Monday, 6 November 2006

Dear Girls,

Issacharian Daughters

Earlier this year I organised a Titus 2 party. I invited a number of older women and younger women to a dinner and discussion on the loving our husbands aspect of Titus 2v3-5. The older women came and taught and exhorted us younger women on this subject. It was a wonderful evening. One lady could not come but wrote something out to encourage us younger ladies. She is the mother of one of the girls who receives this email newsletter and agreed to let me include what she wrote in this Issacharian Daughters Newsletter. I am thrilled to be able to share it with you — some great teaching on loving our husbands and being submissive to them. From the North Island of New Zealand she writes:

It is in giving up ourselves that we gain so much more. How true are the words from Matthew 10v39, “He that loses his life for My sake shall find it.”

I come from a rebellious and self-centred background. Years of my marriage had been spent in outward submission while inwardly my heart was in rebellion. My seething pride robbed my actions of any virtue in God’s eyes. God doesn’t look at the outward appearance of submission, He looks at the heart. The Lord had been trying to teach me this in many areas of my life — the importance of heart attitude — when it all came together for me in the small matter of hand washing.

My husband is a fastidious hand washer, and I grew up in a family where such things weren’t an issue at all. For many years I would be offended when he asked me if I’d washed my hands or my feet (I go barefoot a lot). I would do lipservice to his wishes. When he asked me to wash I’d let a drop or two of water fall on my hands so they appeared to be damp, and showed evidence of having been washed despite not being the case. Why my pride held up over such a foolish matter I still cannot comprehend.

God began to reveal to me the deceitfulness of my heart. I found myself being convicted to be fully obedient rather than deceitful when my husband asked if I’d washed my hands. As time progressed I found myself thinking of times when my husband would have wanted me to wash my hands and even though he hadn’t asked I began to be obedient to what I knew was his will. Such a small area of my life and yet one which I firmly retained my will over. It has not been so difficult to resolve the bigger issues as the smaller ones in my particular walk. I seem to have struggled more with those sins that are seemingly insignificant, that no-one really notices.

My humble exhortation to you ladies (both wed and not yet wed) would be this: learn to yield every area of your heart to the Lordship of Christ. Seek to be faithful to Him even in the small things. Practice yielding your will, dying to self and practicing submission with the authorities in your life be it your husband, earthly father or perhaps brothers. I have found practicing these things to be much more testing than nodding agreement to the principle. Being submissive to a fallible human whom the Lord has placed in authority over me is a test of my obedience to the Lord’s command on my life. The faithfulness we exercise in this area is a reflection of the love we give our heavenly Lord and our earthly lord and husband.

The softening of my heart which has occurred as I have learnt to truly submit to my husband’s authority has been beautiful. The hard shell of protecting myself and my right to choose my own actions has broken. As a result of this I have found living water from the Lord afresh after many years of desert. Yet again I find that the purposes of God are for good in all things that He brings into our paths and if we will only trust Him and be faithful in our calling, He will direct our paths.

What an excellent exhortation for us girls!

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. 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.