Andrew and I tend to make cards for Daddy, but we happened to find some we really liked instead. Here's the one Andrew picked for him. :)
The two most important men in my life. :)
This is the card I picked for Daddy
Daddy talking to Andrew about one of his gifts. :) He received a CD set of Doug Phillips reading Poems for Patriarchs
Daddy blowing out his musical candle! :) This is the 2 layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing he requested.
Breezy, myself and Emily Rose-special kindred friends!
The men- Mr. Brookshire, Daddy and Andrew
Mr. Brookshire and Daddy enjoying a good conversation!
A group of likeminded Christians enjoying joyous fellowship together
My dear friend Breezy and the Brookshire's sweet family dog Bentley (who is also very obedient, I might add!)
Mr. and Mrs. Brookshire, Daddy and Mama
My dear Papa (my great-grandfather) makes the best grilled hamburgers!
Fun-loving Nanny!
When Andrew discovered that he was finally the same height as Nanny, he was so excited!
Daddy and Andrew having fun as usual! :) I just love it when they wear their matching shirts!
Me, Mammy, and my great-uncle Glen (who is SO much fun, as well!)
Me, dear Mammy, and Andrew
Me and my precious Mammy. She is such a godly woman and a wonderful role model for me. She radiates with kindness, femininity, hospitality, love for Christ, motherly love, and modesty. Her submissiveness, meek and quiet spirit, and the fact that she delights in being a woman are always so evidant. She truly is a delight to be around, and I'm so blessed to have her as my great-grandma!
Andrew and I gave Mama the jewelry for her birthday, not knowing that Nanny (my great-grandma) had purchased this top for her. Look how well the earrings and top match! :) That was quite a pleasant surprise.
Mama and Nanny :)
The tasty pineapple upside down cake Nanny made for Mama
Mama and her not so little boy on her birthday (reading the card he made for her!)
Daddy, Mama and Mammy (my other great-grandma). Mammy made her a beautiful, moist applesauce cake. She is a very creative woman-she even put icing flowers on the cake! 
As most of you probably know by now, I'm a major sucker for sky photos (I have over 60 on my camera right now!), and simply couldn't resist capturing these two works of art on camera!
Isn't our God a master designer?
My sweet brother Andrew and I
We have much fun together, I assure you! ;)
A precious picture of Mama and Daddy that captures the beauty of their godly marriage. On occasion, especially on long drives, you can catch them silently holding hands. :) Sweet or what?
Yes, I adore my sweet, silly brother!
God bless you this week,
Rebekah
The Founding Fathers undoubtedly fought hard for our freedom. During the Revolutionary War, they endured frigid winters, hunger, and a lack of sufficient clothing. Many of them bled and died so that we might have the blessing of living free. They also framed the Constitution for the sake of their posterity-us. Just how are we thanking them today? By referring to religion (the term our Founders used for Christianity) as incompatible with the realm of the civil government and politics. By crying out for separation of church and state and for the outlawing of Christianity, rather than for freedom of religion. By calling the second amendment and the bearing of arms unconstitutional. By ruling our government in such a way that we are supporting its takeover by foreign nations and philosophies that are bent on America's destruction. By calling abortion acceptable under the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". That's how we're thanking our Founding Fathers for the many and varied sacrifices they made for us! Shameful? That would be an understatement!
We are taking the Bill of Rights and turning it on its head today. We are sticking out our stubborn necks against our Founders and rejecting the blessed freedom they paid so dearly for on our behalf. Today, Americans are blindly rejecting the rights which their ancestors held as dear and precious, the rights that separated them from the countries of mourning, slavery, trepidation, abuse, dictatorship, darkness, and sadness. Our ancestors viewed the Bill of Rights as a gift from God that proclaimed the blessings He had given to us in this new country. Just as it would be shameful for Christians to reject their Christian liberty, so it is shameful for Americans to reject their God-given national liberty! That's exactly what we are guilty of doing today, however-rejecting what our Founders referred to as "the blessings of liberty".
Just how important is the Bill of Rights? Could we get along allright without it? Would we be truly free in this nation without it? Is the Bill of Rights overrated? I think not! In fact, just as Patrick Henry did, I know not! The Bill of Rights that the Lord has blessed us with is precisely what separates us from Communist China, from Islamic Iran, and from the former Soviet Union. Without this Bill America would quickly be reduced to a nation of concentration camps and dictatorships. Instead of joy and capitalistic industry would be wretched sadness and socialism. Instead of freedom, independent living, and peaceful sleep at night knowing we live in a free nation, would be chains, slavery, torment, and the dread of living another day in such dreary circumstances, combined with the fear of actually facing death at the hands of a dictator and his minions. America is separated from China by a thin line of, first of all, the blessing of God, and secondly, the Bill of Rights.
All around us here in America are politicians intent on destroying the Bill of Rights. They prowl about in the dark of night, working silently to erode away our freedoms and our God-given privileges. They are crafty God-hating men and women who receive their joy from ruling and controlling others. These powerful workers are dedicated to destroying the United States of America and all she has stood for in the past. While these politicians are working hard, incessantly striving to reach their idolized goal, the majority of Americans are helping them by remaining in a state of slumber, disinterested in what is going on about them. Americans are their own worst enemies, and unbeknownst to them, are actually serving the very people who are working so hard to destroy them. The politicians striving to overtake America by destroying her Bill of Rights would not be as successful as they are becoming if it weren't for lazy Americans who are keeping their eyes shut and their ears deaf. Because we Americans take not the time to observe what is going on around us, to educate ourselves as to what our government is working on, and to fight against those who are attempting to control us, we are handing over our freedoms bit by bit without so much as a fight.
It is high time that we, the descendants of the fighters in the War for Independence, took on that revolutionary spirit and set out to defeat King George III yet again. Wake up, America! Fight back against those who want to take away your precious freedoms! Make the Founders proud in the way that you bravely resist the socialists' deeds of darkness. Wake up, America, before it's too late-before your Bill of Rights is nowhere to be found!
As most of you know, Lord willing, the first article in the stay-at-home daughterhood series will be posted this Thursday, September 17th. Also, please note that there is limited time available to vote in the poll that is associated with this project, so please do vote while you still can! Please continue to keep this series in your prayers, as well! That is greatly appreciated, I assure you!
While driving home yesterday, Mama discovered that there were 2 messages on her cell phone from our pastor. They sounded very urgent, and upon calling back, we were told something that we never ever would have expected. I don't feel at liberty at this time to reveal all the details (especially not on the public venue of a blog). However, I am pleading with you that you would please pray for a family in our church. Something has happened that has sent us into complete shock and disbelief. Though you don't know all the details (nor do we at this time!), please don't allow that to cause you to underestimate the importance of keeping this family in your prayers. If, in the future, I feel that I can share more with you all, I certainly will. But for the time being, I would so appreciate your prayers! They mean more than you know! We know that the Lord will bring good out of this situation, but we truly are wondering why it has happened. 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, though! God is good, and will bring good out of this problem. Thank you so very, very much for your faithful, caring prayers and concern!
Also, there is a friend of mine from church who was injured recently during football practice. He had to have surgery for torn cartilage in his knee, and at this time, we are unsure whether or not his cartilage will heal. Please pray the the Great Physician would work wonders, that his recovery would not be too painful, etc.
Thank you all so much for your love and prayers. What a joy it is to have readers like you! The Lord truly has blessed me through you all, and I pray that he will use me to be a blessing to you in return.
God bless you,
Miss Rebekah
The vast majority of you claim to believe in God. However, what do your actions say? Do they agree with and support your words? By no means. Some of you even go around claiming the name of Christ, but to no use. You claim it in vain. You are filled with carnality and are thus the enemies of God, not the friends thereof. I would submit to you that the belief you claim to hold is not a belief in the One True God, but rather a belief in the gods who are a figment of your imagination. Most of you do indeed believe in a god or gods, but none of these will be able to help you on the coming Day of Judgment-you will be left in your sins if you do not turn from them now unto the true and living God.
You rely on your made up gods and religions in the hopes that one day you'll be found worthy to enter heaven. These false gods of yours do not exist and will therefore be of no assistance to you on that day when you find yourself at the judgment seat of Christ. Woe to you who believe in these false gods! Woe to you because there is no hope whatsoever for you. That is, unless you turn from these fantasy gods to the One true God and His Son Jesus Christ.
You all go scurrying about in an abyss of relativism, chained by confusion and chaos. All this worrying and arguing about what truth is could easily be avoided if you simply turned from Satan, the author of confusion, to Christ, the author of all true knowledge. Fear of Christ is the beginning of knowledge, but not one of you possesses true knowledge, for you do not fear Christ. You must repent of your sins and turn to the Savior. God has revealed Himself to you through your consciences, His creation, and His Word, but you have ignored each and every one of these signs from Him. He will not be patient and kind to you forever. One day, He will turn from His lenience to His wrath and will subdue each of you and your sins. On that great Day of Judgment there will be no chance for any of you to repent of your sins and turn to the Savior. That chance only exists today, in this moment, as you don't know what the next day or even the next hour may bring. Your only hope is to be found right now as you listen to my words. When I am finished speaking to you, your time of hope may be finished as well. You have but a moment to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. Your life is but a vapor and will soon be gone, and if your life ends before you turn unto Christ, your soul will forever be lost. Jesus is showing to you His tender mercies in allowing you to hear His truth today. Do not resist these mercies, but rather cling to them. They are your only hope of salvation.
Now, as I close, I plead with you, I beseech you, to not turn away from your only chance to be saved. Turn not your back on this loving Savior Who died on the cross to save sinners such as you. Do not choose to spend eternity in hell; choose rather to spend your eternity in paradise, in the presence of the God Who shed His blood to save all those that would believe. Rich peace and joy that passes all understanding would immediately fill your souls if only you would surrender them to God. Please do not turn away from His offer of salvation. Today is the day of salvation, today is the appointed time. Turn not away.
I have been amazed by the response I've received to the stay-at-home daughterhood poll I posted. I'm excited that there are so many of you out there who are taking an interest in this subject and who are willing to vote in the poll to let me know what's on your mind regarding this topic. The answers to the poll I've so far received have been very revealing and interesting, to say the least! I'm very encouraged by all of you who have voted letting me know that you find stay-at-home daughterhood to be a great Biblical blessing. However, my eyes have also been opened all the more, through this poll, to the fact that there are many out there who (as I was 3 years ago) have never heard of stay-at-home daughterhood nor have any idea what exactly it means. Others don't, themselves, see it taught in the Scriptures, while still others who have grown up with feminism and have bought into its carefully packaged lies have the belief that stay-at-home daughterhood somehow enslaves young women and deprives them of reaching their full potential and prohibits them from using their gifts and talents fully for the glory of God and good of others. Clearly, feminism has attempted to tarnish and obscure the shining, radiant truths of God's Word (the true liberator of women!) in the hopes of somehow giving females "a better life". It is high time that the dust and filth that feminism has showered on the beautiful picture of daughterhood that the Scriptures present, be brushed off and that these anctient truths be raised up once again!As you can probably detect, I am very passionate and excited about this series and the truths it will reveal. However, as I've prepared for this series and as my vision for it has grown, I have become increasingly aware that apart from Christ, I can do nothing. I could do all the research in the world and attempt to write eloquently of the joys of stay-at-home daughterhood, but if I did not first seek His face and His blessing and His vision, desire, and purpose for this series, then it wouldn't matter how nicely I wrote or how much work I put into the articles-the result would be the same-fruitlessness and a lot of wasted time. The Lord has been convicting me and opening my eyes to the fact that even though I'm the one striving to write this series, I am nothing. He is the One with all the power, glory and might. He alone has the ability to change people's hearts and to open their eyes up to the truth. I am merely an insignificant young woman with many faults and failures whom the Lord has graciously decided to use as an instrument in His hands to, Lord willing, bring about change in the lives of girls and young women who are in desperate need of the glorious truths He has to offer. It is for that reason that I am freshly and anew dedicating this work to the Lord, praying for His direction and for His hand to be upon it, to bless it, and to allow it to bring about much fruit, and to graciously give me the words to write and the lessons to share. For I am weak, but He is ever strong.
As I have dedicated increasingly more thought to this article series, I have found the Lord changing the meager ideas I had for this series in the beginning, and suppling me with more and more ideas and vision. In fact, just the other night, the Lord graciously gave me yet another article idea to be included in this series! :) I'm constantly amazed by the hand of God-how He takes our insignificant, little ideas and transforms them into tools for His hand-tools to carry out His plans and to bring Him glory. Just when I think that I've come up with all the article ideas to be included in this series, He intercedes and reminds me that His grace is sufficient and teaches me to not rely on my own finite strength or knowlege, but to rather seek His face, His truth and His plans!
Why Friday, September 17th, 2009?
As of now, unless the Lord surprises me with different plans, the date set for the release of the first article in the series is Friday, September 17th, 2009, which is my Daddy's birthday! Why the 17th? I am planning for this to be the release date for several reasons:
Once the first article is released, a subsequent article will be posted here each Friday until the complete series has been released.
I'm so excited about this project and pray that you are, as well! Thank you very, very much for all your prayers and support! May the Lord richly bless each of you!
Semper Reformanda (always reforming),
Rebekah
*photo courtesy of art.com
Twenty years ago today, my dear parents covenanted together in marriage. Twenty years and two (so far!) children later, they grow closer each day. They've lived and grown, by God's grace, through the high times and the low ones, through sickness and health, through riches and poverty, through good and bad. Do you have a laptop? No, but with all my writing projects for this blog, etc., I hope to maybe get one soon!
~~~~~~~~~~~~DUMBOLOGY~~~~~~~~~~~~
How many pairs of flip-flops do you own? 3
Last person you talked to on the phone? my Nanny(great-grandma)
Last person you hugged? my brother
Today is… Monday, April 20th, 2009
I am wearing.... a coral and tan top with a brown peasant style, tiered skirt.
I am reading… many books at once, of course. ;) They include: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Beloved Bride: The Letters of Stonewall Jackson to His Wife by Bill Potter, Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards by Elisabeth Dodds(I've actually taken a short break on these three books, as I've been so busy with school reading lately!), How to Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary by Dr. Edwin Vieira (available through Vision Forum), The Justification of God: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Romans 9:1-23 by John Piper(this is one deep book!), How to Be a Lady: Useful Hints on the Formation of Character by Harvey Newcomb(this book is from 1850!), Systematic Theology by Robert Duncan Culver(I'm studying this with Daddy, but we've taken a break),etc. Daddy is currently reading to us The Genesis Record by the late Dr. Henry Morris, founder of ICR; Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore(he reads this to us on Tuesday nights; this is the really great book that the men and sons of our church are currently discussing at their Wednesday night meetings) and Scetches from Church History: An Illustrated Account of 20 Centuries of Christ's Power by S.M. Houghton(available through the Banner of Truth Trust). Daddy reads this to us on Saturday evenings, in preparation for the discussion on it during our Sunday meeting with the Church. As for what books I'm reading in the Bible: Romans, Genesis and Proverbs(among other various individual passages).
I am creating… this blog post! :)
One of my favorite things…. gardens and farm land! (but I guess that's actually 2 things! ;))
For education this week… government/history, theology, writing and literature, consumer math, Apologia chemistry, valuable homemaking and motherhood skills, growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
A keeper at home skill I am using/learning... getting things for free at the store by using coupons along with sales ads! ;) This will definitely come in handy when I (Lord willing) am the mother of many precious blessings!
A spiritual lesson I’m learning… pride is so disgusting! I'm so tired of the pride I find creeping up in me all the time. What's worse is that I have no reason for which to be prideful! I'm just a wretch that my merciful Savior choose to redeem.
A godly character trait I plan to work on… humility!!
Scripture I am memorizing… Daddy is having us dedicate this week, as well, to reviewing our first 14 verses.
I am praying for… Various family and church requests, prayer for God's guidance as to how this blog will be arranged and led this year, His guidance as to some writing projects that I feel He has laid on my heart-I pray that He would truly reveal His will to me. Health and strength for two ladies who will be giving birth soon. Prayer for this nation!
For the rest of the week… I plan to be writing for this blog, Lord willing. I have school, will(Lord willing) be responding to the numerous blog comments and e-mails that I haven't been able to answer yet, will be busy caring for my family, deepening my relationship with the Lord, furthering my education, a doctor appointment with an orthopedic surgeon(it's next Monday, but is in the morning, so will be over by the time I'm able to do that week's daybook entry. Therefore, I though I would mention it now!), etc.
A picture I’d like to share… is this:
On November 30th of last year, Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife Janet came to one of our local bookstores for a book signing. Here we are with Janet Huckabee (photograph taken by Daddy).
More squinty eyes! :)
I love this picture!!
Just two days after my last daybook post, my grandmother called to tell us that she would be here in two days(on that Friday). That sort of caught us by surprise, so we had to scurry around preparing for her visit. She was here through that Sunday, March 22nd. Then, from Monday the 23rd through Thursday the 26th, we had to scurry around to prepare for the 2009 Vision Forum Father and Daughter Retreat(which, by the way, was amazing!!! A post with pics from the retreat will be coming soon!). We were at the retreat until Sunday afternoon, March 29th. Daddy and I had numerous great and much needed conversations while there, which left us with only 4 hours of sleep Friday night and 4 hours of sleep Saturday night. :) So, needless to say, we had to catch up on sleep when we returned home! This, of course, messed up my days a little, so there was some time needed to get us back on track. The past couple weeks have been very busy and I've been wanting to post for quite sometime, but the opportunity never really arose until now. I'm sorry for the lack of posting lately, but thank you for the patient understanding! :)
And now, without further ado, here is this week's DayBook entry!
Today is… Monday, April 13th, 2009
This picture of my beautiful mother, Angela, very handsome, manly brother, Andrew(he's just growing up so fast!), and me was taken by Daddy on Sunday. It was really bright; sorry for the squinty eyes! ;) 
Today is… Monday, March 16th, 2009
A spiritual lesson I’m learning…life is not all about me! The Lord has gracious given me life so that I may serve Him. It's all about Him.
A godly character trait I plan to work on…diligence!! Whether this applies to when I'm cleaning the bathtub, doing schoolwork, or attempting to redeem my time wisely, I desperately need to learn diligence!
Scripture I am memorizing… This week Daddy is leading us in memorizing Matthew 18:20 and Hebrews 10:24-25 (KJVB).
I am praying for… Various family and church requests, prayer for God's guidance as to how this blog will be arranged and led this year, His guidance as to some writing projects that I feel He has laid on my heart-I pray that He would truly reveal His will to me.
For the rest of the week… I plan to be writing for this blog, Lord willing. I have school, will(Lord willing) be responding to the numerous blog comments and e-mails that I haven't been able to answer yet, will be busy caring for my family, deepening my relationship with the Lord, furthering my education, etc.
A picture I’d like to share… is this:
The two dear men in my life, my father George and brother Andrew.
