Already Gone: part 1

I am reading a book called "Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it" by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer. You can find it here.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/Already-Gone-Book,6131,224.aspx

It is a great book that I bought a few months ago and had not had a chance to read yet. I picked it up Saturday and sat on my screen porch in the nice fall weather. I could not put the book down. It is a must read for all parents. At this point I have not finished, but what I have read thus far is shocking!

I first heard of Ken Ham when I was teaching at Greenwood Christian School (2003-2006). I was unable to attend the conference when he was in Greenwood because I was at a teacher conference in Greensboro, NC for continuing ed. I have looked at his material since homeschooling and have not bought any of his curriculum, but it looks super good. It is on my list of possibilities. It is so hard to decide because there are some really great curriculum out there, but God knows what is best for each and every family and at what time.

I am not going to spoil this book for you. I think that it is something you really need to read to get the full impact.

Some things I am pondering as a mom.

• What can I do to see that my children remain in church?

I know that I have no control over this once they are on their own. But what can I do now that will hopefully keep them in church? When I say church, I am also meaning in a growing, fruitful relationship with Christ, serving in the Church bringing others to the Kingdom of God.

I am going to post on this topic this week! I would love to hear your insight as well. As I began to write, it was so much I knew it would be better in more than one post.


This sounds like it would be a great book as well. This may be next on the list!

Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World

With Bible-based practical advice, this unique parenting book makes a great guide for parents with children of any age. Discover how you can begin leaving a legacy that honors God for your family today. Excellent for church-based parenting classes, in-home study/discussion settings, and personal Bible study.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/Raising-Godly-Children-in-an-Ungodly-World,5802,279.aspx

Why Do we Homeschool?

I am one of the people who said that I would NEVER homeschool. Now look at me. I have learned to never say never. I taught school before we had our daughter Anna Grace. I loved it, but knew that I would stay at home once we had children. I am also a children's minister and I could not be a Mom, teacher, and children's minister (at the time youth). I knew my first calling was to my family and then to ministry in the church. That is another story for another time.

 
 

When I began staying home with Anna Grace, I never really thought about what we would do for school. I do know that when we decided to buy the house we live in, we considered the school district, but besides that ~ no thought. As time rolled on, we enrolled her in the local preschool because she was super shy. I just knew that she would be one of the children that the teacher would have to pull off of my leg daily if I did not help her work through some of this. It is a really good Christian preschool and we felt good in sending her there. As time moved on., we began to talk about what we would do about school. I was pregnant with Noah when we seriously started talking about our options. I could not get peace over sending her to public school or to the Christian school I had taught at. In the meantime, I began to meet all kinds of homeschoolers and they intrigued me. It still did not register with me that I would actually homeschool. I had made plans for when kids went to school, I would be full time with the church. Oh, things would be so much easier than trying to juggle my church work with kids. Oh, and I was having visions of my house being super organized and clean because of kids being in school. That is FUNNY!

 

So here, are some of the reason we homeschool:

 

1. God called us.

 

2. We desire to grow our children at home THROUGH His Word. Basically, learn from a Biblical Worldview.

 

3. We desire a family centered lifestyle.

 

With these reasons, we realized that public school was not an option for us. Then, as we began to think about Christian School, that is not where God was leading us either. Oh, don't worry, I was willing to drive 30 minutes (remember, I had my life planned.)

 

 

I do not regret for one moment the decision to homeschool. We do have tough days and that is ok. I would rather my home be more messy and disorganized and following the direction of God than my own. We are very happy in the decision to homeschool.

 

I am so excited about the fact that my children are best friends and love each other. They play so well with each other (except for the incident this afternoon oh and yesterday and the day before haha). They love Jesus so much that we have church everyday. Anna Grace and Noah preach and lead us in worship daily. We try not to say "play church" because they are serious. It is such a blessing to watch them. As in my previous post: Our thoughts become actions. Their mind is on Jesus so they are expressing their love for Him. Sunday morning before church, Noah was singing, "I want Jesus," over and over. That is just precious. We try to memorize lots of Scripture so that it can be alive and active in them. I desire that they know God and make Him known. We have spent lots of time reading the Bible since the day they were born fostering that love for God and His Word.

 

 

This is Anna Grace and Noah standing at "the piano and mike stand" (aka my candle stand). We have had to tape microphones to the candle stands.

 

I realize now that God had a much greater calling for me than I ever realized. That call was to be a mother who trained her children into the ways of God. I view motherhood as a calling. I do not think enough people view it that way. We are impacting lives by the moment. The decisions we make will effect our children and could change their destiny. What is God calling you to do or not to do? Are you listening? I need to set aside my agenda and follow God's!  

 

 

Transform Your Thoughts

Romans 12:2, "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."

It amazes me how it is so easy to copy the behavior and customs of this world and we do not even realize how it impacts our lives and the ones around us. It is so easy to just coast along and DO all kinds of things and not really tap into the reason why God placed us in the world anyway.

To transform our thoughts, we have to spend time DAILY in the Word of God. We cannot just depend on church services to give us our dose for the week.

 Sunday I used the illustration of water, food coloring and bleach.

The water represented our minds/thoughts (these turn into actions).
The food coloring represented the bad influences of the world, hurtful things said to us by others, etc.
The bleach represented the Word of God.

I had the water and added the green food coloring. The more food coloring I poured into the water, the greener the water became. That is how it is with life. The more of the world's influence that we allow or sometimes things we don't allow (hurtful things by other, etc), the more we can become like the world.

That is why it is so important that we spend time DAILY in God's Word and meditate on His Word throughout the day.

Then, I poured the bleach, little by little, into the green water. As I did, the water began to get lighter and lighter. It took quite a bit of bleach to completely change the water back clear. I even had to let it sit for a few minutes while I talked through the illustration. It was cool because that is the way it is with the Word of God. Sometimes we have to read and read to get rid of those thoughts that keep trying to creep up and take over.

We even used a box with a brain on it (I made it) and we put hurtful thoughts into it. I illustrated how we can use specific Scriptures to combat those thoughts. I know these kids will remember several things when they move on out of the kid's group. Get in the Word EVERYDAY. Trash in, trash out. MEMORIZE Scripture. We actually spend a lot of time memorizing because I feel that it is super important.

Then, this morning in my Colossians Bible study, it seemed to relate to this post that I had already started, but not finished. I am amazed at God and how He reveals Himself to us.

My desire is to bring glory to His Name! I desire to know Him and make Him known to others. The only way I can do that is through time with Him allowing Him to work THROUGH me. WOW!

Fun Day

On Friday, Anna Grace, Noah and myself headed to Greenville for lunch with my best friend, Rhonda. We had a fun picnic at Falls Park and as you can tell, made friends in the process. As always, the kids are being funny with Ms. Rhonda. 

My Babies

I found this video of Anna Grace and Noah and thought I would share. Anna Grace had just turned 4 and Noah was going to be 1 in a month and a half. I look at this and wonder where has the time gone?

Anna Grace still had that baby face and baby voice while Noah was pulling up and walking along the furniture. Now she can read, memorizes facts for CC quicker than I can and is full of all kinds of interesting facts. Noah is from 0 to 90 in a split second and talks non-stop. I am not sure where that trait came from, surely not I. HEHE! This video seems like only yesterday, yet so long ago.

I realize each and every day that I must be intentional about treasuring all the good, the bad, the crazy, the chaotic, the rewarding, and the great moments with these wonderful children that God has given Jason and I. It is so easy to go through the motions of everyday life and miss these moments and really not remember them years down the road. It is surprising to me how you can almost forget something that happened until someone reminds you. At the time it occured, you thought you would never forget that.

I desire to take time to engage with my children, not just exist with them. One thing that I have realized through homeschooling is that I spend a lot of time with Anna Grace doing school, but that is not quality time with her in her eyes. She desires to have time with me not doing school.

We have not done official school this week and the highlight to Anna Grace's week was going to eat breakfast with Mommy to talk. She was excited that we could just sit and talk and not do school work. Thankfully my Mom told me how much Anna Grace talked about our breakfast date the night before so that I understood the importance of that moment as well. She sat as close to me as she could get. It was quite a memory. I am so thankful that I have these moments to share with my children.

Of course, my quality time with Noah is so different. He is always on the move so my time with him is normally running around, rolling around on the floor, playing cars or simply listening to him have church. I will have to blog about this soon. He leads worship, plays the drums, and preaches. He does it all. He's so funny and creative!

If I could leave you with one challenge: stop what you are doing for 5 minutes, 10, or 15 and just spend time with your children. Just enjoy them and do NOT feel guilty for not folding the clothes, etc. You will be glad you did!

Amazed by God

I am truely amazed by God and all of His goodeness. I am so thankful that He sees me through each and every day. My desire is to bring glory to His name and be a blessing to others. But, how can I do that aside from Him?

As I was cleaning out my office the other day, I ran across these quotes:

“Time management, a highly developed science today, begins for the Christian with time set aside for God. Other things cannot fall into a peaceful order if this is omitted.”

~Elizabeth Elliot in Discipline - The Glad Surrender~

 

Communion with God tells us what to say “YES” and “NO” to.

 

This is so true. When I feel that my life is spiraling out of control, I take a look and my time with the Lord is not what it should have been. I find that I am a more pleasant person around my family and kids, more focused and productive for Him when He gets that set aside time.

I often get the question as to why would I homeschool? There are multiple reason why we chose to homeschool.

Number one being, we were called by God to homeschool. I am so blessed to be able to homeschool. Each day is so rewarding. I get the opportunity to teach and train my children in the ways of the Lord. I get to watch the light bulb finally go off in their heads when they have been struggling for days to master a skill. I get to watch them get frustrated when they are having a crazy day. I get frustrated at times too, but I am blessed beyond measure.

I can remember the day that I knew without a shadow of a doubt we would homeschool. I was sitting on our couch reading my Bible. Anna Grace was about to turn 4 and Noah was 6 months. I had already said there was no way I could homeschool with Noah being so young. I had entertained the thought earlier on and dismissed it after I had him. My Mom was in Italy at the time on a mission trip. She went with a group of people and my Father did not go. If you do not know my parents, they stick together. This was huge for my mother to go out of the country without my Father. So, I am sitting there reading, meditating, praying. As I was sitting there, I knew the Lord was saying to homeschool our children. He said that if your Mom can go to Italy without your Dad (which was a major step of faith for her), you can homeschool your children. I will make a way for you. I will equip you. WOW! I had taught school, but was fearful of teaching my own children. I think the fear was more of MY plans changing. I had made plans as to what I would do after kids returned to school. That was MY plan, not God's. I am so happy in the fact that we are doing what God has called our family to do.

My challenge in this post is, what is God calling you to do? What is bigger than you? This is bigger than me. God is equipping me daily, moment by moment to do this. He will equip you. Walk in faith. Do as He instructs and your life will be all that He intended it to be. You will feel joy and peace beyond measure, not even counting the lives you will impact. It's all for the glory of the King!

A Day in the Life of Homeschoolers

It seems that our life has been busy busy lately! Of course, our school year is fully underway. We have schooled for 65 days now and are having our week off as I type. It is so refreshing, even though we still have the activities. It is nice not having to worry about "school work." Anna Grace is thankful for the break as well.

Our school year started on June 11th. We decided that we would try the "year around" approach and so far, it has worked out well. We school 6 weeks and then have a week off. Anna Grace is in first grade this year. It seems that we are struggling to pull through that 6th week since we are ready for our break, but we get there with God's help.

This is what our week typically looks like:

Monday: *Noah (our 2 1/2) is in Preschool from 8:00 to 11:00. Anna Grace and 
               I do school until he gets out at 11 am. Thankfully, we are normally 
               finished.

Tuesday: *Noah has speech from 8:30 to 9:00
              *Anna Grace and Noah have gymnastics: 9:50 to 10:35. Thankfully,
               their classes are at the same time.  
              *Home to do school.

Wednesday: *Noah Preschool 8:00 to 9:45 then goes to music class from 10:00
                   to 10:45. I only send him to school so that we can start off our 
                   day with at least half of our school work.
                   *Anna Grace takes Musikgarten classes as well. She does the
                   Musik Makers at Home class and voice. We are done with this
                   around 1:00.
                   * Finish up whatever school we did not finish earlier.
                   * Church at 6:30

Thursday: *CC (Classical Conversations) 9:15 to 1:00
                No other school work for the day. If you have not done CC before,
                you will quickly see that is enough school for one day. My brain is full
                of new information when I leave. I am TIRED from all of the learning.
                I know Anna Grace certainly is! Noah goes and stays in the nursery.
                   
Friday: * Noah Preschool from 8:00 to 11:00.
             * Anna Grace school
             * Mama: Bible Study at 9:15 and Anna Grace plays with friends.
             * We finish any school we did not get done earlier. Usually on Friday, it
             is a light load. We review new material on Friday and go over any
             areas she seems to have trouble in.

It is a lot, but we enjoy it. I get the question frequently, "How do you homeschool YOUR own kids and do all of that?" Well, number one: we were called by God to do this. He does not lead us into territory He is not willing to guide, strengthen and encourage us through. He has provided me with all I need to do this. Is it hard? YES! We have some days that are harder than others, but every thing in life is that way. If I worked outside of the home, I would have rough days there too. I would just rather have my rough days homeschooling my kids smack dab in the middle of God's will rather than running from this bigger than me task. God is our source of guidance and strength and I could not do it without Him!