So it’s been no secret that I have not been around much. Life has been busy and I wear so very many hats! And sometimes I have to throw off all my other hats in order to take care of a hat that grows exceptionally heavy…..usually it’s the one with a husband, four kids and a house crammed inside of it.
And over the last year or so I have become increasingly uncomfortable with all the…”this is how you should blog”. And the “you aren’t doing things right”. Critics out there. I also have a lot of personal critics in my life wondering “why do you waste your time doing that” and “How can you possibly have time for all that you do?” And to be completely honest I think that Satan has used those critics to spread seeds of doubt, and frankly I have come to the realization that I was letting him!
Did I whine and complain….maybe on the inside a little convincing myself that I had nothing anybody wanted to hear. And everywhere you turn, people are oh so concerned about numbers……numbers! Ugh, I’ve always hated Math! It’s a necessary evil in my mind! Anyway, over the last 8 months I have spent A LOT of time reading and praying. And while we were on vacation in July , I stole away a few times and focused on me. Ways to better me. And one of those things that I did was write my own personal mission statement.
Each year I write out goals but rarely if ever meet them. I pick books based on areas of my life in which I desire to grow…..along with knowing I will review some as well. I choose them according to the areas that are focus points in my life. I then also choose fiction that maybe I either missed out on in school or something that strikes my fancy! (No none of them are Romance novels….ICK)
So I wrote this Mission statement….
It is my mission to live my life with the sole purpose to give God the glory in everything I say and do-to abide in Christ, to grow in my daily walk with Him.
It’s nothing fancy and I know it’s not short and sweet like five words or less BUT IT WORKS FOR ME.
I then added action statements for each of my main focus area in my life. These areas include
My Daily walk with God…it’s a relationship and like any good fruitful relationship it takes nurturing.
My hubby….I love him dearly
The munchkins…yep four smiling, funny, keep me on my toes munchkins!
My home…..I want it to be a safe haven for all who cross it’s threshold .
My ministry….which is 2 fold, the people of our church, and my readers here on my blog!
Here is what my action statement under Ministry says
To intentionally challenge fellow women who love Jesus to grow deeper in their walk with God. To speak truth in love and encourage women to be bold in their faith.
Today, as I sit on my couch, just after sending my three older children off to school and the youngest watches Jake and the Neverland Pirates, I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed, I see lots of neat things, but in the midst my heart really breaks for a group of moms. In understand that the Nigerian culture may not celebrate Mother’s Day they may not even know it exists here in our comfy country, but I like them have something in common…..we ARE moms. We labored many hours bringing this children into the world. We have sacrificed greatly to provide our children the basic needs, and we entrust our children to a school to be educated.
Let me say this, it’s not the schools fault.
It’s not God’s fault.
It’s not the parents fault.
My heart breaks for these 200 moms who don’t know where their daughters are. BUT GOD DOES.
My prayer is that these moms will have their stolen daughters returned. My prayer is that God will be glorified through this unthinkable act. My prayer is that these girls will trust God, that they will not waiver from their faith and that lives will be changed. My prayer is that these wicked men will see Jesus through these girls and MOST of all my prayer is that these girls will be rescued quickly!
As I brushed my 7 year old daughters hair this morning……I felt blessed to not need to fear for the faith of my child. I have no idea what the future holds for her…or for any of them for that matter! I have been reminded constantly lately that being in constant prayer for my children is so necessary!
Be present
Be kind
Be loving be a good listener
Be ready
Be available
Be focused on them
I need constant reminders, God knows this. I’m easily distracted by all the noise of this world, by everyone’s opinions of me, but they are people too! What are their perceptions of me?
If I care for everyone else’s needs but forget theirs, the rest is in vain. I’ve failed them and God for they are great treasures given for me to take care of and to polish! So they reflect, not my image but that of Jesus.
So won’t you join me in not only praying for our own children but also for those 200 girls stolen. That they too may shine with the reflection of Jesus!?!
This morning as I sat and did my devotions I was confronted with a verse that chiseled pieces from my heart. It’s not something I struggle with consistently. It stems from low points, those valley moments. Sometimes valley moments leave me wanting to hide in a storyline…I Love a compelling story! It’s the girl in me. It kind of tykes me outside of my circumstances and allows me to enter a land that has happy endings.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks with our 6 year old. I can’t fix the issues he struggles with. I just can’t . It’s not like a splinter. You remove the foreign body, put an antibiotic ointment and a bandaid on it and in a few hours it is forgotten….for a healthy 6 year old anyway. And this week has been even worse because they have had no school, no school = no rigid routine. No rigid routine= mass chaos inside this little boys head! I’m still relatively new to this so it was a great insight into the possibilities for summer!
But all of that said, sometimes we need to step outside of our reality. That’s why people like TV, MUSIC, MOVIES AND FICTION BOOKS. and in and of themselves, they aren’t bad things
BUT. Sometimes, sometimes we get blinded by a good storyline and get sucked in. We get blinded to all the peripheral sin going on. And that is dangerous territory and that is exactly what happens to Lot as well. Though his circumstances are slightly different. The land he goes to is “good” but the people surrounding him are not!
2 Peter 2:7and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);
Pondering all the false prophets I let into my life. They may not just be spiritual teachers, but those I am following in my day to day life. Do those people live like God commands or do they pay lip service and live another way OR does it blatantly go against God’s word and I allow it into my life to numb my mind and heart to what God calls sin. Lot does this by living in a city rampant with sin, he offered his daughters to the crowd, he had a husband chosen from the horrible city to marry his daughter. COMPROMISE, doesn’t just affect us, but our families as well. We can see the effect of compromise on Lot’s daughters.
In our everyday life we make compromises. Compromises aren’t necessarily bad. It’s when compromise hurts ours our others walk with God, that it becomes horrible. And recognizing it quickly is key. It’s amazing at how fast this can happen especially at your lowest points!
So here are steps to help combat this moments
1. Be in Gods word daily! A new thing I added recently is listening to the Bible. Some days are just too insane to add sitting for 10 minutes. I can hide God’s Word in my heart by listening to it while I wash dishes, fold laundry or make dinner!
2. Memorize these verses
1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
AND
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
3. Put Pure things in! Get lost in the Chronicles of Narnia, or Anne of Geen Gables, Little house on the Prairie. There are positive alternatives out there. You just have to make the effort. And if you are thinking oh those things are hokey or out of date, Well I promise you this in 10 years so will the stuff you are into now!the point isn’t graphics, animation, cool effects. Thats changes in this world so fast these days. What matter is purity. TRUTH.
4.ask yourself If the kids can’t watch it, Why? And then should I be watching this? And if the kids should walk in while I am watching this what would it communicate to them? Would it communicate a double standard? There are something’s that young children should not see…the news for instance, some documentaries. Adult conversations. (We didn’t let our kids watch the Bill Nye/ken Ham debate,not because it was bad but because there were sensitive adult subjects that an 8,7,6 and 3 year old are not capable of processing yet)
5. This new one I added after reading Courtney Joseph’s book Women Living Well! Would I invite these people into my house to have sex on the couch in front of me and my children? Seriously think about this! This IS what we are doing!
It all comes down to this: : it’s a perspective change. We try not to let false teachers in but every once in a while one sneaks in. It’s a good reminder that despite a “great storyline”. Sometimes we need to shut off a TV show or movie, put down that book, and change the radio station! Because it may have a great beat, or a funny or compelling storyline but if the circumstances surrounding the storyline or lines laced into that great beat go against God’s word thaen we are not guarding our heart! This is not easy and convicted my heart as I am constantly reviewing why we do what we do in our family……does this fit into 1Corinthians 10:31 and Philippians 4:8-9
1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
AND
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
If it goes against these then we are in danger! Our children are in danger, because hypocrisy jeprodizes faith in the greatest of ways.
I don’t talk much on here about our school choices for our kids, but I have wrestled…oh how I have wrestled.
We have chosen a path for our children, one that was rooted in much prayer and I’d girded with much sacrifice.
I want to preface this with two disclaimers
1. I have nothing against parents who send their kids to public school.
2. I have nothing against parents who homeschool their kids.
So those two things being said, I expect understanding that we chose the path of Christian school for our kids. We have received a lot of flack from mostly Christians about why we have chosen that path.
It’s expensive…yep!
It’s different….Yep.
I’m not going to sit here and apologize for it either.. My husband and I are both products of public school. I transferred my senior year to a Christian school. It was by far the best year of school until that point. I have a great group of friends that extend out of that….thanks Dave, Richie, Howie, Greg,Goldie Tom and Jeff. I still laugh at loud at some of the antics, lunch conversations……and study hall mischief (Mrs H you were the best!). Were the kids perfect ? No way !
But as we had kids and I tried doing preschool…..I quickly learned homeschooling was NOT for me! I could do it, but that’s not what God wanted for me….I was miserable and so was Tornado! Then we moved…..we prayed, we did our homework. We prayed, we prayed and we prayed! AND WE PRAYED SOME MORE! We attended parents nights and finally settled for what we thought we could afford.
Here are some fundamental truths we clung to as we made this decision.
1. God wants us to be good stewards of all that he has given us, whether that’s our money, our cars, our house OR our children!
2. We should not put in garbage into our bodies, or minds. We define “garbage of the mind anything that goes against God’s word!
3. That we must teach our children to love and honor God, in all that we say and do.
That’s just a few. And when I say we settled, I really mean we settled. It wasn’t the best choice for our family….it was the most reasonable!. And we paid for it too! Our kids were broken. Even I as their parent was afraid of parent/teacher conferences..
I don’t know which was worse, the day I heardthe teacher of my two oldest screaming at the class down the hall, or the day they told us our autistic son was not welcome to come back!
So we found ourselves searching. This time with new eyes….eyes wide open….what school is best for our kids? At this point we lived in a different district. Evaluations were being done on weasel, a one to one aid, Speech, Physical, and occupational therapy. But our question was public or private…..a lot of people asked why not homeschool him?
1. He’s autistic…we have a lot of friends who do that, homeschool their autistic kids….BUT, our little UNsocial butterfly would be much happier not a part of a group, but it is far better for him to be with people and learn social skills!
2. He would be I eligible for help, and I nor my husband are qualified to get him past the hurdles he has to overcome in school.
So that left us with two options.
Private or Public?
Well we were still convicted on the three listed above but now we also had to ask, which is best going to nurture the mind of an autistic kid who can’t differentiate between reality and make believe….OR ….at best accepts pretty much everything he sees and hears as truth.
Now I’m not looking for a theological discussion on post modern philosophy. I will just explain it like this….if it goes against God’s word then it’s not truth! That’s our FAITH,no religion, not something we just pulled out of the air. It’s our convictions!
So Christian school it is.
We are constantly teaching God’s word here at home.
The character qualities of Jesus. You see a lot of people view Christian school as the safe education of their children. “They learned it at school so I don’t have to worry about it here! At home!” That is where we differ from a lot of people I guess….we look at school especially Christian school as a back up, a safety net. A place that is going to follow through on what we are teaching at home and church. A place I don’t have to second guess that what they are teaching is contradicting the bible and their dad ( a pastor) .
But now I find my self deep in sadness. A bit of confusion because we were sure God was leading us to have weasel in this particular school….this school is great, but it’s not meshing well. Our other kids are very happy and are excelling! But now I feel as though my back is against the wall. I love the people he’s working with at the public school he has made great strides and improvements, but I can’t help the feeling that I am sending my poor defenseless sheep into hungry wolves. To confuse him. I feel like I’m not doing a good enough job protecting his mind and what goes in. I know he will be taught things contrary to God’s word.
It’s like a neat lady once told me you need to hold your husband and your children with an open hand, for when you are holding them too tightly , you may have to let go. I have protecting him for so long now, watching every little thing that enters his body, whether it be by mouth, eyes, or ears….it is now that I must let Go and let God do the guarding and protecting his mind. I must trust God….for I know not what else to do!
How many times a day do you say “that’s awesome”. Do you as a believer in Jesus really mean “that chocolate cake is awesome,”
We have seriously lost sight of what awesome is.
My hubby noticed a tend forming with our oldest son….he was hearing him say every little thing was “AWESOME” . So my hubby began to address the issue with one question.
Now i’m sure you want to know that one question….and I am going to share it with you but first what does awesome mean?
Merriam Webster defines it as:
1.: expressive of awe <awesome tribute>
2
a : inspiring awe <an awesome task>
b : terrific, extraordinary <had an awesome time>
So now that we understand what awesome means, let’s get back to that little question.
Are you ready?
No that wasn’t it…but this is….”.is what you’re saying is awesome truly worthy of worship?”
WOW! Talk about convicting. I was in another room when I heard hubby correct my son’s misplaced worship the first time. This is not stemming from what one person wrote as a song. Awesome God was written to be worship to God, because He is worthy of worship, awe, reverence, admiration and fear.
Is cake, cars, someone doing tricks on a bike, my husband for bringing me flowers? Not a bit! They are worthy of worship. Yeah the cake is delicious. The car and the dude on the bike are cool and my dear hubby is sweet! But not worthy of worship!
So what about nature? Is a waterfall awesome? My question is this are you saying that because the waterfall deserves reverence OR. Are you in awe od the One who created said waterfall? I think it becomes easy to slip into saying a word…scratch that I KNOW it is because I have done it. Such simple teaching and yet, i have learned so much!
