You know what comes to me all the time is, “Don’t lose your anointing for homemaking.” I almost don’t want to write about anything else because it is so important. We need to have the Bible faith of knowing to believe and believing to see His glory. But, ya know, the nuts and bolts of our faith is in our place as Keepers at Home.

You can have all the fuel you need, but if you don’t have a gas tank and a motor, then you ain’t goin’ any place. Our homemaking is our car. We can have faith but, unless we walk it out, it is dead. Faith without works is dead. You can jump and holler at church but, if your faith doesn’t produce some serious walkin’ when you leave church, then what good is the faith?

See, my writing is different in that I mix the teachings on submission and faith together. In the old days, when I was struggling, I would have two tape recorders goin’ — one in the living room on homemaking and one in the kitchen on supernatural faith. I thought they were power twins.

Usually, you get the Pentecostal folks who are all into faith and but not homemaking. Then ya get the Amish, Baptist, etc. that are into homemaking, but they think it is wrong to have a supernatural faith. I heard a man once say about the Pentecostal church, “Well, it’s not this home and garden stuff; it is real faith.” Well, real faith is the home and garden stuff … it’s what the Bible is all about. If ya don’t have your home in order, then the Lord says you shouldn’t even work in the church. The mark of a good man to pick as a deacon is the one who has the home and garden stuff understood.

You can’t say, “Well, I am believin’ for my husband to be a good man,” and then run all day and never come home and do your ministry as Keeper at Home. Our faith as Christian wives and mothers must ride on obedience. There is so much hopelessness goin’ on in so many Christian homes. The homemaking spirit can’t flow, as the Mother hasn’t the faith to believe God for her family. No woman will want to care for her family that thinks they are all goin’ to hell. No, the prayer and faith has to come first and then the homemaking. But the homemaking has to come, and it is as important as the faith.

As wise women, we must build a home or temple to house the Holy Spirit, or to house our faith. To give legs and arms and a voice to our faith. As we are in obedience to our calling, we stretch our faith. As we walk out a pattern of good works daily, we build courage in layers. We add virtues to courage and we form habits of righteousness, and we get stronger and harder for the devil to push down. As we add layer after layer of virtue, then we are protecting our seeds of faith. We are protecting our faith, and it is growing, and then it produces fruit. It produces souls won in our familes for Christ. Our homes are our places of prayer and a place to hide our prayers so that they can take root and bloom. Often, we need to hide what we are praying for, as Mary hid her seed Jesus from King Herod.

But, see, to pray that your husband will be saved and then shop and run all day is just canceling your prayers. The Bible says that you will win your husband by your good works. Well, since the Lord don’t call women to a career but to a place in the home as its keeper, then He can’t just hop over your disobedience and give you a miracle. He has no place to hike it to. The home is the place of training. The order of the home is the order of the Lord. How can you plant a tulip bulb in mid air? No, it needs the earth and the soil to be hidden away, to take root and grow and produce a lovely flower. We can try to plant a bulb in plastic wrap, but it won’t take root and grow as it should. No, we have to plant seeds in the ground. And as women, we have to plant our prayers in the home and wait patiently for a crop of souls for Jesus.

And there are many enemies that interrupt our homemaking because it is a work of God. We are spirtually building a temple to house Godly souls for Jesus. Some women can’t do their homemaking, as their husbands don’t come home on time for supper and it is an all day worry. Or he is home all day watching tv and the wife can’t get to her work. I thank the Lord that Jim works and I am able to do my homemaking. I think that often the homemaker is the catch-all or gofer. “Well, you don’t work, so you should do this and that all day to help others.” We don’t realise the importance of our homemaking. And then, when we are interruped, we think, “Well, I wasn’t doin’ anything, anyway.” Hmmm, not so, my Dear, and satan knows how powerful your homemaking is, and he don’t want ya to do it. It is our walk of faith and it is walking you to miracles.

Whatever is interrupting your homemaking, you should pray hard about this. Take authority over these interruptions. This is why I write on feminism and all the demon lies out there that are making you think you have no place of authority in God. And then I get too much into all of that and I long to teach on Homemaking. I feel at times I can’t write fast enough. And to write about the spiritual and then try to run a pass about the physical is a personal struggle for me, as a writer. But the faith and works must walk together as one.

And the lie of feminism has to go if you if you hope to amount to anything in the Lord. You can’t mix feminism into the Bible; it don’t fit in there. And you must understand your place of authority as a Christian wife and mother. The Bible speaks of the law of the Mother in Proverbs. We must take authority in our homes and find our places as queens. When we get this down pat and get the feminsm out of our souls, then our husbands will respect our places.

The world screams that we are nothing as we are the keepers at home. Do we believe this? If we do, our families will believe it, too.

Ya know, last year, I was talkin’ to our son John on the phone, and he was telling me that his wife had to work for them to make it. But I just kept prayin’. And now lately, I was talkin’ to John on the phone and he says, “Christine don’t have to work. I can take care of our family.” I am so proud of Johnny, and Christine is a wonderful stay at home Mother. And she has so much dignity and virtue.

But I think we wives and mothers have a hard time with knowing our place of dignity and honor before the Lord. We have to understand that we are a precious jewel, a rare flower. Not as we leave our place in God, but as we remain in Him. As we walk out the Bible faith and we submit to our husbands, we become lovely to God and to our men.

It takes a powerful woman of faith to submit to a man that you think isn’t as on the ball spirtually as you are. A lesser woman couldn’t do that … it takes a strong woman to submit to a man. If you can’t give up your trinkets and worldliness to serve the Lord, then don’t think the Lord is going to come to you on your terms. He comes on His own terms and out of His own word, the Bible. He ain’t gonna change the word of God to suit your lifestyle. And if you are just too high and mighty to submit to a husband that you think is beneath you, then you won’t submit to God, either. How can you love or submit to a God you can’t see if you can’t submit to the power He has put over you in the home? If you love Him, keep His commandments. Walk out His teachings in strength and dignity.

A woman who is bent on getting her way has lost her graciousness as a lady and as the weaker vessel. We are to submit to our husbands in order to elevate them and put them into a place to protect us and love and respect us. If we are demanding respect, then we will never get it. We must give and it will be given to us. And our works of righteousness will bring peace.

Isaiah 32:17 “And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effects of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.”

So our work as wives and mothers is in our homes. And when we obey this special calling to work, we will find peace and assurance and confidence. This is our place of protection and peace and assurance as we do our works of righteousness. And we are promised peace and rest for our families, as righteous work brings peace and rest.

We will never be rewarded for doing a good work that we were never called by the Lord to do. And it’s hard to say “No” to many good works. But where is your calling? Where has God asked you to go? Can we stay in order as good Christian Mothers, or will we pull rank continually, popping hither and yon as we don’t know how to stay in God? And when we don’t stay in God, we can’t produce fruit for Him.

Girlfriends want us to run and play with them. And they are nice girls, huh? They mean no harm. But what has God called you to do this day? Yes, have the tea parties, etc. We as women need to visit sometimes — I know I do. But have it all under control when the Lord says to do it. To start your day with the Lord and some friend stops at the door to visit and take up your day because you weren’t doing anything, anyway? No, this is not right and is out of order. Your husband is expecting that normally you will run the home smoothly while he is at work, and that your time and attention will be on the children and home. God calls us to peace. And, yes, we want friends and I love mine. But they have to come when it is convenient for me and for them, not just when they decide to drop in. Even though my children are grown, I have a home to run and I have to walk as an example to my grown children. My ministry is the same, even though I am older. I still have a place of strength and dignity in our home.

I used to tell Dixie on my visits to see her, “Ya know, Dixie, this wisdom you speak of is dynamite and could change the world.” She would laugh and say, “Oh, Connie, most women wouldn’t even give me the time of day. They wouldn’t listen to this.” I would tell her they would love it like I do, but Dixie would not open up or tell anyone about this wisdom.

After Bill left her, she went to work in a day old bread store. She met many people and would pray for many who were healed of different diseases. She had such an anointing of God upon her. But she didn’t share the wisdom of God through homemaking with very many. I wanted her to, as I felt she was so anointed to teach.

Dixie did her best to pipe the wisdom of God to me. I mean, when I got her cornered. But I think there is a lesson, too, in this. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment could have been killed for coming out in the open with an issue of blood. This was against the Jewish law. And the folks with leprosy would leave their places of hiding and run to Jesus as He came by. These folks knew that Jesus was their only answer to life and they had to get to Him. And I was like this, too. I knew that the world didn’t have an answer for me. I knew that the wisdom of God was my only answer.

The wisdom of God is the answer for our families. Read about wisdom in Proverbs. Dixie knew this, in part, and passed it to me. God’s wisdom has changed my life. I am passing it to you, and it will be yet a stronger anointing on you. It don’t come easy. If you want what I have, are you willing to walk in my shoes? The Lord used to ask me this concerning Dixie’s life. I am glad I haven’t lost my family as she did. Still, she had a voice that spoke from the wilderness a wisdom that this world will never know.

And to know this wisdom is a hard thing to understand. It takes seeking and knocking at the Lord’s door. It is the pearl of great price. It’s like losing a diamond in a meadow of wind, and you get on your hands and knees and, with your fingers, you sift through every blade of grass, seeking your treasure. Or maybe it is a medicine in the form of a pill that will save your family’s life, and you sift through the grass, trying to find this remedy to heal your family.

The pearls and the diamonds and the balm of Gilead aren’t just out there in the world, easy to buy at the store. It is found in prayer and learning to lean upon Him and His voice from the wilderness. If ya think you will get wisdom because you went to church on Sunday, you are sadly mistaken. No, it takes a diligence in prayer and worship that comes from your soul. When you want wisdom to save your life and your family’s life, then you will be rewarded with wisdom. If you are willing to risk life and limb to get it, the Lord will give it to ya. He rewards those who dilegently seek Him.

Good Morning to you.

Last evening, Jim had to work. And I had about 10 pounds of chicken thighs and legs in my freezer that were taking up space. I had gotten this chicken on sale for, I think, 39¢ a pound. This summer, the kids were here a lot and so I would have used this chicken right up but with the winter months, I just haven’t used this chicken. Jim ain’t all that crazy for chicken.

But, anyway, I got out my big turkey roaster and put all the chicken in it. Then I put it in the oven with water half way up. When the chicken was all about half done, I took some out for B-B-Q chicken for our meal that evening. Then I left the rest in the roaster and let it cook to make a broth. I put in a lot of onions and garlic. Parsley, celery seed, black pepper and, of course, salt. I let it all cook for about 2 hours with the lid off on a low temperature. Later, I took out the chicken pieces and put them in plastic bags for different meals and put them in the freezer. Then I put the broth in a big pan and put it on the porch to stay cold. The fat will go to the top and I will skim it off and save this to make biscuits or gravy or whatever.

The broth I will use to make a chicken soup or chicken and dumplings or noodles. Jim likes the soup and homemade noodles. But I won’t be able to have this right away. Jim will eat chicken at intervals, but not a lot.

Now, when ya go to use the broth, if it needs some extra taste you could add a can of chicken soup from the store. But the broth is good to use for a lot of things. Like when you make fried potatoes and they are brown but not done? Just put some broth in the potatoes and put a lid on them and let them simmer a bit. Or make a gravy or biscuits with the broth. Instead of puttng in the milk for your biscuits, just use the chicken broth. You could pressure can your chicken broth, too. But in the winter, I put stuff on my closed in porch and it stays good. I will use my broth pretty quick … within a week. But if ya plan on keeping the broth a while, you should either freeze it or can it.

Really, it is better to cook the chicken broth all day with the chicken in it. But I didn’t because I needed my oven space for the B-B-Q chicken I made for supper.

Also, I just fill the water up in my roaster about half way … it barely covers the chicken … and then I don’t put a lid on it. This way, the broth is more concentrated. You need to bring the broth to a boil in the oven and then let it simmer a few hours.

And, ya know, around our area, the ground beef is way over priced. At this time last year, I was buying ground beef for 59¢ a pound. I would go to this one grocery store early in the morning and buy the day old hamburgar that the restaurants would buy if they got there before me. But, often, I beat them to the punch. Now this store has closed. RATS! And now the stores around here are so expensive and the ground beef is almost 3 bucks a pound.

Ya know, I was so happy last evening to cook up all that meat and have it on hand to use. I was frying up ground turkey with the hamburger to make the beef stretch, usually half and half. But even at that, it seems like a lot to spend on ground beef. Most of the things I make for the family has ground beef in it. When I go to the market I tell Jim as we walk through the store, “How can growing families afford these prices?” It breaks my heart when I think of them.

And, ya know, when I had most of my happy brood at home, I think I started out every meal with a pound of hamburger. I made spaghetti and casseroles and chili and vegetable soup with hamburger. Well, it was the cheapest meat you can buy around here. Then when the ground beef went up, I mixed it with turkey and the turkey is only 89¢ a pound or less in our area.

One thing I did is take a big skillet and put in a few pounds of ground beef and a few pounds of turkey and cook this up with a lot of seasonings. Then, after it cooled, I would package this up to use for soups and stews and casseroles. I would cook green peppers and onions in the meat, and garlic and black pepper. This way, it disguised the turkey. But this is fun to make up this ground meat mixture and it comes in mighty handy when you are in a hurry.

I think in our store, the ground pork may be on sale. One thing I have done with this is to buy a pound of hot sausage and mix it with fresh ground pork. This way, you get 2 pounds of sausage for cheaper. Add more of your own seasonings if it isn’t spicey enough.

But, ya know, all of this takes time. And you have to just think of it as a project and go do it.

Also, to make the milk stretch, I mixed my whole milk half with instant milk. And I always made a lot of yogurt and had this on hand. I made it in crocks. I would go to the store early and buy outdated cream and I made the yogurt with cream. I would get the pints of cream for sometimes 10¢ a pint. I didn’t make the yogurt until I got the cream on sale. But I would use the yogurt in my baking. David loved my yogurt and it was so good. Mine was a cross between a thick cream and yogurt. It was very rich and was good on desserts.

I bought buttermilk when I got it on sale and I would make it last for months. When it got down to about half full, I would put fresh milk in it and let it set out overnight on the kitchen cabinet. And this made a quart of buttermilk again. Buttermilk has cultures in it, like yogurt. And, just as you make yogurt from a start of fresh yogurt, you make the buttermilk the same way with a start of buttermilk. Each has a culture in it and when it is set in a warm place it will grow, like yeast grows.

Also, back during the Depression, the old time Mothers used a lot of the canned milk, as it had become popular … they used it in place of cream. And one recipe that came out of this era was a way to stretch your butter. You take a pound of butter and let it go to room temperature. Then mix this with a can of canned milk. Then mix this up with your mixer until it is all mixed together and creamy. Now, I used this recipe a lot and it makes 2 pounds of butter. I had a lovely old time crock I used to put my butter mixture in. And I just kept it in the fridge and took it out for meals.

I tried to just cook and bake from scratch … it takes a lot of time, but it’s worth it. I had to cook and bake for my family. I had no choice. By faith, we had all the 6 children and I knew the Lord wanted us to care for them. I had a lot of anxious moments. But the Lord always pulled us through.

And, oh, I had so much laundry and some of the time, I made my own laundry soap. But, ya know, for your dark clothes you can use any cheap soap? And then, if you want to brighten up the whites, just use the more expensive laundry soap, if you must. But I still use cheap soap for the dark clothes. And for the white socks and underwear you can put in a cup of bleach. But one doesn’t need Tide for dark clothes. If you can afford Tide, it is nice for the colored clothes and the whites. If I see Tide on sale I will buy it, just for special light clothes. And when I could I hung my clothes outside on the clothesline. And in the winter I hung them in the house if my dryer was down. But, oh, those dryers take so much electricity! I just hooked up a clothes line in my dining room and hung clothes on it at night.

And, ya know, around here, catering to the man of the house, I run out of brown sugar a lot. Jim loves baked beans with brown sugar and sweet potatoes. And with the baking of cookies and desserts that call for brown sugar I run out. So this is what I do. I just use white sugar and I put in a tablespoon or 2 of molasses. A jar of molasses lasts a long time for me, and I usually have it on hand. But Jim has never been able to tell that I am using molasses and white sugar instead of brown sugar.

And in the old days, I would run out of powdered sugar. And I would just put the regular table sugar in the blender with some white flour and blend it up to powdered sugar. This makes a wonderful icing for cake. To make a butter frosting with this, just put the butter in a pan and melt it … then add the sugar-flour mixture and stir with milk. It makes a nice frosting. Add about 2 tablespoons of flour to 2 cups of plain sugar to blend it in the blender. But the plain sugar will grind to a powder and it looks like powdered sugar.

I do buy the brown sugar and powdered but if I run out of either, I don’t worry about it. I want to stay home and not be running back and forth to the store.

Another thing I did to get more sweetness to the baked beans without using all the brown sugar is that I added a diced apple to the beans. Jim really liked this dish. I put in the ring baloney, sliced, and an apple, a few onions, the molassses, and the white sugar. And, of course, salt and pepper. The left overs, I put in the fridge and made a sandwich out of this. During the Depression, this bean sandwich was popular, as meat was rationed. So the beans were the protein and not always meat. You just spread the cold baked beans on homemade bread and put on mayo and a slice of tomato and lettuce. This is probably my favorite sandwich.

I love vegetables. And Papa loves baked beans, so we are a team.

I noticed in the new Crowned with Silver magazine that they have a place for writing about ways to lower your food budget.

Many of you young Moms probably don’t have the really big pans to cook with. Ya know, sometimes you can pick these up for a song at the Salvation Army or at garage sales in the summer.

The good enamel pans that you can get from the stove top to the oven are so handy. When you are busy with the children it’s hard to watch the soup on the stove. If you can just take the pot and put it on a low temperature in the oven, then you don’t have to watch it so close. It can simmer in there and be out of sight and off the stove top for a while. I know sometimes I would have a soup goin’ on the stove early morning and need to fix breakfast for the family. I needed my stove top but needed to get the soup done for lunch.

Most of my pots and pans are old fashioned and I love them like that. I have a neat collection of cast iron that I use a lot. And I hate the plastic containers but use the baggies or glass jars to store things in. The big plastic containers I think are so bulky and take up a lot of space.

Last evening, we had Dan and his sweetheart over for supper. We had B-B-Q pork ribs and mashed potatoes and corn.

Then, I made this bread … it was so old-timey and Southern. I made it like a white bread, but added 2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes and a cup of brown sugar and cinnamon. It was a yeast bread and not a quick bread, and I put raisins in it, too.

It made 2 large loaves of bread, and I made round loaves and put them in 2 round cast iron skillets to bake. One skillet was very big and high on the sides. This made a large loaf of bread. I cut this in half and sent a half loaf home with Dan. The halves would have been a whole loaf of bread.

I had to bake this bread for a long time, as it was so moist with all the sweet potatoes and raisins I put in, so I baked it until it was almost black. So it is moist on the inside and the crust is chewy.

I used the liquid off the canned sweet potatoes for my liquid in the bread. I started out with 2 cups of liquid and about 2 packages of yeast.

If you are making up your own recipe, then just remember that a cup of liquid will make one loaf of bread. So, if you have 2 cups of juice or milk you want to use, and you want to make bread, just start out with 2 cups of liquid if you want to end up with 2 loaves of bread. And I use about a tablespoon of yeast for each loaf. Then it takes about 3 or 4 cups of flour for each loaf.

Then, if you aren’t adding fruit to your bread, then add more shortening or oil. But, if you are adding a lot of fruits or vegetables, then add less oil. Usually, you can figure that you wouldn’t add more than a cup of fruit or potatoes to a loaf of bread. Now, I added 2 cups of sweet potatoes and a cup of raisins. But mine made about 3 loaves of bread, give or take.

And, usually, to a plain loaf of bread, I will add a couple eggs. But my bread I made last night had so much in it that it didn’t need eggs, and (I think) I only added about 2 tablespoons of shortening. You need shortening to hold the bread together. But if you put in a lot of fruit and potatoes, then this is like a shortening, too.

But if ya put too much stuff in your bread, it won’t ever get done in the middle. I had almost gone over this line with my bread last night. But, like I said, I baked it until it was almost black. Mine looks like an Old World bread, straight out of a brick oven.

But, ya know, the old time mothers never used a recipe. And they had what they had to bake and cook with. In the winter, like now, they would have been using their sweet potatoes to make bread and pies and cakes. They stored a lot of pumpkin and would be using this for baking. Sweet potatoes are easily stored in a cool place.

Last evening, Jim had to work until 7, and so we all had supper at 7:30. I made sure I had the coffee on and the burner lit. I made my table look like a little table in the woods. I took out the leaves in the table and made it small for just the 4 of us. I had my pumpkin candle lit.

I sliced the smaller loaf of bread and put it on a pioneer plate Papa got me. It is blue and white, and has a log cabin on it with a Mother coming out the back door, and the rest of the family in the front. It’s one of my most treasured plates and straight out of Papa’s heart. Oh, what a dear Papa he is. So rambuctious and carefree at 64 yrs old!

After supper, we all went into the living room to sit by the burner, and Papa had coffee. Papa and me entertained the kids with stories of long ago when doctors told both Jim and me, at different times, that we were gonna die. And we always just laughed. And these are old stories, and the kids remember them well. Story after story of God’s interventions.

The word “Christian” means little Christs, and the Lord calls us Christian Mothers to live a life of self denial. He calls us to buckle our flesh down with His word. He calls us to lay down the flesh and let the Holy Spirit have a free realm to walk in.

And how do we do this? We submit to our husbands. We submit to our callings as Keepers at Home. And, as we are casting down the “I want” within us, the Holy Spirit is free to make a home through us. As we say “No” to our hands and yield our hands to the rightoeusness of the mixing bowl, we say “No” to satan and “Yes” to God.

And ain’t nothin’ good in the flesh unless it is trained by the Spirit. We as Mothers at home need to train ourselves in righteousness. And we do this by bridling the flesh and teaching our spirits to mind God. We stay out of the way so that God can work. We keep our mouths under the law of kindness and we train our tongues in wisdom. We lay down the right to be right. And we cast our lives and our honor upon the cross of Jesus. We lean not to our own understandings but in all ways we trust in God. We understand that our hearts are desperately wicked and easily deceived and we vow to give our lives to our husbands and to God. We trust in Him.

And as we give up our lives, we get them back. As we are free in our whole hearted desire to give it all to our Jesus, He freely gives us His life back to us. And in our brokeness, He enters our souls and makes a place in our spirit that He can use. And in our death, we find life and happiness.

The crucified life is a life who has given up what they want and will live for Jesus Christ. As we train ourselves in righteousness and show that we have a pattern of good works, then the Lord can trust in us and move freely about our homes in power. The old time Mothers understood this. If she didnt have enough meat to go around at the table, then she pretended not to want any. My Grandmother said that her favorite piece of the chicken was the neck. Well, there ain’t no meat on the neck. And I never understood until years later that she was giving the best pieces to her family, and I, too, have pretended not to be hungry when I had all of my children to feed. And this kind of giving up what you want is precious to God and is good for the soul. And every time our husbands ask something out of us that we don’t want to do and we do it for the Love of God anyway? This is so good for us and we should thank the Lord for the opportunity to do it.

And, see, as we give up in the flesh, we glean to ourselves spiritual treasures. If we want the gold and silver of heaven, then we have to give up the love of money here. As the Spirit takes full control of us and we begin to seek the heavenly treasures and wealth of wisdom, the gold on earth will follow. But we must also die on a cross that ruins our reputation and our confidence in ourselves. We die in the spirt and are raised again with healing in our wings. But the crucified life must come before the glory of God is shown.

Ya know, many years ago, I sat on a 3-legged stool, talkin’ to Jim through a screen at the county jail. I said to him, “Jim, I have so little money. Tell me what bill I should pay first and forget the others.” I let this man know that he was still my priest of my home. I had no money to speak of … just enough to get by on welfare. But in my shadows and afflictions, I didn’t give up, and still called my husband the priest of my home. I saw victory coming, and the death I was living was but for a moment and was to yeild a great reward.

Oh, we suffer, yes, and dyin’ comes hard for some of us. But there is no victory wihout the bruised rose. Oh, the crimson stain that washes us white as snow! And the sword in our chest is pulled out by the Master and the wound is filled with a glorious Victory. And we go from the death of self to the Victory again, and we bring Him glory.

And we win many victories upon this earth for Jesus Christ, and yet, we win none until we are willing to go to the cross. Satan tries to kill us, and in this, he builds us a testimony if we are obedient to be risen again. I sometimes don’t want to rise again. It’s easier to just stay laid down and play dead.

Ya know, back in the old days, when I was in more hot water than even now? There was the teaching of living the crucified life, but it ended there. Some Christians who had an easy life would tell me that you had to trust in God, even if you were standing with your hand caught in a meat grinder. I could never figure that out. I mean, it’s easy for them to say, “Trust in the Lord.” They had three square meals a day, and no kids, and a mate that was faithful, and they would tell me when I was every way but loose to just trust in the Lord. They would say, “Well, ya never know what God will do.”

Well, Hello! I am not serving a God that is gonna torment me day and night for 12 years. They wouldn’t tell me that there was victory in Jesus. A Victory on this earth. That I would win the war if I didn’t give up. We don’t suffer so that we can suffer. Just like we don’t go through childbirth so we can go through childbirth. We labor to bring forth the answer to our prayers.

The word of God says in Psalms “I had fainted lest I had believed to see the GOODNESS OF THE LORD HERE IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING.”

And also the word says that many are the afflictions of the righteous but He delivers us out of them ALL. There is victory in Jesus, and we win many battles here on earth to show the world Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And we don’t win souls by our power or by our might, but by His Spirit. He lives in us and we walk out His life. The life of crucifixion and life and victory on earth. We win many crowns, and when we get to heaven, we will gloriously and happily throw our crowns at His feet.

And we learn as true servants and handmaidens of God to do the dishes for His glory. And we pick up that piece of mud in the floor that the kids tracked in AGAIN! And we do it happliy, as we are learning to bridle the flesh with the works of righteousness. We willingly lay our hands to our mixing bowls and our stirring spoons. We lay our hands happily to our brooms and our dust pans. And we sweep and scrub for His glory. And His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. And the Lord looks upon the earth for the faithful housewife who won’t give up. And he shows Himself glorious on her behalf because, in the night, she arose to be faithful unto Him.

And the victory comes in our souls first. We find His peace. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our PEACE was upon Him, and By His stripes we are healed. We serve a risen Savior and not only a suffering Saint.

And the pure white rose is made more lovely and stunning as we see beneath her white petals crimson stains. And atop the whiteness, the dew of tears she has prayed. And the Lord comes and gathers her tears and places them in golden vials. Each tear as a precious drop of gold. And she has written His name in her heart, and He has written hers on His heart. And the mingling of her tears and His blood is her vows to Him. And she is now the glorious bride of Christ. She becomes more than His handmaiden … she becomes one with Him as His bride. She waited upon Him and would not give her oil away. She was found faithful when He came to get her.

And she has shown Him her faithfulness through her submission to her husband and faithful prayers for her children. She would not pull rank out of fear, and stands as the wise virgin, the pure white rose. The anointing Holy oil is in her lamp. She won’t let the world have her oil and she remains faithful in the dark, waiting.

Oh, thank God it’s January! I loved the holidays, but January has always been my month to rest. I enjoy getting my winter pantry in order and getting into some serious homemaking. Maybe I will start a sewing project.

When we homeschooled, the months of January, February and March were our best months for serious study. Our children were always so excited over the holidays from October to December. Then January, the holidays were over and we could really get deep into school studies. Of course, we homeschooled through the holidays but it was very distracting, although fun. But when January came, the kids were more settled in. My home would be very quiet after the holidays until about April, when the children would be thinking about summer vacation. But the cold days of January kept them in and quiet and concentrating. We would read books together and I loved it.

Now here it is January, and I hope to get my notebook out and write down some plans for some happy homemaking ideas.

January is a good time to start tomato and pepper plants inside and to be ready to plant in the spring. We are getting seed catalogs in the mail at least once a week. The old time housewives would start planning their gardens on paper in January. I know I want to grow valerian and feverfew again. We used to start our tomato seeds in egg cartons with nail holes in the bottom for drainage. These plantngs are fun for the children to watch grow. And let then try all different kinds of seeds.

It’s a good month for making soups and stews and homemade breads. A time to relax with craft projects. It’s a time to dream and do fun things with the children at home. Jim used to do the jigsaw puzzles in the winter.

All too soon, the spring will come and all of the activity will start again, and we will be glad for that season in our families lives, too. But for now, it is January. Let’s savor it and stir it slowly. As nature takes its rest and the ground is asleep under the snow, let’s us rest, too.

This morning, I am cooking up hamburger and ground turkey, together with onions and peppers, and bits of celery and garlic. I will use some of it for a vegetable soup for today, and then freeze the rest in baggies to make winter casseroles and soups. I will get out my favorite pan with the red lid and cook away.