• ATI / IBLP - my story

    Sincerely wrong. The IBLP-ATI Years.

    Another IBLP/ATI article has surfaced… and brings to mind so many memories tonight. As many of you know, for several years, beginning in the late eighties, our family was involved in attending and subscribing to the Institute in Basic Life Principles and then for a few years with the home school program, ATI – the Advanced Training Institute.  It is very easy to distance ourselves from both IBLP & ATI today — but there was a time in the early days, it  would have been unthinkable  (I’ve written about this a number of times as referenced below).  It would have…

  • Devotionals - Faith - Prayer

    Waiting.

    Waiting.  Perhaps the simplest and most difficult action we’re commanded is waiting.  I don’t know if anything epitomizes our sin nature more than our natural response to waiting.  We’re naturally prone to not wait.  To not want to wait.  To not seek to wait.  More often than not, we believe or live as though we believe otherwise.  Think of the times you’ve exclaimed, “I cannot wait!” in reference to an upcoming event or for somewhere you want to go or for something you want to do or for someone you want to see. But in the end, you waited, though…

  • Devotionals - Faith - Family - Homemaking - Titus2

    Keepers @ Home

    [cp_dropcaps]I[/cp_dropcaps]n Titus 2.4-5 we read, in part, that younger women are to be taught by older women to be keepers at home, we see that there must be something to this ‘keeping a home’ for it to warrant teaching or knowledge of skills to do the keeping. This home-keeping, something that needs to be studied, or which requires skill, must also be pretty important or noteworthy for it to be contained in the list of imperatives in the book of Titus concerning what ought to be taught through and to women.  I will add that this ‘home-keeping’ be done well…

  • Family - Homeschooling - Parenting

    homeschool conference withdrawal

     [cp_dropcaps]E[/cp_dropcaps]ach April, for the last ten years, a highlight for us has been the annual Christian Heritage Family Discipleship & Homeschooling Conference—this year, particularly so—for so many reasons. When I awoke this morning, I realized I’d been processing the conference in my dreams all night long.  I wondered how many other’s night’s sleep were filled with screen images, books, papers, faces, admonitions and beautiful music.  Through the day today, I’ve recounted conversations, in addition to important talks given by various teachers, I see and hear, in the theater of my mind, the beautiful performances and music that blessed us all…

  • Family - Kathryn - my story

    By The Grace of God

    [cp_dropcaps]M[/cp_dropcaps]y mind floods with memories today — memories of days, years, decades gone by.  So many days, so many memories — so much grace the Lord has lavished on me through the gift of our firstborn daughter. Two precious sons were born to us before the Lord gifted us all with this great treasure — this inestimable gift.  I’m ever mindful that without her, I’d never have made it through.  I’m blessed by this–I’m humbled by this.  So very humbled by the grace of God in my life and the gift of her life. In the early days, I’d never…

  • Essays - Faith - Family - Internet Addiction - my story - Potpourri

    A blogger’s loss & gain

    [cp_dropcaps]H[/cp_dropcaps]ardly a week goes by that I don’t think (or mutter aloud) that this or that blog or twitter account will have a crash.  In just a matter of time there will be an incident or an avalanche of incidents that will take a blogger to an intersection in her life where she’ll be broadsided some Thursday afternoon and she’ll sit on the floor, head in her hands, crying out to God for His mercy.  But for now, she doesn’t  ask for help because she doesn’t know she needs it.  Yet. Such was the case for me… going to bed…

  • Faith - Letters to my Sisters - marriage - my story

    Married for Keeps – The Treasure

    [cp_dropcaps]M[/cp_dropcaps]ay the LORD be with you and bless you this day!  He is so gracious to us all and His mercies are new every morning.  I share this before I share my letter with you because I know that each time I share a letter on marriage, there are sisters whose hearts are breaking and the pain of marital difficulties weighs heavily on them.  So it is with this in mind that I write and pray to offer a bit of hope today.  What I’m sharing with you today is a message I wrote many years ago and have continued…

  • Faith - marriage - my story

    Married For Keeps

    [cp_dropcaps]Y[/cp_dropcaps]ou know, some ways of the LORD are very easy to accept and then there’re times when His way is a bit more challenging and the price seems a bit higher, perhaps a price too steep for us to consent to give.  But, you know, in those times His mercy and grace seem greater.  These are the proving grounds, these are the testings of our faith.  I used to think that the testing of our faith was part trickery and part unrealistic expectation, something akin to being doomed to failure. O, but that’s not God, that’s not the God of…

  • Devotionals - Journal - Potpourri

    Write this memorial & rehearse it

    [cp_dropcaps]S[/cp_dropcaps]o much on my mind lately that I’m overwhelmed if I indulge in thinking too long without something to specifically direct my thoughts.  Were it not for prayer, singing and morning Bible study, I don’t know where I’d be.  I know that’s an over used phrase — I don’t know where I’d be — but it’s over used bcz it’s true.  More true than we might realize, I’m sure. If you’re a believer — redeemed by grace through faith in Jesus — think where you’d be without Christ.  Think of where you’d be without that precious hope.  Think of where…