Homeschooling Follies

These are actual events that occurred at my dining room table.

My three beautiful boys were sitting at the table diligently working on their math work. I am not sure the exact words, but there were words that were exchanged between #1 and #3. The next thing I knew a pencil was flying over the table hitting one on the shoulder. At which point a marker was lobbed in the other direction, missing it's mark but toppling over the ketchup bottle that was still left on the table from lunch. And then there was a melee of small objects being thrown in different directions. All of this happened in mere seconds. And then this thought occurred to me, "I bet Michelle Duggar NEVER has this at HER dining room table!"

And so goes my homeschooling!

National Adoption Awarenes Month

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. Following is the press release for the event. This is very special to us because we adopted Summer last year at this event. If you are interested in adopting please attend.

'National Adoption Day is a collective national effort to raise awareness of the 129,000 children in foster care waiting to find permanent, loving families. For the last eight years, National Adoption Day has made the dreams of thousands of children come true by working with the courts, judges, attorneys, adoption professionals, child welfare agencies, and advocates to finalize adoptions and find permanent loving homes for our children.' (www.nationaladoptionday.org)

Please join the celebration as we raise awareness about children who are still waiting, and build relationships within the community to make each child's and teenager's wish come true!

Community Partnership for Children and Calvary Christian Center will host an adoption awareness and celebration event on Saturday, November 15th, from 10:00am to Noon. The event, which is open to the public, will be at Calvary Christian Center, 1687 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, FL.

Selling Jesus

Warning: I am posting a pet peeve.

I have a pet peeve. This really bothers me to the point of making me nauseous. So here it is: I do not like it when people try to sell Jesus!

I am not talking about the gimmicky T-shirts and bumper stickers. Even though that can be over the top sometimes! No I am talking about preachers and the sort who do the hard sell for Jesus. You know the kind I am talking about! The preacher says, "You really need Jesus. You need him and let me tell you why?" I always want to ask this guy, "Are you trying to convince others or yourself?"

So then I thought about the sales men in our world. What are they selling you that you need ? There is the proverbial used-car salesmen. Then the insurance salesman. Then the "oh-my-goodness-why-didn't-I-think-of-that-gadget" salesman. All of these things are products or services. My God is neither of these things. We should not have to convince anyone that they need our God. He is not something to be "bought into".

The bible says that we should be a "light on the hill". No one who lives in darkness should be convinced that they need a light. So what are we selling Jesus for? If we, who are called by His Name, are being the light that those who dwell in darkness need, then those who live in darkness will want our light, we will not have to convince them. Am I making sense to anyone?

Crabs from Heaven?

Where else can you hear these words, "Mom, there is a crab walking down our street!"?

And sure enough, I went out there and there was a crab walking down our street! Of course we had to bring it in! We looked it up on the Internet to find out what kind it was. It was a blue land crab. We also learned it was a "vegetarian", according to Shane.

So the way I figure it, if the "economic crisis" gets worse , we can always have crab for dinner!

(I am not sure why the picture is sideways. I tried to rotate it but it did not work. Any suggestions?)

Shoes

I learn so much about God from my children. They do things that make me absolutely crazy and then I think about how God sees his children.

The other day I learned something from my two-year-old. She is quite the little challenge. She is a survivor baby, so she is incredibly persevering. It seems as if I am learning a lot from her lately. Not going into the whys of that right now!

My dear child loves shoes. So she found dad's running shoes and put them on and started walking with them. The problem was her little feet are two small to fill daddy's shoes, so as she tried to walk she kept stumbling and falling. As she stumbled she dug in more, getting angrier with every step, whining and yelling all the way. Finally giving up and abandoning the way too big shoes, she ran over to me and hit me out of sheer frustration.

I sat there in amazement as I saw myself. I try to wear His shoes, worrying over my path, whining the whole way because it is not working like I had imagined. And then getting mad at him for the frustration of my walk.

I just held her in my arms, comforting her. Knowing that even when we get mad at God, he still takes us in and comforts us.

God is amazing and full of grace!

From hubby's blog

I stole this from my husband's blog, who stole it from Perry Noble. I had to share.

I’ve just about had enough…and am so glad I left the country yesterday…that way I don’t have to listen to this crap anymore.

And no, I’m not talking about the politicians and their crazy adds on television that are right in line with a middle school “yo mama” fight!

I’m talking about the Christians who have prostituted themselves with the political process and taken their eyes off of Jesus as their Savior and put them on either McCain or Obama as their Savior.

It’s STUPID!

Should we have a political opinion as Christians? HECK YES! Should we vote? ABSOLUTELY! I think a Christian who doesn’t vote is completely missing an opportunity that God has blessed us with as citizens of this country.

BUT…we can’t actually think that the salvation process is tied to who happens to be in the White House!

In reading through the Gospels the other day something HIT ME like a ton of bricks…the Jews missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah because they were looking for someone to deliver them from the politics of Rome.

Let me say it more clearly–they missed Jesus because of politics!!! (And religion as well…but that’s another post!)
For a Christian to claim that the world is going to be doomed to hell because a particular party happens to “control” the White House is a slap in the face of a Sovereign God.

He reigns! Read through Scripture & it is so clear…God has used kings and princes that were sold out to Him…and He’s also used those who had no love for Him at all…all for HIS glory!

So…next Tuesday…go vote! “For who,” you ask…well, here’s an idea…ask Jesus who to vote for…and then do what He says. (Yes, it REALLY is that simple.)

Then…whoever gets elected…PRAY FOR THAT MAN OFTEN! Even if the guy you want to win doesn’t…all the more reason to pray!

One more time…YES, we should have political opinions…and YES, it is OK if they are strong AND we believe in the cause…BUT PLEASE let’s not make the mistake of thinking that God is somehow limited by the policies and philosophies of a particular party!

HE REIGNS! Always has, always will!

Wrestling, Blessings and Cud

I love the story in the Old Testament of Jacob wrestling with the Angel of God. I always thought it was an odd thing to do. Usually when an angel appeared in Old Testament, one fell down in awe or a meal was prepared or some other act of reverence. But not Jacob. No, he wrestled with the angel and would not let the angel go until he blessed him. There is really no explanation in the scripture that explains the wrestling match. It just kind of comes up in the story of Jacob. I am sure there is more to the story but I guess we will have to wait to hear it. But in the end Jacob is changed. He now becomes Israel.

So this idea of wrestling and blessing and change are found together. One is based on the other.

I know I have had my experience with wrestling, whether it was an idea or decision or season of uncertainty. But it was only when I fully "wrestled" it out did I receive the "blessing". So then why do so many shy away from uncertainty? Why is there not more "wrestling" among God's people? It seems as if we would rather have our spirituality feed to us by those who have already done the wrestling. But when we do the hard work ourselves it becomes who we are. It seeps into our very being, weaving its way into the fabric of our core.

There are so many things in scripture that are really hard to understand, either because of our limited human intelligence or because it is unnatural or because God has decided not to reveal the truth to us yet. And when we come across these difficulties, we have some choices. We can either turn the page so that we don't see it or we can stick it into one of the many assumptions that we already have. Or we can sit and chew on it awhile. I have this illustration about this, it is not pleasant and I wish I had another one, but here it is. It is kind of like a cow chewing her cud. She chews her food and then chews it some more, so that she can digest every part of it. (interestingly enough when I looked this up I found this statement, "Cud chewing can often be used as an indicator of the health of a dairy herd.")

This idea of wrestling takes time. It is something that takes effort and perseverance. But in the end we are changed by the blessing of God. In the passage, Jacob said, "I will not let you go until you bless me." Hang on and wrestle and be blessed!