George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation:

this so powerful. this man and many others were truly founding fathers in our nation and we must pray for more like him.

Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation:

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our sasety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

adoption

This weekend we had our Spirit of Adoption conference. Derek Loux and Marcus Meier were here talking about that very subject. It was an amazing time for those of us who were there.
I'll tell a quick un-detailed story. Derek has 3 adopted daughters from the Martial Islands. Him and his wife Renee adopted them about 7 years ago when they were all 3 10 years old. Two of them (twins) were sexually and physically abused by their father and the other one was beaten with a frying pan when she was a baby so her spine is completely crooked. In the time when they adopted, it took them totally off guard. they were at the time intercessory missionaries, had a broken car, not much money, a 2 bedroom home and 2 girls of the Lord side-swiped them and ended up adopting these amazing girls. They are now saved, love Jesus, are living a lifestyle of prayer and are probably the most joyful girls i have ever met. This year alone they are in the process of adopting 3 handicapped young boys and 1 girl that has also been abused who is 12 years old. All 4 of these children weren't expected in their minds. Derek gave his story and was encouraging us from James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit (help, tend to, etc.) the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." If you look at the greek form of this verse the "and" is not present and there is no punctuation. So the verse actually reads this: "to help the orphans and widows in their trouble to keep oneself unspotted from the world."
I don't know about you but i want to be unspotted from the world. I want to be holy and blameless before the Lord and not given over to the world's ways.
From all that he was giving statistics that there are 237 MILLION orphans in the world and if we are coming close to the end times (which everyone is getting closer as each generation passes) then there will be a TON more orphans. In end times, it's for sure that the anti-Christ kingdom will not be quick to take care of the widow and orphan. (and by the way, back in the bible days a widow was defined as any woman who has been 1. divorced 2. their husband died 3. they were married at one point and no longer are) If there are going to be that many orphans and widows in the earth more than there are now, we should be prepared and start caring for them. He wasn't saying everyone is supposed to adopt a child (although I don't think that's a bad idea) He thinks if you're not specifically in a place where you're directly helping widows and orphans, then you're not going to be unspotted from the world.

After this weekend, Ben and I have and are doing a lot of praying. After hearing the stories of Derek's we set a goal. There is in our hearts the desire to adopt. It has always been there but we never have discussed it. We don't know how many or when. So we decided to set a goal that within 3 years from now we'd like to have adopted at least 1 orphan. We felt good about this because we would want our adopted children to grow up in the midst of having our biological children so we feel like a family. So we figured that'd give us enough time to have 1 more biological child then adopt 1 child and then have more of our own too.

then we got side swiped last night. I was challenged with the fact that I think my needs and my little perspective of how i need to wait til the right time to adopt (which i don't think you ever get to the "right time" to have a child) is actually very shallow and selfish. My needs are not higher than an orphan who is being abused, hurt, possesed etc.

we're not sure where this lands us. but pray for us.

ESFJ

So, our good friends Jeremy and Racquel Jacobs (jacobsonthewall.com/blog) were telling us about finding out our personality traits, so we decided to give it a shot. I knew that a lot had changed since we got married and so i was interested. Mine came out to be ESFJ. This means E - Extravert, S - Sensory, F - Feeler, J - judger. They catagorized me in the group known as Guardian/Providor. I realized I am an extravert for the most part and i'm definitely sensory rather than intuitive, i am definitely someone who feels things and reacts to my feelings rather than being a thinker who bases decisions and things I do off of thinking them out thoroughly. Judging meaning seeing things as black and white and not even considering the gray area.
Ben on the other hand was just barely an extravert, intuitive, a thinker, and also a judger.
This definitely wraps us up for sure.

vote for righteousness

today we have a right as americans to vote in our next leader. i believe this time is very important in that we can partner with the Lords heart as He "raises up kings and tears them down" (out of Daniel 2) it is important to not think of ourselves in the hour we're living in but think about the next generation and the lives of our children and our children's children. i pray that hearts of men and women will be pierced today not by their own current circumstances but by the current circumstance of the future of our children and that they would have an open door to righteousness that we can say we helped open.