Our prayers are an influence in our home...

No one can intercede for the man of God, pray for his protection from the "destroyer" or set the mood by prayer like we can. This is spiritual warfare, and the battle is on for our husbands, our home, our families...
"Happy the man, called to go forward in any pathway of faith, who has in his life-companion ony sympathy and help....frail in health and only twenty-eight years in age, Mrs. Taylor's... hands were full with the care of four young children, yet from the moment she learned of her husband's call to the great, the seemingly impossible task of evangelization of inland China she became in a new way his comfort and inspiration. Her hand wrote for him, her faith strengthened his own, her prayers undergirded the whole work and her practical experience and loving heart made her the Mother of the mission..." -Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret
"Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses." (Neh. 4:14)
Our families have souls, let's fight for them in prevailing prayer today!

Priorities...

My God-given priorities are these: (in order of importance)
1) My relationship with the Lord
2) My relationship with my husband
3) My relationship with my children
4) My home
5) Other activities
After making sure the Lord has my day and my plans agree with Him, that He has the preeminince in my day and that I am spending time at His feet I should be giving my husband the attention he deserves.
Remember the old tv shows where you could see that the entire home was run to take care of dad? The chair, slippers, a hot meal almost ready, the clean, shiny home--all there for dad who was working to provide the needs of the family.
Today's media ridicules that notion and the woman who runs her home and honors her husband that way is mocked and ridiculed by the mainstream media. That's all right. Heaven has always wanted the woman to minister to her husband and family and if God is pleased we shouldn't care what the world thinks. To be friends with them is to be at enmity with God. (I Jn. 2:15-17)
Every so often I have to do a rethinking (renewing my mind) on where my priorities are and how I'm doing on meeting my husband's needs. My flesh is not concerned about this so it takes the Holy Spirit reminding me. (and sometimes my husband's irritation!)
OK, so it's check-up time. It's not the big things, it's the little things. The first question I ask myself is--"If my husband could change anything about me right now what would it be?
I usually immediately can think of a few things that need adjusting in their importance for me.
They aren't big, they're usually small things. You know, how much time I'm spending with other people instead of him (and yes, that includes the telephone, computer and tv).
Or making sure that he doesn't have to ask questions like "Are we having a meal around here tonight?" or "Do I have any __________ clean in this house?" Those are questions that the seasoned wife should see to it her husband never, never asks.
Every man has his little frustrations. Am I making sure that they're removed? My husband's is having to pick his way through anything on the floor. He doesn't care if the dish drainer is loaded but he does care if he can't get through the living room because John has his matchbox racetrack from one end to the other!
I have found that the more I've been consistent with running this household as the "KING of the House" wants it, he is more concerned with making sure the queen has the equipment she wants (not needs) and the more often he is standing at the sink with me helping with the dishes so he has me to himself in the living room or on the front porch sooner! It pays you back!
If you asked your husband this morning, "What can I do to help you today?" What would he say? Are you scared to ask him?
The Proverbs 31 woman is my ultimate role model. I've worked at emulating her for 36 years now and I still don't have all her skills down--but I'm sure working on it! She had won her husband's heart! "the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.". Can your husband honestly say that he can safely trust that you won't do one thing today to spoil (make him a prey, a victim, ruined)him? Is he proud of you or embarassed? Is he proud of your housekeeping? Does he feel like he's first in your life or is he running against your friends, your children or even your church?
I am commanded as an "aged woman" to instruct the young women to love your husbands. (Titus 2) I am watching young women making their husbands worse than an infidel (by trying to be the breadwinner of the home), of competing with their husbands in ministry (by thinking they are to have a ministry outside of being his wife, the mother of their children and the keeper at their home), ruling their husbands, (by always knowing better what should be done concerning everything!) and spoiling their husbands (by talking about him, correcting him, neglecting their duties while doing his).
I heard Eleanor Page say one day something to this effect. "Why don't you young ladies learn from the strange woman in Proverbs? She had everything prepared for the man she was going to seduce, she ran out to meet him and told him she had good things waiting on him inside, she was excited to see him, she made him feel good about himself.
Now Mrs. Page made it clear she was up to no good, but she knew how to get him! So today--why not take some time with the Lord and prayerfully ask Him what you need to "lay aside "that's weighing down your being the wife God designed you to be!
I can tell you this--every time I do this the fruit I reap from it makes me know that it's "a good thing".
"teachers of good things"
Titus 2:3b

Love,

Mom

Very white shirts for hubby!

When I was a young bride my grandmother loaned me her "Hints from Heloise" book. It was love at first reading. I hung on to it and regularly promised my grandma I'd return it (someday) and used many, many of its tips. I ended up giving it back to her just a few weeks before she died and never saw it again.

I would give anything to have it now, not only for the sweet memories but also for its practical, everyday, very reasonable tips. Many times it rescued me when I had no money but plenty of little problems to solve. I remember her tips for how to hang laundry allowing me to have line-dried clothes that actually looked good! I did this from March to November in Indiana. A considerable savings! I also used a cheap cleaning solution made with ammonia (very cheap) to scrub my floors. I remember being so pleased with the results on old, old tile floors. I recall getting mildew out of some clothing after searching the book for a solution. As I remember I used sour milk and sunshine--but that's been a long time ago!

Today I guess Martha Stewart would be considered the homemaker's guru if you wanted a solution. (However, she's a little pricier in her solutions.) About once a year I buy a Martha Stewart magazine and it's her issue that has practical how-to's in it. I always save that issue as a reference book in my library.

One year she had an article on how to get your white dress shirts (well, I think she said white clothing in general) very, very white. I tried it and it works! It can be a little frightening when you get the shirts out of the dryer and they are heavily wrinkled, but a good steam iron and spray starch and they are crisp again.

So.....here is a my version of how to get hubby's white dress shirts (make sure they are cotton!) beautifully white again. You will not believe how dirty the water will be as they are soaking and if you do it without mentioning it to him he will ask how you got them so white. (Well, some men won't notice, but they're the same ones that don't notice if they've shaved or if their shirt tail is in or out!:)

1) Heat two gallons of water over high heat, and bring it to a boil. (This is a lot of water so you might want to use two pans for lifting later.)

2) When it comes to a boil, turn the heat off and let the pan(s) sit for about five minutes.

3) Have a dishpan or bucket of some kind in your sink and carefully pour the water into it.

4. Add 8 oz. of powdered oxygen bleach. DO NOT use chlorine bleach and don't do this while your pan is on the stove. It will bubble and foam. Be sure you stand back. Stir it with a wooden spoon to mix it all through and get it dissolved.

5. Add about 3 white shirts to the bucket of solution. Make sure they're completely immersed in it.

6. Let them soak. Stir every once in a while and keep them in the solution till the water is cool enough you can get the clothes out comfortably. (I usually do it in the morning and let them sit most of the day.)

7. Drain the solution off and rinse each shirt well with clear water.

8. Launder them as you usually would.

They will come out pretty wrinkled from the dryer. Just give them a good steam pressing and then press again using a spray starch.

Also, I made the mistake of putting a shirt in that was more polyester then cotton and it took up the dirty color of the water instead of releasing it! I have done shirts with a little polyester or another fabric and they do fine for me.

I use laundry time to pray over my family as I fold or hang up their laundry. I also love making my husband pleased with always having clean clothes in his closet and drawers. It makes him even happier if he sees me go the extra mile to make his clothes look their best, even if they aren't that new!

I cherish the books I have when women found their greatest joy in planning meals, shining windows, setting a pretty table, making a special meal or desserts, and washing her family's clothing. I read and reread my books where the homemaker wrote them with pride and encouraged other homemakers in their domestic role.

As a keeper at home I want to do a quality job. I want my family to have sweet memories of their mother making home a wonderful, wonderful place to be. I hope this will encourage you as you serve the Lord in the domain He chose for us!

Breakfast Time...

I love breakfast meals. They are a wonderful way to start the family's day. The Proverbs 31 woman believed in them too. She actually started hers before the sun came up. I've not reached that goal in following my #1 role model yet! :) However, my family does eat a hot breakfast more than not.

I love fixing overnight casseroles, biscuits and gravy, (that's a special day), bacon, eggs, and toast, scrambled eggs with cheese melted on them with Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits, meat, eggs and waffles or pancakes, coffee cakes, and the list could go on and on. Mmmm..breakfast.

Today we had some delicious bacon that smelled like maple syrup, (Thank God for UGO and it's wonderful surprises at 99 cents a lb.!) Then I fixed fresh country eggs and I sliced up some rapidly-going-stale sourdough bread and dipped it in eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon and fried it up in the bacon grease. It made some of the best French toast this family has ever sunk their teeth into. You know you did good when the kids thank you more than once for breakfast.

So, if you don't cook breakfast why not make a plan to just cook breakfast twice this week? Plan on making the presentation so nice that even if hubby doesn't normally eat breakfast that he'll decide to set down and dig in!

Family time is so sweet and the meal table is the best place to start drawing them together. Take every chance you get to gather your family around delicious homemade food.

On a regular basis (probably at least once a day) I ask myself what memories I want to leave my family. I want them to associate me with meals, my kitchen, an apron, the sweet aroma of good food, and a table that always draws them home. I have had more than one man delivering a package to my door tell me "Something sure smells good in there!" Food is a key to a man (and your family's heart). Use it to draw the family together and to the Lord!