1 Year Anniversary! Praise God!

Yesterday, August 12th, 2008, was By HIS Grace and for HIS glory's 1 year blog anniversary! I simply cannot believe that one year has passed already since I began this blog in the hopes of reaching out to the young women of the world. The Lord has been so merciful this past year and has blessed this ministry beyond words. When I began the blog, I had sincerely hoped that word about it would spead, but I didn't know how popular(in # of readers, that is) it would become or how the Lord would work. I stand in absolute awe of the Lord! He has spread the word about this blog ministry of mine in such a manner that is beyond my wildest dreams. I'm so thankful to the Lord for His grace and abundant mercy. I would not have this blog were it not for HIS grace, and the reason I do have this blog is to bring HIM glory. My sole mission is to bring my merciful Savior glory and honor. I have a heart that is burdened by the way our culture is these days. I'm severely saddened when I see young ladies in the world today without hope and without direction in their lives. They've just bought into the lies of feminism, humanism, etc. that their cultures have sold them. The Lord has placed this burden on my heart, just as He has also placed there the desire to see things turn around. My desire is that this blog would be used by the Lord to impact the women of this world and would encourage them to turn back to "the old paths wherein there is life" (and joy and fulfillment, I might add! ;)).

1 year and 321 posts later, the vision and mission behind this blog remains the same as it was the day I created it. Here is what I posted the day my blog's history began:

Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog! I'm so glad that each and every one of you is here to visit and hope you will come back quite often, as well as tell your friends and family about it! This blog is dedicated to encouraging, strengthening, and edifying girls and young women as they seek to return to the beauties of home and family, Biblical femininity, modesty, discreetness, chasteness, humility, and Biblical daughterhood and womanhood.

I hope that this blog will be a breath of fresh air to you, and be a haven where you can be girded, strengthened, encouraged, and prepared for the battle before us in the savagely humanistic, feministic culture in which we live. I pray this blog and its posts will encourage you as you grasp the Biblical vision of returning to the glorious and noble missions of Biblical femininity and womanhood in the midst of a culture that is disgusted with and belittles anything or anyone who is distinctly feminine and ladylike: a homemaker, a submissive wife/daughter, one who loves and enjoys the noble titles of virtuous daughterhood, submissive wifehood, blessed motherhood, or someone who enjoys and takes great joy from being a helpmeet (or helpmeet in training). This world desperately needs more young girls who will embrace this vision now, and who will grow into noble, virtuous, God-fearing women. We need girls and young ladies who will grow up to be godly and virtuous women who love and are not afraid to have the precious titles of wife, mother, and homemaker (titles that were lovingly God-ordained exclusively for women). Girls who have no concern or desire to look "cool" in the world's eyes or to please them, but rather desire to bring glory and honor to and please their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has bought them with a price.

The following beautiful poem so clearly depicts this truth:

The Need of the Hour

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

What does our country need? Not armies standing
With sabers gleaming ready for the fight;
Not increased navies, skillful and commanding,
To bound the waters with an iron might;
Not haughty men with glutted purses trying
To purchase souls, and keep the power of place:
Not jeweled dolls with one another vying
For palms of beauty, elegance and grace.

But we want women, strong of soul, yet lovely
With that rare meekness, born of gentleness;
Women whose lives are pure and clean and holy,
The women whom all little children bless:
Brave, earnest women, helpful to each other,
With finest scorn for all things low and mean:
Women who hold the names of wife and mother
Far nobler than the title of a queen.

Oh! These are they who mould the men of story,
These mothers, ofttime shorn of grace and youth,
Who, worn and weary, ask no greater glory
Than making some young soul the home of truth;
Who sow in hearts all fallow for the sowing
The seeds of virtue and scorn for sin,
And patient, watch the beauteous harvest growing
And weed out tares which crafty hands cast in.

Women who do not hold the gift of beauty
As some rare treasure to be bought and sold,
But guard it as a precious aid to duty-
The outer framing of the inner gold;
Women who, low above their cradles bending,
Let flattery's voice go by, and give no heed,
While their pure prayers like inscense ascending:
These are our country's pride, our country's need.

I pray that this beautiful poem was an encouragement to you to be godly young women to the glory of God in the middle of this world which scorns all things feminine and lovely.
May the Lord richly bless you and grant to you strength as you strive to glorify, please and honor Him through Biblical femininity, amidst a world and culture who belittles such ladies.

By His grace and for His glory,
Rebekah Ann Shadoin

*The above poem is an excerpt from the beautiful book entitled, Verses of Virtue: The Poetry and Prose of Christian Womanhood. It is compiled and edited by Elizabeth Beall Phillips, mother to 8 children, and wife of Doug W. Phillips, Esq., the President of Vision Forum, Inc. This book is available through http://www.visionforum.com/, and I would very highly recommend it to each and every one of you young ladies out there who are seeking encouragement regarding your vision of noble daughterhood and womanhood.

This was the first post that I ever published, and my feelings on these subjects remain the same. My purpose and mission is the same. I praise God, from Whom all blessings flow, for blessing this first year so richly. I do not deserve His blessings, but He lavishly bestowed them upon me anyway. All glory goes to Him and Him alone! Through the past year, I have met the sweetest young ladies in the world. These dear girls have become my closest friends, and I thank the Lord for them. I have also been so blessed by the comments of many women(and a few men!) who have visited this blog and have given me encouragement and grace. To all of the people who have ever commented on my blog(whether you agreed with me or not): thank you. Thank you for leaving your comments. The wonderful comments and e-mails I receive are what makes blogging so wonderful. I'm so thankful that the Lord has spread the word about my little corner of the blogosphere, and by so doing, has allowed me to meet and converse with such wonderful people. I pray that He continues to spread the word and make my blog known to even more people in the coming year of ministry. Praise God for His goodness and grace!

I have such a big vision for the next year of this blog! There are so many, many articles and article series that I will be posting in the next year that I'm so excited about! I will be branching this ministry out(Lord willing) with many more posts, new blog features, and some new ministry ideas that I cannot disclose at the moment. :) Needless to say, I'm very excited! All glory and honor belongs to my wonderful Savior, Who I know has wonderful plans for this blog and its upcoming year.

In closing, I would like to issue forth another huge thank-you to all the readers of my blog. This blog is for YOU and each and every one of you make it a success. Thank you for your gracious comments, your faithful reading of this blog, and for your friendship and mentorship. May you all experience the Lord's richest blessings.

By HIS grace and for HIS glory,

Miss Rebekah Ann S.

*beautiful photo courtesy of http://www.allposters.com/