Dear precious readers,
I wanted to post a note to say thank you for all your wonderful feedback, as well as your prayers for my dad and my mom and I. It was a blessing to put together the last issue of WFTM and I am so glad you have enjoyed it and are passing it on to friends for encouragement.
I was so delighted to find many new subscription requests in my inbox thanks to dear Mrs. Campbell from “Above Rubies” mentioning the ministry in her newsletter. I would like to welcome each of you dear sisters and families to the publication! Please know I have received your requests, and have manually added more than half to my mailing list and still have a few to go. I may not be able to respond to each of you individually, but I will work hard to get a copy out to you as soon as I am able. It blesses my soul to see so many precious young ladies hungry for godliness, and desiring God’s best and His way of doing things rather than the world’s. Oh what hope it gives me for this generation and the ones to come! Thank you for taking the time to submit a subscription request. I pray that you will not have to wait too long before you receive it if you requested snail mail.
Dear sisters,
The reason I am somewhat delayed in the subscription business and shipping is because my dad is very, very sick. He is in the hospital, unable to eat enough to keep himself alive, and without a miracle it does not appear that he will survive much longer. He is our main earthly priority at this time. Jesus knows all the needs in this situation. I invite you with a humble heart to join me in prayer for him in this difficult time. Thank you in advance for your faithful prayers!

I urge you all to continue in the Lord Jesus, abiding in Him, remaining “in tune” with the Spirit at all times. The days are evil, and the narrow road only grows more narrow. I encourage all of you dear ones to make Him the sunshine of your day, the longing of your heart, and the source of all you are and do. I admonish you to anticipate His return (and oh my! I do believe His return is soon!) with an excited, lovesick heart and pure eyes, eyes like a dove, focused on Your One and Only Groom. May you wait for Him, HIM-Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus, the Messiah) not what He may give to you or what He may do for you, but HIM all by Himself…. may you wait for Him with bated breath, more than the watchman that watches for the morning!
Many blessings upon you all!

First, an update from the home front:

The past three weeks have been a whirlwind of sorts for our family. What seemed like a terrible, horrible thing has only proven to amplify God’s all sufficient grace in our feeble human eyes. My dad had another fall on the last Tuesday in January.  This one left him out of sorts, completely confused, and trapped face-down under the kitchen table where we couldn’t get him up on our own. The paramedics came and took him to the E.R. He had to have 3 shots of a narcotic type sedative to calm him down. He was so confused and upset, he was trying to fight the paramedics though he was too weak to stand. He was admitted to the ICU unit. He had an infection in his blood stream (and is now on the 3rd round of antibiotics because it has yet to totally clear up). The following Friday was probably the hardest day of my life thus far. It was the day he was transported to an elderly care or “nursing” home where he will have round the clock care as he has needed, but refused for so long. We do not know “how long” he will stay, although it is very unlikely with the progression of his dementia and mobility that he will ever be well enough to come home short of a miracle. The thought of this rips my heart out, but I know God can do anything He chooses, so I am not “cutting and drying” it as a fact just yet. I try to go and see him every day, and take him some sort of “goody”. It has been amazing…God’s grace in this pain. My dad is content and calm for the most part. He is having physical therapy every day. He is starting to feed himself again. He smiles (and winks..ha.) on command, and I am able to understand him better now that the sedatives have worn off. Friends have gone and prayed with and for him. I have been able to read Scripture to him. I’ve seen him look at my mom and I and call us his “sweethearts.” It is almost like the man I knew before the aggression of Alzheimer’s stole him from me. I am truly in awe. I have learned in these past few weeks that there sometimes comes a point when we *must* let go of those we love so dearly. Not “letting go” as to abandon or forget them, but letting them go to Jesus, trusting Him totally to take care of them, knowing He is in control even when things don’t make sense or turn out as we would have chosen. We can trust Him to work it all out and give beauty for ashes.  We can find the strength in Him to utterly pour out at His feet the things we are so powerless to change or “fix”. We can rest in the assurance that He is long suffering, not willing that any perish, but all come to repentance. We can rejoice in knowing that He longs to heal us. He longs to heal the inside more than the earthly “house” because Jesus took the Law and turned it inward, causing us to reflect on the eternal rather than the temporal.  Oh the bottomless depths of His faithfulness!!  Please do continue to pray for us all, especially my sweet little dad.

Today was the day that WFTM #6 (snail mail) was sent out! I think you will be blessed! Several lovely, talented ladies shared their heart in this issue. If you are on the e-list, it will be coming soon! As always, I welcome feedback. I apologize that it is so much later than I had planned, but God reminds me over and over that it is exactly on time, His perfect time for this issue to go forth and bring about His glorious purpose!

CORRECTION:

I was so disappointed this evening when I noticed a huge “uh-oh!” in the freshly shipped magazines. Somehow, inside the front cover, part of the PURPOSE box was cut off! How sad! Of all things! It was the last part of the last sentence, but I will post it below for those who may be first time subscribers, so you can read it in its entirety. I can’t figure out if the text box somehow got moved, therefore cutting off a line when the document was opened before printing, or if I had just re-sized the box accidentally and didn’t notice that it had cut something off! Either way, I didn’t notice until *after* the shipping process. And after much regret and thinking of how I may have very well spent hours “writing the line in” had I caught it before I shipped them, I feel like the Lord allowed that to happen on purpose. He knows I tend to be a “perfectionist” at times and can stress over things like this, and I think He sends these reminders every now and then to keep me balanced and keep me humble. Truly, He works in *every little thing*. Thank you in advance, dear ladies for forgiving my humanity and my overlooking of this “cut-off”. If we had everything mastered and were able to walk perfectly on our own in all things, we wouldn’t have a need for God’s grace now would we? Oh, how we are unable to be perfect in *anything* on our own, and are completely nothing without Christ! I am thankful for this profound reminder today. See below for the full version of WFTM’s purpose. It is also on one of the blog pages.

Blessings to you all tonight!

The purpose of Watching for the Morning is to encourage young single Christian women in their journey of serving their families and keeping busy for the Kingdom as they wait on the Lord to provide the husband He has ordained for them in His perfect time and way according to His will. Hopefully, each issue is a reminder to fully trust the Lord to provide, rather than pursuing a mate on your own through dating. The ultimate vision of the magazine is to challenge young ladies to take Jesus as their Bridegroom and the Lover of their soul, seeking to please Him above all else with pure hearts, preparing as the “five wise virgins” for His glorious return and touching the lives of others for His glory while He yet tarries.