How to Start Living a Simpler Life

Today's world is rather complex, much too complex for most people to be comfortable in it anymore. This was not always the case, and is largely the result of mankind thinking they know everything and better. God's commandments and guidelines for us are forgotten, for men found a "better" way of doing things. Today's society doesn't like the God of the bible a whole lot, which is probably something you have already heard your parents say when they home schooled you.

So what kind of life does God propose for us? Read more


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A Simple Life by God's Design

Have you been home schooled by your parents, are now in college and realize that what Mom and Dad told you and your siblings about the world outside is indeed accurate ? That it is difficult for Christian ladies to find like-minded people out there, people who rather choose to live simply and close to God's creation, who trust that God is faithful to His word and live according to His word ?

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Biblical Femininity

The concept of biblical femininity is largely lost in modern day society. Even if countries like the USA claim to be mainly Christian, they are in fact much more secular than Christian - unless you want to go as far as saying that modern Christianity has distanced itself so much from the biblical blueprint for life that it can look completely secular and still call itself Christian. This would indicate that Christianity has become Churchianity indeed, a man-made and man-shaped religion.

Be that as it may, every day examples of practical biblical femininity are rare these days, and mainly found in larger or smaller fringe groups. The outward signs of biblical femininity are easily listed:

According to the biblical command and example, a godly woman stays at home instead of going to work outside the home. She is her husband's submissive and obedient help meet who runs his house according to biblical standards under her husband's lead. She has a quiet attitude, yet stands strong with her husband and family and is an example to her children and possibly younger wives, if we are talking about a polygamous family.

She wears long hair under her head covering and dresses modestly in dresses and skirts, without outward adornment such as jewelry, perfume and make up. She is not concerned with the cares and concerns of the world, such as pop culture or Hollywood, fashion trends or shopping, and she keeps away from gossip and vain talk on the phone, as she is her husband's garden enclosed.

She does not minister to people outside the home in any form or fashion, for example by engaging into all kinds of church activities or being a Sunday school teacher. Her hospitality is whole hearted and exemplary, but she remains within the confines of her home. She educates and home schools the children together with her husband, and contributes to the family income with her many economic activities in the home and garden.

She gives all her energy to the family, happily so, and does her work as unto the Lord, and not unto men, for her attitude and behavior is not just an outward role, but the fulfillment of her personal relationship with God, lived out in the fulfillment of the role He has given her.

So this is what we as mothers and fathers who live life according to God's design are aiming for when we think about educating our daughters. We know that God has given us the responsibility to raise our children, the fathers first and foremost, the mothers as help meets, and to raise them right so that the children know God's word and His plan for all of us from an early age onwards, and can live a pure and godly life, avoiding the mistakes that are so common nowadays that lead to misery, defilement and sin. We are to educate our sons so that they will not shirk the responsibility God has placed on men, and we are to raise our daughters to be godly women according to God's will, and not according to what society says or expects.

This series of articles will deal mainly with the education of girls. Since we are expecting a new female member of the family in the fall, the girl's education is our main concern at the moment. Individual articles will touch on different aspect of biblical womanhood and how to teach these to our daughters. We will try to be as practical as possible, and even if every girl is an individual and will probably adopt one aspect of biblical femininity more readily than another, the general principle is the same for everyone: The best way of teaching is by example.

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More Simple Living Musings

Simple Living in the countryside, close to nature, as self sufficient and dependent on what creation provides as possible, according to God's plan and standard, far away from society's sins and wickedness... We have been living like this for a long time already, though not in the ideal location for it. Finally, we moved, and we used the first day of this week to work in our new yard: Clothes lines needed to be put up, the grass needed cut, and the garden needed to be dug. We also went to buy plants and seeds, in addition to what we have been pre-growing indoors in the early spring. So let me share today a few of the thoughts we had while doing all this.

First of all, clothes lines are not a nostalgic thing, but the most natural, cheap and simple way of drying clothes. The wind dries them quickly, the sun kills germs, and this "outdoor dryer" is completely energy neutral and cost us much less than an electric or gas dryer would have. We paid less than $50 for wood, concrete and screws, hooks, clothes line and clothes pins, and there will be no more costs from now on. The energy saved is energy we will not have to go to work and earn money for, in order to pay the bill.

Secondly, the seeds we bought are, of course, heirloom seeds. We spent quite a bit of money on these, and will save the seeds of this year's beans, tomatoes, sunflowers, cantaloupe etc etc etc for next year's sowing season. This is nothing new, but a practice that is as old as farming itself, but in our age, many vegetable and flour seeds are hybrids. God forbids mixing of seed, since the outcome of mixing is infertility, as you can see in hybrids. If you want to live according to God's design, you might have to spend a dime more initially nowadays, if you have to start over gardening-wise, but after the initial purchase, you will be independent of society for you will have your own seed. If you are a good steward, you can work with it for six years, until the Sabbath of the land, and start over after the Sabbath year with the seed you saved in the sixth year.

Finally, a word concerning tools. We enjoyed working with the hand tools we have, some of which have been handed down to us by my husband's grandfather, and who knows where he got them from. We also bought one new tool, a garden claw, that we will hand down to our children and grand children one day, along with the other tools that are well taken care of after each use and stored away neatly and securely, so that neither weather nor usage wears them out untimely and unnecessarily. Stewardship comes in many shapes and sizes, and it includes taking good care of what God in His grace bestows upon us, be it in terms of creation or in terms of individual possessions.

Frugality and country living, simplicity and intelligent stewardship are part and parcel of a life according to God's design. In our plural marriage family, everybody works with his and her own hands towards the common goal of living a godly life according to God's design, and many hands make light work, as the saying goes. What a joy it is to live in our new place ! How thankful we are for all the good things God has bestowed on Joshuah's House !


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