Sugar Rose

Back in February was when I got my horse, Sugar Rose. I just love her; she is so sweet and gentle. I've wanted a horse ever since I was little. Just when I was content with not having a horse, the Lord gave me the desire of my heart. It even came in the right color. I had wanted a brown horse with a black mane and tail and that's what the Lord gave me. She was the perfect horse for a beginner like me.

 When we first got her though she was really sick with worms. She would fall asleep when we were petting her. The kids could run around her and she wouldn't get scared. Even our dog tries to bite her tail and she won't kick him. Our dog Bo drives us crazy some times and at this point we're thinking, " Go ahead and kick him, we give you permission!" :)

 One time as we were taking her from the stall to the paddock, she just layed down right in the middle of the driveway and wouldn't get up. We thought she was going to die right there and we had just bought her.We gave her some medicine for her worms and she just perked up. She started doing better. She was still just as gentle as ever. I haven't been kicked or anything but I have been stepped on a couple of times. It hurts!

There is a big difference between us riding her and the little ones. When the kids ride her she goes real slow ans does real good with them, but when us older ones get on her she just wants to pick up and go.  

A couple months ago our vet came over and said that she wasn't doing good. If we didn't start feeding her a special diet and she didn't pick up weight, then one day she would lay down and wouldn't have the energy to get back up. That was a surprise to us. We thought she was doing good, because when we first got her she was really sick and we thought she was doing better. And I was going to sell her because I had been paying for her feed and wasn't able to pay for her anymore. Our vet, Dr. Miller, said that if we couldn't pay for her feed anymore that we could try to find somebody that could because we wouldn't be able to sell her. But my sweet Daddy said that it was our responsibility to take  care of her and that he would pay for her feed. Dr. Miller showed us the feed we needed to buy, along with the alfalfa cubes and hay. So began the not-so-easy process of fattening up a horse. It is more easy for a horse to lose weight than to gain it. We also learned the meaning of eating like a horse for she definitely eats like one. :) We spent  a lot of money on her feed to get her to fatten up. There wasn't any change for at least two weeks for it is hard to get a horse to gain weight.

                                                    So here is the Before picture:

                                                               And the After picture:

                         
                                                   She  looks so much better doesn't she?

We were going to sell her since she was so much better. I was kind of sad but also thankful that God had fulfilled my childhood dream of having my very own horse; even if it was just for a little while. Little did I know that I would get to keep her for even longer.

 A lady in our church, Mrs. Cynthia, who owns a horse and boards it in Lake Butler, asked one Sunday if she could lease Sugar Rose by paying for all her feed in exchange for being able to come over and ride her whenever she wanted. Her horse was a little spirited and hadn't been ridden much in awhile and we were closer to her anyway. She is such a sweet lady. I was so excited with the idea of being able to keep her!

So that Monday Mrs. Cynthia came over to teach me a few things about riding and also got to ride Sugar Rose herself.  She loved Sugar Rose and said that she was so calm and gentle. She rode her down the dirt road and a car came past really quickly and Sugar Rose didn't even get spooked.

I hadn't really ridden her as much as I had wanted because I was a beginner and wasn't confident with riding yet. However, after Mrs. Cynthia helped me, I felt so much better with riding her. I was not as nervous and  was more confident. I still mostly ride her inside the fence and haven't taken her on the trail near our house yet but I love riding her.

One time I even got her into a canter. It was fun and much easier than the trot. I am excited about riding her more. Thank you, LORD, for giving me my own horse.

                                         I feel so blessed!

Dressing Modestly and Femininely in this Present World: Part 6

  Before, we have talked about dressing modestly and pleasing God in our dress. Today, in my last post on dress, we are going to talk about dressing femininely. In my research for this post, the book What in the World should I Wear by Mrs. Cathy Corle , and Your Clothes Say it for You by Mrs. Elizabeth Handford have been a great help to me and I will be quoting some things they said throughout this post.

  Deuteronomy 22:5 says, "A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God."

 This is what Mrs. Cathy Corle said in her book, "In studying the subject a few years ago and examining more closely what the Bible has to say about this, it became evident to me. When God gave the distinction between men and women in dress he chose for the lady to wear a dress- a long flowing garment - and hair that is long and flowing, which is more gracious and feminine and lovely than the appearance of a man. God directed for a man to wear pants or breeches and a short haircut, which by nature is more masculine."

  Notice. She examined what the Bible had to say about the issue. Remember, God and the Bible should always govern our lifestyle. That is why  I will continue to give scripture throughout this post.
  Lets look at our verse again. The last part says, "...Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord." -Deuteronomy 22:5 b. 

  We get grossed out about the homosexuals wearing women's clothing and we think it wrong and disgusting. Then what makes it right for women to wear pants- men's clothing?  We are doing the same thing by wearing them but we get grossed out about  men wearing skirts. Isn't it equally wrong? God calls both of them an abomination. The Bible even says that we are an abomination to God when we dress that way. An abomination is something extremely hated and makes God morally sick.

  You may ask, "Is it a sin for girls to wear pants?" First we need to look at what sin is. Sin is something that displeases God and disobeys His Word. If girls wearing pants is an abomination, which is something God hates, and the Bible says- "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."; then for girls to wear pants is a sin.

Remember when we were talking about  the outward appearance? Before my Mom started dressing the way she does now, she went to the store one day and saw some ladies wearing culottes. You know what her thought was? She thought, "Those ladies must be Christians." My Mom was saved, but how did she know that they were Christians? The Lord showed her that if she thought that they were Christians because they wore skirts or culottes, shouldn't she dress that way to so others would see that she was a Christian?

You may be tempted to choose one way of dressing over the other- dressing modestly or femininely- because it is sometimes hard to find the right clothes. But you don't have to choose between them. In Mrs. Elizabeth Handford's book she said, "Charles Spurgeon has some good advice on this problem: 'When choosing the lesser of the two evils, choose neither'...God promises in I Corinthians 10:13 to provide a way that you can escape from temptation. God always keeps His Word. So there is always, always, a way to solve this problem without choosing the lesser of the two evils. You may have to do a lot of creative thinking (and perhaps some designing and sewing). I didn't promise that it would be the easy way out! But you can find a garment to wear that is both feminine and modest."
You can also look at part 4 of my posts on dress for tips on dressing modestly and femininely.

The Bible says in I Thessalonians 5:24- "Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it." If God commands it He will help you do it. He doesn't ask you to do the impossible.

Now, I've showed you from the Bible what God says about your dress. However, I can not make you do this. In the end the choice is yours. I can't convict you of what you need to do, only the Holy Spirit can. Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." 

So what about you, dear sister in Christ? Are you going to start dressing in a way that pleases God? Are you going to take a stand and dress modestly and femininely? What will you decide?

Dressing Modestly and Femininely in This Present World: Part 5

  Hello, again! Thank you for joining me in our quest for pleasing God in our dress. It is so important! :)


  I Timothy 2:9 tells us to "adorn ourselves" (dress) "in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array." Many girls get thrown off at that saying, "Okay, then can I not dress pretty? Do I have to wear plain ugly clothes and look outdated?"
No! That's not what that verse means. When our verse said to not dress with broided hair, or gold or costly array, if we look further it says for us to dress with "that which becometh women professing Godliness."

  I Peter 3:4 says, "But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."  It means that we should be more concerned with what God thinks about us and what he sees.
"Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." -Colossions 3:2

  The Bible also says- "man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart."
God does see the heart and that's most important, but since the Bible talks about our outward appearance, isn't it also important? That's the only thing other people can see. God wants you to look beautiful, that's how He created you to be. You don't have to look like you came from the 1800's. You can dress beautifully and in style as long as you dress modestly and  are pleasing to the Lord.

  My Mom was talking one day to me and Brenna; she said that we need to dress modestly, but nicely. Whenever we walk out the door to go somewhere we should look nice. We should make sure our hair is fixed and that we look put together.

  I Corinthians 14:40 says, "Let all things be done decently and in order." I tell the kids in our nursery "When God created everything He made everything just right and when He saw it He said that it was good. And it was good!" He made everything decently and in order. Because we are His children- we should dress that way.

  We are starting a church and we are inviting people to come. We want teen girls to come. They aren't going to think much of us if we look frumpy. Wouldn't they be turned away if we looked like that?
  We want to win friends and influence people. We want to be able to win them to the Lord.
   -- ''Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit  but the profit of many that they may be saved." - I Corinthians 10:33  We want to see them saved we want them to to see a difference in us, and yet be drawn to us because we have the love of the Lord about us. Remember, it can be shown through our attitude and in the way we dress.

Not every style that comes along should a lady necessarily try. If having green hair is the new fad, that doesn't mean we should go to the salon and have them dye our hair green.

 Mrs.Elizabeth Hanford  was right when she wrote the book, Your Clothes Say it for You.  When we  dress we want others to see a difference in us. We want to dress in a way that makes people say, "That young lady is a Christian." We need to dress like ladies.

--When the Bible talks about  the bride of Christ it says that the bride adorned herself with jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)
-- Lydia, a godly woman of the New Testament, was a seller of purple. (Acts)
--The virtuous woman of the Proverbs 31- she made herself "coverings of tapestry; her clothing was silk and purple."
  So obviously, you can dress beautifully. We just need to dress in a way that pleases God and brings glory to His name. (I Corinthians 10:31) After all, we are all a child of the King of kings, the King of Glory.

So as we've seen, even though our heart is most important, God is also concerned with how we dress. He, in fact, has a lot to say about clothing.

 In our next and final post on dress we are going to look at another aspect-- dressing femininely.

My Summer Goals

For my blog:

1. I want to finish my posts on dress. 

2. Talk about the heart. 

3. Post on Reading your Bible.

Other goals: 

1. Help my Mom make culottes.

2. Do couponing. ( Post on it? )

3. Ride my horse Sugar Rose more.

4. Write more.

5. Go to Camp.

6. Finish Computer Science, and then...

 I'm finished with my Junior year!!!

This week is going to be busy. Today I'm going to go couponing with my Mom. Thursday, we  are having my Aunt Tabitha's family over for a visit.Saturday our ladies from VSIBC are going to go on shopping trip in Micanopy. We will be eating lunch at a place called "Old Florida Cafe." And of course Sunday is Father's Day! 

 This is going to be a good summer. I'm excited for what we have planned.

Have a  great Summer!!!

Another Tip For Dressing modestly and Femininely in This Present World

   Recently my Mom found a site that sells the culottes that we like. She said that it is almost the same or is the same price as buying the fabric to make culottes. We were so excited to find it! Some of you may have heard of it before. The site is http://modestyinmotion.com/ . My Mom shared it with my friend who is also looking for culottes because she was wanting to please God.
 See, it's just like God to fulfill the needs of His people who are trying to please Him and do His will! Isn't He wonderful?!

Dressing Modestly and Femininely in This Present World: Part 4

Tips For Finding Modest Clothes

Tip One: When you are trying to find jean skirts, they are mostly found at the thrift store. I know you might hate thrift store shopping, but if you want to dress like a child of the King-- that's the place to go! Sometimes you can find some really cute jean skirts at Cato's.

Tip Two: You can find tank tops at just about any clothes store or Walmart. There are tank tops with adjustable straps but you have to be careful. Some tank tops can only be adjusted halfway. You need to find the kind that can be adjusted all the way to the front because sometimes the other kind can still be too low and won't help you any. One time when my Mom and I went to Walmart we saw a sale on tank tops. They came in all sorts of cute colors. However, when we looked closer, we saw that they could only be adjusted halfway and were too low. So make sure that when you get a tank top that it can be adjusted all the way. 

Sometimes, if you are not used to it, a tank top can be kind of uncomfortable. There is one kind that my Aunt found that is really comfortable. It is the Faded Glory tank top. It is still too low ,but if you turn it around so the neck line will be higher, and if  you get a darker colored tank top you won't be able to see the imprinted tag. Another tank top that can be comfortable is a boy's Fruit of the Loom white tank top.  We buy the largest size, Boys 14.

Tip Three: For active wear and those who can sew, we have a really great culotte pattern that we use that is cute.  The site where we buy our culotte pattern from is called Hook Publications.  For those who do not sew, you can find modest culottes online.

Tip Four: It's important to be persistent and creative. Have fun when you go shopping.

I hope these tips have been helpful for you. Until my next post, God Bless!

Dressing Modestly and Femininely in this Present World: Part 3

  Welcome back to our posts on "How am I supposed to dress?"  In this post we are going to finish up the part on modesty.

  In our last post we saw what modesty means and what the Bible says is naked. We know that when this happens it is shameful and you are no longer called a lady.

So far we have seen that our clothes need to long enough and high enough.  But what about thick enough?  A tank top can go a long way to be more modest for when shirts are too low cut, or when they are too thin and a little see through.

Modesty is so important; we must be careful what we wear.

God doesn't want us to hide just skin, but the natural curves of a woman's body that would cause a man to lust. Now we are going to get to the bottom of it. Men are moved by sight while women are moved by words and touch.
 Matthew 5:28 says, "But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a women to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

"Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way.'' --Romans 14:13

 If a man looks on a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery in his heart. Likewise when a woman invites such attention and causes him to lust by the manner she is dressed, then she is an equal party.  She's also responsible.

When choosing clothes we need to ask ourselves, "Am I being a stumbling block to anybody?"

Not only in dressing immodestly can we cause a brother to fall, but more often we attract the wrong people and the wrong attention.  Jack Hyles said, " Anybody can get attention by taking off her clothes, but it takes a real lady to get attention through the sweet mystique of femininity."

This is why it is so important for us as Christian young ladies to dress modestly.  We are children of The King of Kings! We need to dress like one of His children.

 I hope you have enjoyed these last few posts just looking with me in The Bible to find the answers.  I pray that you will join me in my next post on dressing modestly and femininely.