Family Economics Confernce 2011

Family Economics Conference with Kevin Swanson

March 11-12, 2011
Raleigh, NC

I'm excited about attending this conference and learning all we can about thriving in social and economic decline. Registration is now currently full, but you will be able to order the messages from Generations with Vision.

Here's some information about the conference from the conference website:

For six years, Generations with Vision has produced the Generations Radio Broadcast, addressing social, cultural, economic, and political issues from a distinctively Biblical perspective. We have chronicled the decline of the family, faith, freedoms, and the economy in America and the West, all the while building healthy, happy family economies out on the eastern plains of Colorado (a safe distance from the decline of Western Civilization). We are hopeful, outrageously optimistic, and incredibly blessed with fruitful families who love God and worship Him in our homes and churches. We hope and believe the 2011 Conference will play a role in salvaging our families and economies for the generations to come.

Here's a partial list of the topics to be covered at conference:

• Unemployment: What to Do When There's Nothing to Do
• The Proverbs 31 Family
• What Every Family Should Know About Starting Their Own Business
• A Vision of Victory for the Family
• The College Paradigm and the Family Economy
• How to Train Your Son to be Financially Prepared for Marriage
• Sacrifice or Slavery - Building a Christian Community for the Hard Times

Sounds great! I'm excited!

My husband first heard Kevin Swanson at a Vision Forum Father and Son retreat about 4 years ago and we have listened to his broadcasts since then. You can hear his daily broadcast, Generation with Kevin Swanson, anytime on SermonAudio.com We've learned ALOT from Kevin Swanson from listening to his broadcasts. The wide variety of broadcasts are very informative in regards to current events, like minded ministries, raising our children with vision, biblical worldview, etc. Kevin is very passionate and can be funny, too. We all enjoy hearing the broadcasts and highly recommend that you tune in on sermonaudio.com and hear his present and past broadcasts.

Daughter of Mine

Another free slideshow design by Smilebox

The Lord has allowed my daughter to reach her 12th birthday last month.

My daughter is precious to me. As a young lady, I dreamed of the day I would have my own little girl. I would buy little things like frilly bonnets to save for the daughter I believed I would one day have. My husband and I were delighted to find out during my second pregnancy that I was carrying my longed for baby girl. She has truly been a gift from God who was gracious to give me the desire of my heart. My daughter is the middle child between 3 brothers, all who love their sister.

My daughter is a faithful daughter. She is strong in her faith and convictions and takes her life as a child of God very seriously. I'm so grateful when she asks me, "Mom, am I doing better in this area of my life, or that area, etc." She willingly works along side me in our daily chores. She loves all things feminine and gives great importance to growing in the graces of a lady. She truly is a blessing to me. May you be blessed, my daughter.

A Weekend Just For Us

On our way out to the NCFIC Marriage Retreat. More to follow...

The Greatest of these is Love

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy;
love does not parade itself,
is not puffed up;
does not behave rudely,
does not seek its own,
is not provoked,
thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never fails.

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.

I Corinthians 13

A True Wife

A true wife makes a man's life nobler, stronger, grander, by the omnipotence of her love, turning all the forces of manhood upward and heavenward. While she clings to him in holy confidence and loving dependence, she brings out in him whatever is noblest and richest in his being. She inspires him with courage and earnestness. She beautifies his life. She softens whatever is crude and harsh in his habits or his spirit. She clothes him with the gentler graces of refined and cultured manhood. While she yields to him and never disregards his lightest wish, she is really his queen, ruling his whole life and leading him onward and upward in every proper path. -J.R. Miller

What a beautiful and inspiring words. What a lovely picture of a "true wife," and one that I want to emulate. To think that the Lord has created me as a help meet with the ability to inspirit my husband's manhood upward and heavenward with my life is truly amazing. This is most certainly a "high calling!"

Love

This month love is exalted and commercialized with the approach of Valentines Day. I will be posting a daily quote or two about love. The greatest Love being God Himself and in reference to the holy institution of marriage that He ordained.

Recently one of our Elders once stated that marriage and children are the two things that the Lord uses to sanctify us. Marriage allows us the opportunity to put aside our own selfishness in order to be a blessing to our spouse. Marriage is a picture of Christ and His Bride. Christ laid down his life for the Church and Christ is the head of the Church to whom she submits. My husband and I are newly discovering how this beautiful representation of marriage applies to our own marriage.

Marriage is often times not easy and when you do things your own way, it can be downright hellish, but when we follow God's ways it can be heavenly. We see the result of following our own ways by the thousands of broken marriages all around us. How sad this is, when by simply following God's pattern our marriages can be filled with joy and be an example to our children and a blessing to those around us.

Quotes by R.C. Sproul:

To submit to anyone less than Christ is difficult in a marriage. Yet it is Christ who commands women to be submissive to their sinful, fallible husbands. In this sense Christ is the silent partner of the marriage. It is hard for a wife to submit when she disagrees with her husband. But when she knows her submission is an act of obedience to Christ and honors Christ, it is much less difficult.

When the New Testament speaks of the church's glory, it is speaking of its dignity. By analogy, the husband is called to give himself to the purpose of establishing his wife in the fullness of dignity. When he uses his authority to destroy his wife's dignity, he becomes the direct antithesis of Christ. He mirrors not Christ but the Antichrist.

Where We'll Be This Weekend

Much to my delight, the Lord blessed my husband and I with the opportunity to attend this Marriage Retreat this weekend. I am so excited to be encouraged in my marriage and learn all that that I can in regards to the future marriages of my sons and daughter. Update to follow...

Jesus Christ is Everything!

Jesus Christ is Everything - Paul Washer from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

My family and I were introduced to Paul Washer & HeartCry Ministry two years ago at the Sufficiency of Scripture Conference put on by NCFIC,whose Director is our elder, Scott Brown. Paul Washer's ministry and his messages have impacted our lives. The last week of the year 2010 and the first week of this year 2011 my husband had us all watch his videos posted on Heart Cry's Ministry website. We especially loved his teachings on the gospel and watched them several times so we could confirm in the minds of our children (and our own also,) what the Gospel is and what it isn't. The video entitled "Shocking Youth message," is also one everyone should watch. May Jesus Christ be our EVERYTHING and may we bear scars for the Gospel!

"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." Zach 13:9

How beautiful are those whose trust in a sovereign God surpass and outweigh life's trials, pain and suffering. My prayer is that the Lord give me joy in every difficult situation that He chooses to bring to my life knowing that my Redeemer is refining me, removing all dross, so that I may reflect the perfect image of Christ.

Joni Erickson Tada wrote the following a couple of months back:

I ran into some people over the weekend who are still stymied as to why a good God would allow cancer on top of my chronic pain and quadriplegia. But it's no mystery to me. “The cross God sends is a cross that He understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for the person to whom He has given it,” as one writer put it. The Bible puts it this way: “All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering” (II Thessalonians 1:5). When it comes to the cross you daily bear, join me in agreeing that God's judgment is right. The cross you shoulder is not one inch too large nor one ounce too heavy, for the Lord especially hand-tailored it so that Christ's kingdom might be advanced through you. That alone is the highest of honors.