I so thankful for all of your comments on yesterdays Show and Talk, it makes it so much more interesting. I think that Jessica pointed out something very important in her comment yesterday. It is not so much how much we cover, but whether or not what we wear is a stumbling block to our brothers in Christ. No matter what we wear, whether it’s a dress, a skirt and shirt, or pants and shirt, if the style is meant to attract attention to yourself, it can become a stumbling block. We need to make sure that we are sending the right message to our brothers in Christ by what we wear.

With all that said, I also want to caution you all to not become legalistic. I know that I tend to look down on people who dress in pants not dresses. What God has shown me over the past few years is that I can encourage girls to modest but I should not condemn them just because they wear pants. I have a good friend who wears pants. and she is such a sweet girl. What God has taught me through her is to allow her to be called to a different standard then I am.

Allowing people to be different is hard, and it is something that the church in general is lacking these days. I am not saying that we should allow people to sin and ignore it by saying that they are ‘just different’. What I am saying is that if the Bible does not say that something is wrong, (I can’t find thou shall not wear pants in the Bible, bummer) then we should not say that they have to do it our way.

What are your standards on clothing? Do you have any helpful tips or words of encouragement you would like to share?

The cast;
MaryBeth is twenty years old, shy, sweet and cares deeply for those in need. She is the second child of five siblings and her greatest pleasure is being with her family.

Anna Joy is a fifteen year old girl who is just tiring to survive high school. She is part of a every growing family (number eight was born recently) and is close to her older sister but wishes she had time to have friends outside the family.

Maria Rose is 18, and has just finished school. She has a passion for writing, and also is very lonely and feels left out at times. She is close to her family, especially her 17 year old sister.

Mary Beth is very careful about what she wears. She wears more modern styles then some of her friends but is very careful that they are not the type that attracts the wrong kind of attention. Mary Beth feels much more comfortable in pants then a skirt and wonders why some people say she is sinning by wearing pants. Isn’t she just as modest as the girls with dresses on? There is nothing in the Bible that says she can’t, is there? She respect and even admires those who have chosen to wear dresses. If fact, she has a good friend that wears only dresses and she is careful to honor her decision to do that, why can’t she respect her decision to wear pants?


Anna Joy just wants to fit in with all the other homeschoolers that she knows. After all, they don’t wear anything that it too bad. Sometimes, her dad doesn’t like what she wears but just don’t understand why. The only shorts she wears are the longer kind and she never has a too low of a neck line so what is the big deal? All her dad says is that it isn’t the length or the cut of cloths she is wearing; it is the style that is the problem. He keeps telling her that the really tight jeans and the shirts that she is wearing are somewhat suggestive, but all of her friends keep telling her, it is no big deal.

Maria Rose has always worn dresses and she loves it. She feels so blessed to always feel and be treated like a woman. She is has been accused of being from many different denominations and religions and has many good laughs over the reactions of people when she tells them that she wears dresses all the time. She also has laughed, and been laughed at, for her homemade swimsuit that looks like something out 1900’s catalog. Maria Rose believes her family has been called to a higher standard, but it is not necessarily for everyone. Though there is no excuse for being immodest, some people are not called to wear dresses only.

The End

What are you thought’s on the subject of clothing? Which of the three girls are you most like? We will discuss the issue of clothing more tomorrow.

A lot of you asked questions about the writing contest I won. It was a contest in a home based, Christian girl’s magazine called Hope Chest. They are working on their website so it is currently unavailable but if any of you are interested in subscribing, you can leave a comment with your mailing address in it (which I will not publish) and I can send you a brochure. It was a none-fiction article contest and I will get my article published in the magazine, a year’s subscription and a gift certificate from their store.

I finely got my new modem!!!!! I hope that I will be able to blog every day for a long time.

How have all of you been? I have been doing well, other than the fact that I haven’t gotten to blog for a while. One big thing did happen in my life while I couldn’t blog. I won third place in a writing contest! I was so excited (see Jessica, I can spell it correctly : ) and I wanted to tell you all but my modem was broken so I couldn’t.

Do I have any new readers that have never left a comment before? Please leave one and if you have a blog I will seriously consider becoming a follower and putting you on my blog list.

Hey Everyone! I am really, really, really sorry but I am having more Modem problems. I should be getting a replacement by the end of next week and be back online. Thank you all for staying with me though this. it is nice to know that I’m not loosing all my readers. Hope to write again soon.

Sarah

Some days, you just have trouble coming up with something to write about. You sit behind your computer and know that a lot of people are waiting to see what I am going to write about next and I don’t what them to be disappointed. Then what should I write about? It doesn’t seem fair to my readers for me just to pound something out but I don’t want them to think that I am not posting either.

So I will do the best I can do. I will get inspiration, out of non inspiration and write about having nothing to say with the hope that I can do better tomorrow.

It’s Monday, the beginning of a new work and school week. I love Monday’s, because it means getting back to work I love to do; writing and teaching my siblings. The writing I need to get done has been piling up due to the fact that I didn’t do much when I was sic. Now, UI have a few articles that are begging to be written and a book that needs to be worked on. I also have my Bible courses to work on and a younger sibling to help get caught up with school.

Yes, this Monday promises to be a busy one so I better get going. What is your Monday going to be like?

One of the things that I, and many authors tend to do when writing a book, is to make all the characters sound the same. Here is an example;


“Hello, your highness,” the peasant girl said.

“Get out of my way, peasant girl,” the prince said.

“No, I won’t until you say that you will speak to your father, the king, on behalf of my brother.”

“I don’t care for your brother of any other peasant for that matter. Be on your way,” the prince said, turning to leave.


Now there was nothing on the surface that was wrong with that conversation but if I hadn’t told you that was a peasant girl and a prince speaking you would bee hard pressed to guess by their speech what they were. The peasant girl talked the same way the prince talked. She didn’t sound any less educated then he. So lets here that conversation again except this time let’s try to make the peasant sound uneducated and the prince sound more like a proud prince.


“Good day to ya sir prince,” the peasant girl said.

“Get thee out of my way, you worthless girl,” the prince said.

“No, I ain’t going until you promise me that you will speak to your dad about my brother.”

“What do I care what happens to your brother, or any other peasant for that matter? Be gone,” the prince said, turning to leave.


See what a difference that made? Make sure that all your characters have different ways of speaking and different expressions. This will help you and your readers keep you characters separate.

As many of you rightly guessed, the point of the show, staring Mary Beth, Anna Joy and Maria Rose several weeks ago, was to point out all that distracts us from going to and enjoying church. I personally have struggled a lot with this issue for a number of reasons. To be honest, even though we go to a really neat church with homeschooling families and elders who preach straight though books of the bible, I often find myself wishing I could stay home.

Sometimes, when one of our elders is teaching on a familiar passage of scripture, I want to pipe up that I have heard all of the point that he is making plus some instead of listening and hearing the message that God wants me to hear. One of the things that I have learned about sermons, even boring ones, is that if I will just open my ears and listen, I will learn something. Sometimes it has nothing to do with what the elder actually said.

Another reason that I have sometimes dragged myself to church, is that there are very few people with whom I feel connected. Most people are too busy to see us any other time other then Sunday mornings and that is hard sometimes. Sometimes I just am tired of feeling left out so I just don’t want to go.

Another reason we often find ourselves not wanting to go to church, is that we stay up late the night before. Saturday, for many of us, is one of our only free days of the week. During the week we have school, chores, activities and a thousand things that we have to get done. On Saturday we often have at least a few hours just to relax and enjoy ourselves. There is nothing wrong with staying up late to play a game, watch a movie, or reading but we need to make sure that we are not making ourselves totally unfit for church the next morning.

So what about you? What distracts you from fully enjoying church? What can we do to overcome that?

My Modem is still not working but we got another computer connected to the web and I will now begin posting again. I sure missed posting and reading all of your comments and am very glad to be back. Tomorrow, we will discuss the points of the “show” but today I wanted to tell you about things that are going on in my life and hear what is going on in yours.

First of all, I would like to ask for your prayers, I have been suffering from cedar fever for the past few weeks. I have days when I feel like I am getting over it and then the cedar count starts claiming again and I feel worse. Thank you for your prayers.

Second, I have several goals for the New Year and one of them I could really use your help with. As most of you probably know, I struggle with spelling and grammar (makes me wonder sometimes why I write). If you notice spelling and grammar errors in my posts, please, please, please, let me know (is it bad grammar to use the word please three times in a row?). Another of my 2009 goals in to get message board up and going so that we can get connected. Do any of you have any thoughts or ideas about that?

The third thing that I would like to mention is that I am so glad that all for you are here. Thank you guys for sticking with me though my technology troubles; I was afraid that I might lose all my readers. For you who might be new to my blog, I hope that you will come back and join us again.

Well, I guess that is all for right now. What are ya’ll up to? (I love use the word ya’ll, it’s such a good Texas word).

Hi everyone! No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth but my modem is still broken. I hope to back to blogging daily soon.