Bluebells, Herefordshire, England

by Christine Brown

Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.
-Jim Elliot

Don’t strain your eyes to see the future –
for you will not be able to see clearly what God wants you to see now.
-Elisabeth Elliot

Looks like the Elliots had a good handle on contentment…living life to the fullest. It sounds like they didn’t worry much. I’ve a note written in the back of my Bible that our pastor mentioned in a message: “If you worry, your view of God is that He is not there”.

Wow. When fear invades thoughts, do I believe that God is there?

My husband and I were saying that other day that this Air Force life is one of extremes. Extremely adventurous and exciting things…extremely hard things.

I have to admit, sometimes I find my thoughts in these places:

• fear of the future
• fear of deployment
• fear of having to handle life ALONE
• fear of failure in being all my son will need me to be
• fear of the danger in flying
• fear of the unknown
• fear of moving overseas
• fear of moving across the country by myself

I am sure that your fears are very different from mine. Perhaps you’re worrying about needing a job, singleness, or other strains are bearing down on you.

When stormy thoughts and imaginations of what things could possibly be like come, it drains you. You can’t “see clearly what God wants you to see today”. You miss out on HERE and NOW. I am not the wife my husband needs me to be, or the mommy that my son needs when my thoughts are out there getting lost in worry.

Fear is abuse of the imagination as you picture worst that can happen, when the best may very well be what is in store.

So many times I want to know what is down the road. I am a very organized person—planning is essential. Right now we don’t even know what is 4 months down the road!  Will my husband be off training somewhere without us? Will my son and I be able to go along? Will he be in survival training which is pretty much a horrible time? Will we still be living in here or moving very soon after graduation? What state or country will we be living in next?

I think that if we knew the future, we would faint at the very thought of it. If I had known what 2008 would be like I would have most likely had a nervous breakdown!

But here’s what God’s Word says…

…and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. (Deuteronomy 33:25)

God gives strength for each day when that day comes, not beforehand. What a realization this was! When saying goodbye comes on a deployment day, I will have strength for that day. When I have to handle life alone, I will have strength for that day. If we move overseas, I will have strength for that day. And not only for these big things in life, but in everything HE GIVES STRENGTH! What a promise from God!

Are we assured that we are safe in the hands that hold the stars? Can we wholeheartedly surrender to God, leaving quietly with Him all of our ‘what ifs’ and ‘but what abouts’? ALL can rest quietly in His very capable hands.
-Elisabeth Elliot

In my flower garden, some plants have been flowering beautifully while some are bent over, brown, dried up. How disappointing the brown ones are! I have put such time, attention and love into those little seeds, then the little plants, watching them grow and practically cheering them on. It was so exciting to think of how beautiful all the different types of flowers will be!  Now, pitiful describes them best.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Bloom where you are planted.”  I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.

Am I blooming right here, right now, where I am planted? Am I bringing beauty into my little corner of the world? Or am I dried up and pitiful from the strain of worry? Am I a disappointment to God, to Him who has planted me here? Is He looking down thinking…”how beautiful you could have been!”

As I’ve been reflecting on life and where God has us right now I am realizing more than ever that I need to leave EVERYTHING in His hands. Worrying and becoming fearful will accomplish only one thing. It will steal my joy. It will filter out the beauty and only allow the negative is seen. It will prevent me from living life to the fullest today.

I can rest in Him and find joy in the everyday things of life. In where I am right now—even with all of the uncertainties of the future. My eyes are not clouded by worry anymore. God has a perfect plan that only HE could plan so wonderfully! Whatever comes our way will have gone through His hand first. Nothing can touch us without God being a part of it. I can trust Him…in all things. Life is beautiful.

My name is Christine Brown and I’m 24 years old.  The love of my life is a pilot in the Air Force, and we have a 1 year old boy, Tyler.  Some of my interests include decorating, cooking, photography, and scrapbooking.  Loving God more and loving others as He did is my continual pursuit.

photography copyright Philip Ivester, 2007

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.

My mother always told me that her mother always told her: it is selfish to be self-conscious. I have always struggled with being self-conscious.  Maybe everyone else does, too.  But I’m always slightly jealous of those who appear so self-confident.  Because I myself am feeling self-conscious about not being self-confident!  It’s all about self.

Whenever I actually make the conscious effort to be others-conscious, I feel at ease making them feel at ease.  And I’ve found that the easiest way to start is with a simple smile.  The Bible says, “A joyful heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).  And after all, “Never frown: you don’t know who’s falling in love with your smile.”

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.

I rather think that the giants I see might not be the same ones you see, but they are giants just the same, and I’m afraid that I have run away from the ones I’ve met more than once, instead of standing my ground bravely like I ought to have.

Most people would never guess it, but I am afraid of a lot of things. New things that take me too far out of “comfort zone” might as well be a smoke signal to  Giants 12 feet tall or more to come after me, and while they come in different shapes and forms, they all have the same name. It’s “Fear”.

Fear has kept me from doing things I’ve always wanted to do. He’s kept me from doing things I should have done, and I’ve even done some things that I wish I wouldn’t have just because I saw Fear looking at me and I thought it’d be better to do anything than face him again in a battle.

What I don’t always remember is that Fear is really just a paper giant. He is no stronger than how much I let him control me, and that is the way it is with every giant we meet in life. Giants can’t get their darts through the Shield of Faith or the Helmet of Salvation, and they don’t hold up to “all-prayer” and the Sword of the Spirit. In fact, Trust in God and Faith are two things that they themselves fear, and prayer to God makes even the greatest giants to tremble.  It’s just that with no armor for our backs, it’s a sure victory for the giants when we turn to run.

God’s word gives us battle plans straight from the Greatest General to conquer every giant we might face in this life and Fear in all his different forms is as good as dead if I study the plans and act upon them.  As He promised, “Perfect Love casts out Fear”. And those who keep their minds stayed on Him will have perfect peace, no matter what kind of Fear- or any other Giant- is staring them down.

It can be wearying, fighting of the Giant Fear all the time, but “ they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” “God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble. Therefore shall not we fear though the earth be removed...”

It isn’t a “maybe” or a “might”, it’s all “shall”, and “will”. There’s no uncertainty that there’ll be victory- as long as we trust.

I may indeed be “Much-Afraid” of many things in life. I may have crooked feet that stumble on the mountains sometimes when I try to climb, but “Who is God save our God, and who is a rock, save our Rock? He maketh my feet like hind’s feet, and setteth me upon my high places.”

It’s true. No giant’s too big, no feet too stumbling. Just take His Word for it- the One who has by His death conquered all Fear, and given us the tools for Victory over all the Giants in our lives.

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.

We often speak of things such as being a wife or mother as God’s calling. “This is my highest and noblest calling,” we might declare. I beg to differ. God’s calling to a life is the thing that will never, under any circumstance, change in that life. Throughout scripture we see His call of salvation, His call into service to Him, His call to righteousness. These are universal to all believers. But we don’t find Him calling people into motherhood, the medical field, a teaching career.  He does, however, put us in specific seasons in which we, individually, can fulfill those basic callings of service, of righteousness, of  love for others, of showing forth His salvation. We are called to be filled with Jesus and be wholly His own.

Marriage and motherhood are amazing blessings to be highly exalted and revered. They are high and noble seasons He gives to some of us, and when we’re in them (which, for marriage, is until death or circumstances beyond the Christian’s control separates the two) they are our highest priority, most certainly, and should be the thing into which we pour our whole selves for the glory of God. But to say marriage and motherhood (which, obviously, typically go hand in hand in our young dreams for the future) are the highest calling for a woman is to say that the woman who doesn’t ever marry or who isn’t able to conceive has somehow missed God’s original plan for her life. Both wifehood and motherhood are noble, if that’s the way God shows Himself through you, but they don’t at all lessen the height and nobility of the season in which He sets another one of us–perhaps the one to whom He’s given the season and priority of being on the mission field, obtaining a Master’s degree, serving as a nurse to people who need care, writing books and speaking to young women, teaching children, or any number of things God’s given the ability to do.

I’d not be so self-confident as to proclaim it easy to find the balance between preparing for what becomes the main occupation for the majority of young women at some point in their lives and not allowing it to become the sole focus. Nor would I say that I, as one who married young myself, have the answers for singlehood. Most noteable, I must be honest and say that I entered my own marriage yet holding some of the views I’m currently refuting. But I do know that even for me, as a wife and mother right now, God is showing me the truth of His calling on my life to follow Him wherever He leads being encompassed in the current priorities He’s given me of husband and children. But for single girls, their priorities are completely different. Even for some who are married, these eventually change. Spouses outlive each other, children grow and have families of their own. We’ve all heard the saying, “Nothing is unchangeable but change itself.” God’s ways are so much higher and more complete than ours–none of us knows what tomorrow holds. There are no guarantees–at all–outside of our unchanging Savior. Limiting a life to a man-made plan for the single years completely negates God Himself and His wisdom that reaches far above our own.

Never in the Bible do we read of women, single or married, spending idle days waiting for Prince Charming to arrive at their doorstep. Think of Rebekah, Ruth, Deborah, Esther, Anna, Lois, and so many others. Every woman mentioned, single or married, is found working, serving the Lord in industrious pursuits suitable to her season in life.

We can’t expect God to bless our efforts when they are ones of idly waiting or of simply taking matters into our own hands because we think we know what will make us happy. The true calling of active service on the path He sets before us is a command that extends beyond the boundaries and context of marriage and motherhood.  Single and married women alike need not be afraid of following God’s calling for them, individually–realizing that fulfilling His purpose for their lives is the only end goal worth pursuing and is something that can be accomplished now by living fully and vitally for Him, wherever that path leads… even if that path looks differently than we expect or desire it or even completely different from all of our friends.

Cooking is good. Cleaning, decorating and caring for a home are valuable skills. Children are a wonderful gift from our Father. Marriage is… wow. Learning more about all of these things is helpful (though there is a time to perfect and refine those skills, and it’s usually when they are actually your own priorities).

But also admirable is the unmarried girl who is teaching a room full of eager young minds who need guidance. Or trekking through a third world country and telling natives of a Savior who loves them enough to die for them. Perhaps it’s writing a dissertation. Answering phones and filing paperwork in an office building. Speaking to young women about pursuing Jesus. Traveling around the country and world as a photographer for missions trips and organizations. Meeting a word count goal for the book you’re writing. Serving teens and families at a Christian camp. Leading kayaking tours down a raging river. Being a chef in a fancy restaurant.

Go. Do. Follow Jesus. Be Busy. Embrace your true highest calling.

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.

But marriage is not the end goal of life.

Knowing personally and loving wholly the precious Savior IS the first and foremost goal of life. While such things as marriage and motherhood are, for many, the outworking of this goal, marriage in and of itself doesn’t make a life complete. It doesn’t signal the beginning of “real life.” It is simply a way God has ordained for some–I’d even venture to say most, but certainly not all–to better glorify Himself. Personal fulfillment, joy and happiness aren’t obtained solely through the finding of a life partner. If this is the only thing one is hoping for, waiting idly for, or even preparing solely for, something is severely wrong. Nowhere in scripture does God command or even suggest that marriage is the “IT” thing in the life of anyone–not even young women. In fact, the verses speaking specifically to unmarried women say the opposite–single women should be concerned wholly and completely with learning of, loving and serving their Heavenly Father, not waiting expectantly for life to truly begin with the appearance of Prince Charming.

It seems there is a rash among Christian young women to see their lives as being in a holding pattern until they get married. I know many–far too many–young ladies who prepare in every way and form they can think of, expecting to get married right after high school, because, well, isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? Some of us grow up often thinking that all we want to do in life is be a wife and mother… so why think of or plan for anything else? We do a good thing in learning basic and sometimes advanced housekeeping skills as we get older, and often, for Christian young women raised (rightly so) to revere and respect the position of wife and mother, this is the thing into which we pour our whole selves while we wait.

Sometimes, though, the waiting is longer than we thought it would be when we were 16. We reach the end of high school and our knight in shining armour hasn’t yet arrived on his white steed, so we wait another year or so, knowing he’ll drop from the sky soon… right? Two years pass… and three… and five… and… before you know it,  some have been single for much longer than they expected. They’ve been waiting at home doing everything they can to prepare for marriage–learning to cook, care for children, keep a home. They far surpass the basic housekeeping skills and have become a homemaker any young man would be blessed to have loving him and keeping his home. But some of them are beginning to wonder–what do I do with these single years as a whole? Have I possibly spent these past years waiting for something never meant to complete me in the first place?

We think we’re living for the Lord by preparing for marriage and marriage alone and might even feel a bit puffed up about our “holy focus” instead of doing the so-called “worldly” thing of pursuing a busy life of college, missions, service or anything that doesn’t center on preparation for marriage. We don’t realize we’re actually guilty of doing the very thing we’re accusing the rest of the “world” of doing. We’re living for our own pleasure–we believe we know what will make us happiest and most fulfilled in this life and so, as with someone wishing to enter any other field, we pursue nothing else. Is it worth considering that in some of these situations, perhaps we’re actually being blinded by our own desires? Are our own preconceived notions keeping us from what God actually has for us for this particular season?

Stay tuned for Part Two…

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.

“Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.“

-James 1:12

Fear. We are all well-acquainted with him, as much as we would love to bar him from even entering our doors. He makes himself quite comfortable where we are not, and a single glare from his cold eyes is paralyzing. He is quite content to feed on anything we give him, and his hunger is insatiable. The more we give him, the stronger he grows and the weaker and more vulnerable we become.

This unwelcome visitor is a master at persuasion and, it seems, logic. Bizarrely entranced, we remain captivated by how much sense he makes. Every flaw is highlighted. Each uncertainty is broadcast on the loudspeaker of our hearts. Always, the outcome, Fear insists, is destruction. Failure. Catastrophe. Severed relationships. Financial devastation. Because we are not good enough, not capable enough, not talented enough, not good looking enough, not clever enough. He so deftly paints the picture of us alone, uncertain, insecure, falling.

When we believe him, his power swells. This is why he loathes his foil, Hope, and he is resolute in crushing any and all of her gentle assertions. He cannot succeed in making her leave, so he screams and cries for your attention. If you look to him instead of her, all will be well for him.

Fortunately, Fear has not taken into account Hope’s ally and one stronger than he: Faith. It is sweet Faith who takes your hand and whispers in your ear. “Listen to Hope. It will be okay. The worst is already over. Your enemy is defeated. Nothing can truly harm you. Not when the One who brought me to you is watching out for you.”

And, somehow, that fragile whisper is louder—just for a moment—than Fear’s raving. And as you listen longer, that whisper increases, and Fear’s voice fades into the background.

Inexplicably, peace reigns. You realize now your Father has been holding tightly to your hand the entire time.

But now Fear’s survival instincts kick in. If you will no longer be swayed by his words, maybe the pleas of your loved ones will bring you back to him. So cunning Fear invades the homes of friends and family. He masks himself in concern, prudence, and more logic. And before you know it, their compassion and care for you is thwarted by his diligent efforts. Your resolve falters, and Fear rejoices. He knows he has you once again as you hear his lies from the lips of your closest confidants. Somehow the lies are now more logical, more prudent, and more likely coming from these trusted sources.

Then, in the midst of the chaos, something brushes your ear. It could have been the wing of a butterfly; it was so gentle. You feel a squeeze of a hand, soft—but firm. “I’m still here,” comes the whisper. Faith comes and wraps herself around your shoulders. You take a breath and step back. Out of the chaos. Away from Fear’s raucous pleading. Toward the One who is holding your hand. You begin to follow where He leads. And you know, layered in His peace and saturated by His Love, that everything will be all right. You are safe with Him.

(photo of Yosemite National Park by Melissa Cheston)

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.

I laugh when I read my little post on my blog last week about all of our “plans.” Those who read my blog probably laughed when they read it. I said in my little tag line, that we’d probably just be sent off to Japan or something in the next couple months. Yeah, well… I meant that as a joke, but, um…

No, we’re not going to Japan. In fact, we have little idea where/if/when the location would be if we/Troy and I/John go anywhere.

And you know what? I’m okay with that!! Shocking, no? But that’s today. You didn’t talk to me yesterday.

For many different reasons just about every major area of our life is up in the air right now. God knew I needed another lesson in that there school of flexibility! Yesterday, when I found out that we might be in for some much bigger changes than just moving across base, I was, frankly, scared, fearful and anxious. I kept busy throughout the day while we waited for the confirmation we thought we’d get at some point yesterday. But John finally called in the afternoon and said that the person on whom everything hinges is on leave this week. We won’t know the answer to the big question until next week. Soooo :deep breath:, that means we’ll just wait. And know that just as we will trust the Lord then, we will trust Him now, while we’re waiting.

At one point, in my mindless wandering throughout the day, I went through a mental checklist of the “BIG” areas of a normal life, and laughed to myself that there’s some sort of question mark next to each of them for us.

Then came reality. A little bit o’ perspective to make me see just how selfish I was to worry so much about things I could not control. God knows the end from the beginning… I don’t. He knows what is best for us… I don’t. And He has proven Himself faithful in so very many situations. How could I even doubt for a second that He would allow something that is not for our ultimate good? My fear is not a reality. It just isn’t. I’m worrying about something that I have no idea or control over whether or not it will actually happen.

I thought of little Ashley, who is in such great need of prayer today. Her daddy and siblings had to go back home, so her mama is alone again and Ashley’s having a hard couple days. That is reality.

I thought of an old, old friend who has just this week been put on hospice and is at home now, losing her battle with cancer. She is a pastor’s wife, with four children and a little bundle of grandchildren. She is tired, so very sick, and will soon be with the Lord. That is reality.

I thought of a very dear friend of mine, who is facing for certain nearly every aspect of the
things I am fearful of. She is still just trusting the Lord and continuing on. That is so very much reality.

I thought of Kelli, for whom so many blogging mamas pitched in to help and pray last week, and who has received some heavy news today. She will be going on full dialysis, having a shunt put in to her heart through her chest, going to the hospital 3 times a week, for 3-4 hours each day. She is still waiting for a kidney transplant. That is reality.

Today I read the entire story of a little girl I had prayed for, Emma Grace. By the end, my cheeks were wet and yet I was overcome by the sheer awesomeness of our Father. Even in the hardest of times, He has shown Himself faithful and more than we could ever ask or think. Emma’s mommy has been through more than I could ever dream of, and can still smile and praise the Lord for all that He’s done. That, dear sisters, is reality.

So I’m going to continue on in reality, whatever that is for us. Not in fear, not in stubbornness because I think I know what is best. Not in worry upon worry because I can’t see more than a day ahead. God has given me today, and that is reality.

©2010 Young Ladies Christian Fellowship. All Rights Reserved.