Miranda: Hi, my name is Miranda and I am 20. I live in northwestern PA with my parents, three brothers (15, 12 and 9) and two sisters (8 and 6). We have a dog named Zaccheus (he’s such a wee little dog!) and a gerbil – David :)  I love sewing, reading, scrapbooking and music. I play the piano, am learning violin, glockenspiel and flute, and love to mess around on a friend’s harp and hammered dulcimer!! I also enjoy spending time with my family. My sisters and I enjoy cooking together and I play Lego’s with my brothers (or attempting to anyhow!!).

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Shining Stars: What is your testimony (how did you become born-again)?

Miranda: I have been privileged to grow up in a Christian home. When I was seven or eight, Mom was helping me memorize I Peter 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: by his stripes we are healed.” Mom explained it to me and I realized that I was a sinner. I accepted Yeshua as my Savior. However, it wasn’t until my teens that I began to fully live for my Savior and I dedicated my life to Him.

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Shining Stars: What led you to stay at home?

Miranda: My parents and I had heard about this by reading different books and we realized that this was for us. It definitely went against everything else we heard!! :)  I knew that I should stay under my parent’s authority until marriage and attending college out of state just wasn’t right for me. Staying at home has also enabled me to broaden my education thro’ online and correspondence courses as well as staying involved in ministries here.

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Shining Stars: What are some ways that you help and serve your family?

Miranda: I am in charge of cooking, so I do all the meal planning and make out the grocery lists. Thankfully, I don’t do the shopping~I hate it!! :) I also help with some of the homeschooling and cleaning.

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Shining Stars: Are there any resources that have encouraged you in your daily life?

Miranda: Several books, besides the Bible of course, have been a great challenge and encouragement to me. The two that stick out the most are “Before You Meet Prince Charming” by Sarah Mally  and “One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voscamp. They have both changed my life, but especially the latter, dramatically. I would encourage you to read them both!

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Shining Stars: Do you have a ministry? If so, please share about it.

Miranda: Yes, I have a ministry called “Sewing for the Savior.” A group of girls from all over the US have participated in the past several years. We’ve sent shoes to an orphanage in a closed country, clothes for the girls in an orphanage in Uganda, items to a missionary family in Mongolia, blankets and clothes to an orphanage in India and much more! We’ve also made encouragement scrapbooks for families going thro’ difficult circumstances. Another ministry the Father has allowed me to have is my Bright Lights group. I started a group in October 2010 with about a dozen girls and it has grown to thirty! I am so blessed and humbled by this awesome opportunity.

Shining Stars: Do you have a home business? If so, please share about it.

Miranda: I have a business called “Fine Linen Fabrics.” I sell modest clothing, fabric, sewing supplies, purses and more! I’ve recently added LillaRose flexi clips (which are incredible!!). I have really enjoyed doing sewing for different families. I also teach piano and sewing at my home, for which I’m very grateful!

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Shining Stars: What encouragement/advice/exhortation do you have to share?

Miranda: I just want to encourage you sisters to stay true and close to the Father. We need to live our lives for Him and Him only. Read the Bible and pray daily, several times a day, and memorize the Word. You will never regret the time spent in His Word. Serve others and in doing so, others will see Yeshua in you. Rejoice in Him always. Blessings to you!

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In the book, the authors cover a variety of topics, including:

… and many more! I really enjoyed reading this book. Coming from the perspective of the-least-amount-of-interaction-between-guys-and-girls-the-better, I am hesitant to endorse the idea that girls and guys should be friendly with each other. It’s much safer to keep a far distance. I firmly believe that my spouse (and yours) is already chosen by the Heavenly Father and that we should conduct ourselves with the mindset that we are already spoken for, and that we should judge our actions based on the question “Would I be doing this/saying this/acting like this if my husband were standing beside me?” In an effort to not be too forward, it is easier for me to be withdrawn to the point of generally ignoring guys completely.

However, as believers we are commanded to love one another with brotherly love and we are also instructed to treat the younger men as brothers with all purity. I think that is the main goal of this book … what does it mean to treat young men as brothers with all purity? So while “It’s Not That Complicated” gave me a lot to chew on and I haven’t finished swallowing it all yet (!), I think that there is a lot of beneficial information and encouragement and I am happy to offer to give a copy to one of you!

Giveaway Rules:

You must be a subscriber to the Shining-Stars-Magazine-quarterly-publication-that-comes-to-your-mailbox, in order to enter this giveaway! If you are not currently a subscriber and would like to be, please leave a comment on this post to join the giveaway and include your snail-mail address. I will then add you to the subscription list and remove your address before I publish the comment. There is no set subscription fee; we send the magazine free of charge to anyone who requests it and just ask that readers prayerfully consider donating to help cover publication costs.

All Shining Stars subscribers are allowed one entry! Multiple family members are welcome to enter also.

For additional entries (leave one comment for each additional entry):

• Follow Shining Stars through your Blogger Dashboard.

• Add the Shining Stars link to your website or blogroll.

• Post about this giveaway on your own blog (make sure to leave the link to the post).

This giveaway ends on May 22nd.

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Bethany: My name is Bethany Grace Davies, and I will be 21 in June of this year! I am the eldest of two children, although people often mistake me for being younger, as I am “vertically challenged”! I live in the beautiful country of Australia and I am SO glad that I live here. More specifically, I live in the state of Victoria, in a small country town of Mt Beauty. Mt Beauty has only 3,000 people living in it, so we know most of the people here.

I have a younger brother – Matthew John, who recently turned 19 years old, and he started a plumbing apprenticeship nearly a year ago, and he is enjoying that. He is quite a bit taller than me – hence the confusion of who is older! Mum – Debbie, is a keeper-at-home and has been ever since she became pregnant with me. She has done a pretty amazing job of keeping the home, as well as homeschooling Matthew and I right from the beginning, as well as being a helpful wife to Dad. Dad – Brendan, was a Communications Technician, which meant he worked at the power stations all around Victoria. When Matthew and I were younger, especially, we would travel as a family with him, so we got to see a lot of Victoria. But 3 years ago, he became sick with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (Motor Neurone Disease/ALS), so he had to stop work. He went home to be with the Lord in August of 2011.

We also have a very cute Labrador x Kelpie female dog – Lily, who is only 5. She is a beautiful dog and we love her to bits and she is in danger of being spoilt by everybody! I have a few things which I enjoy doing…..music is definitely at the top of the list! I play the piano, flute and recently started learning the cello. I also enjoy writing & receiving letters & emails, putting together a young lady’s magazine, serving the Lord in whatever capacity He wants me to serve Him in, scrapbooking, photography, spending time with friends, and going for walks.

Bethany

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Shining Stars: What is your testimony (how did you become born-again)?

Bethany: I have been raised in a Christian home, for which I am very grateful. So from a very young age, I have been going to church, listening to Bible stories, being with Christian people, etc. I was quite sensitive as a child (I still am!), so I might not have done “all” the bad things other children did, but not to say I wasn’t perfect, because I wasn’t and I still did my share of sinning. It wasn’t until I was 10 years old that I fully realized the significance of sin, and my inability to be good. I had disobeyed Mum, and when she took me into the bedroom to deal with me, I burst out sobbing and told her that I was TRYING to do the right thing, but I couldn’t and I was sick of always doing the wrong thing. So she asked me if I wanted to become a Christian, to which I replied “Yes”. She told me the Gospel story, and then helped me to pray and ask the Lord Jesus Christ into my life and to save me from my sin and to give a me place in Heaven when I died.

Even though I can’t remember what I prayed or what Mum told me that day in July 2001, I just know that the Lord came into my heart and life that day and has made me His daughter. I know that when I put my head on my pillow each night, I can go to sleep with the assurance that I will go to Heaven if I died that night. I was baptised in January, 2005, and I was overcome with joy when it happened because I knew I had stepped out in obedience to what the Lord had commanded me to do. It is not to say that I have been perfectly good since becoming a Christian, because I haven’t – I have done plenty of wrong since then, but I know that the Lord will continue to forgive me for what I have done, and will do, and that He will use whatever I do to make me more like Christ.

Bethany's mother, Debbie

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Shining Stars: What led you to stay at home?

Bethany: Well, it’s kinda hard to really say what led me to stay at home, because from a very young age, Mum and Dad have raised me to see no other option for when I finish my schooling. But I know that deep down – regardless of what other people will tell me what I should do – that the Lord wants women to be in the homes caring for their families and keeping the home. I know that for some women, they are unable to do that, but I know that that is what the Lord is wanting me to. It has been hard to stay on that conviction, especially since Dad got sick and died, because it would be so easy to just go out and work because the main breadwinner isn’t here anymore, but I know that the Lord’s plan for me is the be a stay-at-home daughter until I can be a stay-at-home wife and mother.

Bethany's brother, Matthew

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Shining Stars: What are some ways that you help and serve your family?

Bethany: Since there is only two of us living at home now (Matthew is living in Albury now – 90 miles from Mt Beauty – because of work), there’s not a whole lot that needs doing as two people don’t make much mess! And if we do make mess, we usually clean it up as we go, so usually there’s not much in the way of housecleaning to do. But I’ll just help Mum out with whatever needs doing – whether it’s folding clothing, or hanging out wet clothing, or dusting, vacuuming, doing dishes…..just depends what needs doing and what else we’ve got happening on the day.

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Shining Stars: Are there any resources that have encouraged you in your daily life?

Bethany: The Bible is definitely up the top of the list for encouraging me in my daily life. There is always something there to help me through each day. Apart from that, the books “So Much More” by Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin and “Joyfully at Home” by Jasmine Bauchum have greatly encouraged me to continue in being a stay-at-home daughter. I know that you couldn’t really call these “resources”, but a great encouragement to me is when I spend time with other stay-at-home daughters. Just to know that there are other young women out there who are doing the same as me is really encouraging.

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Shining Stars: Do you have a ministry? If so, please share about it.

Bethany: I am involved with the music ministry at church, which I greatly enjoy. I am also a Sunday School teacher at church – teaching the 2, 3 and 4 year olds. It has been very good for me to be a teacher, because I have learnt a lot – how to teach, how to interact with little children, etc.

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Shining Stars: Do you have a home business? If so, please share about it.

Bethany: No, I don’t have a home business yet. I would like to start teaching piano soon, but I will have to wait on the Lord’s leading for that one.

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Shining Stars: What encouragement/advice/exhortation do you have to share?

Bethany: I would particularly like to encourage the younger stay-at-home daughters to keep on keeping on, on this path of staying at home under their father’s authority. It will be difficult at times, especially when your peers are going out to work and getting careers. But being a stay-at-home daughter is well worth it, and by the time you and your peers get married, you will be so much more prepared for marriage than they will be and you’ll be glad that you were willing to do the uncommon. Even though you may be mocked and laughed at now and you’ll feel like giving up – don’t give up!!! It will be worth it all!!!

Mt. Beauty, where the Davies family lives.

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Congratulations to Melody G who won a lovely scented candle from JaJa’s Candle Scents and April B who won the Family Worship Collection DVD from E-64! Please be sure to check out both of these businesses and and see all the lovely products they have to offer!

Our next giveaway will begin on May 8th … check back to enter for a chance to win another inspiring book :)

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One of the ways that we can support and help our families, is through saving and/or earning money. This can take on a variety of different forms … whether it be using coupons, finding recipes for certain commercially-produced items, or taking advantage of special internet deals and prices. I hope to share a few ideas on ways to be thrifty and do-it-yourself. We welcome thoughts, ideas and recommendations.

Ebates is a way to earn a little cash while shopping online. They provide rebates for over 1500 online stores. Here’s how it works:

You can sign up for an account here. Once you sign up, you go to www.ebates.com and search for whatever store you need to make a purchase from. For instance, I usually order my magazine supplies from Staples or Office Max, through Ebates. Then I get a small percentage of cash back. Don’t get me wrong … this is no get-rich-quick-scheme. But who doesn’t like rebates?! Ebates also sometimes has coupons for the participating stores.

So if you shop online at all, check out this site and see if it’s worth your while :)

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Paulina: My name is Paulina, I am 20 years old and the eldest of three daughters. I live with my beloved husband of six months in a cozy apartment in Austin, Texas. Almost exactly one month into our marriage, I found out I was pregnant. We are expecting our baby boy to be born in early to mid July! As a stay-at-home wife and soon to be mother, I enjoy the sweet simplicity of being a homemaker. My interests include reading, writing, cooking, baking, playing the piano and learning about how to be a better wife and mother.

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Shining Stars: What is your testimony (how did you become born-again)?

Paulina: I was fortunate enough to have been born and raised in a Bible believing family. My parents took my sisters and I to church every Sunday and we would regularly have family prayer time at home. Although we weren’t homeschooled, my parents enrolled us in a private Christian school during our elementary years, so I was exposed to the Scriptures all my life. However, it wasn’t until I was about 17 years that I started seriously studying the Bible and developing a closer relationship with the L-rd (whom my husband and I refer to as “Hashem,” meaning, the Name). It was then that I truly gave my life over to Him. My late teen years were among the most spiritually significant of my life. I felt Hashem’s presence with me daily and it continues to this day.

It was during that time that I came to a different understanding, Scripturally, than I was raised with. Through the help of a friend and then later, the work of the Holy Spirit, I came to understand the importance of the Torah (or Law) in the lives of those who believe in and follow the Messiah. Thus began a new and beautiful phase in my spiritual life, as my hunger for the Word increased and I sought to know Yeshua (Jesus) in a more Jewish context.

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Shining Stars: We understand that you considered yourself a stay at home daughter while you were unmarried – how did that come about? What led you to that decision?

Paulina: During my school years, due to the prevailing message our culture sends young women today, I never thought twice about my desire to have a career and several degrees to go with it. I wanted to be a doctor, much to the delight of my family. I even took classes in high school to help prepare me for that path. Of course, I also wanted to get married and have children at some point, but I imagined that would happen sometime after completing my career. In my mind, I never saw being a wife and mother as a career that one needed to prepare for. After all, what could be so hard about it?

Hashem soon opened my eyes to the truths found in His Word concerning women and their role. He used godly friends, as well as Vision Forum Ministries and Above Rubies to change my feministic mindset. I realized how selfish and independent I had become and repented of it. My desire to be a help-meet to my (then future) husband and a devoted mother to my children became a passion that I quickly embraced wholeheartedly. I abandoned my original plan to go to college and become a doctor and instead, sought to be as home-centered as possible. I say this because my parents did not embrace the concept of stay-at-home-daughterhood, but eventually consented to it as long as I took a few courses per week at our local community college. This arrangement allowed me to be home most of the day, since the two courses I would take at a time occurred in the morning. Looking back, I feel blessed to have been allowed the freedom to develop my homemaking skills while an unmarried woman at home, as well as the ability to grow closer to the Father during my quiet times (which were plenty!).

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Shining Stars: What are some ways that you were able to help and serve your family while you were unmarried?

Paulina: Being at home meant I was usually the one called upon to help with any ministry opportunity that came up. My parents have had a Bible fellowship group in their home for as long as I can remember. Every Friday evening, I took care of the children that would come so that their parents could enjoy the discussions taking place without interruption.

Because I was the only daughter in my family with a driver’s license, I was usually called upon to act as chauffer. Sometimes it was taking one of my sisters to school in the morning or dropping my other sister off at her workplace. I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, so my mom would frequently request that I make a dessert for their Bible fellowship or cook dinner once a week. Spending most of my time at home allowed me to grow especially close to my youngest sister, who is now in middle school.

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Shining Stars: How did you meet your husband? Can you tell us some of the events that led up to your marriage?

Paulina: I love this question! I always smile when I think back to our courtship story, which took place almost two years ago. My husband and I met on Facebook in the most unlikely of ways. He and I shared a mutual interest in the Torah as followers of Yeshua, which meant we had a few friends in common. One such friend happened to be a Bible teacher. She published a note in which she wrote some commentary on a certain Bible passage. I commented, and then my husband commented right below me. Agreeing with his comment, I posted a simple, “Amen!” The rest, as they say, is history!

He sent me a message introducing himself in a very respectful manner. After a few messages had been exchanged between us, in which we talked about our interest in the Jewishness of the Bible, I decided to let him know I did not feel comfortable conversing privately with him, explaining that I wanted to keep my heart pure for my future husband. I had determined early on in my life that I would not date, and instead wait on Hashem’s perfect timing for Him to send me my husband. He replied immediately, stating that he respected my desire and would not send me messages anymore.

Soon after, I removed my account and began a new one without telling him. However, I continued to keep him in my thoughts, and the desire to hear from him again became stronger every day. Eventually, he found me and sent me a message expressing his relief. Then, he asked if we could begin writing letters for the purpose of getting to know each other better. It was then that I asked for my parents’ blessing and permission. They agreed.

To make a long story short, we exchanged a few letters, and continued to e-mail. During that time, we were falling in love, and my parents could see that. Permission to begin talking on the phone was granted, and then three months later he came to visit me in my parents’ home for the first time. We were married about five months later. Our first kiss occurred after the wedding ceremony.

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Shining Stars: Are there any resources that have encouraged you in your daily life?

Paulina: There are many! I am an avid reader, so I have quite a few books that served of immense encouragement to me. Before You Meet Prince Charming in the first one that comes to mind. Also, Authentic Beauty and When God Writes Your Love Story, both by Leslie Ludy, So Much More by the Botkin sisters, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, the courtship series by Mr. and Mrs. Castleberry, and Fascinating Womanhood (an excellent book and a must read for both married and non-married women). I have also been greatly encouraged by the DVD, The Return of the Daughters, and another one called, To Be One (it follows three young couples who chose to go the courtship and betrothal route).

Blogs such as Domestic Felicity and Home Living, which extol the place of a woman being in the home, whether married or unmarried were of immense support and inspiration to me. Lastly, I would like to say that Nancy Campbell’s Above Rubies magazine and ministry has been a major source of influence and encouragement in my life.

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Shining Stars: Do you have a ministry? If so, please share about it.

Paulina: I have always believed that a married woman’s ministry is her husband and children. That is what I consider to be my ministry. Although our baby is yet to be born, I feel that part of ministering to our children is in preparing for their coming. And as a young wife and homemaker, I strive to make my husband’s life as pleasant as possible. This means pouring all of my time and energy into keeping our home clean and orderly, making sure to stay within our budget by spending our money wisely on the things we need, and providing the comfort and tranquility my husband seeks after a long and hard day at work. I always think of the verse in 1 Corinthians that states, “… she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” How true that is!

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Shining Stars: Do you have a home business? If so, please share about it.

Paulina: At this time, I do not have a home business. In the future, however, that may change!

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Shining Stars: What encouragement/advice/exhortation do you have to share?

Paulina: The most important piece of advice I could give to young women who have a desire to be married one day is to pray consistently for your future husband. You never know just how much he’ll need those prayers, even before you meet him! I prayed daily for my husband’s purity as well as for his protection, and this was years before the L-rd sent him to me. I know my prayers worked because of the things my husband tells me. I strongly believe in the power of prayer. If your heart’s desire is to one day have a husband and children of your own, let the L-rd know about it. Pour out your heart to Him, and do this daily. Hashem is faithful to those who love Him!

Also, being a daughter at home can be extremely hard, as such a concept is not accepted in our society today. But stay strong, and know that there are other young women out there who choose to live counter culturally, by aligning their views with what the Word tells us. By being a stay-at-home daughter, you are preparing yourself for the highest calling a woman can have – that of a wife and mother. Retain your purity, and strengthen yourself daily by reading the Word and speaking to G-d. Surround yourself with encouragement and like-minded friends.

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In an effort to support various entrepreneurial endeavors, Shining Stars will be featuring home businesses every other month. This includes hosting a giveaway of one or more items, sharing information about the business and products as well as contact info for those who would like to purchase items, and a listing on our Cottage Industries page. If you have a home (family-run) business and would like to have it featured on this website, please contact me for details at shiningstarsmagazine[at]gmail[dot]com.

I’m sorry about the delay in getting this posted – thank you all for your patience! Today we will be featuring two home business and offering products to two winners! Let’s first hear from Captain Bret at E6-4 …

We are Bret and Jacqueline Smith. We have been married for 31 years. We have 12 children, all of whom have always been homeschooled. Our four oldest children all experienced a Biblical betrothal and are now married. We have 11 grandchildren and 2 more on the way. We established The Homeschool Advantage as a ministry to homeschooling families in the year 1997. We enjoy boating and lived aboard a 40 foot boat for 9 months in 2002 while we cruised the Caribbean. We have produced a radio talk show and a nationally networked television show, even though we have never owned a television! We raise sheep and chickens. Eight of our twelve children are adopted, 2 from Kazakhstan, 5 from Latvia and one from the US.

Our primary ministry now is producing a computerized curriculum for homeschools, Christian schools and family worship. We began producing videos targeted at helping fathers become strong spiritual leaders in their homes shortly after returning from our cruise in 2002. We used video footage from the cruise to create a series called “The Voyage of Your Life with Captain Bret,” since I am a USCG licensed sea captain. From there we continued to get involved in film making and hosted the first Georgia Christian Film Festival in 2004. After 18 months of television production, we came to believe that a better use of our time and resources was to develop a video based, computerized curriculum. We began programming the E6-4 software in 2009 and today it is being used by families, churches and schools around the world to provide students and families instruction from a strong Biblical worldview.

Although we do create many lesson ourselves, one aspect of our mission is to compile the work of teachers and families around the world into one seamless computerized curriculum. The most rewarding aspect of this is meeting and working with these great people, like Israel Wayne of Wisdom’s Gate, Joshua Christansen of M Power Learning, Michael Smith of HSLDA, Kevin Swanson of Generations Radio, Michael Morton of Calathora Farms and dozens of other really cool families who contribute to the E6-4 curriculum.

Although we have tried to make E6-4 as easy to use as possible, it is still a huge program. The software currently consists of over 35gb of files! It is very helpful for a parent to have someone help them get started using E6-4 and to demonstrate the dozens of cool features and how to use them. This provides us with an opportunity to help families who have a heart to serve others earn some income working from their home. We have a very attractive distributorship program where someone can reap financial rewards through promoting and training others in their church, homeschool group, or blog audience.

Captain Bret is offering the E6-4 Family Worship Collection to one winner. This DVD contains the E6-4 software and a collection of lessons specifically designed for family worship. You can see the other products that E6-4 offers in their online store.

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We also want to let you know about another home business … JaJa’s Candle Scents. This is operated by a young lady here in Tennessee.

My name is Rebekah Wilson – I am 13 (almost 14). I love to sing and dance to the Lord! I enjoy playing and interacting with my sisters and learning new things (like how to make candles and run a business) in our home school! I am the 5th child of a 9 member family (Dad, Mom, Mike, Samantha, Hannah, Rachel, Rebekah, Talyah and Hadassah). We live on a small farm that has a milk cow and her calf, chickens, a milk goat and we raise designer puppies (giant schnoodles, which is a giant schnauzer and standard poodle mix, and Shih-Poos which is Shih Tzu and toy poodle). We have a very busy family!

My business is making candles. It is called JaJa’s Candle Scents. I make delicious smelling soy candles with lead-free wicks. I really enjoy creating the new scents and colors of my candles! It makes our whole house smell yummy!! I just started a website so I can sell online. I used to just go to businesses in our area selling door to door. I have been making candles for almost a year. It has been a big learning experience having to make a business plan, inventory, projected sales, and of course planning new scents and candles!

My favorite part of my business is smelling the wonderful scents! My new website is JaJa’s Candles.

Rebekah is giving away a candle to one winner who gets to pick the scent they would like to try! You can view the available scents on the website. These candles come in a pint jar and are made with soy wax and lead-free wicks.

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So do you want a chance to win one of these products?!

Giveaway Rules:

You must be a subscriber to the Shining-Stars-Magazine-quarterly-publication-that-comes-to-your-mailbox, in order to enter this giveaway! If you are not currently a subscriber and would like to be, please leave a comment on this post to join the giveaway and include your snail-mail address. I will then add you to the subscription list and remove your address before I publish the comment. There is no set subscription fee; we send the magazine free of charge to anyone who requests it and just ask that readers prayerfully consider donating to help cover publication costs.

All Shining Stars subscribers are allowed one entry, in which you must tell me which item you would prefer to win! Multiple family members are welcome to enter also.

For additional entries (leave one comment for each additional entry):

• Visit E6-4 and tell me which product you are most interested in.

• Visit JaJa’s Candle Scents and tell me which scent is your favorite.

• Follow Shining Stars through your Blogger Dashboard.

• Add the Shining Stars link to your website or blogroll.

• Post about this giveaway on your own blog (make sure to leave the link to the post).

This giveaway ends on April 22nd.

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Due to a very full week and weekend, I was not able to get everything ready by today so that I could feature two more home businesses, so I am planning to start those review/giveaways on Tuesday (the 10th). Check back then and in the meantime, have a wonderfully blessed day!!

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One of the ways that we can support and help our families, is through saving and/or earning money. This can take on a variety of different forms … whether it be using coupons, finding recipes for certain commercially-produced items, or taking advantage of special internet deals and prices. I hope to share a few ideas on ways to be thrifty and do-it-yourself. We welcome thoughts, ideas and recommendations.

Have you ever made your own mayonnaise? We recently started doing this and we really like it! It makes for a healthy (and usually a less expensive) alternative.

2 eggs
2 cups oil (preferably expeller pressed safflower or sunflower)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 TBS. of vinegar, lemon juice, or a mixture
1 TBS. of sweetener (honey, agave, or sugar) – also may use 1/4 tsp. of stevia
dash of pepper (opt.)
dash of ground mustard seed (opt.)
dash of onion powder (opt.)
dash of garlic powder (opt.)

Combine everything except 1 1/2 cups of oil in blender. Blend on LOW for about 10 seconds. Gradually, slowly add the rest of the oil while still running on low. Stop blender and mix well with rubber spatula. Blend for another 5 seconds on low. Repeat these last two steps until mixed well and no oil is separated. Put in a glass jar and refrigerate for 7-10 days.

Note: you can also use a food processor to make this. I’ve used both a blender and processor and I can’t decide which I like better! The processor seems to mix it better in the final stages, but it doesn’t always mix the first ingredients well – sometimes the honey gets stuck under the blades!

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Megan: Hi there! My name is Megan Yotter. I turned 19 years old last Tuesday. I live with my parents and six younger siblings, five sisters and one brother, on our hobby farm in Missouri. Some of the things that I like to do: rip out seams (because you can’t really call what I do sewing!), read, garden and spend time with our friends. Oh … and spend time with our animals, especially my giant, sweet white Pyrenees/Anatolian cross – Albert, and my black and white cat – Persnickitty, who’s so mean and ornery you just have to love her :)  Some things I really like to do: play the piano, take pictures, learn new things about God and His Word and spend time with my family.

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Shining Stars: What is your testimony (how did you become born-again)?

Megan: I became born-again in the summer of 1999 when I was six years old. My grandmother had died in March of the same year and I think that summer was just the turning point for me deciding to put into action what I had been learning about my whole life. I’ve had many turns and trials in my Christian walk since then and I had (and still have) a lot of growing up to do spiritually, but God has always been faithful in showing His hand in everything that I’ve been through.

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Shining Stars: What led you to stay at home?

Megan: God did. My parents have always made it clear to my sisters and I that going off to college away from our family was not an option, but as I have gotten older it has become my conviction as well that God intends for young women to stay under their father’s authority until God places them under the authority of their husband. But I’d never really thought about what I would do when I finished homeschooling. I shared with Hannah a few months back that it seems to me that for the world now days, ‘most everything is centered around school, so when kids graduate they have to find a whole new life. For me, things weren’t changing that much. I still had the same responsibilities, etc, that I had before graduating. Yet after graduation I was left slightly confused and wondering what I should do, mostly because everything that you hear from the world is “Where are you going to college?” or “What are you going to do with your life?” Through guidance from God and my parents and lots of prayer and studying I decided, with my father’s permission, that I would stay at home and help with my brother’s schooling and what ever else God placed in my life. Since then God has been very faithful in giving me plenty of things to do :)

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Shining Stars: What are some ways that you help and serve your family?

Megan: I try to help and serve my family by being a chauffeur for my younger siblings, helping out with house chores, gardening, helping with my siblings school work, cooking, canning, running errands, etc.

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Shining Stars: Are there any resources that have encouraged you in your daily life?

Megan: Oh yes, God has blessed me with many resources that have been an encouragement to me, especially in the last couple of years – Shining Stars Magazine definitely being one of them and all the ladies who write the articles. I am truly thankful that you all have been willing to share your experiences to help others like me. I would say that my pen pal Kayla, has been one of the greatest encouragements and inspirations that God has sent to me. Over three years ago, I was really struggling with not knowing anyone around my own age who was really striving to live like Jesus and I was pretty discouraged for awhile there. God heard my need though and a few weeks before I turned sixteen, He sent me a wonderful pen pal/friend all the way from WI. Though we have only met face to face a couple of times, we have written many emails and letters and she has been a great blessing to me and a wonderful example of what a friend should be. I believe God has used her to help turn me in the direction He wanted me to go many times in the past few years. She’s very good about telling the truth in love and I know that I can trust her and know that she will pray for me. This is kind of off subject, but just a word of advice, be very careful about the friends that you choose. A Godly friend has been a great blessing and light in my life, so I can only imagine the harm that a worldly friend could have done.

Anyway, some of books that have been an encouragement to me (besides the Bible) are: Preparing to be a Helpmeet, Stepping Heavenward, In His Steps, Do Hard Things, So Much More, Joyfully at Home, Before You Meet Prince Charming … and I’m sure that there others that I’m missing.

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Shining Stars: Do you have a ministry? If so, please share about it.

Megan: I do not have an official ministry, I just try to be a light for Christ where ever I go. Easy to say, hard to do sometimes though, right? I’m very blessed to have the opportunity to play the piano for our church and other little things like that, so I guess my ministry would be trying to remember to give God the glory in even the little things that I do. It’s a work in progress :)

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Shining Stars: Do you have a home business? If so, please share about it.

Megan: My mother and sisters and I have been making cakes, cookies and other baked goods for friends and family out of our home for over a year now. We have started getting many orders from people that we don’t know and so we are just beginning work on a building that will, Lord willing, be our new bakery. We would only be there 2-3 days a week because we are not looking to be away from the house full time, but we are excited about this opportunity to work together and looking forward to seeing what God has in store. Our business is/will be Daydream Cakes.(My father’s initials are DAY, so that’s where the daydream comes from.) Our desire is that it would be not just a business but a ministry, and we have been amazed at the new people we have met and the lives that we have had opportunity to touch through this “hobby.”

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Shining Stars: What encouragement/advice/exhortation do you have to share?

Megan: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” – 1 Thess. 5:18 No matter what’s going on, try to find something to give thanks for. Sometimes you have to look really hard, but usually not nearly as hard as you would think. Besides, it’s worth it and it takes your mind off what you thought was so bad in the first place. I love the quote, “There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.” And it’s so true. If many things go wrong in a morning and you end up getting to the grocery store several hours later than you expected, maybe God was protecting you from a car wreck or something unseen that you didn’t know about.

Even if you can’t come up with anything original that pertains to the exact situation that you’re in, you can always be thankful that Jesus Christ loved you so very much that he suffered and bled and died for you on the cross and was mocked and scourged and beaten for your sins to make a way for you to spend an eternity in a place that you’re entirely undeserving of. It’s harder to be ungrateful or discontent when you stop and think of that, isn’t it?

Another thing that usually takes my breath away and makes me realize how much I have to be grateful for and how selfish I truly am is when I see or hear of someone who has recently lost or is losing someone dear to them, especially a very close family member like a parent or a sibling. No matter how bad I may think I have it, God has never asked me to be content while losing one of my siblings (not counting the ones I have never gotten to meet, but that I will get to meet in Heaven) or parents … and nothing else in the whole world, aside from God, matters more than the people He has placed around me. So though I often feel like griping at one of my sisters or my brother, my gracious Heavenly Father usually sends me a reminder that I should be so very thankful that they are still near me to get on my nerves and “inconvenience” me.

There is always someone worse off than you, usually a lot more people than you would first imagine. And no matter how bad things seem, they could always be worse. One of my favorite verses is 1 Thess. 5:16. “Rejoice Evermore” . I’m reminding myself to be thankful more than anything because, though I say I like those verses and that quote, I find myself discontent and unthankful more often than not, but God is merciful and forgiving and faithful to help me get back on the right track if I stop and ask Him for a more thankful attitude. So that would be my advice to you, the next time you feel like complaining … stop, pray, find something to be thankful for, and then … trust Him. Trust that He’s got everything under control, because … He does! “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD” – Psalm 92:1

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