When the days are tough for me because of my skin condition and diet; when the days seems so unorganized; when there are tons of work awaiting me to catch up and finish…..Thanks to the LORD that HE didn’t let me collapse and give up but taught me that I have to learn how to praise HIM before any other things can go right.

Therefore, these days I am sorting out the praise verses in the KJV Bible, and reading through them daily to remind myself how to praise my Lord, and how mighty the Lord I’m trusting upon is. I am going to share these verses here, and hope that you can enjoy them also when you have a break any time of the day!

1Ch 29:13 Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

Psa 7:17 I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.

Psa 8:1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Psa 9:1-2 I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

Psa 63:1-5 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips

Psa 71:8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day.

Psa 86:12-13 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name forevermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

Psa 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

Psa 100:4-5 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psa 104:33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

Psa 112:1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

Psa 118:21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

Psa 119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Psa 119:175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

Psa 135:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD; praise him, O ye servants of the LORD.

Psa 135:3 Praise the LORD; for the LORD is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant.

Psa 138:1-5 I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.

Psa 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

Psa 145:1-3 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

Psa 145:8-13 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

Psa 146:1-2 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

Psa 147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.

Psa 147:3-7 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God.

Psa 148:1-5 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

Psa 148:13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

Psa 150 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

Isa 12 And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.

Jer 20:13 Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

It seems like I was dormant the last two months, didn’t have a single post here. And I wasn’t even functioning at home too! I have been fighting a battle!

What happened was, I figured that my skin problem that started in January this year is related to Candida yeast overgrowth. Therefore, I put myself on Candida diet (a cruel one) since the end of August. I was getting better. And I thought I was better that I could tolerate a bit of ‘forbidden food’ in the beginning of October, so I ate a bagel and a tea biscuit from Tim Horton while we were on the road, and I even ate a piece of apple pie. And there you go, me and my family have to suffer for almost two months since then!

My skin got so worse and itchy and it flared up on my face which is not even cleared yet as of today. What’s worse was I got so frustrated, discouraged and depressed, partly because of the toxins released by the Candida yeast. I didn’t feel like doing anything, I was not myself at all. I have to push myself so hard to get up from a chair or move away from the window to do what I was supposed to do, like preparing lunch for my 5 little girls. And I lost my patience. Of course, I felt guilty, useless and helpless. I could only cry out to the Lord, “Please heal me!” The Lord didn’t take away my illness in an instant although He could if He’s willing. He is working on my self-discipline. During this harsh time, my weaknesses were just being magnified. When I had eaten enough nuts that day, I told myself it’s enough and I should wait for tomorrow for more, but a second later you would find me eating a few more again. And when I kept asking the Lord why it had to be so hard? The Lord said to me, “Why don’t you rejoice in me always, even now?”

With God’s mercy, my physical started to feel better last week. I seized the chance to not being sluggish any more and started to do exercise with my children, even singing with them. Then I kept getting better. More energy is back. Feeling more positive although I still have to fight the itchiness from time to time. I should be able to talk more about this Candida Yeast Infestation soon.

Thank you for all your prayers. Prayer is the most needed thing in a time like this. And I have to tell you how gracious I am to have Derek as my husband. His gentleness, understanding and support surely played a big part in getting me through this.

On top of all these, my 6th pregnancy was just being confirmed. All of us rejoice and are looking forward to this baby. And one good thing of this timing is, my first trimester was combined with my Candida problem so I don’t need another 3 months to feel sick again. However, the down side is that the strict diet and the toxins in my body now may affect the fetus’s health. Please pray for us that the baby would be healthy.

To be a joyful keeper at home, one needs to pray to start her day!

Here are two poems that I would like to share:

In order to enjoy being a keeper a home, you need to be against feminism.

To be honest, “against feminism” never came to my mind before, as feminism is always being portrayed as something good. I still have memory of me in highschool thanking God that He allowed me to be born after feminism exists, as it seems to be a lot easier for women to survive in today’s society than in older days. “At least a woman is to be respected, to be treated as an individual, a human!”, I thought. I couldn’t imagine a life that a woman is not able to dream like a man does, and does not have a say of what she wants to be! Having the right to make choices like man seemed to be the most important thing in the world! I still remember I wish I were a male more than once as female seems to have a lot of physical limitations. And strangely enough, myself and a lot of my peers even rejected to dress like a woman. We tended to dress “cool”, or even dress like a man. Blue and black were our colors, never pink or red or purple. When we met a pink ‘girly’ girl, we couldn’t even think of anything to talk to her.

Only until I got married and had two kids 6 years ago, I started to reconsider and rethink what a woman is. At that time, I was “stucked” at home with a 13 months old baby and a new born. Although I did want to go out and find an high-tech job as I have a computer science degree, it was just hard to leave the two babies behind. It made sense that I should find a job as that’s what my degree was for, for the sake of all the time and money being invested. On the other hand, it didn’t make sense to leave these two helpless babies behind. With God’s mercy, Derek and I came into a conclusion that I should stay home at that moment, and see how it went for a few years.

As time goes on, God led us to scriptures like Eph 5:22 and Titus 2:3-5, ministries like No Greater Joy, and books like Created to be His help meet, that I figured I am supposed to stay home and submit to my husband. I am supposed to keep the house, to nurture the children, not to send them away. It’s not easy to accept this idea. What about my degree? What about my dreams? But it all makes sense. My husband and I are not equal, but have different roles to make the family functions. It’s not about who’s superior, but it’s about the Lord, about the order, and about love.

Do we love the Lord? Think about all that He has done for us. Think about the blood on the cross. Would that be Jesus’s dream to be put on the cross? NO. It’s about the Lord’s will, it’s about love, not personal dreams. Do we love the Lord enough to obey His words? To submit to our husband, the man that we say we love and honour? Do we love our children enough to stay home with them and train them up to walk in truth?

Yes, it is my calling and my job to be a keeper at home. It’s my life long career. And I am learning everyday to become a better keeper as it is not my specialty! And I know it will please my Lord and my lovely husband =)

Eph 5:22 (KJV)
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

Titus 2 : 3-5 (KJV)
3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

To read more about against feminism :
http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/
http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/
http://www.noblewomanhood.com/

Although Home Recipes, Home Remedies and Homeschooling sections of the blog are already parts of keeper at home sharings, I still find it not enough. Therefore, I start a new category here called “Keeper at Home” to cover all the other sharings in my journey to strive for becoming a keeper at home that pleases and honour the Lord and my dear husband.

First of all, let us meditate the 2 wonderful and powerful Scriptures from the Bible that have inspired thousands and thousands of godly women!

Titus 2 : 3-5 (KJV)
3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Proverbs 31:10-31 (KJV)
10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.