Multitude Monday: Frolicking With Father

Sometimes, when there's disorder or chronic illness in the home, the sheer weight of life can take your breathe away, leaving you wondering: how do unbelievers face the day? How do they find hope and joy and hold on to it for dear life?

Me, I have the Father. He is Hope and Joy. He grasps my hand softly and takes me frolicking in the heavenly realm. He teaches me to rise above my circumstances and drink of a new hope...a hope to come.

I wouldn't want it any other way. If the weight of life didn't wear on me, there would be no frolicking with my Father.

Giving Thanks Today:

Thank you, Father, for these graces and blessings:

~ For the cardinal gracing the bare brown branches, reminding of color to come.

~ For little Beth calling me into the bathroom during church-morning prep, "Mommy, come wipe me. I had a poooopy!" I couldn't believe the size of the thing and I said, "My goodness. That is a big poopy for such a little girl."  And that little girl looked up at me, all dimpled and four-eyed, with a beaming proud smile: "Thank you", she responded.

~ For my Peter working so expertly, gently, with the nursery babies and toddlers...and enjoying every minute.

~ For the associate pastor and his wife, finally with child and beaming with joy. They may have had prior heartache because they waited until 20 weeks to announce it. (Although when she quit dying her hair I had an inkling and privately rejoiced.)

~ For my Mary growing in gentleness and self-control; she sets my heart all a flutter.

~ After hearing bad news about a friend's daughter, I felt sad on Sunday. Then later when cuddled next to my husband, I rejoiced that I had him to share my burdens. "I'm so glad I have you for a life partner", I whispered, not knowing if he was still awake.  Surprisingly, he whispered back, voice heavy with sleep, "We'll always be together." Praise the Lord!

~ I'm officially an e-bay idiot. I won an auction for my girls' science program. Novice that I am, I rejoiced and paid immediately. Then the seller contacted me and reminded me, after seeing my Ohio address, that it was advertised as local pick-up...In Maryland...and was I possibly visiting Maryland just then, or was it an oversight?  My bubble deflated and I decided that homeschoolclassifieds is a lot simpler. The blessing is: the seller, being a Christian, is sweetly dealing with me, even stating that it's in great shape and she wants me to have it.  She's mailing it to me and I'm paypaling her the postage.

~ My boys, who follow my curriculum hunts closely, have been watching the e-bay e-mails, finding themselves intrigued by the whole thing. Yesterday during their playtime I heard them setting up an auction and having a bidding war over playroom toys. I always have to chuckle at their made-up games. They find a way to involve their sisters and I'm reminded again that children don't need toys...just their imaginations. They have the most fun not with Lincoln Logs or race cars or dolls, but with the schemes they make up.

~ Another sweet, loving letter from our Divya from India. Compassion children have to write three letters per year to their sponsors, but they can choose to write more. Thankfully, our Divya chooses to write fairly often. Her words and her heart, recorded on the page, make the love swell up in me and I long to be able to visit her some day. It's a miracle we're praying for. Click here to sponsor a child and have your heart wrecked forever...in the best way.

~ For the exquisitely painted children's book We Played Marbles, an historical fiction picture book about two boys who play on the high dirt mounds that used to be old Fort Craig, from the Civil War. "With poetic text and striking oil illustrations, Tres Seymour and Dan Andreason create a beautiful, haunting story that will touch readers of all ages."

Indeed. I was quietly awed by this book.












~ For an especially nice Children's Bible Study this last Saturday about Joseph's special robe and his brother's jealousy, and about how God takes something meant for evil and uses it for good. Bible stories build our faith and they're worth learning over and over again...even for us old folks. They reveal the heart of God and remind us that we also are the Josephs, the Jonahs, the Rahabs, the Leahs, the Sarahs, the Abrahams and Queen Esthers. That we are the ten lepers and the woman at the well. That God loves us too, no less than the Bible greats. And that He's ever so much involved in our daily lives and pain...and that He has a plan.  A plan never sounded so beautiful as when you hide in your heart and head, the plans recorded in the Bible; they will awe you.

What's beautiful in your life today, my friend?

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Prayer Request (friend's daughter)

I can't give details but my friend's 18-year-old daughter, who suffers from anorexia and depression, is much worse. I feel so helpless right now! It's such a serious situation and it seems only God can help.

I can and will pass along Emily Wierenga's Christian book on helping a loved one battling an eating disorder. I read all 35 reviews of this book and it sounds like every mother with daughters should read it...before food and weight become a battleground.

Though, really, this disease isn't about food, but about control. Emily's book is very Christian-centered and includes the perspectives of Emily's family members as well as professional advice. Every chapter ends with a prayer.



Please pray for a better mother-daughter relationship for my friend and her daughter, and for grace, strength, and healing?  All involved are intensely stressed. Thank you! It helps to know that others might be praying.

Homeschool Mother's Journal, April 12, 2013

Early Life, William Henri Colchester Mollett

In my life this week...

I continue to peruse homeschool classifieds and e-bay for used homeschool curriculum. I'm waiting on an e-bay auction for the girls' science curriculum.

I'd like the six-week summer break and the rest of this year to pre-read the boys' books for next year. They'll be studying the Eastern Hemisphere with Sonlight during 2013-14.

We've also begun the spring clothing switch in earnest. Suffice it to say...the living room is a mess as I work on washing and hanging all the extra clothes, and as I record what we need from thrift stores and pile up what we can pass on to church friends or to Freecycle.

In our homeschool this week...

The boys are reading In Search of the Source and marveling at the thought of a people in the highland jungles of Papua New Guinea eating beetles, grubs, cobras and bats. Fascinating, eye-opening book on many fronts. The translator and his wife, Neil and Carol Anderson, spent over two decades in this remote jungle area, translating the Bible into a previously unwritten language.

Praise God for this precious couple! God cares about every single soul and sometimes He has Believers endure the unbelievable to get the gospel out. Think that Bible Study you host or teach is a lot of trouble? Sometimes I'm put out by the commitment to provide a Children's Bible Study every Saturday afternoon. Read this book and renew your commitment to the Great Commission and your passion for God's Word.
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Sonlight synopsis: "A translator struggles to help a tribal people understand what the Bible says. Fascinating, thought-provoking, and often funny, these are the stories of a culture's first encounter with God's Word."

The other neat thing this week is the opportune check out of a DVD series called Liberty's Kids. It's a reenactment of the American Revolution and the events leading up to it. In cartoon format with engaging characters--including such greats as Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Paul Revere--the kids find it riveting. Very high quality and we're all reviewing our history. Even my six-year-old daughter finds it fascinating! A great find at the library (five total hours). I believe you can watch the episodes online here.

Helpful Homeschool Tips or Advice to Share...

Christian Homeschooling is a call from the Lord. As such, trust God to guide your steps. Commit yourself to praying for your homeschool and walk in peace as you pass on a love for learning. And remember this...their hearts first, academics second.

Things I'm Working On...

...In my heart: A neighbor family of six here often needs help and I'm working on helping without feeling irritated by the inconvenience. The husband is nearly six months without a job and the mother works a low-wage job (not even full-time). Intermittently, they need gas money, help with transportation to the local schools when their van is down, etc. They even come fairly often for milk and sugar. The other morning our plans were upset by a sudden request to take them to two different schools. The brakes are out on their Dodge van.

So often people don't want to give their time. It's easier to give money and call it done, patting ourselves on the back. The other morning I felt so inconvenienced, wondering ultimately...wouldn't it be easier to just give them $200, rather than taking them to school until they have the money on their own? But then I thought...can we really afford to part with $200 after all the homeschool costs recently? And why am I so against giving my time? As I ride with those kids I could pray for them and maybe something that God allows to come out of my mouth might encourage them as they endure hardship after hardship.

They don't come to our Children's Bible study and we don't know why, but we do take the 9-year-old boy to AWANA each Wed. And lately, a tiny local Baptist church has a van that arrives to pick up their kids for Sunday worship. This particular church goes door-to-door in our neighborhood frequently, looking for new Sunday worship guests. Shame on me for feeling irritated when God is obviously working on these kids' hearts....


I'm grateful for...

Every single day of being with my children all day long. What a privilege. Even when the four year old gets into the spring clothes, tries them on and leaves them strewn all over, in every room. Sigh....

Something I am ogling or have my eye on...

I'm too busy to ogle anything! But I guess I could mention this review of the Writer's Jungle from the Simple Homeschool site. Sounds like an interesting, motivating book for every homeschool family, if you can afford it. Here is the creator's website. Here is Cathy Duffy's review of the product.

Bless you, dear friends, and have a wonderful weekend!

 

When You Have Questions: Walking in Peace

Psalm 119:125 I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies!        

Psalm 119:144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.

I ordered a used copy in good condition of Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.



It's one of the greats in American Literature and I wanted to own a copy...an unabridged copy. When classics are published by curriculum companies--Bob Jones University Press or maybe Sonlight--they're often abridged. This isn't always clear to the buyer. Not all abridged copies are labled as such, clearly enough. 

According to Webster...To abridge is to shorten without sacrificing overall sense. In literary terms, an abridged book is one that has been condensed, but is relatively the same in content.

When I read something, especially a classic, I want it in the author's original words, thank you very much.

Anyway, the used, unabridged copy I received was in awful condition, after being sold to me as a copy in good used condition. For the first time I had to file a complaint with Amazon about their affilitate.

Books classified as "good used condition" are usually quite nice and often look new. They refunded me half my purchase price, and now, as I look for another original text copy, I find that Amazon's site is slow as a snail for some reason, which has been typical lately.

I have time to share a thought and scripture.

As I wrote before, homeschool curriculum can be expensive. I'm nearly done puchasing what we need for the upcoming school year, and what we needed to finish this one.

And several hundred dollars went out the window, which makes me nervous.

Oh, spending money never used to make me nervous, but God has changed me. He's shown me that He is enough...that spending is a distraction Satan uses to set our minds on the worldly, instead of on the spiritual. Self-denial sends us crying for God, who truly satisfies. Self-indulgence sends us crying for more things, which never satisfy. They're a mirage, leaving deceived people continually chasing the next mirage.

I need the homeschool materials, but to be truly thrifty, I could use the library and own no more books, or use what's available. Yes, it would be difficult to chase down exactly what we need through interlibrary loan, but it's possible. I just don't want the extra stress.

And I consider this: Books don't just sit on a shelf if you love words....they're read again and again. I personally remember three readings of Little Women before I finished the eighth grade, as well as Jane Erye and other Charlotte Bronte novels.

These good books I'm gathering will be read...to more than just my own children. I may provide daycare once my husband retires (he's eight years my senior). And once my children are gone, I'll reread them myself and maybe even sit down and write one of my own, God willing.

And I will certainly read them to my grandchildren again and again.

As I wait for the Amazon website to roll forward, I have two verses to share.

I don't know for certain God wants me spending so much on curriculum. It's not written about directly in the Bible, like so many daily questions we contemplate.

But the beauty is...we need not live in confusion. We can ask for wisdom and indeed, we're encouraged to do so.

As I peruse used curriculum, I can pray for wisdom...for the best prices, for the best products, for the best people to do business with. God will have me wait sometimes, and other times go forward with a purchase. His influence is there for my good, if I ask for it.

If I desire His wisdom and defer to it, instead of living in my own, I can walk in peace. If I'm filling my life with Him, and not with things, I can walk in peace.

Life isn't black and white, but the Holy Spirit will direct our path...especially if we understand that our hearts are deceitful. They can't be trusted, but He can.

Psalm 119:125 I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies!

Psalm 119:144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live

Multitude Monday: The Lens by Which We See

In the middle of the night, she blessed me.

He blessed me.

I'd gotten up, remembering that the wet towels needed a dryer. 

Out she comes, my sleepy-headed Beth struggling in the dark, too tired for words. When she found me, she simply put up her arms and I knew what she wanted.

I brought her to bed with me; as I adjusted the covers, her body squirmed and experimented, trying to nuzzle as close as possible.

She arranged herself just right, driven by the desire to fully enter into my essense. She wanted to be utterly connected until we felt like one. Until she felt wholly warmed, wholly protected, wholly blessed by my love.

No hesititation exists in her, for she fully trusts my arms and my heart. She's never been turned away.

It's like that with our Heavenly Father too. He's never turned us away and we can wholly trust him. We can nuzzle in close, until we are one. Until we feel wholly warmed, wholly protected, wholly blessed by His love.

And yet, do we look for Him in the dark?

So often we look at the clock and wonder if we'll possibly find the time to read our Bibles. And to pray. There aren't enough hours in the day, we lament.

Here's what I imagine God thinks of that:

"How will you raise your children? How will you do your daily work? How will you wake up and keep going, and go to bed and face the next day? How will you face tomorrow?"

He wants us to remember: "All for My glory. Everything you do, every day, is for my glory. I am your reason for waking up and taking your next breath. It's all about Me. So how can you not find the time? I am the lens you see through, the strength you live in, the food you need to consume. Without me, you're dead."

Cuddle up. Snuggle in. Squirm as close to Him as possible, until you are one in Spirit. Until you don't know where He ends and you begin.

Psalm 16:2 I said to the Lord, "Thou art my Lord; I have no good besides Thee."

 

Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fullness of joy; In

Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.

Giving Thanks Today:

~ For my sweet Beth, who reminds me to pursue Him with my whole heart.

~ For my husband, who says I'm beautiful and seems to see the 47-year-old me from the same lens he used when I was 33...taut and toned and minimally-lined, with maybe two white hairs gracing my whole head. Bless his 54-year-old, tender heart.

~ For the Bible being His essense and being so easy to enter into; always accessible.

~ For my friend's OCD son passing his nursing final. He needed a 78% and he got it, exactly. It was as if God said, "Yes, your brain goes wild during exams, but my grace is sufficient for you. He started his preceptorship (practicum) and is loving each 12-hour nursing shift. Praise the Lord!

~ For 18-year-old Chelsea's depression improving.

~ For my 71-year-old uncle making it through a stroke, still alive and able to walk and talk, abeit with a walker for now.

~ Spending time on the couch a few times a day with my girls, a stack of books on my lap to read.

~ My Mary memorizing all her favorites and "reading" them back to me. How a child can memorize every precise word of a book always amazes me. I don't think I could do it...but she can, even with complicated plots.

~ For Mary giving us such spiritually mature answers during dinner-time conversations. I recently asked her what she loved best about being a child of God. Her answer immediately brought tears of gratitude.

~ That gratitude is the answer for so many daily human ailments. Gratitude is simple, yes? Just look for the beauty and acknowledge it before God, thanking Him.

What's beautiful in your world today, my friend?