Growing Forward

Well, even though April was somewhat sad there has still been an awesome amount of JOY and I can see God growing us through the loss and the pleasure of raising 5 wonderful arrows.

Satan is good...it is almost as if he has come into the loss and stirred my children towards tough behavior, discontent, not getting along...the list goes on.

In that not-so-quiet discontent have been many lessons for me. The forging of a fresh point of view.  The furnace which refines my approach with my children.  The realization that I AM NOT PERFECT and the regrets and mistakes I have can only be any good to any body if I give them to God and allow Him to make Silver in the Refining Fire.

If I fail to allow Him to use those moments of struggle, regret, hardship, the ones I can't get back when I overreacted or spoke too harsh or expected too much then they are for NOT, lost on the frailty of the Human Condition rather than FOUND in His Love and forged into something beautiful in His Mercy and Grace.

Grace...this concept of Christian, biblical Grace is actually foreign to so many well intentioned Christians I know.  We speak about God Grace, we accept it fully because without it we would have nothing, but we fail so often to ponder how Grace is supposed to shape the Gospel that is alive and risen within us.

Even recently I've watched a Christian women fail to offer another woman grace on any measure.  We so quickly slip into legalism and judgement rather than remembering that our own "GOOD WORKS" are as filthy rags to Him.  He, our Gracious God, is much more interested in our hearts.

We make choices for our family, seek to be conservative, modest, kept from the world, what have you, and in making that choice we automatically call it BEST and judge others for not coming to the same conclusion.  Isn't God refining each of us in a different fire with a varying temperature?  

I'm not by any means that in so many things we find God's word to be explicit, black and white instead of gray and those issues ought to not be handle with passivity but should also not be absent of Grace.  In the areas in which we find a varying degree of application we MUST exhibit Grace or we lose our influence upon others.

Not only do I feel the desire to see God's perfect GRACE in my own life more than I ever have before, but I desire to display GRACE to those around me and especially my children. 

For, if I fail to exhibit for my children God's explicit biblical principals without Grace I rob them of the ability to both see God's GRACE for them which in turns keeps them from truly being able to offer it to another. And isn't that what the Gospel is about?  The Gospel that is alive and breathing....not past or history but alive.

If my children leave my home without being able to extend Grace...their impact for the Gospel will be lost.

If my children cannot discern God's word, make decisions that align with His will, and fail to see others through the lens of Grace...they've missed the Gospel.

I'd rather make some mistakes, have some regrets, overexpose them to a degree (movies, music, people) and have them see the need for GRACE when it comes to the human condition than have children who think the world ought to live by their own standards and who miss the need for God's Grace.  We cannot wrap them in bubble wrap. That creates rebellion. We cannot teach them religion...that also creates rebellion.  Rather, we must allow them to see the depravity of man, our desperately lost souls, and to see the world with a heart of forgiveness.

Don't freak out...I am not saying we don't discriminate what our children watch or see or hear or that we don't consider a healthy sense of ignorance over naivety...We homeschool not to keep our children from the WORLD but to prepare them for it.  With God's truth, GRACE and His love.

Gates of Hell

From At the Well:


“I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place their child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.” Martin Luther, A.D. 1537
Martin Luther’s quote is direct, yet honest and full of truth. Since Luther was a lover of the Word of God, His thoughts were likely based on how he viewed the Bible to be the beginning of all knowledge and how we, as humans, are nothing apart from God. Therefore, he determined that we need spiritual teaching above all other academic instruction. Do we need to throw aside reading, writing and arithmetic? Of course not. Since the foundation determines the stability of all else that is built above, we must look at what the groundwork of our children’s education is, as well as what it should be. Without diligent instruction about our Creator God; without a true understanding of what He desires for our lives, True wisdom and knowledge will never be attained.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning [first-fruits; principle thing] of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
What is the fear of God? The fear of God to the believer is completely different than the fear of God to an unbeliever. A Christian’s fear of God would be one of reverence and awe, rather than the unbeliever’s fear of a God that has the ability to cast their soul into hell.
Who are those who despise the wisdom and instruction? Proverbs 1:7 says that they are fools. When that verse is directly translated, it says that those who despise the Lord’s wisdom are “silly.”

So, those who do not desire the knowledge that God freely offers through His Word are silly. Do most parents want to send forth from their home silly young adults?
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning [commencement; opening] of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
We are told that the origination of true wisdom begins with a fear of God and that understanding comes from the knowledge of the Trinity (the Hebrew word for “Holy” is indicative of the trinity – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – three in one).

Through biblical instruction we teach our children how to fear and truly know the Lord and His desires for our lives. In doing so we are opening the doors to true wisdom and understanding. The Hebrew word for understanding in the above verse is ‘biyn’ and means: to be cunning, diligent, direct, discerning, eloquent, (to) inform, instruct, have intelligence, (to) know, look well to, perceive, be prudent, (can) skill (-fully) teach, think, (cause, make to, get, give, have) understanding, deal wisely). When you look at what one will gain from a fear and knowledge of God, what more would any parent long for in their child?

“In not mentioning God, my public school teachers preached a thundering message daily. By implication they taught that God is not relevant to most areas of life…with every lesson, in every class period, all day every day for 12 years I was being taught to think like an atheist in the academic realm and didn’t even know that I was being indoctrinated.” - Chris Schlect, Scriptural Worldview Thinking
Schools that have little or no emphasis on Biblical teachings and instruction are producing young adults who act only what they have retained from their years of academic instruction. Most times they only have access to what is immediately available to them in the recesses of their human minds.
On the other hand, young adults who were trained for their role in God’s Kingdom will possess an unspoken and spiritually-powerful wisdom from God. They will not only be able to rattle off their retained book knowledge, but they will also be able to think for themselves in light of Scripture. They will be able to apply Scriptural principles to daily life, as well as have access through the Holy Spirit to all they have ever studied in their scriptural instruction. John 14:26 speaks of how Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to not only teach us through God’s written Word, but also remind us of all we have learned. With that kind of understanding and access to the supernatural recollection of knowledge, what better education should be sought?
Do we want to raise children who blindly follow those who claim to have the answers to life’s problems, or do we want them to have an overflowing heavenly knowledge and discernment? Do we want them to be wise in the eyes of the world or do we want them to have the Wisdom of Solomon and to be considered well educated and wise in the eyes of God? Which is more valuable in the light of eternity? How will you instruct your children in the knowledge and understanding of God in light of these verses?

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.” Psalm 111:10

Homeschooling Mothers Arise

A wonderful article from At the Well speaking to the life of Homeschooling moms:

Homeschool mothers relate to the feelings that come from drudgery. The days are long and tedious. The success that comes of the toil sometimes goes unseen for months, maybe even years. Our lives seem downright plain and ordinary. Our work goes unnoticed. Our existence remains unobserved. Life can become commonplace. Where do we go from here? How can we keep going from day to day?

Oswald Chambers said, “Drudgery is one of the finest touchstones of character.” A touchstone is defined as “a hard black stone, such as jasper, formerly used to test the quality of gold or silver by comparing the streak left on the stone by one of these metals with that of a standard alloy.” A touchstone is a gauge, which is used to test the quality of a precious metal in comparison to a commonplace metal. During our times of drudgery, do we want to show our character as being that of pure gold or as a mixture of commonplace metals? I would much rather present myself to Jesus as gold–experiencing the ordinary–rather than being ordinary.

The truth is, our feelings of inadequacy overpower us when we fail to see God’s handiwork in the smallest details of our everyday lives. We wait for God to show us the extraordinary thing for which we have been laboring. We look for Him to guide us to our pinnacle of success so that we can give Him the glory. We should be giving Him the glory throughout the mundane tasks that are before us each day. It is when we are in the valley, between the pinnacles of success, we see where we have been and how far He has led us.

Jesus stepped down from His heavenly domain and meekly washed His disciple’s feet. In turn, let us walk the path of humility that He has placed before us. We are not so admirable that we deserve the praiseworthy work rather than what Jesus has given us to accomplish. His plan is perfect and we must accept the plan, no matter how ordinary that plan may seem. Seeing the exceptional within the ordinary makes the mundane extraordinary.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the Glory of the Lord rises upon you. – Isaiah 60:1

The glory of God is upon you on the mountain tops of success and in the valleys of the commonplace. Take your place, accept your calling, place your feet firmly on the path, look toward the goal, and arise and shine!