TO LIVE IS CHRIST, TO DIE IS GAIN!!!

For the first time in my married life, I was really scared!  One of my biggest fears is that I am going to become a widow.  Last night that almost happened.  BUT, God in His infinite wisdom, mercy, and amazing grace, had other plans!  THANK YOU, GOD!

I thought that my awesome husband was going to die last night.  Honestly truly thought that he was a goner.  Turned out to not be a heart attack but to be a stress induced episode.  Stress can kill you, imagine that!  Sitting there in the hospital room, watching my husband, friend, mentor, life partner, lover, and father of my children gasp for breath with blue lips terrified me.  Mere words can not do justice for what I was feeling at that moment.  Images of me raising three children all alone filled my mind.  What would we do, how would we go on, how would we survive?

I’d like to say that I immediately thought of Bible verses and was clamed, but that wouldn’t be the truth.  One verse came to mind, and (I can’t remember its address, forgive me), “To live is Christ, to die is gain.”  In that moment I knew that everything was going to be ok.  That was my moment of big comfort, to be reminded that if my husband died he would BE with Christ, he would be OK!  I also knew that I would be ok too; after all to live IS Christ!  Can you fathom that?  Can you understand the immediate peace and comfort that I found from that one verse?  If you know Jesus, you can, but I digress.

Today I was also given the ability to reflect on what happened and understand some essential truths that I had not understood before.  God’s word is very clear about stress in our lives and what we are to do with it!  Don’t believe me; check out Psalm 32, made a huge impact on me today!  God is also very clear in what He thinks about His children and His desire to be with them and love them.  This was made very clear sitting in the hospital room watching my husband gasp for breath.

I am a firm believer that God allows things to happen in our lives to bring about good, for His glory and His purposes. (And I do know this one’s address, check out Romans 8:28).  I don’t fully know the reason that my beloved had to endure what he went through last night.  I know that I had a greater appreciation for his snoring and cover hogging last night.  I know that when my boys came in to snuggle we appreciated the fact that Daddy was there to snuggle with.  During Bible this morning we told each other reasons why we love each other and how much we mean to each other.  As wonderful as all that was, and as important as all that is, what truly matters to me is what God did for me!  

God worked a horrible fear out for my good!  He reminded me that I am not in control of life, He is!  God reminded me that He will take care of me; I don’t need to worry about it!  He gave me the opportunity to talk to my husband about what matters, our dreams, our fears, our worries, and yes what stresses us out.  He also ministered to me through the gift of a friend that I haven’t seen since high school.  God worked all this out for me, after a horrible night!   He is amazing isn’t He?

Truly: TO LIVE IS CHRIST, TO DIE IS GAIN!!!!!!

HOMESCHOOLING ~ A Two Week Review

Okay all, here is what has been happening in our home over these past two weeks.  I can honestly say that I have never been more flustered, organized, disorganized, unmotivated, motivated, and ready to veg out as I am now.  Confused yet?  Good me too but let me explain!

I KNEW that God had confirmed that we were to be homeschooling, and He has continued to do so throughout these last two weeks.  I KNEW that it was going to require time and sacrifice on my part.  It is never easy to put someone else’s needs ahead of your own.  As a mother with all her children home at all times that is exactly what I am doing, daily!  I KNEW that I needed to make up a schedule and stick to it.  I KNEW that there needs to be total organization, total and complete control, and total dedication on my part.  Now, here’s what I didn’t know!

I didn’t know how much my children were going to LOVE this new lifestyle!  I was really worried about their lack of friends and not having the interaction with their peers like they are used to!  BUT, I was not expecting them to develop such deep friendships with each other so rapidly.  Since we have been home together (for one whole month now), the children are squabbling less.  Yes, there are moments when the brother / sister pestering does occur, BUT it is not as often as it was when they were in school!  WOW!  Coincidence, I think not!  Another thing that I have noted is there is more desire to help each other.  “I can help make your bed”, or “I can help you read that”, or “I can help you with your Math”, are being heard more and more in my home.  That makes me smile!  My house is also cleaner, (did I just admit that!)  Why?  The children now SEE what I do all day long and are willing to jump in and help me!  For example, I needed to vacuum the living room, but my boys (without even being asked) took it a step further and vacuumed all the seat cushions on all the chairs and the couch!  A servant’s heart attitude is being cultivated!  YA-HOO!

Another side effect we are noticing from our new adventure is that there is more of a peaceful spirit in our home.  We are praying together more, talking about Christ more, what He wants for our lives and not what we want!  We are reading God’s Word together daily, at a consistent time and in a verse by verse manner!  While we focus on one main Bible study each week (like Creation, Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, etc), we read the story verse by verse and break down what we can learn from the story.  For example, while we are studying Adam & Eve this week, we learned that God DOES chastise when we sin, BUT He always loves us and provides a provision when He is done disciplining us!  This has lead t o a great discussion on what sin does to us and why!  WOW!

There have been days when things were not on task!  There have been days that I have had to throw our schedule out the window; like when Daddy calls and needs Mommy to bring him his sunglasses and coffee to work since he can’t make it through the day without them!  There have been days when it feels like all I am doing is picking up papers, play-doh, washing clothes, and explaining exactly what front end estimation is (for the 100^th+ time!!!!), and there are days that I want to stay in bed a little longer because my life outside of the children has not stopped.  Yet, in spite of it all, I KNOW that my children are home with me, where they belong!  I KNOW that we are doing the right thing, in spite of what well meaning friends and family might say.  I KNOW that I will look back on these days of math, puzzles, cutting everything in sight, poetry lessons, proofreading, spelling tests,  and play-doh and smile.  Why?  Because at the end of the day, obeying Christ in the  raising my children is worth every minute of hardship that I might encounter!

Now……does anyone know how to get dried play-doh out of carpet?

HOMESCHOOLING! Why we are walking down this path!

The reason that we feel that we are being lead to homeschool is simple and yet complex.  We want our children to have a firm Biblical and doctrinal sound foundation.  We want our children to have a global Godly view point with a focus on missions, a fluent love for reading and learning, and a desire to see the whole world saved.  While it may seem counter productive to pull the children "out of the world", who better to instill these belief's in them than their parents?  We feel that the Bible is very specific to the need of a parent to educate their own children and the role that we are to play in their upbringing in the Word of God:

• We want our children's mind to be renewed by Christ daily (Romans 12:1-2)
• We want the children's lives to be built upon truth (Matthew 7:24-27)
• We believe that as their parents, the situations that we put them in are the character issues that will be sown as they mature; therefore we want to sow their hearts for Christ (Galatians 6:7-9)
• We believe that our children are our greatest earthy possessions and that we must be good stewards over their lives and the time that we have with them (Romans 12:1-2) and value their eternal worth (Matthew 6:19-24)

As their parents we believe that it is our responsibility and God given privilege to train them and assist in molding them into the adult that God would have them to be, we believe that this is done through:

• Ensuring that the children are taught in a way that is toward their learning bent, emotionally, educationally and spiritually (Proverbs 22:6)
• That their training is our responsibility and that we have been commissioned to teach them to walk in the Ways of Christ. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
• We believe that we are called to pass a righteous and godly heritage onto our children (Psalm 78:1-7)
• We want the children to know that they are a blessing and of the utmost of import to us, a gift that God Himself has put into our house for His purposes and His desire. (Psalm 127:3-5)
• We believe that the children need whole hearted education including the confines of sin and its destruction on us. (Proverbs 13:24; 22:15, Hebrews 12:9).
• We want our children to watch, learn, stand, sit, and walk within the confines of the wise and not be swayed through peer pressure and the influence of “the foolish”. (Proverbs 13:20)
• We want to guard the innocence and character of our children, not so they are naïve or blinded to the reality of this world, but so that they are protected from falling into corrupt and morally bankrupt society. (1 Corinthians 15:33)
• We want to protect the children from becoming yoked and bonded to unbelievers, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. (2 Corinthians 6:14)
• We want to ensure that the children are not under the influence of false chatter, teachers, or teaching (2 Timothy 2:16-19)
• We feel that it is our responsibility as parents to direct our children, redeem the time that we have with them before Christ returns (Ephesians 5:15-17)

The list can go on and on. This is not something that we have taken lightly, but have sought after God’s heart in many ways.  We are parents that genuinely enjoy being with our children, that genuinely miss them when they are gone, that genuinely feel called to be parents.  We also feel that this is the direction that Christ is calling us to, for all the reasons listed above and for many, many more!

While we realize that this is NOT a family adventure that is for all families or should be taken lightly, we feel that this is what we are being called to do!  There will be sacrifices on our parts, we know that this will come at a cost, BUT, if we want to live radically different for Christ, isn’t the sacrifices worth it?  We believe that they are.

So welcome aboard to our newest Best Family Adventure!!!  Stay tuned for how life is going, what curriculum we are using, what works for us and doesn’t work for us!  Most of all, stay tuned to see how our children’s lives are radically different and how we are growing together as a family, being molded more into the body of Christ!