pdf of Issacharian Daughters – ID053 – click on link below for correct layout and photos

id037.pdf

Dear Girls,

We have three introductions this week! Here they are:

Ruth Capill
??Hi, my name is Ruth Capill and I’m thirteen. I live on a mini farm in Christchurch, New Zealand. I have a big family with five brothers and four sisters. I have been homeschooled all my life and I really enjoy it. My favourite subjects in school are science and composition. I like reading, writing stories, swimming, cooking, baking, and gymnastics. I love to read missionary stories. When I’m older I would like to be a missionary doctor in Africa. In the last few weeks I have been really enjoying getting the Issacharian Daughters newsletter. They are so good. If you want to email me, my email address is ruthcapill@ihug.co.nz Ruth Capill ??

Kimberly Anne

??My name is Kimberly Anne. I currently reside in Hurst, Texas with my sisters-in-loves family, the Wenneker’s. I’ve lived with them for one year and they have been a real encouragement to me in walking this path of visionary daughterhood. I enjoy being with my sisters, visiting with people, knitting, attending tea parties, and especially cleaning and/or re-arranging the house. I am also enjoying learning new things such as how to cook, sew, garden, and learning to act as a lady.

??My friend Jessie Manteufel told me about your newsletter a couple months ago and they have been of most refreshing to me and Mrs. Wenneker. Seeing that there are other young ladies ‘that are doing things right’ instead of falling to the worlds standard is terrific and a fabulous role model of where I will hopefully be one day.

??Thank you for the newsletters and what a blessing they are to me and other young ladies around the world! I appreciate the time and effort that you and your family go through to do the newsletter and everything else that goes along with it. Thank you! Thank you! Sincerely, Kimberly Anne ??

An Issacharian Daughter

??Good morning Genevieve,

??For awhile now I’ve been meaning to write and thank you so much for your beautiful and inspiring ministry. A couple of times I’ve almost been reduced to tears because I’ve been so touched by what I’ve been reading in the ezines you produce. Thank you for all the hard work you do. It is so wonderful to be encouraged to be all that God intended us to be as growing women. To be graceful with dignity, obedient with humility, kind with Christ’s love.

??I am really very grateful for the stand you’ve made and how you’rebringing a generation of young women with you! I’ve struggled to find friends that are wanting the LORD and giving their lives to Him. I see in you, and in the lives of the people you draw testimonies from, a serene devotion and agorgeous radiance. It’s so beautiful. There is such a depth there! It’s a quiet, but sure confidence. It’s a flowing inner joy. It’s deep contentment. And I want that too. I want that depth of character and strength to be confident in Godly womanhood.

??From the snippets of times we have briefly talked, and the way I have seen you and your sister Charmagne relate to myself and other girls, it has really blown me away. The peace and beauty that is so part of you because you’re truly a daughter of the Lord. I’ve seen, in a fresh and inspiring way, a true example of beautiful woman. And I say beautiful because that word to me, speaks of such depth. It’s not a shallow word.

??When I heard you speak it really hit home to me, especially your testimony on honouring your father [This is the same testimony I sent out with the very first Issacharian Daughters newsletter. It can be accessed at https://hef.org.nz/page/890437] I cameaway from your message deciding to do that. Since then I’ve noticed Dad (and Mum) have mentioned a few times now howhe’sso glad and proudthat I’m asking whathe’d like me to do and how I’m wanting his wisdom and I’m valuing his opinions.

??All of my very close friendseither newly married or engaged to be married at the end of this year. A couple of them have qualifications. I’ve felt so far behind. Not that I am ready to get married at all. It just feels like my peers have all got their next chapter in life concreted and I feel like I’m floundering. I enjoy being at home, but I’d also like to study in design and sewing. I feel though, that the Lord would like me to be right where I am – living at home again, this year.

??So, I went out searching for work. I tried three separate townships and handed out CV’s till I was blue in the face. Nothing has come of it. My dad asked me to take up a voluntary position within his work. I was so upset because I’d been wanting a job that would pay cold hard cash so I could earn enough money to study.

??But as I began to mull it over, I remembered what you’d said – and the life you’ve lived that has illustrated your firm commitment. I thought of a couple of the other young women I have met that are still living at home serving. It is very encouraging to be aware of. I think there is alot the Lord wants to teach me. But I am stubborn and I want to do things the way I’ve planned it. When I lie awake in bed at night, Ifind myself needingto re-evaluate what is of eternal value and what is going to fade away and amount to nothing much if I put all my effort into things of this earth. Character is of eternal value. Obedience and faith is of eternal value. Humility and grace is of eternal value. Not money. Not sweating away to get expensive things.

??What also encourages me though, is that I realize that when God made me, He put dreams and passions within me. And He didn’t put it there to not give it life at all; but to breathe His life in His time! That’s the key, I reckon. And so I have to lay it down, into His hands. And I’ve got to trust that He will lead me as I firstly obey my parents. Which is what you’ve helped to inspire, in a way, through your testimony and sharing in your message, and you’ve consolidated it and nourished it through the weekly ezines. So thank you very, very, very much for your obedience to the Lord!

??May God bless you, your family and the ministry as you are blessing others so powerfully!

??Love and blessings, an Issacharian Daughter ??

There is another part to this letter from an Issacharian Daughter. She recently told me the following:

??Oh, I wanted to tell you…Dad asked me towork in his office (whichI kind of grudgingly agreed to do, because I did have my heart set on getting a real job so I could earn money) and Iworked in the office voluntarily for two weeks. Last week, Dad approached me and said his work would like togive me some money each week as I work in the office. It’s not alot, and I’d certainly be earning more if Iwas “in the world” but it is a start. ??

My experience is so very similar to that of this Issacharian Daughter. I too have found that when we trust in the Lord and live in obedience to Him He provides for our needs! He delights in fulfilling the desires of our hearts!

I would love it if we could all learn for ourselves the wonderful, beautiful love of our Heavenly Father and experience His provision and care in our lives!

All of you who receive this Issacharian Daughters newsletter are more than welcome to write introductions as well. You could tell us who you (your name, general location and a bit about your family) and about your passions. Tell us what the Lord is teaching you or what you have been learning recently. What books have inspired you? What have been your experiences as a visionary daughter?

This next newsletter is an interview with an Issacharian Daughter, Lindsay Schultz. I’ve eagerly waiting to share it with you all for a long time! It is attached as a pdf and the text (without the photos and nice newsletter layout) follows below.

Until next week,

Genevieve SmithMonday, 7 May 2007

Dear Girls,

Interview with Lindsay Schultz

I met Lindsay Schultz in Birmingham, Alabama at a lecture on homeschooling. She had read So Much More by Anna and Elizabeth Botkin and been so encouraged by it as the Lord had already been working in her heart and had brought her home. I was so excited as she began to share a little of her story because her testimony was very like my own. Here was someone who was walking the same path I was on and doing it with great courage. I was thrilled when the Lord made it possible for me to have some time to interview her.

What is your family like? What is your role in your family?

I live with my parents and three younger brothers. My father is really my stepfather. He has been my father since I was 5 years old when he and my mother married. I am so blessed to have been raised by truly Godly parents.

Right now I am at home serving my parents and my family, learning to be content at home and being a homemaker. After two years of college, my parents and I decided I would quit school and stay at home. Listening to Doug Phillip’s CD What’s a Girl to do? helped us to see God’s role for young women. Around the time I came home, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. My mom goes to my grandmother’s house and helps her every day, so I homeschool my youngest brother and do all the cooking and shopping for the family. It has been such valuable training to learn and to experience firsthand all the dynamics involved in homeschooling a younger sibling and to completely run the house while Mom’s gone.

Would you explain what led to this decision to come home?

It’s very long!

I want to hear the whole thing.

Ok. I went from public school then to Christian school and finally homeschool. We changed churches along the way. I began to homeschool when I was in the 11th grade. Three months before I finished high school, I began to work for an insurance company. I worked there for two years. Right before my 19th birthday, my parents sat down with me and said,??We know you like being a secretary. We know you like to answer the phone and talk to people, but you have got to aspire to be more in life. Not only that, you need more discipline, and you need self motivation. You also need to have a career to base your life on in case your husband dies or in case he divorces you. Furthermore, if you want to homeschool your kids, you need to have a degree in education so that the government cannot touch you. ??

Before I went to college, the Christian girls I hung out with were not the best influences in my life in many different ways. They and their families decided that there was no reason for a Christian girl to go to college if all she was going to do was to be a wife and a mother. So they lived at home, but they did not have a heart to serve their families. They also did not desire homemaking skills. They hung out with their friends every weekend, and they had a job outside the home. So we didn’t have a good example of a single young woman aspiring to be a homemaker. And my parents and I fell into this wrong way of thinking.

So I said to my parents,??You’re right. You know I don’t want to go to school. I like being a secretary. I’m very happy where I am. I like people, but I’ll go to school if you want me to. ?? So after much prayer and consideration, we decided I would live at home and commute daily to a local university where I decided to study elementary education. The money I had saved while I was working was used to pay for my education. During my term, I took a full load of classes, did very well and met lots of people. I was even able to stand up in front of a whole speech class and give a gospel presentation. I was in a position to witness to people every day in many ways and on many topics. People were always asking me questions, especially about courtship, since I did not date. It was what a lot of modern day churches and the world would consider an excellent college experience. I had what many would consider great opportunities for a Christian to be a testimony. But at the same time I was exposed to horrible philosophies and terrible teachings that were against my faith. I would come home everyday and have serious conversations with my parents about what I was learning and being exposed to. Every semester my parents would essentially have to??de-program ?? me and correct my thinking because I was becoming so brainwashed by my anti-Christian studies. But that wasn’t the key. That wasn’t why I came home.

After attending university for two years and getting excellent grades, I started to consider getting my masters degree. I also found myself looking down on other girls I knew who did not go to college and were not getting a??higher education. ?? I felt they were throwing their lives away. One such example was at a church conference where I was introduced to a girl named Tiffiny. I started a conversation with her in which she told me she was the oldest of eleven siblings and she helped her mom to take care of them. I replied,??That is nice, but what do you DO? ?? She sweetly answered that she helped around the house doing laundry, cooking, cleaning and helping her younger siblings with school and whatever her parents needed her to do. I was appalled! I thought to myself,??How dreadfully BORING!!! ?? Tiffiny was a very nice girl, but in my heart I felt very sorry for her and thought I was better than she was. I was so glad I was not wasting my life by doing what she was doing. Little did I know that God was working in my and my parents’ hearts. I then attended another church conference where I met the Keen family. Just like Tiffiny, their daughters were homemakers. They and Tiffany continued to show me what single girls at home could do without working outside the home or going to a university and still be content.

As God continued to work on my and my parents’ hearts, we began to question why I was going to college. God helped us to see that I was preparing for a life of failure apart from Him instead of preparing for a life of success by having faith in God (Philippians 4:19). I did not have to prepare for failure: divorce, abandonment, government intervention, etc. I could prepare for a life of success in God’s eyes by trusting and having faith in God alone. This revelation occurred during the summer college break when I was working full time in an office. My boss was an extremely independent and successful businesswoman. She and I were very good friends. We were so close that she desired me to become her protégé and took me under her wing. As my parents and I prayed about whether I would go back to school in the fall, my boss came to me and said,??Lindsay, you shouldn’t listen to your parents. You need to do what you want to do in life. Don’t let anybody else tell you what to do. You are an adult and should make your own decisions. Be independent. ?? So after much prayer and talking with my parents, I walked in the next day and told my boss that I had decided to quit. God used her to show us in what direction He desired us to move. It was NOT God’s will for me to be independent, especially from my parents (Ephesians 6:1). I needed not only their guidance but also their protection. From that day on I purposed to stay home, serve my family and learn homemaking skills (Titus 2:3-5). I have NEVER for one moment regretted the decision we made.

Wow, how exciting.

(…to be continued ??)

Next week Lindsay talks about the messages on her heart, having vision and passion, and the transition from getting teen magazines and having posters of singers on her wall to removing those influences from her life.

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.

pdf of Issacharian Daughters – ID053 – click on link below for correct layout and photos

id036.pdf

Monday, 30 April 2007

Dear Girls,

Interview with Sarah Clarkson ??part 3

Genevieve: Can you talk some on marriage? How you are preparing for it? What are your thoughts on dating/courtship/relationships and how you get from maidenhood to Mrs-hood?

Sarah: I’ve been in a Bible study that studied womanhood and marriage from a Biblical perspective, and the more I look at it, the more I see it as God’s design to bring His Kingdom to bear upon the earth. So I would very much like to get married apart from just the romantic girl-heart in me. I am so excited by the picture that God made of the family, of the husband and the wife together picturing the relationship of Christ and the Church. Just the way that righteousness is passed on from generation to generation. I feel like marriage needs to be protected in our time. It is amazing to me that anybody can question the institution of marriage. It is something that needs to be protected and understood from the point of view that there is a lot being lost and there needs to be real examples of Godly, beautiful, submissive womanhood and strong manhood. So I am praying that God will allow me to marry just because I feel like it is just such an important picture of His grace in our time. I think it is the way that righteousness is passed on from generation to generation.

As to how I’m preparing ??there is a very??Me! Me! Me! ?? mentality in our culture, and I feel that just by being part of my family, I am preparing for marriage in many ways because I’m constantly needing to self-give. Right now I’m trying to cultivate attitudes that I feel will be the same ones I will need as a wife and mother. So being ready to serve. A passion of mine is to bring beauty and happiness into places around me and to really let my words bless others. And so spiritually I just feel like the everyday life with the family is going to be the exact same spiritual preparation and environment I will need for being a wife and mother.

As to the whole dating and courtship thing ??I don’t really know. I wouldn’t say that I have a formula or that there is one way to do courtship or dating or whatever. I have very Godly friends who have dated, and I have very Godly friends who have courted. I will say that I don’t think our culture’s model of dating is at all Biblical. It is not usually blessed, and the relationships that come out of it are not usually based on deeper spiritual issues. My dad always said that he was best friends with my mom before they were married. He always said that it was very important that you become best friends and that that usually happens in a much more natural setting than the very unnatural situation of modern one-on-one dating. So I suppose I’m more for best-friend type of relationships very guided by my parents and in a protected environment.

How does your ministry to girls fit in with your family ministry?

To me it is like what I have to say to girls is like a natural outpouring of my parent’s ministry. I am the example of what my parents teach, and so whatever I am is however much integrity they have because I picture what they have taught about discipleship and child training. So as I grow up, I am really desiring to stay close to God, and my ministry is very tied up with theirs because I’m the fruit of their labour. As I minister to girls, a lot of what I’m saying is what my parents have taught me. It is the discipleship which was poured into me that I’m pouring into them. I do speak at some of my parent’s conferences, and I speak to the women. A lot of the ministry that I do happens side by side with my parents’ ministry. I’ve been very discipled by my mom. As she has ministered to and discipled other women, I feel like she is my model for discipling other girls. To me it is all tied in together. It is the heritage of righteousness in my family. It is not that it is that separate, just that it is a continuance of God’s calling on our lives. Now He is calling through my parents on my life. I’ll probably end up teaching the same things my mom is teaching me when I’m married.

Lets end with a discussion on beauty. You have talked about beauty a little during our discussion. Doesn’t beauty just minister to your heart? But when you go out into society, you see women wearing such drab clothing.

Yes and you go into drab homes which have no sense of celebration or tradition or richness.

It is like emanating out from them is a sense of duty but also of a lost joy. I’m exploring this whole area of femininity and womanhood and beauty.

Oh! See this is one of those whole areas that I would love to write about! There are so many women who want to be good. They want to be Godly but our whole culture is so poverty stricken in some areas. But Godliness doesn’t mean no colour or no music. I just want to tell people that if God is in your life, if the spirit of Christ who created the world is in you then your very life should be more colourful and more beautiful and more full of music and joy than everybody else’s because God is in your heart. Beauty is so spiritually nourishing and encouraging. It does something to you when you walk into a beautiful room, go into a beautiful place or you see a beautiful picture or someone has put on some beautiful music or you see someone who has dressed beautifully. The way Christians express beauty outwardly in their bearing and manner, smiles, dress and homes says something about the spirit of God in them!

I did a study once with a very, very wise old woman on womanhood. The study covered five aspects of womanhood and the last aspect was on the glory of man which is basically that woman was made to picture responsiveness to God. Man pictures the initiating love of Christ towards the Church and the woman pictures the Church’s very responding love. When you talk about femininity and beauty, the very softness, even the way you dress ??it is the qualities of the bride. What we should be picturing is Christ’s bride?? all the time!?? in the feminine ways we dress, in the way we speak, in our beauty and our love and our softness

Being a very intuitive type I love the idea of living out a picture. I’m not just doing this because this is something someone told me to do. I’m picturing what it looks like to be lovely and responsive to an initiating and powerful and wonderful God.

Wow. When you were saying that we are the picture of responsiveness I was thinking that when God initiates we respond with joy and thankfulness and, you know, I just think colour!

Yes and music! Laughter! Beauty! Dancing!

This is wonderful! So we can learn how to radiate and how to put out on the outside how we are feeling on the inside. We can match those things together.

Yes there is no reason to look drab.

When I look at the Proverbs 31 woman it always strikes me so forcefully that she wore scarlet and purple and rich fabrics.

Yes. Every time I hear it I think,??That is the picture right there of beauty. ?? She is bringing this richness to her life.

And we can strive towards that sort of beauty. Not that we necessarily have to be beautiful. That is not what it is about. It is about making things beautiful.

It is that our lives are beautiful. Our lives picture beauty. Many of the Godliest women I know, if you walk into their homes, you are surrounded by this sense of beauty. There is this intangible loveliness and grace to their lives.

When I think of getting married I think of making my home into a bastion of Christian culture.

Yes. I really hope I do get married because I so want to picture that in my home. I want the opportunity to have a Christian home that is a refuge, that is the place in the midst of a very cold world which pictures God’s grace, which is a haven of righteousness, where people are being raised who will take His light out into the darkness. I can still have that as a single woman but I would love to have that with my husband and children because it is such a complete picture.

Yes. Because right now you can help in your father’s house. But one day you can be the queen of your own domain! How exciting!

I just wish our interview could go on forever and ever, but I’ll end it there. This has been so exciting to talk with you. Thank you so much for your time and for all you have shared.

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

Genevieve SmithIssacharian 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.

pdf of Issacharian Daughters – ID053 – click on link below for correct layout and photos

id035.pdf

Monday, 23 April 2007

Dear Girls,

Interview with Sarah Clarkson ??part 2

Genevieve: You are the oldest of four children. What sort of input have you had into the education of your siblings or in discipling them?

Sarah: I have been really delighted in the last couple of years through some different circumstances because I have had the opportunity to have some times with my siblings. When my mom was working on this one book, I just decided that it would be a great time, an opportune time, for me to have some time with my siblings. I was in charge of their homeschooling, and we read many books together. One of the first things that I did when I was 13 or 14 where I was in charge of their homeschooling was that we read Kidnapped together. Every week we would take a set of tea ??the boys had mugs and the girls had teacups ??and we would light a fire and we would all pile on the couch and read Kidnapped. Sometimes we would act out the scenes and do stuff like that. As I’ve grown older, I’ve begun to see what a stewardship I have as an older sister, and I’ve tried to be systematic. I did have that aim when I was homeshooling when I did a lot of reading. We did a lot of fieldtrips together. We’d listen to music and books on tape in the car. We had long discussions and we’d go to bookshops. It just fostered a lot of conversation. And then with Joy, who is my youngest sister, I’m trying to start to have more of a spiritual influence. We’ve done some books together ??some devotionals. We have one day a week where we go out and have some hot chocolate. I’ve really tried to make those times real conversation starters and to tell her that she is a princess and to give her a sense of what Biblical femininity is. So that has been exciting for me!

Did you go to university?

No. It doesn’t mean I’ll never go, but I am doing my university studies by correspondence because I feel like at this time of my life it is more like what God would have me do. I’m traveling with my parents around the country. I’m working on another book. For me to go to full-time university right now would not be productive. I just have a real hesitancy about putting myself in that situation, unless I really felt like God called me to it.

What made you decide not to go to university?

I would like to challenge people to think about whether or not they need to go to university. There is such a mindset of just following the cultural norm. Especially in the United States where I live. I see a lot of kids graduate from high school and then just go to university. There is a part of me that wants to say,??Wait. Stand back. Is this what God would have you do? ?? I feel like the years that I have been out of university traveling with my family still a part of the family unit, being given an opportunity to do some study and soul searching, to discuss, to travel, I feel like it has given me a much bigger picture of life than just going to a class and putting myself in the company of a lot of influences that I don’t necessarily feel like I need. I feel like my education that I’ve been pursuing through books and these older mentors is as good, I really believe, as a university education and probably much better. I have friends in university, and I’m happy for them and glad for what they are doing, but I feel very confident in the path I have chosen to not be in university right now.

Has not going to a Christian school or college ??has this influenced your social skills?

Well, now that depends on your definition of socialization because if socialization is only being with kids your age all day, then well I guess I haven’t done that. But, oh my goodness, I always want to laugh when I get this question because I feel like I have had such a wide opportunity to meet people of all ages including my own. I have some great friends, and I’m involved in some wonderful classes and groups with kids my own age. But the opportunity to also interact with my parents, with adults, with their friends, with older mentors, with younger children: if anything homeschooling expands your ability to be well socialized, to be socially mature and socially capable, able to meet people, to be in any situation and to enjoy any person. I feel like homeschooling has expanded my ability in this area, not confined it in any way whatsoever!

A lot of homeschooling girls right now are thinking about the role of a daughter. What are your thoughts on this?

It has really been a blessing this year. I have worked as an administrator for our ministry, which means that I basically work with my Dad at the office. It has really been enjoyable to be part of his vision. And the last three or four years I have been an assistant to my Mom. I feel like it has been a great blessing to be in a position where I can be mentored by my parents. A lot of people have encouraged me to move away from home. My grandmother took me aside when I was 17 and said,??If you don’t move away from home by the time you are 18, you will just be weird. ?? Thinking about it from the position of a daughter, I feel like having the guidance of my parents’ years and being so protected by them has been such a wonderful blessing, and I really feel for people who don’t have that kind of view. I’ve loved working with my parents. I feel like that is part of the heritage that my parents have passed on to me and that that is the goal of parenting and homeschooling in general: to pass on a passion for Christ and ministry. So for me to work with my family, it is just who we are. It is part of who I am to be part of this. I always see myself as part of my family. I don’t see myself as a separate individual. I am my own individual, but I am part of my family. That is where God has placed me. This has been a really rich time of my life to be able to work for my Dad as an administrator, to be able to help him there and to help him in ministry and also to travel with Mom and be her assistant and to be able to encourage people with her and help her in that. I think very much it will influence how I live my life once I marry and have kids and am older.

Talking about marriage, are there any particular things you are looking for in a future husband?

Good grief. You have no idea how idealistic I am do you? [Laughs.] The first thing of course is the most important and this should be obvious that he have a heart for God. I would qualify this by saying that for me his heart and his passion in ministry would need to be one that I could follow. I feel like it is so important for marriage to have a shared vision. We would need to each have a maturity in Christ separately and together and also a shared vision for how we can use our lives together for God’s Kingdom. There are so many idealistic things I would have on my list for my future husband, but as my mom says, he has to like literature, and he has to like traveling; but I guess I can take what God sends! I was in England last year, and I had a pastor take me aside, and I barely knew this man, but he knew my background, and he was also a homeschooling father, and he said,??Young woman, I just want you to know that you have a huge stewardship. Don’t you dare marry anybody beneath your level because if you do, you won’t be able to have the ministry that God has called you to, and you won’t be able to do great things with your life. Don’t you dare marry anybody just because they come along. ?? So I guess that is in a funny way my criteria. I always felt like God would bring me an Isaac. I don’t know that it is my role right now to go out seeking marriage or looking for the person but that God would bring in His time a person that I could complete and that I could enter in this man’s ministry. So I guess just a heart for God, and it wouldn’t hurt if he was taller than me since I’m pretty tall, and it would be great if he loved books and literature and extra nice if he enjoyed long conversations over something hot!

Just thinking about the fact that??to whom much is given, much is required ??, can you talk about the responsibility you feel because of what your parents have given you by home educating you?

I feel such a stewardship. The older I get, the more I look at the people around me. I look at the people I meet in everyday life. I look at my upbringing and family. And I think,??Lord I don’t deserve this. I have been given an incredible blessing. It is nothing that I have done or deserve, and yet I have this, and it is like having a jewel or a treasure in the midst of a poor and desolate time. I think the more we see our culture going in the opposite direction, the more we who have this knowledge and were raised in these beautiful and loving homes have this stewardship to teach this to other young women in our generation, and I feel like young women’s hearts could be captured even before they are married, if they could have this ideology in place, that it could affect whole generations and whole multitudes of people. I just have such a passion to both encourage homeschooling parents in what they are doing and to say from my point of view as a graduate of homeschool, and I would also call it a graduate of a Godly home, that I treasure every bit of what my parents have poured into me, and I see its value in this time. And I want to teach other girls, and I want to encourage parents, and I’m looking forward to doing it with my own children.

What are some of the things that the Lord has been teaching you recently?

It is amazing to me how easily cultural messages creep into our thinking without us even knowing it, and I have been doing a study of both Proverbs and Psalms. I’ve been doing a Psalm a day. Several things I have been impressed with in my quiet times lately are just how blessed the righteous are, but how much this has to be a choice. And how much God desires us to seek this path which is a narrow path. It is so easy to compromise in even small ways in life in things I watch or see or in ways I allow myself to act. I have been just reading and studying in the Bible the way of the righteous and that God calls them to it and that He blesses those who follow it. He delights in those who do, but that it has to be chosen again and again. And even I who have grown up all my life pretty committed to these things, I have to make conscious choices every day. The second thing is that I have really learned a lot lately, and this is a hard area for me, but I’ve learned a lot about how to be a servant of Christ. I would like to be the idealist leading the way, but I don’t necessarily want to be the servant sister or the servant daughter in the home or with other people, and I think I’m just learning again the model of Jesus washing the disciples feet. He was constantly laying His life down for the redemption of others, and I’ve begun to see myself as a fellow redeemer; but redemption always, usually demands suffering of the person bringing the redemption. Just learning for me again to bring every minute of my time before the Lord and saying,??Lord, just use this time to do your thing and for your glory. ?? Of course I don’t always think that. I wish I did. I think I’m just being drawn to use a Lewis phrase,??Further up and further in, ?? every day into His Kingdom and His way of life minute-by-minute, not just day-by-day.

Will you homeschool your own children?

There is no doubt. I can’t wait to homeschool my own children. It would give me an excuse to read all the books that I don’t have time to read right now. There is no doubt in my mind. I guess I’ll call it the richness of soul that I feel like I have because of the books and the whole atmosphere of what I grew up with. There is just no other way to give this richness to a child unless the parent is with them all the time pouring in, experiencing life, ministering together, traveling, having devotions and praying. I feel like I’m so rich in my soul that there is absolutely no doubt in my own mind that I will homeschool my children. I’m looking forward to it very much. I feel like it is such a gift from God to be able to pour that type of richness into my children’s souls.

(…to be continued ??)

Next week Sarah talks about marriage and beauty.

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.

pdf of Issacharian Daughters – ID053 – click on link below for correct layout and photos

id034a.pdf

Monday, 16 April 2007

Dear Girls,

Interview with Sally Clarkson

Sally is, first and foremost, a full-time, stay-at-home-schooling mom. Her life revolves around her four wholehearted children: Sarah 22, Joel 19, Nathan 17 and Joy 11. These were their ages at the beginning of 2006 when I interviewed Mrs Clarkson. In addition to her ministry to her family, God has also given her a ministry to other families and to homeschooling mothers through speaking and writing. She and her husband Clay wrote the homeschooling classic, Educating the Whole Hearted Child, and they operate Wholeheart Ministries (www.wholeheart.org) from Monument, Colorado in the USA.

Genevieve: You homeschooled all your children. What key pieces of advice can you give as a result of all your years of experience?

Mrs Clarkson: I think that the most important thing for a mother to do is to have a quiet time. Read the Word every day. Spend some time praying over your children. Read good books. I haven’t had many mentors, and so I have read a lot of books about spiritual people and by people who have really caused me to love God more. Any book that I can have in my life that makes me want to be more Godly, to love God more, is excellent because our children are drawing from our heart; and if we have an empty heart, then we will have nothing to give.

What are some good books that you would recommend for parents to read?

There is a book called Hints on Child Training. Read that and any book by J C Ryle. He wrote a great one called The Duties of Parents. My husband has a collection of books written by J C Ryle which he has obtained from all over the place!

What are some other books that you could recommend for Mums or Dads or even for young folks who might read this interview?

I do love the writings of Edith Schaeffer for women, for mothers. There is What is a Family? and The Hidden Art of Homemaking. All of us have read L’Abri numerous times. It is just a great picture of a life of missions. I am really enjoying an author just now called Eugene Peterson. I love the writings of C S Lewis and of Richard Foster. I have enjoyed some books by Phillip Yancey.

You mentioned not having many mentors. There are probably lots of homeschooling mums out there who were in the same position but who are coming out the other end of homeschooling and beginning to think about their Titus 2 responsibilities. How do you view your work now as being part of your role as an older woman?

I often think that God uses people who are available more than He uses people who are spiritual, because if He uses me, it is mainly because I’m available! I really do think that a lot of the women in the homeschool movement are leaving and going on their merry way when they are through with their children. However I think that the Biblical pattern is for us to comfort those with the comfort with which we have been comforted, to teach them, to instruct them, to encourage them. Even though I didn’t have mentors and I didn’t have a lot of family, I wish that I had. It would have made my life a lot easier. I do feel like God wants women to step up to the plate and do this. It is kind of why we wrote all of my last few books, Seasons of a Mother’s Heart, Mission of Motherhood, Ministry of Motherhood, with a Bible study at the end of every chapter. We wanted to make it easy for women to gather a group of women around a coffee or tea and to be able to read a chapter and discuss it or have some Bible study questions. Not all women are confident or feel like they are speakers, but I think that all women who walk with God are competent to create an environment where the Holy Spirit mutually encourages them through each other’s friendship. So I do feel passionately about the importance of older women encouraging, loving, praying for younger women and being a part of bringing the word of God to bear in their lives.

Now you have a couple of daughters. Tell us about being an older woman in terms of your daughters. How has Titus 2 influenced your training of them?

My girls are my best friends. My training of them has been through discipleship, through living together and through having them alongside me through all the aspects of our home. Sarah is 22 now and is just an incredible picture. She decorates beautifully. She writes beautiful books. She brings life wherever she goes. She brings beauty wherever she goes. I’ve heard it said before that discipleship is best taught when caught. But I don’t think that is true. I think that discipleship is best taught and caught. She needs to hear the words, and then she needs to see me acting them out. It is both instruction and living the life together. I feel like my girls are my best disciples.

Your children are beginning to come out the other end of homeschooling. How has this changed or molded your view of homeschooling?

I think that homeschooling and launching your children out in the world is just another part of the path of faith. There are no guarantees. I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know how they are going to end up or who they are going to marry or if they are going to marry. I just see that it is a time to enjoy them; to trust God and to know that He will be there every step of the way. I think that we always want a formula or a list or closure. I don’t think God ever gives it. Every day is a walk of faith.

What encouragement can you give to mothers who still have a ways to go to see the fruit of their labours?

The more you homeschool and love your children and discipline them, the more you realize how it is just a natural part of God’s design, and your children become your best friends and you see these great ideas and talents and things in their souls that you can’t even take credit for. It is like the verse in Proverbs which says that the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter until the full day. Homeschooling is like that. When you watch the sunrise you see tiny evidences of it at the beginning, and then it starts filling the sky, and eventually it is throughout the whole horizon. I feel like it has been like that for us homeschooling in that the more we just learn to love as a family, become friends and live life together, I just saw so many more tangible results than I ever thought I would. And it wasn’t about school. It was about life.

What ways have you found to balance schedules, nutrition, exercise, etc., for yourself and your family?

We have a saying in our family that you can only have so many ideals at once, so you need to make sure that the ideals you can have are the right ones. The Lord first. My husband and children next. But I realized that I needed to take responsibility for my health so that I could be the best I could be long-term. Somewhere along the way I began exercising more, eating the right foods, drinking water. I learned that it was more important for me to get enough rest at night than to finish drying the last dish.

What are your main messages? What are the things on your heart that you like to share with people as much as possible?

The more they know God and fall in love with Him and relate to Him every day, the more capacity they will have in every other area of life to do a good job. When their soul is informed by Him, then they will be more creative, more energetic, more wise, more trusting in every other area. I like to speak on how to walk with God.

Sarah is finished with her homeschooling. But probably not with learning! What is your training/discipling focusing on now?

I have to say that I’m more of her companion than her trainer. She has become one of the most spiritual people I know. She has become my best friend. We advise each other. I try to come along beside her more as a spiritual companion to encourage, to validate, to give insight, to listen. Pretty much our training in a way is gone. She has absorbed so much of who Clay and I are and what our lives are like. I feel like she and I are almost like mirror images. I advise her because I’m her mother, but I don’t really have any goals for training for her anymore because she is such a complete adult.

How did your work in discipleship ministries with the young women at the University of Texas help prepare you for your training of your own daughters?

I think the most important thing I learned when I was on staff with Campus Crusade was the importance and the benefit of having a plan and setting goals and then training my goals in very specific things. Knowing that I could accomplish a lot more if I could define what it was that I wanted to accomplish. So Clay and I use a calendar. We use planning goals. So for Joy I say,??Lord, what does she need to grow in? ?? So the years I had in planning other leaders I learned that I needed to be very specific about exactly what it was that I wanted to do, and the more strategic and specific I was, the more I accomplished my goals.

Would you be willing to share more about your goals you have had for your daughters?

I wanted them to become mature disciples of Christ. My husband and I summarized our discipleship plan with the word GIFTS. It stands for Grace, Inspiration (viewing everything in terms of God’s Sovereignty), Faith, Training and Service. I hoped that my daughters would become really mature in graciousness, understanding God’s grace and really relating to others because I think that unless a child learns to relate in a mature way, they can’t really share Christ. They can’t be a good wife. They can’t be a good friend. So I really focused on developing a child who was socially gracious: loving, mature, serving. I wanted to give them a real sense that they were called by God and that in their lives they had a stewardship to bring His image to bear, to be a Kingdom Keeper so to speak. I wanted them to say,??Lord in the few years that I have on this earth, what do you want me to do? ?? And of course I wanted to give them a foundation of faith and to give them convictions and wisdom and to show them how to walk by faith and to give them a godly character, to give them the training so that they would know how to work hard to be diligent, to be trustworthy. I wanted them to learn how to serve. I wanted them to have experience in learning how to communicate in front of people. All of my kids have to do that regardless of personality. I wanted them to know how to teach a Bible study, how to be hospitable and cook meals, how to be a good wife and know how to encourage people who were discouraged and just that whole picture of learning to serve and love in different areas. Even beyond that, that they would also know how to create a wonderful life-giving creative base. Both of the girls are great at creating beauty and tastes and sounds and beauty and life. Look at them sitting over there. They are both so talented. I am just amazed.

Can you talk more about bringing an understanding of God to our children?

One of the greatest Bible studies I did was on God’s attributes. One of God’s attributes that I have been aware of and loved recently is His transcendance. So I teach my children about God’s attributes. I teach them that He is transcendant. That means that He is with my boys in Colorado while He is with me in New Zealand. It is that incarnational living. It is that Christ in me is living out in every aspect. Some areas that I don’t think people emphasise very much are that God created the senses of smell, taste, touch, hearing and sight. So I really would point out that the first thing about God that we know is that the Bible says,??In the beginning, God created. ?? He is the Creator; of beauty, of pleasure, of love, of fun, of good meals, of tastes. He created chili peppers and fish and corn chips and papaya! I have tried to make Him real. Not just in theology. Within His creation. And within His Scriptures. When we have devotions, we dramatise them. We read the Scriptures passionately. We read them with fervor. I just really wanted my children to know that God was incarnate in them. That they were to be the hands of God, the voice of God, the touch of God. The more I could make God’s attributes, His presence, His creation a real thing in their everyday lives, then they would learn to relate to Him in a more personal way.

You are an introvert at heart and yet here you are with this speaking ministry. This looks like the sanctifying work of the Lord in your life. Do you have any comments about this and what the Lord can do with us when we give ourselves to Him?

One of the things that is missing in Christians’ lives is that most people don’t feel a sense of stewardship for the world. From the time I became a Christian, I had this sense that what I knew, I was responsible to share with somebody else. There are a lot of times where my husband and I would rather sit at home and drink a cup of tea and read a good book and never leave the house or at least just go on a long, wonderful trip together. We get drained a lot of times by traveling and speaking together though we love people. The thing that really keeps us going in ministry is seeing people’s needs. An aspect of Christ’s heart is that when He looked out on the multitudes, He felt compassion for them. As long as we see needs and feel compassion for people, it is the love of God that drives us to keep doing this, because we are pretty individualistic, independent, introverted at heart. So I do think it is that drive that Jesus had to go into the world, seeing needs, to be a steward of all that I know that keeps us working rather than giving up to that desire to stay at home drinking tea and reading our books.

This has been a treat to hear your answers to these questions. Thank you for your comments and for sharing so much of your life with us in this interview.

You’re welcome.

Sally Clarkson’s books can be obtained in New Zealand from Christian Education Services by calling Carol Munroe on (09) 410-3933. The Duties of Parents by J C Ryle mentioned by Sally Clarkson in the interview can be obtained from me. Email me for details.

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

Genevieve Smith

Issacharian Daughter

pdf of Issacharian Daughters – ID053 – click on link below for correct layout and photosid034.pdf

Monday, 16 April 2007

Dear Girls,

Interview with Sarah Clarkson

Sarah is the eldest daughter of the homeschool speakers and authors Clay and Sally Clarkson and Sarah herself is the author of Journeys of Faithfulness. I conducted this interview at the beginning of 2006 when Sarah was 22 years old.

Genevieve: Sarah, you have been homeschooled all your life. Can you describe this experience?

Sarah: Oh, I am one of those who loved my experience so I am very happy to! My parents’ philosophy was??whole-book ??, so from the very earliest days we were read to?? hundreds of books! My mom raised us with a love for reading. And we also traveled a lot because we grew up in the ministry. And so I got to see a lot of places as we were reading about them which was quite an experience. I graduated from homeschool after doing all the basic things, so that by 16 I could have two years to really focus on my passion which was writing. My project during that time was to publish a book, which we eventually did through the ministry. I just feel like my education of traveling and reading and just the way I was raised ??I just feel like I have been given such a gift with my education

The book you referred to must be Journeys of Faithfulness?

Yes!

You had that published at age 17?

I did!

Can you tell us what made you choose that particular topic for your book?

I think there is such a need for girls in the homeschooling community and also in the Christian community for encouragement. When I was about 15 or 16 I started searching for great Bible studies specifically for my age and for my genre of girls, and I was amazed at how little there was in the field. There were books like, My Life as a Smashed Burrito. And those were some of the highest callibre titles I could find. Or there were books which focused on things which I didn’t think were spiritual issues in my life, but were more cultural ??nothing that was for growing spiritually in God, walking in the Holy Spirit, getting character qualities ?? So my role models became books, much older books from around the turn of the century and also the Bible. So when I got to age 16 and was really desiring to write and also to encourage girls, and I had gone through a season of loneliness and knew many friends who had also been lonely and who just really needed encouragement. I thought,??You know, if women in the Bible are mentors, then they could be people who through books could mentor other girls. ?? So I decided to really study the lives of four Biblical single women: Ruth, Esther, Mary of Bethany and Mary the mother of Jesus and see what character qualities they had and how they were used by God in their young womanhood and singleness, and then to be able to model my life and to be able to give other girls models on which to build their single lives. That was the inspiration for Journeys of Faithfulness.

I have to say, I have had the same experience looking around for Bible studies for girls and that is why when I came across your book I was so excited. Now what advice can you give to other girls who are keen writers?

I think the first piece of advice to give is to read as many great books as you possibly can. A lot of people have come up to me and said,??What curriculum did your parents use to make you love writing? ?? And we didn’t use any curriculum. It was very much a life-giving, a very life-based approach. I read hundreds of books. I read C S Lewis. I read all the classic children’s books. You know, Little Women and Anne of Green Gables and too many than I could possibly name! As I got older I read classics and Dickens and Shakespeare and George Elliot. I think that seeing the excellence of writers like that first gave me the knowledge of what good writing was and helped me to have something to model my writing after and to really emulate. I would compare what I wrote to other passages and say,??Well, maybe I should change this. ?? So first of all my advice is read very widely. Then let me tell you what a mentor writer once said:??Every writer should write every day just to keep themselves in practice. ?? So I try to journal every day: journaling and writing stories whenever they came to me and character sketches. Also I just love to write about my quiet time. This would be good especially if you are wanting to do devotional writing. Just beginning to write what you learn from God or prayers on your heart is a good way to begin.

Did you have to rewrite your book lots and lots of time before it went to the publishers?

I had no idea what I was getting myself into! None whatsoever! I had no idea of the amount of work writing was. I think I had an idea of sitting in a window seat with a rainy day and a cup of tea writing down beautiful thoughts and then sending a manuscript away with a rose tucked in the string. In reality it was trying and searching,??Ah, how can I start this chapter! ?? and going back and cutting out most of it except for keeping the second paragraph and then re-writing that. And then I had an editor, and she made me re-write whole other portions. So I have no idea how many times the book went through re-writes, but it was many, many times!

And what we have is an excellent final copy which shows all the work which went into it! Well, I was wondering what doors or avenues the book has opened for you? In ministry or to talk to people?

First of all it has given me wider contact with other girls. Ministry is about coming into contact with people. So just the fact that more girls have read the book now gives me the ability to speak. I had some opportunities to encourage girls in a public way about this and to do some Bible studies and to speak to some small groups of girls. It has been very exciting for me. I have a friend just outside of Paris; she is a missionary there, and she is using it with her group of missionary kids in the area that she mentors. It is just exciting to hear about where people are studying the book, and I have begun corresponding with a lot of girls. I have heard so many stories. Being able to correspond with a lot of girls has been a surprising blessing, being able to share stories and encouragement and to hear what they are doing. And being able to share publically about it and seeing others respond as they say that it encouraged their girls. There is such a dirth of role models and Godly young women in our time that it has been exciting to be able to put myself out there as an encouragement to them.

And when you speak to girls and minister to them, what are the messages, what are the things on your heart that you specifically like to communicate?

Oh, there are so many things, so many passions on my heart! I think there is so much that I have been given in my family, and so some of my strongest messages I would love to give girls would be an understanding of God’s call upon their lives and how He comes into every area and how it affects their families and their femininity. I feel like we live in a culture that directly rejects almost every ideal that I would probably embrace or hold. I would really like to encourage girls to walk really closely with God, to pursue Him as the first passion of their life. And from that first starting point of having a daily walk with Him of learning what it means to be a disciple and to walk in the spirit and to search scripture every day, I feel like the next messages would be that I would love to teach about femininity and the importance of beauty.

Ok, so my deepest passions before God. From the first I think that there is very little understanding of true discipleship in our times. So from the foundation of really spending time in the word: I recently did a set of goals that I wanted to do, and one of them is that if I want to be a woman of God, I have got to be in His word every day. Just knowing it for myself and loving it. Once I have spoken on that and laid that foundation, I would go on to several things. One of them is the value of beauty. Women are created to reflect this as a glory to God. Beauty is not something that is valued by our culture. Or femininity. There is such utilitarianism. The modernism is so stark. I feel like the homes that women can create, the environments can reflect Godly beauty ??it is what I call incarnational living. We bring God into our hearts and lives and then literally incarnate His creation and His ideas and His beauty and His love into our environments, into our homes, into the books we write and the lives we live and the ways that we dress, the people that we talk to. Another passion of mine that I would love to give to girls is a love for learning and for books really. I would love to introduce people to some of the great ideas of other times. There is just not a lot of knowledge about it! I would love to speak some day about literature and just how richly it has blessed my life.

Would you like to talk a little bit about that now? Maybe tell us a little bit about some of your favourite books?

Oh sure! I am just passionate about the written word. I am a writer, so I am naturally just passionate about it. Especially during my lonely time. When people are so far apart geographically, to be mentored by great minds and to have friends and books have been such a companionship to me in my life. And such mentors. Some of my very favourite books are anything by C S Lewis, any of his fiction or non-fiction. I really love George MacDonald. I’ll do authors! It is much easier. I am always amazed by him. They are stories?? his novels?? but they really are theology at base. I just really love reading them because it is theology in story form. G K Chesterton. His books, Orthodoxy or The Man Who was Thursday. Anything by Dickens. Dickens had such a good insight into people’s characters and lives. I’m giving quite a hodge podge! Elizabeth Goudge?? a British author who I have discovered in the last couple of years. I love her portrayals of home. Oh, that is another thing I want to talk on some day: the importance of home and family! Oh! There are so many things!

My spiritual influence through books has been C S Lewis, George McDonald, Richard Foster who wrote Streams of Living Water and The Celebration of the Disciplines. Another spiritual author who I really love is Eugene Peterson. So many others, but those are some of my favourite authors in that list right there.

(…to be continued ??)

Next week Sarah talks about the role of daughters, marriage, beauty and lots more! See the Issacharian Daughters newsletter??ID034a ?? to read the interview I did with Sarah’s mum, Sally Clarkson. In New Zealand you can get Journeys of Faithfulness from Christian Education Services (www.cesbooks.co.nz). In the USA order from www.wholeheart.org.

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.