Dear Girls,
My family and I are going through all of our books and selling the things that we do not need. I wanted to offer these books to you as well, in-case you or your families are interested in them. I will constantly be adding to this list, so please keep checking back. You can find the link to these books under the page “Books 4 Sale”. 
Enjoy!
Samantha
I was recently asked about conviction and whether or not a father had the authority and right to go against a girls convictions, or whether a girl could/should go against her father’s authority, if her “convictions” were different from his.
Girls, I would like to talk about convictions verses scriptural truth and the dangers of convictions. Yes, I am going to use the word “dangers”. Why? Because in this day and age, we are taught to follow our emotions and that emotions out-weigh biblical truth. Let me explain.
I can not tell you how many times in my own life I have had people tell me that if my convictions differed from my fathers, it was my RIGHT to go against his authority. Not only that, but they told me that I should, or else I was not following Yahweh. I can’t tell you how backwards this doctrine is! Where in Yahweh’s word do we see that conviction out weighs His truth in His Word?
This is where people get on some very, very dangerous ground. Do I believe that Yahweh talks to women? By all means. He spoke to Rebekah and told her about the twins. He spoke to Mary. He speaks to a lot of us. BUT, He will never, and I mean NEVER go against His word! When a girl tells me that “Yahweh has said” or told her something, and it goes against His word, I know she is not speaking the truth. Remember this warning:
Deuteronomy Chapter 11:16
[16] Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
Girls, something that we must remember is that our hearts are easily deceived. We as young ladies need to be especially careful about this. Yahweh says that we are easily deceived. I Timothy 2:11-14 says
[11] Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. [12] But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. [13] For Adam was first formed, then Eve. [14] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
We can see this with Eve. Yahweh said we are the weaker vessel. I Peter 3:7: “ Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
Yahweh said that we are the weaker vessel and Satan will try to use that weakness against us. He will try to convince us that we are right, regardless. He did it with Eve and he will do it again with you! This is why we, as young ladies, need to be especially careful in this area of “conviction”.
Eve was convinced that what she was doing, was right. But was it? Just because she was convinced and convicted in her own heart that it was right, did it make it any more right? No.
Isaiah 5:20-21
[20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! [21] Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Jeremiah 17:9
[9] The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Girls, our hearts can not be trusted. We will think that good is evil and evil good. Our heart is deceitful and very easily deceived. To put it bluntly, we are very gullible, like it or not. It’s just how Yahweh created us and we must realize this truth.
Yahweh has placed us underneath authority for a reason. He has placed the man, the warrior, over us, because girls, like it or not, we need that protection! And there is indeed a protection that comes with a leader and one who holds authority.
Years ago, I was “convicted” or “convinced” (same thing) about something. I honestly thought it was the truth. This has happened many times over the years (like I said, we are easily deceived, myself included). I have gone to my father with it and he has told me “no”. Could I have stood up and said “I don’t care what you say, I “believe” this?!” Yes, I could have. But you know what…I would have been wrong, dangerously wrong. Not only would I have been simply wrong (and I was wrong, which I later realized), I would have been stepping out from that authority and protection, giving Satan full way to attack me, and I would have been in direct disobedience to the One that I thought I would have been “serving and obeying”…the One I thought I was following, but really wasn’t…because my heart is deceitfully wicked
Conviction does not and never should hold the weight that scripture does. We must build our lives, not on emotion or conviction, but on Yahweh’s word! Convictions will change, ask anyone around you, but scripture will not. That’s the difference.
Yahweh has given us regulations and rules to follow. One of them is submission. And Girls, remember, submission only starts when you DISAGREE, but choose to be subjected, regardless as to how you feel. This is true submission. If you agree, you are simply agreeing, not submitting. No two people will agree on everything. They simply won’t. But where you do not have scripture backing you up completely and clearly, you have no right to step out on that “conviction” or “belief”. You can be convinced of anything. Remember, Yahweh told us that we will think white is black and black is white. In other words, we will think that wrong is right and right is wrong. Eve was “convicted” and “convinced” that eating that fruit was right, but did that make it any more right? Of course not! The same holds true within your life. Remember that.
Our fathers and husbands were placed over our lives, to protect and guide us. Yahweh gave them authority that He did not give us. He also gives leaders knowledge that He doesn’t give to us. Think about the story of Lot and his sons. Yahweh told Lot (the leader) what was about to happen. Lot had knowledge that his sons and sons-in-laws, simply did not have. The same holds true with any leader. Think of it in terms of the military. The General gives orders to the Sergent, and the Sergent to the Private. The Pirate is told to march and go someplace. He isn’t given the knowledge that the General or Sergent has. He is to follow their leadership. Do some Privates have other ideas and even good ideas? Yes. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are under authority and must follow those over them, or they will be in great danger and will find themselves on the road alone. So it is with us. Yahweh gives our leaders knowledge that He simply does not give us. So if we follow our own thoughts and feelings, we will be leading blindly. Lot’s sons and sons-in-laws “thought” they were right, yet were they? Did that stop their death? No, it did not. They still died with the rest of the people….BECAUSE THEY FOLLOWED THEIR OWN HEARTS, NOT THEIR LEADERS.
Girls, Yahweh gave us a chain of authority for a reason and He knew what He was doing. Trust Him, not the devices of your own heart. He will never lead you wrong, your heart will.
I also think about the story in 1 Kings 13. This prophet was told by Yahweh to not eat or drink in a certain place. It was the word of Yahweh. Another prophet and man of Yahweh came by him and told him to do the opposite, so he did. He went against the word of Yahweh, which he knew was the word of Yahweh, to follow something else that was not the word of Yahweh and what happened to him? He was killed. NEVER should anything take first place, than the word of Yahweh. Like I said, Yahweh’s word is sure and is truth. Anything, ANYTHING that goes against the word of Yahweh, you can rest assure, is wrong and sin. Let this be the test of your heart. Does it contradict ANYTHING in the word of Yahweh? If so, you are being deceived if you follow your heart. Follow facts, Girls, not emotions.
What I have done when my own conviction/thoughts/beliefs have differed from my fathers, is to sit back, pray and follow his leadership. I do not override my fathers authority. I do not speak about our differences to anyone but God. He alone knows my thoughts and my heart. I pray that Yahweh would lead my father in the way he needs to go and needs to lead our family in. I also pray that if I am wrong, Yahweh will show me, and if my father is wrong, He will show him. And I wait.
Girls, I have been SO blessed through doing this! I have been able to honor Yahweh and honor and obey my father. If he doe not give me permission to do something that I think I should, I just don’t do it. More times than not, Yahweh has shown me that it was “I” who was wrong, not my father. My staying underneath his leadership and following his authority, has blessed me in ways I can’t even come close to describing to you!
In conclusion; Do I think fathers have the right and should have their daughters go against their “convictions”? Yes. Not only do I believe they have the right, I believe if they truly believe something else and scripture doesn’t clearly say the opposite, they should have their family follow them in whatever Yahweh is leading them in. And I believe we daughters and wives, need to follow them. This is what a leader is and what a leader must do. The buck stops with them and rightly so. They were given the command to lead, and we were given the command to follow. So let’s back those men up with everything that we have and submit to them with a joy that is unspeakable! And Girls, don’t forget to pray for those leaders! They need your prayers and they desire your prayers! Follow them, yes, but never stop praying for them, too! 
)
“I have to say I’m a little surprised to see birth control being discussed on a blog for encouraging single women…it seems a bit off-topic.”
I received a comment with this thought in it, so I wanted to respond as to why I decided to approach this subject on VD.
Yes, Virtuous Daughters is a site to encourage young ladies. But that is not all that VD’s is. Virtuous Daughters is here to also help prepare young ladies for wife and motherhood and to know what scripture says.
The reason why I decided to approach the whole subject is because I believe it’s a topic that girls need to think about. I am trying to make young ladies think about different things, mainly about what Yahweh’s word has to say. I personally can not even tell you how many young ladies I know who have no idea about these things or even what Yahweh’s word says about it. Many young moms that I know got on one birth control method or another, never having any idea what those methods actually do. Not only that, but I have seen countless couples who never thought to even discuss this, let alone what they thought about the matter, so when they were married, one wanted to use one kind or another, and the other did not. This is a serious issue that Christians need to know about. Young ladies, in preparation for marriage, also need to be thinking about such things.
I realize that there are probably a lot of you who do not think the same way as I do about it, and that is fine. That is between Yahweh and you. But what I mainly want you to do is to THINK. Study it out. Find out what you believe about it and when the time comes, talk to your young man about it and make sure you are on the same page. Girls, I can’t tell you how much this one subject has been the cause of tension within a couple. It DOES need to be talked about and thought about.
I also realize that I have a lot of younger readers on here and I tried my absolute best to hit the subject in a delicate manner. I am aware that there are other forms of birth prevention out there and different things that couples can do. There was a reason that I felt that I should not touch on them, due to the age range I have reading this. But what I want those of you who are old enough to think about is this Genesis 38:9.
Also, another reason why I decided to talk about this subject, which I didn’t mention yesterday, is the fact that I know of quite a number of girls who their doctor is placing them on the Pill to regulate their cycles. Something to consider is this, the pill is hormone based. I personally know of a young lady who was on it for this reason and just found out that it caused some of her hormones to literally not even register on the hormone test! It really reeks havoc on your body. Not only that, but it generally takes about 5 years for your body to get rid of all of the chemicals. If conception happens within this time frame, there is a big chance that either miscarriage or deformity will happen. And again, I don’t think many realize the long-term danger of these things.
So yes, I did feel that this subject needed to be approached. I pray I touched on it in a sensitive enough manner. If not, I am sorry. I really did try.
Love always,
Samantha
As I was out walking earlier, the scarf over my mouth was making my glasses fog up, so I had to take them off. As I continued walking through a now blurry landscape, I began to think of how blessed I am.
So often, I take the blessings in my life for granted, and don’t even take the time to see how blessed I am, much less thank the One who gave me those blessings in the first place – My wonderful God and best friend, Yahweh.
When I was 15 or so, I began to loose my hearing fairly quickly. I very much began to rely on my eyes in order to “hear” and understand what was going on around me (by reading lips and facial expressions). After a while we figured out I had a “middle” ear infection, and as we got it cleared up, my hearing slowly began to return. Today there is still a noticeable difference in the amount I can hear in one ear over the other, but because of this experience, I became a little more aware of how blessed I was/am.
A short time later, my eyesight began to go downhill (I guess Yahweh really wanted to make sure I learned this lesson well! =). At first. I didn’t even notice I couldn’t see the same as “normal” people, and just assumed everyone saw the world like I did. Over time, however, I began to realize I couldn’t see things I KNEW I had once been able to see – my sheep out in the “yard”, the clock in the kitchen, faces and pictures across the room, people’s lips (something I had become very dependent on!), etc.
I had never been able to figure out how my family could pass another vehicle and actually see those who were in it (about the time I was able to start seeing the driver, the vehicle was passing us).
I don’t think I will ever forget the way I felt the day I stepped out of the eye doctor’s wearing my glasses for the first time. The joy and blessing of being able to see! Instead of only seeing green blurs for trees, I could actually see individual leaves! I could read signs on the sides of the road, see the faces of people walking or driving down the road, read license plates, etc. !!
Before I began to loose my hearing and then my eyesight, I never thought too much about those things, but when I didn’t have them for a time, I realized how blessed I was/am, especially when Yahweh gave them back to me!
People complain about having to wear contacts or glasses, or about their house, vehicles, the food they are served, the weather, or “fill-in-your-favorite-blank” (how many times I have been guilty of complaining – Yahweh please forgive me!).
We are SO blessed to have all these things! Many do not have the gifts and blessings that Yahweh has given us (and many have lost these things because they did not appreciate them). Instead of complaining about what we don’t have, let us all be grateful for what we DO have!
I have had people ask me “Don’t you just hate glasses? Aren’t they so annoying?!” My answer to them is that my glasses are a wonderful blessing. Sure, sometimes they fog up, get in the way, or get banged and thus jammed into my nose, but over all, I am SO blessed to have them! Being able to see things is such a blessing! Without my glasses I would miss so much – a child’s sparkling eyes, a baby’s smile, the butterfly passing my window, the bird in the tree, the deer and her fawn in the field, the sun turning a lake into a million glistening diamonds, the rainbow in the sky – the list could go on forever!
Sometimes I think I would love it if Yahweh healed my eyes (and if He chose to I would not argue!), but other days I am grateful that He has not, because every time I have to remove my glasses it reminds me of how blessed I am (and also reminds me not to take those blessings for granted!).
Each one of us has been blessed in countless ways – family, friends, houses, vehicles, health, strength, eyesight, hearing, the ability to walk, talk, and sing, the Word of God and the freedom and ability to read it, etc.
Instead of complaining or taking these things for granted, let’s all make a conscious effort to “count our blessings” and give thanks to Yahweh for them!
“He who is a slave to the compass, has the freedom of the sea”
This is SO true, Girls!!! Yahweh didn’t give us laws to enslave us, but to instead, give us freedom! And what freedom we have!!! Remember that, precious girls!
