Dear Girls,

Welcome to all of you who have subscribed to the Issacharian Daughters newsletter over the past few weeks. It is wonderful to have you join us!

To give a little bit of history: I began the newsletter late in 2006 at the encouragement of my parents, Craig and Barbara Smith, and under their oversight. At the time, I was living with my family, helping my father in his ministry, assisting my mother in the home, preparing for marriage, working to strengthen my family and disciple my siblings and build relationships with younger girls in my church. My desire with the newsletter was to provide encouragement and exhortation to young ladies at home and even to provide an opportunity for the young ladies who receive the newsletter to get to know one another through the introductions they would share. You will find many introductions online at http://www.issacharian.com and are also welcome to email an introduction to me to email out with the newsletter.

In July 2007 I entered into a courtship with a young man by the name of Peter de Deugd. You can read about this courtship online on the Issacharian website in one of the past newsletters. We married in February 2008. Just before the wedding I put the newsletter on hold while I settled into married life. When I commenced sending it out again about a month ago it was with a report about married life and an announcement of a wee blessing on his (or her!) way!

I was requested to do a series of newsletters focusing on my wedding. You said you were interested in what we did and how we did it and why we decided to do it that way. Well, thank you for this interest! This series on the wedding has started already. The next one is here in a pdf. Click on this link: id084-wedding-ceremony-part-2 And the series will continue for a little while still. While these newsletters do tell you about the wedding, I hope to also weave in other topics of interest such as modesty, Titus 2 relationships with younger girls, the blessing of sisters and more.

Thank you to those who wrote to me about the Abortion Law Reform Bill 2008 which was due to be voted on by the Victorian Parliament here in Australia during the past week. It was voted on and did pass. This means that it is now possible for women to abort their children here in Victoria, Australia from conception to birth. At a time like this I’m reminded of something a wise man once said to me, “A nation can be blessed, even when atheists are leading it, if the remnant is faithful.” May we remember this and seek diligently to be faithful to all that God requires of us.

Warm regards,

Genevieve de Deugd

Website: http://www.issacharian.com

Archived newsletters: www.issacharian.com/?page=daughters
or here: http://hef.org.nz/category/issacharian-daughters/ 

Comments

Name: Samantha LaGoy

Message: Dear Genevieve,

Thank you so much for your site! I too have a similar site where I also try to encourage single girls. I came home just this past year, although I guess the world would have considered me “already home.” I had a home based sewing business, and was sewing just about full time. It started out as a ministry, but soon took over my life. I soon found myself getting very independent, not able to care for my family or further my father’s vision because I was so caught up in my “own” vision. You know, so often Christian singles think that they are “safe” with doing a home business, but you know Genevieve, you can end up with the same problem as if you were out there in the work force. Your focus soon leaves the role that God gave you as a helpmeet, furthering your man’s (whether your father or husband’s) vision. You can get into the same pit fall of becoming independent…you have your own money, you have “your” schedule to meet etc. Especially since coming from a large family (I am the third oldest of 15…I’m 24) there is just so much that we are supposed to be doing that we just can’t do if doing something like this on the side. As I have told so many girls, if you can do everything that God has called you to do as a daughter and still do something on the side, be my guest, but you have to make sure that you can fulfill both roles. And for me this was impossible and before I even realized what was happening, I realized that I was drifting far from where God wanted me to be. I had left home, although in person I was still home. It so hurt to hear my little siblings running up to me and asking me “Samantha, can you come and play with us?” or “Can you come read to us?” or even “Can’t you leave your work for just a few minutes and come swim with us? You never have time for us anymore.” Oh, how that hurt and drove the point that God was trying to drive home, home. It was true. I was busy off doing my own thing. But I realized then that what I had so wanted to become, I was far from becoming. This was my preparation ground and a time that I would only get once, and yet I was wasting this precious time that God had given me. This precious task of singlehood that God blesses us with is a time that only we can meet. There are things that God wants, no needs, us to do, that if we are busy doing something else, we are neglecting these very things. Yet, these are things that only WE can do! Ah, yes, singlehood can be such a blessing if spent in the way that God has ordained it to be spent.

I want to tell you what a joy your site has been to me, especially in light of your age when you married. Sometime it can become so discouraging, especially when people look at you and ask how old you are and then add the “And you aren’t married yet?!” at the end. =) I had always wanted a large family, so seeing myself hitting my mid-twenties was kind of hard, yet at the same time, I am so at peace about waiting for God’s chosen one! I have loved my single years of being able to serve others, and the way I look at it, it is God Who has chosen how many children I will be blessed with, and that number won’t change just because I am getting older. I have really had to surrender that to Him over the years. Yes, I would love a large family. I love my family more than anything. But you know Genevieve, God may only bless me with 1, 2 or 3 children, and He also may choose to withhold children from me and either way, whether it is 25 or none, I have to learn to be content wherever He has me, however many children He chooses to bless me with. I would much prefer to wait until I am in my thirties or forties before getting married if it means being in the center of God’s will! It is so worth the wait…and because I am in my mid-twenties, I have been able to also encourage so many other girls through this time, like you have also been able to encourage me on. I can’t tell you how many of our friends have gone into the world simply because they turned 18 and had no man attracted to them! It is SO sad! It is not us who bring or attract a man, it is God bringing a man to us in HIS timing and we cannot simply stop serving Him because it didn’t happen when we had wanted it to. And Genevieve, how can anyone think that a man, an earthly man, will make them content? If they are not already content in Christ, how can they possibly think that just by marrying a man, that they will all of a sudden be “content”? It just won’t happen, even if we marry the best of men. No earthly man will ever be able to meet each and every need and desire that we have. God and God alone will be the only person who will be able to do this. They aren’t perfect, just like we aren’t perfect. This is one reason I felt so led to start my site, Virtuous Daughter’s, as I just saw so many of our younger friends falling for the world’s passions and desires. I saw so many girls just so down and discouraged. If there is even only one girl that God will use my site to encourage her, it will have made it so worth it.

God bless and may God continue to richly bless you as you strive to become the helpmeet to your dear husband and may He be with you and your precious little one and bring this dear little one safely into your arms in the appointed time!

In Christ,

Samantha