June 9, 2006 I love this picture by Mary Englebright and the words with it! It reminds me of my little Susanna-she is such a little snuggle bug-so full of hugs and kisses lately. I love her sweet smiles and when she places her little hand on my cheek and repeats "Mom" softly over and over. I can't think of a nicer name for myself when it's said like that.
I have been convicted to let the Holy Spirit work more in my two older children and I saw it happen and I am amazed!
Hannah & Jonah had an arguement. Jonah was purposely irritating her and she reacted badly. And he reacted badly in return. So, they came to me to solve their problem. I asked Jonah to go sit on the porch for a few minutes while I spoke to Hannah. She was crying and after she told me why she was so upset, I asked her to go upstairs to pray about it and ask God for help in this situation. I said if you ask Him for help, He WILL give it to you.
Then, I sat with Jonah and I said something I have never said before and I know it was from the Lord, "Jonah, you know how we always say to respect other people's property? Whether it's a toy or other people's land or house, etc? (he nodded) Well, Hannah is God's property and you disrespected her. So, you disrespected God's property. You also are God's property. He owns each and every one of us. When you look at someone, try to see them as belonging to God and think twice about how you treat them." (I also had this talk with Hannah later as she also needed to hear it)
This made sense to him and he felt sincerely sorry and went to apologize to Hannah.
About 10 minutes later, Hannah ran down the stairs with her Bible-her face all lit up. She said, "Mom, I asked God for help and look at what I read when I opened up my Bible. These verses popped out at me."
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,
Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from deceitful speech.
He must turn from evil and do good;
he must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the
righteous
and His ears are attentive to their
prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those
who do evil.
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. 1Peter 8-15
I cried when I read this. The Lord answered my daughter! This is so awesome to me! Her help came from the Lord-not me. This is the goal!
She read this to Jonah, too, and there was true restoration between the two of them. No more anger and they played together like best friends for the rest of the day. I'm so thankful for this little storm that came to them so that they could see God help them when they asked.
I pray we would set our hearts apart for you, Lord!
june 8, 2006
I'm not changing much about how we do school. Most of the changes are pointed directly at me.
I want to have an all day attitude of prayer and remember that the Lord OWNS me, my day, my children, thier day, our school subjects, all the projects around here.
For example (I was explaining this to Hannah yesterday) if she is having a problem with math, instead of me repeating what she didn't understand louder (you know, like talking to someone who speaks a different language-lol) we're going to stop & pray that God would give Hannah understanding and me wisdom & patience because God owns the math.
This thought that God owns our school subjects is a new concept for me(duh) that I got from Norm Wakefield.
Our goal is to concentrate more on our relationships and more on God's daily leading of what He wants us to learn each day. If we're following His leading, then they'll learn what He wants them to know. I must be more attentive & vigilant, though. And it is going to take a lot of hard work from me, but I also realize I don't have any choice but to obey my Lord, so I must do it with His strength.
Along the relationship subject, I was also convicted of not respecting the kids enough. I Love them and do all I know to do as a mom. But,(especially with Jonah) I don't show them respect enough.
I wasn't berating them or anything, just not seeing them all the time as their own person that belongs to God.
I also need to let them experience the Holy Spirit's leading more and step in less. God impressed upon me that they are ready for this. I have with Hannah (but not enough), but with Jonah, I need to get better with this much more.
Here's an example of where we did this: This weekend they stayed with my in-laws a lot since we went to the convention. I told Jonah (he normally comes home with his pockets full of wrappers) he could have 1 piece of candy from Grandpa and that he was going to have to resist temptation to have more and that He could ask Jesus to help him. We impressed upon him that someday soon we won't be with him every minute of his day and he needs to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit to do what's right. He did it! He told me he was tempted and he REALLY wanted more candy, but he resisted it. We were so proud of him!
I've also been convicted of being too busy with things other than home-schooling. I do need to be a bit more structured. We are still relaxed, but I was a little too relaxed. The conviction I got was this: God called us to homeschool. Ecc. 9:10 says Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might. I haven't been doing it with all my might and I felt the Lord calling me on it. I've been lazy.
Here's another thing: I know that more is caught than taught. Well, the words coming out of my mouth aren't always matching my actions. So, I want to be a better witness to the kids about my faith. I'm talking little things, like telling the kids to speak kindly to please the Lord with our words and then I snap at them. Or get mad when someone cuts me off on the highway, you know?
God in a small small voice asked me, "Can these small ones see ME in your daily life? Are you LIVING my word-I AM a LIVING God."
It's these little daily things they will carry with them long term. Habits we all have: what will our present habits or attitudes look like in 20 yrs? It might not be pretty.
In 20 years it won't matter if they know medians, probability, etc. It won't matter if they know the object of the preposition. It WILL matter if they are serving the Lord with their whole heart and telling others about Him.
At the same time, I feel I need to be more vigilant with out schooling-we need a good balance and I am praying the Lord would guide me in this area.
For Pat, he wants more of a presence in his abcense. So, I am trying to tell him what we are doing with the next day and then he talks to the kids about what I'm going to do with them. This really helps Jonah because he feels that Pat is talking him man to man and he feels responsible to carry out Daddy's directives. When Daddy's not home, he's (sort of) the man around the house and needs to help mom since Dad can't.
Pat also calls often to check up on us and He prays for me and our school day on his way to work. I love knowing he is doing that.
He's been convicted that he needs to let the kids be even more involved in the projects going on around here and he needs to be more patient. (me too!)
We're also making a point of doing things around here that Daddy needs done. And I am impressing upon the kids that what Daddy asks us to do is just as important as getting the schoolwork done, if not more. Monday he asked me to mow the lawn and Jonah to weed-wack and Hannah to sweep out the garage & basement. We felt really good getting that all done for Daddy.
Some of what I have shared I've been wrestling with the last couple months, some of this was impressed upon me by the speakers at the convention. I hope it all makes sense.
I'm so glad God loves us so much He takes the time to train and discipline us when we need it!!
