ID073-Testimony to a Changed Heart

Dear Girls,

The next newsletter is attached id073-testimony-to-a-changed-heart.pdf and the text follows this note.

Regards,

Genevieve

I am still collecting blogs and websites and details of any ministries you are involved in!

Last week I mentioned that I had noticed that many of you who receive the Issacharian Daughters newsletter are also involved in ministering to or encouraging or exhorting other young women in other ways – such as through a newsletter or a magazine or a website or blog. If that includes you please feel free to send me an email giving me the name of your newsletter or book or website along with a quick paragraph with your name and location and a piece explaining the vision/purpose behind your blog. Lord willing I’ll compile a list and share it with all the other Issacharian Daughters.

Letter of Introduction

Dear Miss Smith,

My name is Rachel Gill. I am twenty years old and have been receiving your Issacharian Daughters newsletter for around two months now. I always look forward to reading it and find it very encouraging. I usually get it on a Monday – what a pleasant way to start the week! Thank you for being so faithful in organizing it and for dealing with such important issues.

I am still very much discovering what it means to be a daughter and how I can best fulfill my role, but I am loving (almost!) every minute of it!

My journey down this less-traveled path probably began in earnest when I read So Much More by the Botkin sisters. At the time I was living with my sister and her family (she was pregnant). I had just withdrawn from teacher-training college after attending for one year. While I was there I became convicted regarding the necessity of Christian education so imagine my delight to find that the Botkin sisters addressed this very topic in their book! I could also rejoice that I was living with my sister’s family, who had four boys aged five and under – how good God is! At a time when He was challenging my views on what it means to be a woman, He placed me in a situation whereby I could learn practical skills. I am the youngest of three children and am the only one at home, so although I have plenty to keep me busy, my role is a little different.

It was shortly after I arrived home, about four months ago, that I discovered Issacharian Daughters and so was able to receive weekly encouragement. It is so wonderful to think that scattered around the world are young and older women who are determined to live their lives by God’s standards.

As I have already said, I am still discovering more and more about my role as a daughter and a woman – how often when I challenge some of my own assumptions I find that a worldly perspective motivated it – there is so much deprogramming to go on in my life! I rejoice that there are other women who have walked and are walking the path before me whom I can learn from.

Thank you once again for your faithfulness and hard work in producing the newsletter and for the interview that you did with/for the Botkin sisters.

May God bless and guide you,

Sincerely,

Rachel Gill, Northern Ireland, UK

It is always lovely to receive introductions from those of you who are receiving the newsletter. If any of you would also like to introduce yourselves feel free to email me and tell me a little about yourself (such as your name, age, a description of your family and where you live and your aspirations for the future and your passions and interests. You could even share what the Lord is teaching you at the moment).

Monday, 14 January 2008

Dear Girls,

Testimony to a Changed Heart

A reader of the Issacharian Daughters newsletter sent me this amazing letter which is a testimony to what can happen when a daughter desires to obey God and honour her parents.

Dear Genevieve,

Happy New Year! I hope that this email finds you very well and finding joy in the Lord. I just wanted to send a note to you to thank you again for running Issacharian Daughters and to wish you all the best on your upcoming marriage to Mr Pete de Deugd. I am excited for you and may God greatly show Himself great in your lives and ministry!

Since receiving your first newsletter last year I think the Lord has worked big changes in my heart. Through His faithfulness God has provided divine strength to keep me diligent in taking on housekeeping responsibilities and keeping me from becoming discouraged. His Word is good. I have been reading a number of other books about God’s glory, and He has provided me with wonderful mercy because I now approach my quiet-time with a longing to meet and adore Him there.

I have also been more actively pursuing my parents’ wisdom and influence in my life. Knowing how right it is before God to pursue sound and loving instruction from the authorities placed in my life (despite the manner it’s packaged in) has led me to persevere in faith, and my mother and I have enjoyed many very blessed times together as I have enquired of her wisdom. I reflected the other day, while serving my mother joyfully, that I feel I can say (despite my brief period of experience) that I have merely tasted the way of the Lord, and it is good!

Regarding the calling of a young lady to prepare for a godly ministry in the home, I have found it difficult in times past to convey or defend a point of view unpopular with the majority. But in actively sharing my inadequacies, thoughts, heart burdens and joys with my parents, I have come to receive a love unconditional. Sharing my new findings and what I have learned with my parents has become natural, and it has led me to experience a greater awe than I’ve felt before for the many admirable qualities of my parents and the mercy of God for blessing me in my situation.

I read a little while back that it is human nature to run to extremes, taking a single motto and holding it as truth as a systematic blueprint for every situation in every life. This of course precludes being needy and asking for wisdom and strength from God. In my situation I
struggled heartily with the idea of finishing my degree as were my parents’ wishes. I abhorred it as contrary to the practice of the normal home-oriented young lady, convinced of its ability to waste time and youth and (“utterly”) conducive to the downfall of any aspiration to womanly excellence or at least proficiency. After struggling a long time in a difficult situation, God finally convicted me of the idol that I had made this matter of His ‘revealed’ will for my life (in comparison with his direct and obvious command to honour my parents). Am I so mighty and righteous as no longer to be under the command of God? In his mercy God accepted my repentance. By His grace there was no serious change in my grades, and he turned my heart back to my parents (and theirs to me!). By His grace he spurred me on and encouraged me, with multiple successes, that I could learn and actively seek out new housekeeping skills, without fear of failure, because all failure directs us back to the whole trusting of the heart in Jesus Christ’s glory, providence and sacrifice and not ourselves.

God has answered my prayers for the relationships in my family. He has provided me with wisdom (partly through your ministry), patience and grace to encourage and support my father in his stressful work. God has continually convicted me of my pride and disdainful looks, but the superiority of God’s wisdom is shown markedly. I am learning to truly respect and admire my parents and make them look good from the outside. When I think of all the good they have done me since I was a baby and the shame I have brought upon them, it fills me with shame to think how ungrateful I have been. Everything I have received from their hand was a merciful and undeserved gift of God. Therefore I am completely indebted to both them and God for their constant love and care and effort in looking after me continually.

Genevieve, thank you so much for the resources that you publish periodically. I just wanted to let you know that God is working dramatic changes in my life and your ministry is having a significant effect.

With much affection and love,

Katherine from New Zealand

Katherine welcomes your emails and is keen to get to know other Issacharian Daughters in New Zealand. To contact her, just send an email to me.

For the Greater Glory of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,

Genevieve Smith

Issacharian Daughter

Notes:

I have sent this email to girls who have embraced a vision of victorious daughterhood as well as those who may be thinking about doing so (and even to some girls who may just like some encouragement regarding different areas of home life). Some of the girls are in the USA, UK, Australia and other parts of the world. Most are in New Zealand. You are welcome to forward this email on to others so long as you do so in its entirety. If you do not want to receive these emails please just send a return email to me stating that fact. If you know of other girls who would be encouraged by receiving these emails, feel free to forward the email to them or send me their email address.

The name Issacharian in Issacharian Daughters derives from Issachar, the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the Old Testament the men of Issachar were commended for understanding the times. Because they understood the times, they knew what they should do. One of my aims with the Issacharian Daughters newsletter is to equip girls to understand the times we live in so that they will know what to do.