An Engagement ... Mine, In Fact

Important bit of news: Alaska is absolutely, positively beautiful!

More important bit of news: We had a wonderful, productive visit with the Zimmerman family.

Most important bit of news: Tait and I are engaged!

We look forward to a life together spent serving the Lord and giving Him the glory for all of the the miraculous ways He has worked.

There are a few old, familiar hymns that particularly stand out to me at this wonderful time.

"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."


"Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me."

"Praise the Lord, praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice!

Praise the Lord!, praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice!

Oh come to the Father through Jesus the Son,

And give Him the glory,

Great things He hath done!”


More breathtaking pictures, animated stories, and informative updates coming soon on my family's blog!

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Tait has also posted an engagement announcement on his blog, Not by Bread Alone.

Why Haven't I Been Posting Recently?

Well, my courtship might have something to do with it. And my 5-month-old baby sister might figure in there somewhere. And just normal busyness supplies the rest of my excuse.

I'm trying to keep our family blog going fairly regularly. Friends and relatives are anxious for updates and pleasantly clamorous for pictures of a certain Alaskan and updates on a certain courtship.

With that said, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post on "More Precious Than Rubies" in the near future, but I'll grab any opportunities that come along! There are plans for some possible collaborative posts coming up soon, so please don't abandon, readers!

To see the said pictures and updates, go to our family blog, The Name Fitz.

Blessings,
Lauren

Tait and me at American Vision's Worldview Superconference the end of May

Grandmother's Point of View - Issue IV

Grandmother’s Point of View

by Grandma Betty

[Written June 5, 2007]

It’s been quite some time since I shared my “Views” with others. Fathers Day is coming up this month: this day brings memories of my Father, Michael Korodi, who was a lay Christian minister. He was also an astute reader of history and continuously studied and mused over the Word of God, the Bible. We children would often snicker as we watched him slowly doze off over the open Bible after a long day of work.

I happen to be the youngest of six children in our family: all the others have gone on to be with the Lord, so I am the only remaining member of our family, to consider what kind of an heritage my Father left:

I remember him as a gentle person, who was generous in providing help to others in the “Great Depression” years. Many times, he took a loss when others failed to keep their promises of repayment.

Our home was always open to those who visited from other cities and stayed for a week or two.

Speaking several other languages, my Father was called upon to preach in four churches as the need arose.

One of his favorite Bible chapters was Psalm 139, especially the following verses:

“For Thou didst form my inward parts, Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb.

I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.

Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they all were written,

The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

In recent weeks, I have been struggling with pain and discomfort due to scoliosis (a curvature of the spine), with which the doctors say I may have been born. I didn’t become aware of it until the age of thirty-five! Having had an opportunity to read up a little on genetics, it’s amazing to learn just how intricately involved our bodies’ makeup is! The map of our genes and chromosomes is already laid out long before birth!

I realize that this doesn’t have much to do with Father’s Day, except that to say that if it weren’t for our fathers, we wouldn’t be here! I, for one, realize that I owe a debt of gratitude for a Father who was a good example of a Godly man, who provided for his family, and who was generous in helping those who were not as fortunate as we. My Father is gone, but let’s give honor to those fathers who are still with us!

Yours Truly

A-Courtin'

This post was originally posted earlier today on our family blog, The Name Fitz.

* * * * *

A certain young man has been hanging around here of late. His presence is especially surprising given the fact that the young man hails from the faraway state of Alaska. However, he claims to have a special motivation for these regular visits to the heart of the South.

My story begins last May, when our family had the privilege of providing music for American Vision's First Annual Worldview Superconference. A certain Alaskan was also in attendance, but had not yet crossed paths with our family ... that is, until May 26th, the second-to-last day of the conference. Over the last twenty-four hours of the conference, he kept showing up here and there, spending time getting to know our family (without us knowing exactly why). Right before we left for home, Dad extended to him an invitation to visit us. Now, this is an invitation that is given to just about everyone we get to know at conferences and other such events, and only occasionally do we ever see these people again. This time turned out to be one of those "occasionally's."

Both Mom and Dad were significantly impressed by the maturity and marked character of this young man, and commented several times to that effect.

The middle of June an e-mail arrived: "I will most likely be taking you up on your offer to visit in your home." Toward the end of the said visit, when permission was sought, permission was granted to call and e-mail a young lady in the household. Phone calls between Mom and Dad and the Alaskan, and the Alaskan and the young lady, and Mom and Dad and the Alaskan's parents, followed. Our family met up with him at two Vision Forum conferences in San Antonio, TX, where he was interning with Vision Forum. Then a visit during Christmas. Now Courting.

Yes, Tait Zimmerman is courting a young lady from SC, who happens to be me (Lauren here!).

I know what may be going through the minds of some: Courting? Isn't that what people used to do like hundreds of years ago? Isn't that terribly old-fashioned?

I now begin another story, one which commenced slightly before my last one, although the very point at which it began is difficult to determine. One might say it began before I did, though. Both of my parents dated, and knew that they wanted something better for their children. It had always been understood, from the time we were little, that we would not follow the dating route. Dad would say, half jokingly, "You can date after you're married." When we were still quite small, Mom began keeping a "courting" file, to which she added the various articles on courtship versus dating that she came across.

Several years ago, our family's plans to pursue courtship instead of dating were cemented when Dad conducted a study on courtship for our church's weekly "Family Night."

The purpose of courtship is to seek God's will towards marriage. It has both direction and a certain amount of commitment. It recognizes the father's authority, and seeks guidance from both sets of parents.

One of my favorite verses in Proverbs 31 is "She will do him good, and not evil all the days of her life." As a little girl, as a teenager, as an eligible young lady. I am some man's future wife. I must avoid the emotionally- and physically-defrauding relationship found many times in the dating process. I belong to my future husband, and must do him good ... now.

* * * * *

We look forward to meeting his whole family - parents and two lovely sisters - in just two days! On Wednesday, Leslie and I are off to Asheville with them to attend American Vision's Second Annual Worldview Superconference! Then, the Zimmermans will be honored guests in our home for about another week-and-a-half. I shall have oodles of pictures to post, so keep checking our family blog!

Every day, my phone rings with a call from Alaska, and I am normally busy talking and studying for about the next hour or two with Tait. The consistency of his calls has earned him the nickname "The Pesky Alaskan" (PA for short) from Leslie.

Today is exactly one year since we met Tait at that conference in the out-of-the-way town of Toccoa, GA. The respect that each person in my family holds for him has only grown with time. He has vision and a desire to truly bring everything, every thought, into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Tait has a wonderful blog, Not by Bread Alone, and has posted a "courting post" too. Click over to read his perspective and a slightly more detailed account of our first meeting last May 26th. He hasn't had a chance to blog very much recently (all that phone time!), but has lots of great articles from the last few years.

Your prayers are appreciated as we continue to seek God's will.

I've Been Meaning to Write on This....

I've been meaning to write something on this subject, but just haven't gotten a chance yet, with all the goings-on that have been going on of late. : ) Yesterday, I discovered an article on Ladies Against Feminism that says everything I want to say about this, and says it infinitely better than I ever could. Its title is "The Secret Garden" ... and no, it's not talking about the book.

I know it's rather low of me not to write something myself, and instead to borrow someone else's work. But I sincerely wanted to share this article with each and every one of you. You will be blessed, so please take five minutes of the time you had planned to use reading new posts on my blog, and peruse The Secret Garden.

Stay tuned ... on May 26th, I'll be posting something rather special and exciting, which will go far towards explaining the sad job I've been doing of late of keeping More Precious Than Rubies updated!

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The Secret Garden

* * * * *

What Is "He" Looking For? - Part 4

Introduction * Part 1 * Part 2 * Part 3 * Part 4 * Part 5 * Part 6 * Part 7 * Part 8 * Part 9 * Conclusion

4. "The next quality to look for is thankfulness.... Thankfulness is not a response to one's environment, rather, an expression of the heart."

Just like cheerfulness, thankfulness is "an expression of the heart," and - as Michael Pearl puts it, speaking of a prospective wife - "a change of environment and relationships is not going to make her thankful." Broadly stated, what we are before marriage, we will be after marriage. Yes, we can change; we are always changing, always learning. But if we have an ungrateful spirit before marriage, we cannot expect a miraculous, instantaneous metamorphosis to take place upon our wedding day, transforming us into thankful women.

In his book, The Power of True Success, Bill Gothard states, "An ungrateful spirit is a rebuke to those who are providing for you and a complaint against God."

First of all, we are commanded, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (I Thessalonians 5:18). Our thanks is due, first and foremost, to our Lord. Bill Gothard emphasizes that "[t]rue gratefulness springs from an awareness of our total unworthiness and inadequacy before a holy and just God." Anything the Lord chooses to give us is an immense blessing; our thanks should be poured freely and humbly at His feet.

Thanking the Lord for what we see as "good" is easy. Thanking Him for trials and hard times, adversities and calamities, is another matter. However, we are commanded to give thanks "in every thing"! We are instructed to "count it all joy when [we] fall into divers temptations" (James 1:2); God says we will be blessed when men "revile" and "persecute" us (Matthew 5:11). We must remember that God has a plan, that He knows what is best. God can use these difficult times to draw us closer to Himself, conforming us more fully into His image.

Besides her Lord, the most important person for a woman to express thankfulness to is her husband. It is he who has chosen her above all others to be his special helpmeet, to help him be successful in his life mission. It is he who works long days to support her, putting food on the table and providing for her needs.

Everyone likes to feel appreciated. Consider what an encouragement it would be to a husband for his wife to praise him, to thank him for the sacrifices he makes everyday for her!

Phillips Brooks, American clergyman and author, once said, "To say 'well done' to any bit of good work is to take hold of the powers which have made the effort and strengthen them beyond our knowledge." We have at our fingertips the power to either rebuke and discourage others through our ungrateful spirit, or to encourage others to pursue higher and nobler things by simply being thankful.

"Yet, on the dull silence breaking
With a lightning flush, a word,
Bearing endless desolation
On its blighting wings, I heard;
Earth can forge no keener weapon,
Dealing surer death and pain;
And the cruel echo answered
Through long years again.

I have known one word hung starlike
O'er a dreary waste of years,
And it only shone the brighter
Looked at through a mist of tears,
While a weary wanderer gathered
Hope and heart on life's dark way
By its faithful promise shining
Clearer day by day."

-from Home-Making, by J.R. Miller; pg. 41

Introduction * Part 1 * Part 2 * Part 3 * Part 4 * Part 5 * Part 6 * Part 7 * Part 8 * Part 9 * Conclusion

"Wait on the Lord"

~ Psalm 27:13-14 ~

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Heartbreak and Blessings

Jessica Weatherford lies small and helpless on the opertating table, staring at a blue surgical sheet hanging inches from her face.

It blocks her view of the Caesarean operation on the other side, as a doctor delicately reaches for her baby.

A baby Jessica's been waiting for.

A baby she prays will live long enough to hold in her arms.

So begins one of the most heartbreaking stories I have ever read. This is a story of a young couple who experienced the unthinkable: the joy of finding out they were soon to be the proud parents of a baby boy, and then the sorrow of discovering that their first son would never live to see the outside of a hospital. You see, a severe disability, Trisomy 13, made it certain that little Zeke would not survive more than a few minutes - if that long - outside of his mother's womb.

But this is also the story of God's faithfulness and a mother's love. While most parents would have chosen to abort their child, Dave and Jessica Weatherford knew that God had a plan for their son's life, however short He saw fit to make it.

Psalm 139:13 - For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

As I read of this couple's struggles, their hopes, plans, and faith, tears streamed down my face. Theirs is a heartwrenching story. But I received a tremendous blessing from reading of God's faithfulness through every trial.

Their story gives a whole new meaning to Psalm 139. God has a plan for every life, even that of a severely disabled baby who lives for only 35 minutes outside of his mother's womb.

You will cry as you read of Jessica taking her baby in her arms, whispering, "Hi. This is Mommy. I love you."

But I can assure you that you will be blessed as I have been.

Part 1: Zeke's Gift - Love to Last a Lifetime

Part 2: Zeke's Gift - "Hi. This is Mommy"

A.W. Pink - The Family As the Foundation of Society

Mr. Phillips, of the Vision Forum, recently published a quote from A.W. Pink on his blog concerning the relationship between the strength of families and the strength of a nation. The main thrust of the quote - particularly the second paragraph - is that "a nation is but the aggregate of its families, and unless there be good husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, there cannot possibly be good citizens."

This marriage relationship is looked at in more detail in the first paragraph of Pink's writing. The quality of a marriage determines how the roles of father and mother will be filled and significantly impacts the entire lives of sons and daughters which will be born into that marriage.

I considered merely posting a link to the quote, but I wanted to make sure that you read it! In an effort to make it more easily accessible, the decision was made to copy the quote over to my own blog.

It is perhaps a trite remark, yet nonetheless weighty for having been uttered so often, that with the one exception of personal conversion, marriage is the most momentous of all earthly events in the life of a man or woman. It forms a bond of union that binds them until death. It brings them into such intimate relations that they must either sweeten or embitter each other’s existence. It entails circumstances and consequences that are not less far-reaching than the endless ages of eternity. How essential it is then that we should have the blessing of Heaven upon such a solemn yet precious undertaking, and in order to this, how absolutely necessary it is that we be subject to God and to His Word thereon. Far, far better to remain single unto the end of our days, than to enter into the marriage state without the Divine benediction upon it. The records of history and the facts of observation bear abundant testimony to the truth of that remark.

Even those who look no further than the temporal happiness of individuals and the welfare of existing society, are not insensible to the great importance of our domestic relations, which the strongest affections of nature secure, and which even our wants and weaknesses cement. We can form no conception of social virtue or felicity, yea, no conception of human society itself, which has not its foundation in the family. No matter how excellent the constitution and laws of a country may be, or how vast its resources and prosperity, there is no sure basis for social order or public as well as private virtue, until it be laid in the wise regulation of its families. After all, a nation is but the aggregate of its families, and unless there be good husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, there cannot possibly be good citizens. Therefore the present decay of home life and family discipline threaten the stability of our nation today far more severely than does any foreign hostility.

- A.W. Pink