By Right of Conquest, or, With Cortez in Mexico

I've been thinking about my life and how many unplanned turns I've been taking in the last few years, and G. A. Henty's book By Right of Conquest, or, With Cortez in Mexico came to mind.  Roger was living in England and had his life planned out. He was taking a short trip to the New World, at which point he would return and settle down in England with the girl he had picked out.  However when he got to the New World he ended up in a lot of unexpected adventures that tossed him about and spun him around until he could hardly remember the life he had planned out.  And he began to wonder if maybe he had made his plans, but God was directing his ways.  While in the New World for much longer than he had planned, Roger met another girl in Mexico whom he admired.  And after a great many years longer than was his original intent, Roger and his wife returned to England, where the English girl as well had married someone else, causing everything to work out in the end.  And of course it is a Henty book, so they end up with a nice piece of land, Roger's wife get some jewels, and they have lots of children and grandchildren to whom Roger likes to relate his adventures.

I've been feeling a bit like Roger.

Those of you who know me well know that I have always had my entire life planned out to the smallest details twenty years in advance, although I'm not that good at planning the immediate future.  In the past few years, with none of my plans working out the way I'd planned, I have been asking God what He would have me do while feeling strangely lost without my 20 year plans. 

Sometimes the things that are meant to be temorary, God chooses to make not so temporary.

I recently took a very temporary, as I thought, break from my plans, which I have continued to modify to my situation regardless of how difficult or ridiculous that may be.  However it seems like God is really leading me in a complete opposite direction right now, which is incredibly confusing to me, because it is not at all where I thought God wanted me.

I don't know how coherent that last paragraph was, but it results from my personal confusion over the turn of events.  I don't understand how this fits into my plans, or how it fits into God's plans.  I think maybe I was mistaken about God's plans.  I just really hope that He makes it clear soon, because I would like to have a plan.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll end up with a nice piece of land, some jewels, and lots of children and grandchildren to relate my adventures and God's providence to someday soon. :)

New Blog!

My friend Rachel and I have started a new blog!  It is called Trailblazer's College Talk and offers practical encouragement for the "college-age" years!  Come check it out at


http://trailblazerscollegetalk.blogspot.com


Be sure to follow us and tell all your friends about it!

The Shadowlands

The closer a subject is to my heart, the harder time I seem to have writing coherently.

I have always read that a good author will draw from their own experiences.  I have started several stories in which things happen to the characters that have happened to me, but they never run smoothly and are difficult to write.

Even now I am having trouble.

I can always seem to make my point in a fictional story.  I may go to the extreme of making my points too well.  But when I write from my own experiences, with the thought of allowing someone else to read it someday, I can never seem to get the point across.

Perhaps it is a subconcious guard against vulnerability.

Anyway, this is a short sketch I wrote last October, early in the morning, watching the sun rise outside my hotel room window, in preparation for the funeral of someone who I loved very much.  It was dark in the room, but outside the sun shone in all its glory.  I could see the brilliant rays reflecting off the roofs of the buildings across the street.

Please comment and let me know what you think of it.  Is it coherent?  What did you understand from what was written?  I am not sure I quite understand the full meaning of what I was writing.  I had a vague idea of what I was trying to get at, but was having difficulty putting it in words.  However I seem to have managed to put several concepts down in trying to get at the vague one. 

Oh, and as I tend to do when something has affected me deeply, towards the end I rambled off into poetry.:)  Blank poetry, which is unusual, but there is certainly a difference between that and the previous prose.

The Shadowland

“What a bright day it is today,” Muriel said happily.  Two candles were lit in the dark rooms. 
“Yes, it is rather bright,” said her twin, Judy. 
   “It was kind of the landlord to send us two candles,” their mother commented.
The family and all their friends lived in a castle with no windows, where it was always dark.  The landlord sent them a candle every day, and occasionally two candles, to light the dark rooms. 
   Every few years, the landlord would come during the night and take one of them as they were sleeping out of the castle to the world outside.  He would leave a note to inform the others.  The loss of these was always mourned by those remaining within, but the landlord’s plan was to one day bring them all outside of the castle. 
   One morning Muriel rushed out of her room.  “Mother, Mother, come quickly,” she said.  “I can’t find Judy!”
   The mother followed Muriel back into her room.  Glancing at Judy’s empty bed, she asked, “Muriel…what is that on the bed?”
   Muriel went to it and picked it up.  “Oh, no Mother, it is a note!” She cried.
   “Then the Landlord has taken her away,” the Mother replied.
   Muriel and her Mother and the rest of the family wept for Judy for a long time.  But they could only see what went on in the Shadowlands.  They did not have the whole picture.  They wept for Judy having been borne away in the darkness.   BUT,

   Outside, in the sunshine, Judy stood with the Landlord gazing at the castle.  The tears were running down her cheeks.  “We never knew it was so bright outside,” she said.  “I wish we had known.  I wish everyone inside knew now.”
   “They do know, but it is hard for them to understand what the world really looks like. All they can understand is the great brightness of two candles in a dark room.  They cannot envision anything brighter.”
   “But they have the candles themselves!  Cannot they envision it being as bright as the candle itself?” Judy asked sadly.
   “They could…but they do not.”
   “We used to mourn for those who were borne away in the darkness.  How little did we know that we were the ones who walked in darkness!”  Judy mused.  Another tear slid down her cheek.  “Rather I should mourn for those who are still in darkness.”

Catching a vision of something so much brighter
The sun is bright yet there IS something brighter
We mourn for those who have gone on before
But perhaps they mourn for us who are still behind
And yet in and through it all the landlord…Our Landlord…has a purpose
brighter and better than anything we can here see.   We are confined by our dimension.
We can picture things less than what we have here but nothing more
Yet in glory we will see things as they really are
In catching a vision of something brighter…better…more…we catch a vision of heaven…and yet
 the vision will be far surpassed by the reality.



Hero Showdown!

Princess Aramiel versus Maria Dalton!

Captain Wesley Elliot was voted favorite over King Aramoth, we will see how Aramiel and Maria fare!

Occupation 
Maria: Schoolteacher, Wife, Mother
Aramiel: Princess, Daughter, Wife, Mother

Siblings
Maria: None
Aramiel: 1 older brother, Aramoth

Favorite Color
Maria: Blue
Aramiel: Red

# of Children
Maria: 12.  6 boys, 6 girls.  Names and Gender: Courage, Purity, Strength, Honor, Shiphrah, Puah, Hamilton, Mercy, Gallant, Pilgrim, Trust, Truth
Aramiel: 14.

Color of eyes and hair
Maria: Dark brown hair and eyes
Aramiel: Dark brown hair and eyes

Middle Name
Maria: Shiphrah
Aramiel: None

Character Quality that describes them best
Maria: Servant
Aramiel: Leader

Meaning of Full Name
Maria: Living Fragrance, Beautiful, My God is the Lord
Aramiel: Earnest Seeker of God

From this and reading the books, you should be able to choose a favorite!  If you don't have a copy of one or both of the books, e-mail me at khprovidence.1@verizon.net !

Pictures from Savannah

So here are the pictures from my trip!  These are pictures from the drive down.  The sky was really pretty, and along the side of the road there were wildflowers in big patches.  You can see the red in the picture above.

I had my class all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  It was in a huge vacation home!

Here is the huge bridge I had to drive over to get to the house!  The class was on Hutchinson Island and this bridge is the only way on or off!

It doesn't look bad in the picture because it is so far away and you can only see about a tenth of it.  But when you are on the middle of it, you can see tiny specks of houses in South Carolina!

When I got home at 9:00 p.m, having been there since 8:30 on Friday, I had homework to do! Besides that, we were taking "midnight" walks...

And then we would come home and eat ice cream!!!

The neighborhood I was staying in took about half an hour to drive through, it was so huge.  And take a look at some of these houses!

This last one is my favorite.  Keep in mind that this is half of the house.  The other half is connected to the right and also contains a three car garage!

My friend who drove down with me and I got to ride around in the golf cart belonging to the family we were staying with.  Yeah, this was in all my free time.  The last day of class, I got to leave at 6:00 p.m instead of 9:00, so this picture is probably from that day since it is still pretty light out.

We stayed an extra day to rest up for the ride back and explore a little.  We took a quick walk around historic Savannah, and then went to our friend's relative's house and jumped off the railing of the high dock you see in the background.  I only did it once, as I was shorter than the other girls and couldn't get up on the railing on my own. :(

And the ride back!  I had so much fun there I really didn't want to come home.  But I got my certificate from the class and so now I am a DONA trained doula! I just have a few little things to do, besides documenting some births, to become a DONA certified doula!

The trip was very profitable!

Book Reviews and funny Video!

Kelsey from Little Notes has reviewed my book, The Teacher!  Thank you Kelsey, you did a great job!
Here's the link:
http://mychristianreviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/teacher-by-katie-hepner.html

Kelsey will also be reviewing The Tiphereth Trilogy, and I will keep you posted!

I saw this video on Ah, The Life, http://www.ahthelife.blogspot.com/ .  I thought it was really funny.  I love how the one baby laughs after the other one says something, and I love the hand motions.  It really looks like they are having an important conversation!

Reformation Heritage Choir Christmas Concert

Our family Christmas Concert got postponed and that's why we sang Christmas songs in February.  It went really well!

The children all recieved certificates.

Half-circle set up for O Come O Come Emmanuel.

I made a cake for afterwards.  It had all the children's names on it, and each child wanted the piece with their name on it.  Because of this, some of the children recieved larger pieces than others. :)

Everyone did a great job!

Happy Valentine's day

Happy Valentine’s Day!


The True Meaning of Valentine’s Day

In the A.D. 200’s, Roman emperor Claudius II forbade young men to marry because he thought that being unmarried would make them better soldiers. Without a wife and family to care for, they could devote themselves wholly to their country. Because marriage was against the law, there was no one to perform the marriage ceremony for those who wished to marry. Recognizing that marriage is a sacred covenant established by God, St. Valentine chose to obey God by secretly marrying couples. Valentine’s day is an opportunity to celebrate the institution of marriage and the fidelity of those who glorify God by remaining pure and honoring their marriage vows.

“Marriage was ordained by the Lord at creation, as suited to the state of man as a social being, and necessary to the design for which he was created.”

…Harvey Newcomb, Young Ladies’ Guide to the Harmonious Development of Christian Character, 1843

“Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love before it so desires.” (Song of Songs 2:7 and 3:5 and 8:4



“Just as physical purity is important, being faithful to your future husband means remaining true to him emotionally—even before you are married. Emotional purity involves saving your romantic feelings for your husband. You will be able to offer him your whole heart on your wedding day—not just the bits and pieces that are left.

“…You will still discover…that you have married a real man, not a fictitious hero. Real men can never measure up to men in romance novels.” …Stacy McDonald, Raising Maidens of Virtue

Dear Friends,

Valentine’s day in our culture is sadly twisted. We, as Christian young ladies, wish to remain pure in our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies. Around Valentine’s day, many girls our age—or younger—who are involved in “romantic” relationships with boys are giving and receiving gifts. These gifts are not worth much in a monetary sense, but are worth much more in that you are not only giving and receiving flowers or valentines, but pieces of human hearts.

When we are grown and married, if we had any little paper valentines given to us when we were younger by our “boyfriends”, we would likely be ashamed/embarrassed to allow our future husband to read them. They are tokens of us “liking” a guy other than our husband in the past. And even though we may no longer “like” that guy, our having liked him when we were younger—which is now—meant that we gave him a piece of our heart which cannot be recalled. Our husband would only have a scarred, sliced up heart instead of the beautiful, whole one that is a pure heart.

I am not suggesting that the day before your wedding you burn all your valentines. I am encouraging you to not receive them at all. (If anyone offers any to you !) Also, I think it is not a good idea to give boys valentines—brothers and fathers are exceptions!

Most of us have already decided long ago we want to have a pure heart. Around Valentine’s day, however, I think it might be easy for us to grow discontent. After all, the other girls are getting stuff and we’re not. Of course, we wouldn’t put it that way—it sounds so very selfish! We need to remember that we want to be pure, and we need to be pure at all costs. Valentine’s day, when our resolutions in this area might perhaps be shaken, is when we need to remember this most so we can be a light to others. There are very few girls today who are pure—especially in their hearts and minds. However, we are not altogether alone. I know our decisions to be pure are making God happy, and He is with us through all our struggles.

Let us be strong in the Lord. We must not waver in this battle. Let us strive to keep our hearts safe in Jesus’ and our parents keeping until our wedding days, when we will, by God’s grace, give a pure and unblemished heart to our husband, and he will give us his. Let us be a light, and shine out to the misguided girls around us the true meaning of Valentine’s day—a celebration of marriage, fidelity, and purity.

I hope this is a help and encouragement to you as you seek to serve God and remain pure in your hearts, minds, souls, and bodies!

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

John 14:15



“And now I will show you the most excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-8a



“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13

“Romantic dreams flit by, but with God’s help, I dismiss them. I at times desire to marry immediately, and I rashly wonder if my principles are worth upholding, though I know in my heart they are. I do not have any attachments to anyone, if that is what you mean. I do not believe young women should ‘fall in love’ before they have been proposed to.

“Having a respect for certain young men, who have acted in a way that they are deserving of that respect, cannot harm you if you guard you heart. It is good to respect your superiors…And as you know, when we are tempted with thoughts we should not think of young men, they will leave with much prayer.”

…Maria Dalton in The Teacher



A good book to read for encouragement, if you haven’t already, is

Before You Meet Prince Charming by Sarah Mally, the founder of Bright Lights. It is available from Vision Forum (www.VisionForum.com) It is fun to read and offers helpful tips on how to spend the single years. (For instance, serving God…not sitting around and singing, “Oh, someday my prince will come… like portrayed in Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty.” )

February 12th: A day to remember

February 12th, 1554.

457 years ago.

The death of one of England's leading Protestant Reformers.

The murder of a seventeen year old girl by her cousin.

The execution of a Queen less known, but who was and would have been better, than good Queen Bess herself.

457 years ago today, Queen Jane Dudley was executed.  She is better known as Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days.

She read several languages and corresponded with several Reformers, including Johann Sturm, a friend of Martin Luther.

She was well educated, but conniving people used her because she was in line for the throne.  Her father-in-law married her to his son, intending to have them crowned.  He then intended to poison Jane, letting his son live a little longer, and then poison his son, so that he would have control of the kingdom.  He attempted to poison Jane but it didn't actually kill her.  However when Edward died, Mary Tudor was next in line.  Jane Dudley accepted the throne without knowing this.  Bloody Mary took the throne and imprisoned Jane.  Jane was a favorite of hers.  However she wanted to marry Philip of Spain so she could have a child who would rule so that England would remain Catholic.  Philip insisted that she execute Jane, or he would not marry her.  So on February 12th, 1554, Bloody Mary had Jane executed.  My personal opinion is that she was traumitized by this and her guilt, and that is why she killed so many people, especially with Philip and others egging her on.

Excerpt from Lady Jane Grey's last address to the people:

"Good people, I am come hither to die, and by law am condemned to the same, for the fact against the Queen's highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me:  but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me and on my behalf it was never of my seeking, but by counsel of others who seemed to have further understanding of things than me, which little knew of the law, and much less of the titles to the crown.  I do wash my hands in innocency before God, and in the face of you, good people, this day.
  I pray you all, good Christian people, to bear me witness that I die a true Christian woman.    I do look to be saved by no other means, but only by the mercy of God, in the blood of his only Son Jesus Christ.
  I confess that when I did know the word of God, I neglected the same, loved myself and the world; and therefore this plague is happily and worthily happened unto me for my sins; and yet I thank God, that of his goodness he hath thus given me a time and respite to repent.  And now, good people, while I am alive, I pray you assist me with your prayers."

It would be a worthwhile pursuit indeed to learn more about this godly woman.  I would highly recommend "Lady Jane Grey: Nine Day Queen of England"  by Faith Cook.

A Special Christmas Treat

A sneak peak at Tiperet, the third book in the Tiphereth Trilogy, with an introduction to one of the main families!


The Tamam Family

"It was a crisp, clear autumn day when the Tamam family arrived. Ynyth and Gwynarae were the same, only a few years older. Mimnesko Eucharistia, whom Aramoth and Aramiel had never seen, was four years old and a very sweet little boy. Eirene was eight and looked very much as Theria had at that age, only Eirene was more playful and less serious than Theria had been at that age. The twins—Endikos and Hupakoe—were fine manly boys of eleven years, who looked as if they had been going through the same physical training Aramoth had at that age. But then they saw Eleutheria. Eleutheria was small and shorter than Aramiel, but very beautiful. Always mature for her age, she was now, though only sixteen, a woman. The dignity she had always been known for as a girl became her even better now, and it displayed itself in her quiet voice and in the way she carried herself. Her long, dark, wavy hair was twisted on the back of her head to accommodate traveling. Theria’s brown eyes were not only very beautiful, but expressed wisdom and discretion."

…The Tiphereth Trilogy, Tiperet, pg. 227

Enjoy your Christmas and remember to leave a comment on the previous post voting on your favorite cover picture!

Graduation Pictures

Please feel free to leave comments!