walls, for they have windows; not storms, for they cannot uproot me; not loneliness, for I am not alone. ‘Only be thou strong and very courageous,’ is Thy word to me, O Lord. ‘As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage.’ (Joshua 1:5-6) ”
Mrs. Hendry told a story on her testimony tape that I had never heard before and whose illustration has recurred to me many times in the couple weeks since I heard it, and that is this: A little boy told his daddy he had fifty cents and wanted to go to the store and buy a bicycle. “Okay,” said his daddy, and took him there. After they’d looked at all the bicycles and the child had chosen his favorite, his father said, “Now give me your fifty cents and go wait for me in the car, and I’ll bring it out.” And so while the boy waited in the car, the father took the fifty cents to the cashier, added his own $99.50, and bought the bike for his son.
The next day the boy again had fifty cents, and this time he decided he wanted a model train, but instead of seeking his father’s help he went to the store on his own. “Hello,” he said to the clerk, “I’d like to buy a model train”—and he held out his fifty cents.
“I’m sorry,” the clerk said, “but a model train costs far, far more than fifty cents.
“But yesterday I bought a bike for fifty cents!” the child exclaimed.
“Ah, yes,” replied the clerk, “but yesterday you had your father with you.”
And Mrs. Hendry pointed out that while some days we may not even feel—because of our health or our background or our weariness or our inabilities—that we have even fifty cents to offer the challenges presented us, but only, maybe, twenty-five cents—is the Lord not just as capable of making up the extra $99.75 as the $99.50? And in the midst of the many challenges always involved with getting an issue out, I have been much encouraged to remember that it matters little what I have or don’t have in myself to meet them—only that I offer back to Him all that He’s given and say, “Lord, here is all I have—do as Thou wilt with it.” And His strength is more than sufficient for any human need.
The battles continue on other fronts, though, and what do you do? He is abundantly able to keep us from falling, but can we pray “lead us not into temptation,” (Matthew 6:13; Luke 11:4) and then walk right into situations we know will be rife with it? It can be so hard to say no, and to say it in the right way, though! You want to keep the relationship with the family members, you want to be a good witness, you want to be loving and gracious and humble, yet you know you can’t compromise and turn your gaze from His kingdom and His righteousness, that if it comes to a choice you must seek Him…. For what profit would it be could we gain the whole world and lose our own souls—or win their friendship today through compromise but lose them for all eternity?
Okay. I’ll quit, for I can’t wait to hear from you.
Much Love,
Fairlight Meyer
Catawba, Virginia