In all my life, my greatest gift has been faith and salvation in Jesus Christ the Lord. And in our marriage, in our family – parenting – life work… we are humbled at the mercy of God… the greatest gift — the greatest joy — is walking with Him and knowing our children walk in Truth. That they, too learn to walk in faith is answer to prayers — many prayers for each of them from birth. Answered prayer, each having received the gift of salvation in the Lord Jesus. The baptisms pictured below are of four of our…
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When I was a little girl I had a friend I played with nearly every day. Even when others thought they were too old to play with her – I still did. I was so loyal to her — rarely going anywhere without thinking of her and if I ought to bring her along. She was beautiful — so beautiful, in fact, that I found myself dreaming that one day I might look like her — charming as she was. She had fabulous clothes and shoes – beautiful hair and a perpetual smile. I sometimes wonder if…
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I suppose I’m still in my travels down the melancholy memory lane. I don’t know if the Autumn season has brought all this on or not — I don’t know if the realization of my own life-season of autumn has brought all this on. Whatever the case, I’m still strolling among falling leaves. To God be the glory… Great things He has done. Wes baptized Samuel and three more of our children on the first of this month. I truly know no greater joy than that our children walk in Truth — and no greater…
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I’ve been thinking about paths lately… spurred on by reading in Jeremiah and considering ‘the old paths’ and doing the things we know to be profitable in our home/life. I had to smile at the following video. In our home, through the years, we’ve had many, many opportunities to train up boys and girls in the way they should go. This, most notably, is a spiritual training – but, it’s also training in life skills, work ethic and manners. Repetition (both in direction and practice) is the key to accomplishing the objective and to developing abilities. But, more than all…
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Whenever we attend a HomeSchool conference or listen to a message espousing the benefits of home education, we tend to talk about it for days — weeks, even. But our enthusiasm or dedication to home education is not limited to or sparked by those times. Our dedication to homeschooling is strengthened, though, by such times as we just experienced this past weekend. Our enthusiasm is occasionally dampened by some failure or some personal discouragement, but truly, for twenty years, our enthusiasm to press on has not waned. I suppose I could just say that occasionally we run into those 2…
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I think about this verse a lot — I’ve thought about it a lot over the years. What does it mean and how do I practically apply it? What do we, as parents, needs to keep as our focus when we’re training up our children in the way they should go? I think a lot of us started out thinking of this verse and using it as sort of a boundary verse. You know, train up the children in Sunday School and church, pray with them at their bedside after they’ve brushed their teeth at night… be sure they know…
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Over the years of blogging, I’ve become more reticent to share how-to-do-it-right parenting advice. I mean, who wants to be critiqued to death for suggesting an idea or giving advice that, in someone else’s home, might end up being the straw that breaks the mama’s back. So, I guess I try to give advice or encouragement from time to time that will not add to the load of cares or be another burden to bear, but rather to lighten the load and brighten the day. Even if, in the beginning, what I suggest or share seems to add to the…
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Wes reads great books to our family several nights a week. I love to listen to him read — he reads well, clearly, passionately, with enthusiasm and occasionally he’ll even give the characters’ voice. So he was reading to us last evening and the stark current reality of the long ago written story was astounding to me. The book is, The Shining Sword by Charles Coleman, originally written in 1956. It’s one of those timeless, classic books — sort of like John Bunyan’s, The Pilgrim’s Progress, that teaches deeply important Bible truths in such an engaging manner. Each night as…
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Well… it’s Friday… one more thought going into the weekend. About those children? You know the ones we so desire to nurture, home educate, train up and give God the glory? Yep, well, they’re watching. Sam sent me this one:
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I’m sort of stuck in neutral here – or am still drinking a cup of tea and mulling over Cindy’s ongoing blog entries and numerous(!!) comments from thoughtful readers. The original post was the springboard for a couple of my entries here and likely a few more. Now, from (her blog) was “Older Mothers of the World Unite,” which led to “Calling All Moms for Real Advice,” and then, today’s “Disciplining Children.” I don’t know of anything that gets women talking more than the multifaceted topic of discipline/child-training/pregnancy. Well, maybe… wifely submission. O, and dresses. Well, okay, and feminism. And,…