Raising Godly Seed: Looking back...

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Looking back...

Over the last couple of days, I (Marcella) have had the pleasure of reconnecting with some highschool classmates from Windsor Forest High School in Savannah, Georgia. I attended there for two years in ninth and tenth grade. My life long "best friend" and WF classmate, Susan McTier Crain, sent the webpage link for the 20th reunion. I'm always asking her if she knows what became of "so and so." She rarely has an answer since hardly anyone keeps up with highschool classmates. So this website, complete with bios and photos, is a great idea! I hope more of my old friends will add their entries so that I might touch base with them too. It's really encouraging to see how God has been busy blessing lots of folks over the years.

At the same time I was working on our family background (on the right sidebar of this page), therefore I've taken alot of time this week to reflect back over the last two decades. Looking back always makes me more grateful for God's hand in our life.

This morning before church we took our final family photo- as a family of nine, that is. Our next group picture will include our newborn, who is expected on May 1. The last picture of us all was taken at Nagshead in Oct 07 (also on the right sidebar of this page).

I'd promised my mother a photo of Mary and me wearing these dresses (in above photo) since I'd called her many times with questions about how to make both dresses just before Resurrection Day. In fact, nearly everytime I sew I call Mom. She knows how to do everything!

Happy Springtime!

Marcella

1 comment:

janita said...: wow!! it is so cool to see what everyone looks like now! i am way too old for blogging to be in my daily routine, so thanks for making it easy. your family is beautiful. two of them i have never seen and those others -- oh my word, so grown-up. isaac and kelsey look so much alike -- i never saw that coming!

i still think of you so often, especially when i'm ordering a birthday cake. i remember the days of you walking me through making my own. and they were so much cuter. i can still see isaac's fire truck with the oreo wheels. that's got be really embarassing for him to think of now :)

i will check on you guys often. we are all older but still the same. too many stories to go into in the middle of a work day...

much love,

janita; April 14, 2008 at 12:19 PM

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Our growing testimony

We are not able to raise this family in our own strength, determination and knowledge. But all things are possible with God! "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it." I Thessalonians 5:23-24 Although onlookers will try to categorize all homeschoolers or large families together, we know that He lovingly and specifically leads each one of us in lives that will fulfill His purposes. We were married in May of 1990. I could barely wait to complete one year of my first job, out of nursing school, and start a family. Fifteen months into my career, I was pregnant and too sick to continue working in the pediatric stepdown unit. I changed to a slower paced, part-time job, and our first baby was born in December '93. Both of us had been raised in Christian homes and had individually accepted Christ as our Savior around ten years of age. However, we did not know that embracing the responsibility of God-led parenting would change our entire view of life and all of our desires. God has captured our hearts by calling us to raise children for His glory. Has not the LORD made [husband and wife] one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. Malachi 2:15 That same year, I heard a radio program about homeschooling on Focus on the Family with James Dobson. We'd never heard of homeschooling before. That day marked the beginning of an incredible faith-filled journey of seeking God's specific will for our family. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Psalm 105:4 In seeking, we've found that He calls us to many habits that have become "non-traditional" in modern America. For example, we embrace and work toward a father-led family, daily family Bible study, training/educating/discipling our children at home, God-planned family, modest dress, multi-generational corporate worship, courtship, back-to-the-basics food preparation, simple living, and natural medicine (as often as possible). We have felt abnormal in many situations. We're comforted by the definition of holiness: to be set apart for the Lord. The Apostle Paul says that we are aliens and not of this world. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2 Thankfully, we've met many precious families throughout the last nineteen years who are being led similarly. While it is comforting and encouraging to fellowship with like-minded families, we also see the creativity of our God in the many different ways He leads families which resemble one another outwardly. The "big" decisions that set us apart are not made easily, nor quickly. It is not in embracing any man-made laws or legalism that we have peace and joy, but in utilizing the liberty of His grace that we can choose to walk as He directs us. "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord...who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace." II Timothy 1:8-9aAs of January 2013, we have been married twenty-two years, have nine children, atleast three in Heaven, have been living on one income and have been homeschooling for thirteen years. Our eldest is in her second year of post-highschool studies and the youngest is 2 1/2 years. The oldest six have made professions of faith, saying that they believe that Jesus died for their sins, that God raised Him from the dead and that they identify Jesus as their Savior and Lord. And we recognize this is just the beginning. The Lord has begun a great work and He will be faithful to complete it.

Raising Godly Seed

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Looking back...

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