Lauren and Mikaela hosted a conference

[Daenerys]

I watched all the videos up until about halfway, but I just couldn't get through how poor their presentation style was! And lets not forget, God might call you to marriage or he might not, but married people are superior. Hence why Mikaela got her entire own slot to talk about her relationship. I have to say, it didn't sound very exciting from the perspective of someone who is the same age but has had much more dating/relationship experience... if she moves across the country away from her family, I think it's going to be one hell of a culture shock. You'll never catch them admitting any negative feelings, but I wonder how Lauren feels about being 'left behind' at home.

Even as someone who is a Christian and would love more than anything to get married and have children, this conference bored me to tears. The only thing that could have made it worse (but funnier) was if Miss Raquel was there too.

Last Saturday, I had an immense blessing. Like submerging in the icy creek that runs through my backyard on a sweltering day, I was submerged in a group of women and girls to whom one thing was important: God.

Refreshing doesn't begin to cover it!

Here's just the tip of the mountain that God gave me to share that day:

Distractions divide your heart: God’s forgiveness makes it whole.

Being a woman after God's heart is easier said than done. I will be honest with you. There have been many many times in my life when I have sat in my seat at church, singing hymns to the Lord, or taking awesome notes that go on for pages and pages in my notebook, but all I could really think about was getting home and finishing that novel I was in the middle of. Or checking my email. Or getting the latest gossip from a friend. Or getting complimented on the special music I just did. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like that dog on the movie Up: "Squirrel? Where? Squirrel?"

But before I start to get discouraged, I remember that David, the man after God’s own heart, was a man who got distracted, too. He, too had idols.

He wasn’t a man after God’s heart because he had such a righteous heart, but because he had such a righteous God.

David was human, and he got distracted, but he was a man who sought God’s forgiveness. David wrote Psalm 51:10 after committing adultery and murder, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.†This is awesome news for us! Not one of us is a perfect young woman, but God still calls us to lay aside our idols and distractions and seek Him, and He will cleanse and renew our hearts!

You must seek God relentlessly!

Seeking doesn’t happen without automatically like breathing or your heart beating or your eyes blinking.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss says,

“We have to be willing to turn our attention away from other competing desires and distractions so that we can turn our eyes upon Jesus, focus on Him. We can't seek the one we love while we are loving and seeking after other things that compete with His place in our lives.â€

God’s Word also clearly shows that at any moment you and I are either seeking Christ or we are forsaking Him. You can’t walk the ridgepole of the roof on this one—you either are on one side or the other. In 1 Chronicles 28:9, David says,

"As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever."

God does not hide: if you are seeking God, He will be found!

So I have to ask: are you seeking God? What are you constantly thinking about? What do you daydream about? What can you not live with out? What do you go to great lengths to obtain? What do you do instead of spending time with the Lord each day? You have a throne in your heart, and the answers to these questions reveal who is on it. Either God is king of your whole heart, or you have substituted an idol. Who is on the throne in your life?

To watch my session "A Young Woman After God's Heart" at the Beautiful for God Girl's Conference [http] in its entirety, click here [http] and scroll down. Be sure to watch the other sessions as well, as they are incredibly encouraging!

onebrightcorner.blogspot.co.uk/

[salex]

And lets not forget, God might call you to marriage or he might not, but married people are superior.

WHich is so funny when they take the bible literally on every violent or cruel thing, but ignore this bit:

In Corinthians where Paul says it is better to marry than to burn (right after the bit PP et all use about women should never say no to their husbands) he continues :

25Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.26I think then that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.27Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.28But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.29But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none;30and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess;31and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.

32But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;33but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,34and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.35This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.

36But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let her marry.37But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well. (Although, this bit may explain the Botkins and Sarah Maxwell)

38So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

39A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.40But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

This is so clearly anti quiverful that it makes me laugh!

[Daenerys]

So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

I think we just found the origin of the Maxwell philosophy...