In the months that followed our time on Jekyll Island, where My wife and I celebrated our sixteenth wedding anniversary, the Lord continued to bring about many new beginnings in our home. We had not been in our townhouse long, and I had only been teaching college classes a short time, when God began leading my wife to make some profound changes in her life. I will let Tony share this in her own words.

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The Father began speaking to me in January of 2001 about the head covering. I began to diligently study the Word and pray about this asking the Father to show me if this was for today. My husband has believed in the covering from the beginning of our marriage yet I did not see this practiced in the churches that we attended. As I studied I became convicted that this was what the Father was leading me to do.

One day in June as I was disciplining my son because he had not done what I had asked him to do earlier in the day, I heard the Father speak to me that I had not yet obeyed Him in something that He had asked me to do. I knew right away that He was speaking about me covering my head…so the next day when I got up I began wearing the covering. That was June of 2001. (I need to interject something here: One thing that really grieved my heart, was that I realized that all the years we have been married, knowing that my husband believed in the covering and desired that I cover, the Holy Spirit showed me that I had been in sin and rebellion all those years that I did not cover. I very quickly repented of my sin, received the forgiveness that I so desperately needed and now I am walking in obedience to the Lord and my husband.)

The first thing that took place when I began covering is that I had a peace settle over me like I have never experienced before….it is still here too. There have been several things that have taken place since I began covering and I consider each of these things to be blessings sent from God to me as a result of my obedience to Him in the area of covering and dressing modestly. I guess the one that has meant the most to me is that my hubby told me that I am more beautiful to him now than ever before.

I wish I had time to tell you all that we have walked through in our marriage and how we got to where we are now….it would blow your mind!! I have noticed that he now sees me in a different light and he has always been respectful to me, but that has increased even more and I also see his love poured out to me even more. He spoke to me one day about this and told me that he sees a gentle and quiet spirit that has not been present before. That was very humbling.

My son has begun showing more respect toward me and his whole attitude has amazed me. He has been very encouraging to me in his own little way since I have been covering. He is funny sometimes….I will have my dress on and will sit down and may not notice that my dress is not pulled down all the way over my legs and he will bring it to my attention. This has been a big thing to him. His whole perspective on modesty has changed, and I am so grateful for this. Also, my hubby and I have been out eating before and I have had older men walk over to our table and stand there and just smile at me and one even nodded his head at me as he turned to leave. It is like this demands respect, and it is given.

Our daughter began covering in February of 2002 and then the dresses followed for her in April. I see this as a true blessing from God as a result of my obedience to Him in these areas in my own life. My daughter was a big time tomboy, and to see her in her covering and dress now is more beautiful than I can describe to you here. My heart overflows with joy when I see her. She has such a tender heart toward God and always wants to be pleasing to Him.

Dresses were the hard thing for me to start wearing. When I started covering I was wearing shorts and pants. Boy, what a walking contradiction I was, and I did not even know it. Though I do remember that as the summer went on that my shorts felt like they got shorter and shorter. That was just the way that the Father dealt with me and allowed me to become more conscious of my clothes and the call to modesty.

The sad thing in all this is that the biggest critics have been other believers. The covering stirs something in them that they don’t want to deal with. It represents things that they do not want to hear about and have not heard talked about in the church. It is funny, because without them knowing all that it is about, they (other women) are made mad by it.

A few months back we were at a gathering and, as we walked up, my hubby and I were standing outside and I happened to look inside the building and this guy who I knew saw me and he turned to his wife and then they both turned and looked at me. Both of them had this disgusted look on their faces. They were not happy people. I feel sorry for them. This reminded me of a Mennonite pastor that I heard on a tape one time that said when you start covering get ready to be persecuted.

The covering speaks so loudly to the women of this day who are not walking in the place that God has prepared for them; submission to their own husbands, covering and modesty. My life has been radically changed through learning submission to my husband, wearing the covering and dressing modestly. I NEVER want to go back to the old way things used to be. There is NO going back.
Tony Herrin (written 4-27-03)

We truly were in a time of new beginnings in our home. It had been many months since God had told me that He would change the heart of my wife, and from the time in Payne City when the Holy Spirit said He would set our household in order. We were still seeing these changes come, and each change contributed to the atmosphere of peace, joy and righteousness in our home.

I had never nagged my wife concerning her wearing the Christian woman’s veiling, but I had shared with her from the beginning of our marriage those things that the Scriptures taught on this matter. I had encouraged her on a couple occasions to begin this practice, but when she was unwilling I had let the matter drop.

It would do little good for a woman to practice such Christian ordinances under compulsion, for the headcovering is supposed to be a testimony of what is in the heart of a Christian woman. When I thought of trying to coerce my wife into wearing a headcovering I was reminded of the cartoon of a little boy who was forced to sit in a corner because of misbehavior. The little boy said, “I may be sitting down on the outside, but I am standing up on the inside.” I did not want my wife to wear the headcovering out of compulsion, desiring instead that there should be a harmony between her inner person and her outer witness.

I was so blessed the first time I saw my wife come into a room with a headcovering on. I was amazed at what the Spirit had been doing in her life as she explained to me what He had spoken to her. It was an added blessing when she began wearing dresses. I had told Tony when we were first married that I thought it was right for women to wear feminine attire, and I had always thought that women in long dresses were the picture of beauty, being arrayed both modestly and in feminine attire. Rather than accentuating the sexuality of a woman, as the majority of sensual attire today does, or going the opposite direction in making a woman appear masculine, as another segment of the clothing industry does, the Scriptures teach that a woman should wear feminine clothing that is modest and does not provoke men to lust, or draw attention to themselves in unrighteous ways.

Deuteronomy 22:5
A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

I Timothy 2:9
Also I desire that women should adorn themselves modestly and appropriately and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with elaborate hair arrangement or gold or pearls or expensive clothing…
(Amplified Bible)

I have for a long time also desired that my daughter should dress in this feminine and modest manner. As Tony said, Kristin had always leaned toward tomboy styles. She wanted to dress as a cowgirl, or in camouflage shirts and pants, or similar styles. I knew that there were precious few examples anywhere of young ladies dressing in feminine and modest array, and it was extremely difficult to find anything suitable at local department, or clothing stores. Kristin had always been sensitive to dressing modestly, but her clothing simply wasn’t feminine.

I think the Spirit waited for Tony to enter into obedience in this area before He began to move upon Kristin’s heart, for He wanted to show Tony what an impact her own obedience would have upon others. The day Tony began wearing dresses, she set her face as flint with the attitude that there was no going back. She got rid of all her clothing that she felt was no longer in accordance with the Spirit’s witness in this matter, and she has never vacillated in this determination to be obedient to God.

Even more changes were forthcoming, however. I had for many years wanted Tony to be more domestically minded, more of a keeper at home who would develop skills such as sewing and cooking. I had bought her a new sewing machine a few years after we were married, but she lacked interest in it and ended up selling it some time later. Tony also lacked confidence in her ability to sew, feeling like the necessary skills were lacking in her make-up. I was somewhat doubtful then when she told me that she wanted to get a sewing machine again. I had also begun to doubt that she had what it took to be a competent seamstress.

A great encouragement for Tony at this time was an acquaintance she made with a Christian sister named Wendy who had an Internet forum and website for women who were practicing headcovering and modest dress. Tony began to correspond with her after she started practicing headcovering. She purchased a few headcoverings from Wendy, and their friendship grew so much that Tony flew out to California for ten days to spend time with her. While there Wendy taught her how to sew some simple garments, and when Tony returned home she was full of excitement about the things she had learned.

Tony has since been making her own dresses, and they are as well made as the ones she was purchasing from stores and from individuals. Her skills and confidence have grown to the point where other women are asking her to teach them to sew. It is a great blessing to me to see all of these changes occurring with my wife. She is being conformed to the image of a “Titus Two Woman.”

Titus 2:3-5
Bid the older women similarly to be reverent and devout in their deportment as becomes those engaged in sacred service, not slanderers or slaves to drink. They are to give good counsel and be teachers of what is right and noble, so that they will wisely train the young women to be sane and sober of mind (temperate, disciplined) and to love their husbands and their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, homemakers [workers at home], good-natured (kindhearted), adapting and subordinating themselves to their husbands, that the word of God may not be exposed to reproach (blasphemed or discredited).
(Amplified Bible)

God has brought forth things in our home that I had not imagined possible in such a short period of time. There is no doubt that our family appears as a “peculiar people” in this hour when women are abandoning the traditional feminine roles of motherhood to pursue careers in the world. My wife and daughter stand out as distinctly different from the other women, both old and young, who dress to appear sensual and alluring. We are called to be lights in the midst of darkness, and both my wife and daughter have had opportunities to encourage others to also choose a course that turns aside from the ways of the world. These things are truly amazing, and are a source of much satisfaction to me.


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This is an excerpt from the book Evidence of Things Unseen:

http://www.heart4god.ws/evidence-of-things-unseen.htm


Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws  

 

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Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063