Proverbs 31: 21-22

Proverbs 31 is generally fairly well-known to us as it contains what a woman who fears the Lord looks like. It paints a portrait of what we read and see as the perfect woman that we could never be! Everything we read in Proverbs 31 sometimes could even be overwhelming because we desire so much to be that woman who fears the Lord; we desireto be that godly woman. But there are things that we forget as we read through what we often mistakenly think as requirements, rather than an example. 

The proverbs 31 woman is not meant to be this over-bearing goal and to be that kind of woman of character does not just happen overnight. It is a process. I have been reading and learning so much in Proverbs 31 that I want to take a few posts to expound on some of it with you readers. Today I highlighted verses 21 and 22 posted above.

This woman is established. It says that her household is clothed with scarlet. This woman knows and has seen to that her household is covered in the blood of Jesus. They are washed, redeemed…they are covered in the precious blood of the lamb.

Reading on into verse 22 it says that her clothing is fine linen and purple. It was brought to my attention by a wonderful woman of God of why she dresses in purple.

Purple is a color of royalty.

This woman knows who her God is.

This woman knows who her Father is.

This woman knows that her Daddy is the King of Kings.

She knows her position as royalty – She is a daughter of the King.

She knows her King.

Wow!

That brought such a revelation to me. It was then that I realized, then when you know your position, it changes everything. When I came to a true knowing in my heart of who my King was, it changed who I was. Because it was then that I knew my position as a princess. It can almost sound cliché anymore to hear that. But when you realize that you truly are a princess and that your daddy is the King, and when you recognize your position in the kingdom, what other people might think or say doesn’t matter anymore. There is a new confidence – there is an authority that you carry when you know that you are in position to walk in it.

Do you know in your heart who your King is today?

Do you know in your heart your position in the kingdom?

Are you clothed in purple?

I want to challenge you, as a young lady-in-waiting to seek to know the King’s heart today. And when you know the king and recognize your position in the kingdom, I can promise it will change you.

You can’t enter into His presence and not be changed by His glory!

I bless you with the recognition that you are a princess of the Most High King and that you walk in a heavenly authority. May you walk in grace and keep your head high. And may you know your King in a deeper way than you ever have before.

~Brittany L. Ketter

The winner of the giveaway has been selected and notified. Please feel free to comment still and join the discussion!  

I have had the privilege of interviewing Dannah Gresh, best-selling author of And the Bride Wore White, 5 Little Questions That Reveal the Life that God Designed For You, The Secret of the Lord, and multiple others including What Are You Waiting For?: The One Thing No One Ever Tells You About Sex which we are talking about today. She is the co-founder of the ministry Pure Freedom. Dannah is a wonderful woman with a great message which she shares unashamedly and in the direct way that today’s young women need to hear.

Brittany: If you could sum up your goal in writing What Are You Waiting For? in one sentence, what would it be?

Dannah: I want today’s young women to have a sexual judge on which to base their sexuality.

We can’t just make decisions, we need to know what God’s intentions are for us.

Brittany: In What Are You Waiting For? you mention “a greater revelation of a much deeper love.” How would you describe this greater love?

Dannah: It’s the all-consuming everything-we-hope-for dream-of-love. This love between God and us is the most beautiful banquet table, and we get it so mixed up with mud pies.

Brittany: So many girls are acting out on their want and desire for attention and “love” and the results of pursuing that can be devastating. What is the greatest factor that they are missing?

Dannah: Probably at the core of it they don’t know who they are in Christ. They reach out for the mud pie because they don’t know they are a princess who has been invited to a love feast with the king.

Brittany: What is the biggest misconception that young women have that is addressed in your book?

Dannah: They don’t think sex is going to hurt them. Because it is so common and casually treated that they don’t understand it hurts when it is misused. We are designed to be monogamous and when we are not in a monogamous relationship we need to heal.

Brittany: Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Dannah: I am burdened for the 20-something culture to muscle up on the theology of sexuality. We gotta muscle up!

Thank you, Dannah for being with us and sharing more on a biblical view of sex and sexuality.

Check out Dannah’s website at: http://purefreedom.org/

Also check out her blog where she posts “unashamed answers about sex, beauty and girlhood: http://purefreedom.org/

And finally, to enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of Dannah’s What Are You Waiting For? The One Thing No One Ever Tells You About Sex comment on this post leaving your name, age, and a comment about how having a healthy and biblical view of sex and sexuality applies in becoming a “godly lady-in-waiting”.

NOTE: As this is written to an older audience (mainly senior high and college girls) I would recommend it for the audience to which it is written and no younger than that.

So…one last thing:

What are you waiting for?

NOTE: winner will be chosen at random by generator on Friday, February 3, 2012 and will be notified here and via email.

I am not so big on New Years Resolutions – when every day is a new day and God’s mercies are new every morning. However, I have thought on what I want to be different this coming year:

I don’t want to go one day unchanged.

How can you pray better for your future husband this year?

How can you grow in the character of a godly lady-in-waiting?

How can you draw closer to Jesus, the lover of your soul?

This year, dream bigger, love better, draw nearer, dig deeper, and go beyond what you ever thought you could.

Blessings to you on your journey to being a godly lady-in-waiting!

HAPPY 2012!

I really believed that I knew what the love of God really was.

I was wrong.

The love of God is far more than I had ever experienced…and now I finally see that it is so much more than I ever believed. I have experienced this love in such a way that I never had before and I am not sure I could fully express it. Love so divine – it has engulfed my soul. This love reaches beyond expression or comprehension. And having experienced this love is such a great way, my thoughts are on that day when love came down…

More times than I’m willing to say I have found my thoughts going over what it was like for Mary to know that she was carrying the Son of God, the one who would redeem the world. What was it like to look into that newborn face and know that you were looking into the very eyes of God-incarnate? Such an expression of love that God became a man – that He set aside His royalty to become a servant. What an expression of love. So self-less and so pure…It amazes me.

As Christmas is upon us, have you placed your thoughts on that night when love came down?

Often times, I believe that this story becomes so familiar that we begin to miss the power in it. But this one day changed the world forever. Too much we think of the Christmas story as, “Jesus was born of virgin Mary in Bethlehem and shepherds came to worship him followed later by some wise men and they brought Him gifts and worshiped Him recognizing that He was the King of Kings. The end.”

This story is so much more than that. And the love that was demonstrated here, I am amazed. His love is extravagant!

Do you think of the night that Love came down?

When the Son of God laid down His crown,

and came to earth, with us to dwell -

His name was called Emanuel.

While shepherds keep their sheep,

Angelic hosts to them greet

And tell them of the babe that was born

in Bethlehem – who is Christ the Lord.

They find the manger where He lay,

and bowed down to worship Him.

The shepherds then spread the word,

people were amazed at what they heard.

Later came wise men who followed the star

bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh from afar.

On finding their long-sought King of the Jews,

they then, worshiped Him too.

There is more to the story,

Oh, the glory!

To think of the thoughts of how

it was that night when  love came down.

~~~~~~~

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

 ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:8-12 (NIV)

I can’t even begin to count how many years that I believed that life would really begin when I walked down that aisle and my daddy gave me away. As I got older, God began to show me more and more the beauty and blessings of the single season. For many, it is but a stage of life’s journey…and just as Elisabeth Elliot says above – it is a gift. Today is the ‘”real” living’. We can dream all we want, but that doesn’t let us live tomorrow before it comes. I love how she says that God still owns tomorrow.

Today is all that we have. This moment is all we can claim. We never know when we could have taken our last breath. Life doesn’t start when marriage comes, life has long since begun, and if you don’t live in this moment then you are going to miss what God has for it.

This moment, this day, this season of life – this is a gift; and as much as you might have dreamed it to just be a time of waiting before “real” life started, you can now open your eyes to the blessing it is to have this stage in the journey. This is more than a time of waiting; this is more than a time of preparation; this is the time to live to the fullest.

So,

Love deeper.

Live with purpose.

Dream Big but remember today.

Always remember that God still owns tomorrow…how are you going to live your today?

-Be married

-possibly have a kid

- pretty much have my life together

Where I am now is a far cry from the life that I imagined that I would live, but I know that where I am, is exactly where I should be. God has so much more to work in me before I become a wife and a mother – and let’s face it, I’m never going to have my life completely together, and I don’t believe any of us will.

I have taken today to reflect on my 20 years of life and what God has brought me from and what He has made of me, and what He wants to do in me. I’ve been thinking of the promises that He has given me…the promise that said that He would satisfy my years (a promise I was given a few years back, but did not really begin to understand until now.), the promise that He would make me as a light to the nations, the promise that he would speak through me and give me words to say, the promise that He is faithful. And looking back on those promises, I see all the more that – His plans for my life are so much better than the ones that I could ever dream of!

I am still watching for that man that I have been praying for all these years, but I know that He will come in God’s perfect timing. I’m so content to just be dancing with daddy. (I’m talking about my heavenly daddy as well as my earthly daddy). A few weeks ago at the Next Revolution Conference Pastor Patrick Schatzline was speaking and wow, did he bring a powerful word! During the altar call, he called up those who did not have a good relationship with their father, or who did not know their father, or those who had been hurt by their father. There were so many that responded to that call and I found my heart completely broken for them. He then asked of the girls, how many of them had ever had the chance to dance with their dad – so few had.

I stood there watching – completely broken for these girls who had not known that love from their father.

I thought about my own daddy. I remember dancing with my daddy as a little girl and even not too long ago. I have absolutely no doubts about how much my daddy loves me. He means the world to me. And I know that because of the way that my earthly father has loved me, I have, all the more a picture of how my heavenly Father loves me. My relationship with God is what it is because my Dad has shown me how a Father loves His child.

After getting out of the conference that night, the first thing that I did was message my dad and thank Him for being the blessing of a Father that He is and for loving me the way that He always has. I have so many wonderful memories of my dad and He is so much a reason that I am who I am today. Even at 20, I’m loving me dancing with my daddy.

In the same way, I am the woman that I am today because of the influence that my mother has had in my life. If I were to pick one thing out about my mother that I admire it would be her strength. I recognize that things haven’t always been easy, but she has always pushed through. Momma isn’t one to avoid what is hard – she takes it head-on with a strength that I want to have as well.

Momma has taught me so much over the years, and I know that I still have so much more to learn from her. At this season in my life, she has come to be more than just a mother to me, but a friend as well. Yes, she will always be my mother, and always treat me as a daughter. But as I’ve grown, I have realized the difference between relationships with Fathers and relationships with Mothers. No matter what, in your relationship with your father, you’ll always be his little girl and that will never change. Inasmuch as this is the same with mothers, when you grow, she becomes your friend too. It becomes more than mother/daughter – it becomes woman to woman.

I cannot even think about where I am right now without thinking about how blessed I truly am. I have the most amazing family, church family, friends, and school! God has blessed me so much more than I ever pictured. I daresay I’ve lived a blessed life thus far and I know that I still have a lifetime more to live! Seeing where God has brought me these 20 years, I cannot wait to see what He will do in the next 20! I am calling on the promise that He has given me that He will satisfy my years. 

My life may not be what I had imagined it would be by this time, but it is so beautiful how God is orchestrating it! Each day He does a new work in me. Each day I see a whole new part of who He is. With each day that passes, I am all the more sure that this life I am living is the one that I am meant to live. God has planted some new dreams in my heart and in due time they will flourish!

My journey in these 20 years has been so beautiful and I cannot wait to see what God does in the next 20 years. He has planted new dreams in my heart and with them a desire to do and to be more than I ever have before. I am calling on His promise that He will satisfy my years and I pray that He will be glorified with every breath that I breathe and that my life will be a fragrant offering unto Him.

Maybe it has been the same guy for months or years even. Or maybe it is a different guy every week. You can’t seem to help yourself with these feelings. It is a longing in your heart that you can’t describe – the need to be noticed and the need to be recognized. It is as if you cannot be complete without him. And he doesn’t even realize everything he is to you.

You desire and you want…you push yourself further every time.

But at some point down the road you reach a place where you find that this want that you had, this desire that was in you isn’t everything you thought it was. How far will you go to gain his affection? Doesn’t love give it all?  Isn’t that what love does? Love makes you feel good inside. Love makes the world so much brighter. Love should change everything.

It did change everything.

But instead of the warm and fuzzy feeling inside that you dreamed there would be – you feel a hollowness in your heart.

Instead of receiving little gifts and sweet notes you give of yourself.

And when things don’t work out, you start it all over again. As you make your way through this vicious cycle you realize that love is not what you imagined it to be. But love seems so far off now that you don’t believe you would recognize it if you were in it’s arms right now.

Maybe, you never will know love. Perhaps this wanting in you will never be satisfied. You will continue to go from one guy to another but you will never find what you seek that way.

Dear Lady-in-Wanting,  Love wants to find you.

Your miss-perceived view of love has put you in a place of regret and shame. Your need has not been met. You are not satisfied and your heart longs for more. Take heart, there is more.

There is a love that satisfies and does not leave you empty.

There is a love that notices you and calls you by name.

There is a love that longs for you and cries after you.

There is a love that gives to you what no one else can offer.

There is a love that pursues you – how long will you run from it?

There is a love that is everything you are looking for – everything and more.

Lady-in-Wanting, this love desires to make you into His Lady-in-Waiting. He desires to fill you and restore you and to show you what true love really is. No love is more pure and none greater.

This love paid the greatest price for you. He values you above all things. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) You are precious to Him and he desires to show you who he is so that you will understand what love is. To know love, you must know Him because He is love.

Dear Lady-in-Wanting, pause. Take your eyes off what you see before you and open your heart to see deep in the eyes of the one who loves you.  Beloved, come. Fall in my arms. There is no shame. There is no condemnation. There is wholeness. There is peace and life and understanding. Let my love enfold you and consume you. What you have been wanting, you have now received. Let me work in your heart. Dear lady-in-wanting, when you understand my love, you shall be my dear Lady-in-Waiting. 

“I have loved you with an everlasting love…” 

Of every lesson we went through this week, I believe my personal favorite was Day Three: Saying No to a King.

It says in Esther 1:12: “Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger.”

So….as the story goes, the King was having a huge celebration (that lasted 180 days) and during the last week, he called for his wife, Queen Vashti for her to dance before His guests. We read that Queen Vashti was a most beautiful woman. Some even say that she could have been even more beautiful than Esther who was, as we know, won the title as Queen after Vashti.

Anyways, back on track, I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to see Vashti as a bad girl, when this really isn’t the case. In fact I actually admire her. Given her situation, it was lose-lose. Either lose her dignity, or lose her position. I’m quite certian that she considered what her response would mean. Vashti proves to be a strong woman and in denying the King’s request, even though it means that she is banished.  It is a shame she gets some bad rap at times for choosing to not give up her dignity.

This sets the stage for the rest of the story of Esther. I love seeing God’s hand in it from beginning to end. There is no place in Esther where “God” is used, however, this story shows so much of his sovereignty – which is so amazing!!

As a godly Lady-in-waiting, what is it that I want you to take from this exactly? That would be that you learn to see God’s sovereignty in everything. What we have here in Esther right now is a “Royal Mess!”  What else do you see in this story?

I have been trying to write this post for weeks now, but the words don’t easily come. I mean, how could I condense my mother into a little post? (Please, go try it – it’s not easy!) There is just so much that she is and does that it is impossible to write it all here or to even sum it up short. (I know how much she loves long stories )

Anyways, I am going to do my best to give a portrait of my mother, so here goes.

She appears to simply be a wife and a stay-at-home mother of five kids. But appearances can be deceiving. She is so much more than that. Mom could be a super hero – part teacher, part chef, part cleaner, part FBI agent, part accountant, part baby sitter, part ____ (fill in the blank here). Mom’s do it all. (Especially mine!) She’s more than just a wife and mother. She’s everything we’ve ever needed her to be and more.

Momma is always there. Whether you want her that moment or not, she’s there. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do, she still loves you. There isn’t an earthly love that can surpass a mother’s love.

Momma is an amazing woman and I’ve seen that more and more as I’ve grown older. She became more than just my mom, she became a friend as well. Who can really say the day my mom became my friend? Well, I can’t even tell you because I’m not certain myself. But there comes a time when it’s not just mother to child, but woman to woman. (Granted there still are those mother to child moments…I haven’t grown up that much yet!)

Mom is the voice of reason. Usually it pays to listen to her.

Momma sets an example with the way she lives. Her priorities are in line, she keeps her house in good order. She loves God and has always taught us His word. Watching her has blessed me in so many ways! I know that so much of who I am now is because of who she is and her influence in my life.

I wish I could better put who my mother is into words. But truth is, I can’t put her into words because words aren’t enough….but I pray my life will show for who she is and that through her example, I could rightly show the great woman she is.

I am so proud to be her daughter and she has no idea how much so! (And I really AM her daughter…trust me, it shows. ) I want to be a portrait of my mother someday. I admire and love the woman she is and couldn’t be more proud of her!

Happy Birthday, Momma! I love you so much!

Have the best day and let this be the best year you’ve ever had!

Love always,

Brittany Lee Ketter