King's Daughters

After having a very long season of rest I am more than ready to get stuck into 2012.  2011 was wonderful, stressful and tiring.  Lessons were learnt, personal character was challenged and I found myself stretched in many ways.  King's Daughters has grown from a blog into a Girl's Night and then into a conference! Looking ahead I can see that there is much more to come and I am more prepared for and excited by the challenges than ever before.  I would love you and/or your church to join us on our King's Daughters journey in 2012, we will be getting stuck into Being a Wife as well as much more. Why not start a Girl's Night in your area too? Please contact me for more info about the study notes.  Here are some highlights from 2011: Jan - The 'Being a Woman' journey began and resulted in a Being a Woman book Feb - We started our Girl's Night which has resulted in some beautiful friendships Mar - My second book, Secure on the Rock , was released ...

I am a sucker for Christmas cracker jokes!  I just love to laugh and I find them so very funny!  Here are the jokes from our Christmas crackers this year, what was your favourite Christmas cracker joke?

Hermie is a favourite in our family and my children have learnt so much about God through Max Lucado's writing.  As always, "Thank you, God, for blessing me" helps little children grow in an attitude of gratitude and "Thank you, God for loving me" help little ones know how much God loves them.   It is beautifully written and beautifully illustrated and a perfect little Christmas gift .  Thank you to Booksneeze for providing me with this lovely little book to review.

A series of books that take a look at a more natural way of life. Nature's Beauty looks are natural health and beauty products, Nature's Hygiene looks at natural cleaning products and Nature's Weigh looks a 7 easy steps to your natural weight.

Photo by Lorah Kelly www.lorahkelly.co.uk 2011 has been the most amazing year and I firmly believe 2012 is going to be even more awesome!  In order to get read for 2012 I am going to have a little rest from my computer and reboot my system so that I am refreshed and ready for what God has planned!   Have a lovely Christmas, please consider buying some lovely books or one of our Cd's as gifts for your loved ones and I will see you back here on King's Daughters in the New Year, ready to start the year off with a 21 day Daniel fast. 

To be perfectly honest, I chose this book because of it's cover!  It was just too cute to pass by, and so I requested a copy from Booksneeze to review.   I don't want to be too harsh to the author as I know how stabbing a bad review can be, but I was disappointed.  Perhaps I expected too much based on the cover, but I found the content a bit weak.  The stories seemed rushed and the scriptures didn't tie in well with the stories.  What I did like about the book was the presentation, the layout and the general feel of the book.  Stumbling Into Grace could work well for a light read or as a daily devotional but I was hoping for something more meaty, more life changing.  A new Christian could benefit from this book as it's an easy read and doesn't contain anything too hard to understand, and so if I were to recommend it to anyone, I would definitely recommend it to someone new to our faith.

Allow me to introduce my lovely daughter to you, Lorah Kelly!  She is my eldest daughter who has recently set up a photography business and is doing so well.  Within a few weeks of her start-up she already had three wedding bookings and two family photo shoots.  Lorah is also an artist and will continue creating beautiful works of art too to complement her photography.  I find the combination of Lorah's talents beautiful and her photography is definitely accentuated by her artistic talent.  In order to support Lorah's business I have set up a page on my blog which I will update from time to time, please check in there and see what's new.  To find out more about Lorah's new photography business check out her website and Facebook page .    For Christmas she has photographed her own image and designed a stunning Christmas cards which are available for £10 for 20 or £5.00 for 5 or £1.50 each To buy your Christmas cards please contact Lorah an...

It's with extreme joy that I announce the release of our new album, In the Stillness .  Our band, D7 Band , have put tremendous effort into this album all year and really hope that when you listen to it you have an worship experience - an encounter with the living God!  Have a sneak preview of us in the studio and if you haven't already got our first album, King's Square , let me give you one!  Leave me a comment about how you first heard about D7 Band and I will draw one winner of the King's Square CD on 29th November. Buy the In the Stillness CD or MP3's on Amazon or Paypal

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a fantastic movie and this scene has so much truth in it. In recent years, I've noticed how much I truly am the neck in my marriage, both by supporting my husband and holding him high as well as by influencing his direction and turning his attention to certain things. Being the neck is a very important role and can easily be abused.  A wife that understands and values her role as the neck will be an awesome wife indeed.   At times I fear the responsibility of being the neck.  What if I turn the 'head' in the wrong direction or cause him to see things that I should not have exposed him to?  It is this fear that has caused me to think carefully before using my 'neck power' to influence my husband.  It is this fear that has lead me to pray and carefully consider what I say to my husband.   Wives, you are the neck, embrace it and be careful with what a neck can do. 

I couldn't have said it any better than Eric so I am going to point you to his blog for a review of this movie.  It has left us radically challenged, read what Eric has so say about it here .  Be warned though, it does have some very gruesome scenes.

"I spent most of my life doing the Serenity prayer backwards, that is, trying to change the external things over which I had no control - other people and life events mostly - and taking no responsibility (except shaming and blaming myself) for my own internal process - over which I can have some degree of control. Having some control is not a bad thing; trying to control something or somebody over which I have no control is what is dysfunctional."  - From Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls by Robert Burney It is one thing realising that you lean towards co-dependency or independency, but it is another thing entirely realising that you live with one or the other too. I believe that we are meant to love people and leave the changing up to God, and that includes our husbands. We are, however, called to bring out the best in our husband by building him up with our words and actions. Realising that we live with either a co-dependent or an independent is an opportunit...

I love that You love me I love that You are perfect I love that You are Holy I love that You never change I love that You are my Daddy I love that You know everything about me and You still love me I love that You are so creative I love that You are so beautiful I love that You are strong and powerful I love that You are mine and I am Yours FOREVER Now it's your turn, what do you love about God?

Today I was featured in a fantastic ezine, Ruby For Women .  Check it out and the rest of the ezine as it is packed with loads of interesting info.

  The ups, downs, frustrations, joys and everything in-between on the roller coaster ride of church planting. I can honestly say that no recipe or formula for church building exists - God does not work in this way! D7 Church is proof of this. Not because we didn’t try, we did try just about everything. Our bookshelf is lined with books that tell you what works and what doesn’t work. Our computer is filled with files of blog posts from mega-church pastors, documents with strategy from other churches. We have attended conferences and visited other churches to try and learn about building a church.  It was only when we gave up and said so to God that we began to have breakthrough. This is our story. Cover Photo by Lorah Kelly   Available at: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Kindle Contents: Introduction In the Beginning Never Cancel Do Not Grow Weary A Wolf and Abandonment The Least and the Small Pitch Up and Press On Build a Great Team Why Me? I...

1 Corinthians 11:11 Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. Men AND women are not independent, God made us both interdependent. This means that we both need each other. If you look at any marriage where one person doesn’t need the other then you will find an unbalanced, unhealthy and unhappy marriage. It doesn’t work. It wasn’t made to work. The design for marriage was interdependence. Three sorts of relationships exist, co-dependent, independent and interdependent. Co-dependence is a win/lose situation, independence is a lose/lose situation and interdependence is a win/win situation. Let’s take a closer look at what our relationships should not be and then end off with what they should be. This is a fascinating subject and warrants an entire book dedicated to it. I will briefly touch on it as best I can, but please do your own further study and gain a healthy perspective on interdependency. Co-dependence There are thre...

I was telling Eric one morning how much I loved all the things he did to try and win my heart while we were dating.  It was his intentional words and cute poems he used to write for me that wooed me and made my heart melt.  Since those early days in 2004 until today, I have kept all his cards, handwritten notes and other cute things from him.  These are my treasures and if ever I had to leave our home in a hurry I would grab my treasure box, a small box in my desk full on little notes from Eric, my children and some even from friends.  As I was chatting to Eric about how I missed his efforts to win my heart I realised that I too needed to continue to win his heart as I once did.  It's the age old story of plank and speck syndrome ! Marriage can get pretty dull if we live only to get through each day!  Making an effort to keep marriage magical, mysterious and romantic is essential!  With that in mind I determined to find out what I did that won Eric's ...

Passion & Purity Study Guide, based on Passion & Purity ,  is a practical, interactive workbook that will take you from a place of desperately needing to feel loved to a place of complete bliss.     Sound to good to be true?  It is possible, we all need to be loved most desperately and many of us have looked for love in all the wrong places. This study guide covers practical steps from my search for love, all the mistakes I made and finally the truth that I found that set me free.     Passion and purity can be yours too, it's not too late.  No matter where you have been, who you have been with or what you have done, there is still hope.  You can be pure again, you can find true love. Written as a fully interactive  workbook format, this study guide can be used for self study or small group study.  Buy your copy now from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

I had the awesome privilege of being able to share the word at our church this past Sunday. My message was a result of spending most of this year asking God to teach me about submission.  What I discovered has totally blown me away and I hope what I shared impacted people as much as it impacted me!  In a nutshell, I highlighted the different sorts of submission from the Bible and tried my best to explain what exactly submission is.  This message also forms a part of a chapter on submission in my book, Esther or Delilah , which is coming out next year. In the meantime, have a listen to the message here .

Being a wife is more of an attitude than a gender. You can get women that are clearly not wives, yes they are female but their attitude is that of a man. Don't assume that because you are married that you want to be a wife. You might be married but you might still be acting like you are totally independent.  “I am the boss around here!” “I make the decisions.” “I can take care of myself and provide for myself, I don’t need your money!” I am sure you get the picture. When a woman says things like that then do you really think she is a wife? On paper she might be but in her heart I think not. When you get married you become one with your husband. Mark 10:8 and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. You take a completely different form, you are no longer your own but you are now a part of something new. 1 Corinthians 7:4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does ...

Since the Hope's Journey STUDY GUIDE has been selling three times as fast as the actual book , I thought it would be good to let you know about the Secure on the Rock STUDY GUIDE too. This book is a very practical workbook that will take you from any form of insecurity to a place of freedom and security. Based on the book, Secure on the Rock , the study guide covers practical steps from my journey of extreme, unreasonable, controlling insecurity to freedom in security. It is written in a fully interactive workbook format and can be used for self study or small group study.  Buy your copy now from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

"A merry heart does good, like medicine" - Proverbs 17:22 Do you have anything funny to add?  Let's start today with a good wholesome chuckle together :)

Have you ever noticed how little is said about the husband in Proverbs 31. It pretty much says that he trusts her (v11), he praises her (v28) and is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land (v23). Could it be that all that she does is the  reason for his honour at the gates?  Verse twenty three seems quite out of place, stuck right in the middle of a detailed description of all the work that she does. But he's not really out of place. He is actually perfectly placed. Our work is what we use to build our husbands up with. It is when we gladly lay down our glory that our husbands are lifted up. It is in the midst of all her work that her husband sits as an elder at the gate. Her wise use of time, talents, treasures, and her words is what glorifies him.  As wives our role is primarily to build our husbands. Everything we do should be to lift him up and not to lift ourselves up above him. Don’t worry, you will never lose. Do you notice the final v...

Being a Wife is a follow on from Being a Woman where we go into the Biblical role of the wife in depth.  A refreshing read on being a wife with lively, real discussion with a group of every day ordinary women - it's NOT at all what you might think. Available on: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Kindle Contents: Invitation Heterosexual or Not? The Five Stages of Marriage Being a Wife      Who Wants To Be a Wife      Who Builds Her Husband      Who is Not Independent      Who is Not Independent II       Who Helps and Protects      Who Is Not Deceived      Who Does Not Complain      Who is Satisfied      Who Does Not Grow Cold       Who Does Not Retaliate       Who Expresses Her Feelings       Who Enjoys Se...

I can't do this, it's too hard!" "Well I am going to do it because I have decided that I can." "But it's too painful, surely I will die if I keep going!" "Nope, I will push through, I will run until that tree over there, no matter what it takes." This was my conversation with myself one morning. I had set a goal for where I was going to run to but half way there I wanted to quit, I was running out of breath and my legs were turning to jelly. The goal was in sight though, near the end of a very long and very beautiful Cotswold country lane. I decided not to quit! No matter how my body felt or how much moaning I was doing in my mind, I had to reach that tree. So I ran without quitting. Then it happened. You always hear of it but I experienced it, I broke through the wall. It was as if there was literally something keeping me back and once I had broken through it, I was free! I could run and run and run, it was wonderful. The tre...

Sarah Jessica Parker stars in a sparkling comedy about a mum juggling marriage, children and a high-powered job.  It's a really lovely movie that leaves you feeling warm and squishy inside rather than grossed out because you've seen things you really didn't want to see - which is the response I have had to most movies I have seen lately. I highly recommend this movie if you want to laugh and cry and leave the cinema feeling good about your life - whether you are a working mum or not!  You can watch the trailer here . I have also found a fantastic website that you can use to check out a movie before watching it - it really helps me not waste time watching rubbish movies.  See for yourself at www.movieguide.org

Congratulations Samuel ! You have randomly been selected as the winner of our Pink Blush Giveaway . I actually did it twice and you came #1 both times so it's definitely meant for you!  I hope you enjoy these beautiful flowers. Thanks to all of you who entered! We will do another giveaway soon.

Today I read about four hundred young girls that were rescued from the sex trade. What shocked me most were their ages - age two to age fifteen! Immediately after reading this I went into my two year old daughter’s bedroom and watched her sleeping peacefully. It was impossible to imagine her not being tucked up safely in her bed sleeping as peacefully as she was. I could not imagine what sort of person would want to have her for their sexual pleasure! Turning a blind eye to this information and all sorts of other awful stories from around the globe was no longer justifiable. Saying that there was nothing that I can do about it at that point in time no longer worked as a reasonable excuse as I knew ‘one day’ would never come. Today is that day. Today is ‘one’ day. Today is that day that I stop justifying my passivity and start making a plan to do something about it. I will be plagued by the thought of this two year old in the sex trade forever if I don’t do something about it ...

Bunches have very kindly offered this beautiful Pink Blush bouquet to one of our King's Daughters subscribers.  To enter make sure that you are subscribed by email to this blog and then simply leave your name in the comments section and then share this post with one of the share buttons below.  We will close the comments sometime next Tuesday and randomly select a winner.   If you don't win, you can still purchase your own beautiful Pink Blush bouquet here . Thank you Bunches for your continued support of King's Daughters and the King's Daughters Conference xxx

There are many theories and old wives tales about the best ways to care for cut flowers, so I thought I would share some awesome info with you from Bunches .  Bunches provided us with the lovely chocolates that we had in our gift bags at the King's Daughters Conference recently, which was very kind of them.  All Bunches bouquets come complete with a flower care leaflet. For more flower care tips, visit their flower care page . 'Adding sugar or a copper coin to the vase water is the best way to keep your flowers fresh' – Fiction. It's best to use flower food as it contains the correct PH balance which prevents bacteria from growing. Liquid flower food is provided with every Bunches bouquet. 'Fresh flowers should be kept away from the fruit bowl' – Fact. Fruit produces ethylene gas which significantly speeds up the flower aging process. 'Putting Rose stems in boiling water for a minute before arranging helps them stay fresh' – Fact. Holding t...

Are you tired of trying to get through each month, living only to make ends meet? Have you read all the books that promise ‘seven steps to financial freedom’ but lead you nowhere? Or are you someone who has plenty of money but can’t find any satisfaction in life? Money Matters has powerful, yet easy to understand principles that will radically revolutionise your view of money. Best of all you don’t need a huge bank balance as a starting point, no matter what your current financial situation, whether rich, poor or anywhere in between, these principles will challenge you to the core resulting in financial freedom and a life of contentment GUARANTEED. This set of three books has been written to help you deal with every angle of money matters. Money Matters is designed to help you understand the principles behind Godly money management. Money Matters Devotional is a thirty day reading program to assist you in 'changing' yo...

For years I asked myself why it was so hard to say no when my dad was molesting me. It is such a simple two letter word yet I could not form it in my mouth or shout it out at him. ‘No’ might have prevented the whole thing, ‘no’ may have scared him away, and ‘no’ might have saved me from carrying that awful memory all of my teenage and adult life. ‘No’ has so much power behind it yet no is the one word that has taken me years to learn to say.  The question plagued me all through my adult years as I found myself in all sorts of situations where ‘no’ was the best answer and I ended up saying yes or simply not saying anything at all. Why? What caused me to be so weak and frail? I knew that my inability to say no would cause me more pain and heartache. Fear. My conclusion is that I feared saying no. I feared not being liked. I feared not being good enough. I feared rejection. I feared what people would think of me. Fear left me powerless to say the one word that would sav...