I’m a daughter, wife, mother, Christian, a homeschooler and more. I’m all this and much, much more. But I’m also none of those things. I do not like labels. I don’t like to ‘follow’ or adhere to any particular preaching or teaching. However, for those who really need labels to help define a site or person it might be said that I lean toward a Puritan, Reformed and Calvinistic mindset.  You can see my thoughts here on even calling myself a Christian! Why do we need labels? Why do we feel the need to rally together under any other banner other than Christ?

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Cor 3: 1-9

An idol is anything which displaces God in my heart. It may be something which is quite harmless in itself, yet if it absorbs me, if it be given the first place in my affections and thoughts, it becomes an ‘idol’. It may be my business, a loved one, or my service for Christ. Any one or any thing which comes into competition with the Lord’s ruling me in a practical way, is an ‘idol’.
~ A.W. Pink

Gleanings in Exodus By Arthur W. Pink

“The gospel frees you from the pressure of having to fix people: your worth is located in Christ, not in their transformation.”
~Tullian Tchividjian

A Mum decided she was no longer going to remind her teens to write thank-you notes. That year their Aunt never received thanks for the checks she gave the teens for their birthdays. The next year things were different. The teens each visited to thank her in person!
“What caused the change in behaviour?” a friend asked the Aunt.
“Oh, that’s easy.” the Aunt replied. “This year I didn’t sign the checks.” 🙂

Living in a time when the family is under attack, the real danger is idolizing the family. We hear the family first and may be tempted to say amen. But Jesus will have none of this. When family is first, God plays second fiddle.
from Family Traits by Wynn Kenyon

It really is a good article and well worth reading. Lots to ponder especially when there is a tendency for the homeschool market to be unbalanced in this area.

He goes on to say:

The family is central to the biblical ethic. It is the primary image of the relationship of the saints to God. The work of Christ was required to bring about regeneration and adoption, making believers heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. And the book of Revelation culminates in the wedding feast of the Lamb. Given the significance of this concept, what does it mean to live a life “worthy of this calling?” What should family members look like? To answer these questions we turn to the biblical narrative.

Individuals were not made to exist in isolation, but in community, just as the triune God exists in community. Because we are created in the image of God, we are relational beings. The difference between God and man is that the persons of the Godhead don’t grow into perfection where humans do. Since “it is not good that the man should be alone,” God made “a helper fit for him.” God created woman and established the family, along with other significant social structures to meet this need. God designed the family to be the primary institution to give children the moral and rational tools to subdue the earth. God created the bonding that naturally occurs (that is, family ties) as well as natural instincts and declared them good…Genesis carefully balances the significance and purpose of the family.

But don’t be content to read these snippets… read the whole article. Family Traits by Wynn Kenyon

As you read the four gospels notice that the narration slows down as the hour of Christ’s death approaches, slowing from months and weeks to hours and minutes, reminding us that this was the hour for which he came. We are to pause and ponder every detail.

 

~C.J. Mahaney in the message “Cross Centered Leadership”

Those who think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true. Scarcely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of worship, but dream not that she is lost to the work of the church; far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord. Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty. Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord, as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple.

~ Charles Spurgeon

To be prepared for the coming conflict, we have only to preach the gospel, and to live the gospel; and also to take care that we teach the children the Word of the Lord. This last is specially to be attended to, for it is by the mouth of babes and sucklings that God will still the enemy.

…

Preach Christ; preach the Word in season and out of season: and teach the children. One of God’s chief methods for preserving His fields from tares, is to sow them early with wheat.

~Charles Spurgeon

Let us expect our children to know the Lord. Let us from the beginning mingle the name of Jesus with the A B C. Let them read their first lessons from the bible. It is a remarkable thing that there is no book from which children learn to read so quickly as from the New Testament: there is a charm about that book which draws forth the infant mind. But let us never be guilty, as parents, of forgetting the religious training of our children; for if we do we may be guilty of the blood of their souls.

~Charles Spurgeon

“To be broken means to have no rights before God and man. It does not mean merely surrendering my rights to Him but rather recognizing that I haven’t any, except to deserve hell. It means just being nothing and having nothing that I call my own, neither time, money, possessions nor position.”

~ Roy Hession, The Calvary Road

Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

A.W. Tozer, (1897 – 1963 )

Our churches these days are filled (or one-quarter filled) with a soft breed of Christian that must be fed on a diet of harmless fun to keep them interested. About theology they know little. Scarcely any of them have read even one of the great Christian classics, but most of them are familiar with religious fiction and spinetingling films. No wonder their moral and spiritual constitution is so frail. Such can only be called weak adherents of a faith they never really understood.”

“Lord, send the Holy Spirit to renew within us a depth and seriousness in our pulpits. Give us boldness in our preaching. Amen.”
–

A.W. Tozer, (1897 – 1963 ) on Christian Leadership

“You are more sinful than you can imagine! The doctrine of Original Sin is true! You cannot reform your flesh! You cannot become a better person by your own strength no matter how hard you try! But cheer up! If you are a Christian, you have come into union with Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ you are forgiven. Through faith in Jesus Christ you are sanctified and made holy. Through Christ, you are a new creation! The Holy Spirit lives in you! Therefore, pursue the life of faith in Christ with all diligence.”

Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (updated edition), p. 13

For your tongue-in-cheek giggle for today…

State Allows Growing Trend of Eating At Home

———————-

April 13, 2099

Reunited Press

After much heated debate on the house floor, legislation was passed today to allow a growing number of families to cook meals for their families in their homes. The children must have annual physical examinations to assure proper growth and weight gain. Attempts to require weekly meal plans and monthly kitchen inspections were voted down.

A spokesperson from the National Association of Nutritionists (NANs) condemns this decision. “These children are being denied the rich socialization and diversity that is an essential part of the eating process. Without the proper nutritional background, it is impossible for the average person to feed their own children. We, as child advocates, see this as a step backwards and speak out for the sake of the children who cannot speak for themselves.”

Homecooking parents say the benefits of eating at home include increased family unity and the ability to tailor a diet to a particular need. Elizabeth Crocker, a home cook, states, “We started cooking and eating at home when we realized that my son had a severe allergy to eggs. The public kitchens required him to take numerous medications that had serious side effects in order to counteract his allergy. We found that eliminating eggs was a simpler method and our son has thrived since we began doing so.”

After this experience, the Crockers decided to home cook for all of their children, and converted their media room into a kitchen.

Elizabeth says, “We have experienced so much closeness as we have explored recipes and spent time cooking together and eating together.

We have a dining circle with other families where we sometimes share ideas and meals together.”

The Crocker children have done well physically under their mother’s care, weighing in at optimum weights for their ages and having health records far above average. It should be noted that Mrs. Crocker, while not a professional nutritionist, has a family history rich with nutritionists and home economists. “Surely the success of the Crocker children is due to the background of their mother,” responded the spokesman from NANs. “The results they have achieved should not be viewed as normative.” Mrs. Crocker counters that her background was actually a hindrance to the nutritional principles she follows. “Our paternal great-grandmother was a home economist, but she prepared most meal from pre-made mixes. In our homecooking we try not to duplicate public-kitchen meals, but to tailor our meals to the needs and preferences of our children.”

In a related issue, legislation is in committee that would provide oversight for the emerging homecooking movement. Says the Home Eating Legal Defense Association (HELDA): “We want to provide umbrella kitchens to aid parents in the complicated tasks of feeding their children. Many families lack the expertise of the Crocker family, yet desire to eat at home. As we have seen, the umbrella kitchens meet the needs of all concerned. We are happy to provide this service.”

THE FENCE

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down.

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.”

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us. Show your friends how much you care.

This was a story that I received via email many years ago. I shared it with the children as an object lesson and it has always stuck with them.

While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves–blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.”

~A.W. Tozer

God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, `O Lord, Thou knowest.’  Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.”

~A.W.Tozer

Education is not the filling of a pail,
rather the lighting of a fire.
~ William Butler Yeats

“The only way to provide the right home for your children is to put the Lord above them and fully instruct them in the ways of the Lord. You are responsible before God for the home you provide for them.”~Billy Graham

The best houses seem to come ‘from the heart’, and are created by people who know who they are and express it. ~Charlotte Moss

“Home is where we belong, it is our space and our place whether for a week, a year or as long as we can foresee. It is where we can just ‘be’ and also where we can express ourselves in our surroundings, be they a temporary room, a rented apartment or our own house. It is a place of rest from work, but also requires work to keep it going. It is a place of relaxation and of enjoyment in making it interesting, colourful, beautiful and welcoming; where we can thrive rather than passively survive.” ~ Adapted from Ruth Fowke

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris

Just spotted this over at Mrs. Nancy Wilson’s blog and wanted to share it.

That which is plain to you and concerns you — do. That is righteousness.

That which is plain to you but does not concern you — do not demand of others. That is judgment.

That which is not plain to you, study, and pray. That is wisdom.

Fr. Tobias S Haller, BSG

Routines and family life changes as the children get older and start to spread their wings. John works, ‘Miss A’ goes off to work and softball, ‘Miss R’ goes to school, leaving the boys and I at home to learn, live and love together. While I thoroughly enjoy my time with the boys, I miss the girls. So our family meal table is often loud and harried with thoughts, comments and opinions flying everywhere. Often though, the thoughts expressed can start to become negative or critical so we’ve used a variety of ways to put a stop to that.

Using the THINK principle often cements life-giving, true principles into our minds but after reminding the children of the THINK principle, the conversation can often go quiet. 😉 I came across a great quote by Eleanor Roosevelt and we have printed it out. The children even quote it to one another now. We call it Great Minds.

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt

What do you discuss? Do you encourage your children to discuss people, events or ideas? Are you modeling these principles? It’s a challenging thought, isn’t it? One way I’ve found to discuss events is to talk about the day’s learning and studying activities or to discuss a current event. Good, living books are filled with great ideas that will stimulate your mind. Good T.V. shows can do the same. Twaddly books and shows will lead into the discussion of people, which is nearly always negative.

In what ways do you encourage your children toward discussing ideas and events rather than people?

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said,

“I don’t believe that God exists.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving a God who would allow all of these things.”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber,

“You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers DO exist!” answered the barber. “What happens, is, people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!”– affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”

I just had to share this beautiful quote with you!

“What we want to do with our children is not merely to control them and keep them in order, but to implant true principles deep in their hearts which shall rule their whole lives; to shape their character from within into Christlike beauty, and to make of them noble men and women, strong for battle and for duty. They are to be trained rather than governed. Growth of character, not merely good behavior, is the object of all home governing and teaching. Therefore the home influence is far more important than the home laws, and the parents’ lives are of more moment than their teachings.”

~* J. R. Miller in Home-Making *~

We all go through some hard times. Yes, it would seem some people more than others, but it is not in vain. I pray that this will comfort and strengthen all who feel as though they are going through the furnace at this time.

“Some time ago, a few ladies met in a certain city to study the scriptures. While reading the third chapter of Malachi, they came upon a remarkable expression in the third verse. ‘ And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.’
One lady proposed to visit a silversmith and report to them on what the smith said about the subject. She went accordingly, and without telling the object of the errant, asked the silversmith to tell her about the process of refining silver.
After he had fully described it to her, she asked, “But sir, do you SIT while the work of refining is going on?”
“Oh, yes madam,” replied the silversmith. “I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace for if the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured.”

The ladies at once saw the beauty, and comfort too, of the expression, “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. God sees it needful to put His children into a furnace. His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying, and His wisdom and love are both engaged in the best manner for us.
Our trials do not come at random, and He will not let us be tested beyond what we can endure. Before she left, the lady asked one final question, “When do you know the process is complete?”
“Why that is quite simple,” replied the silversmith. “When I can see my own image in the silver, the refining process is finished.”

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.

By Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

This prayer used to hang in my mother’s home and it never made much sense to me. I would read it and just not ‘get it’. Throughout the years, as I’ve grown and experienced more of life, I have come to see the richness of this prayer and the words are ones that I echo often.

“God’s initial goal for Christian homeschooling families is not the raising of godly children. Instead, God’s wonderful, but subtly hidden agenda is that the homeschooling experience be so challenging for the parents that they feel the need and hunger for a closer walk with their heavenly Father.”

~Wisdom’s Way of Learning by Marilyn Howshall

How is this for the truth? Hard hitting eh? Challenging eh? It sure changes my perspective on homeschooling!

A goal may be a good education and a good job or career or even to have children who are saved but the ULTIMATE goal is that we walk closer with our Father. And all this time I’ve thought it was only about The Children…For Their Sake. But there’s a purpose in here for me!

We are living our lives by loving and glorifying Him. I often think of this quote when I’m about to yell at my kids or look around at my eternally untidy house. There’s a reason for all this … so maybe I’d better get to the business of that reason and stop lingering on the computer.