Changed By Love

Changed By Love

Following the Lamb wherever he goes… Revelation 14:4

Homeschool Advice From the Kids!

Homeschool Advice book written by kids now available for free download at CurrClick.com: “Homeschooling Advice For Moms From the Real Experts, KIDS!

In March of 2011, in the face of an abundance of homeschooling advice written by adults, Currclick put forth a challenge to homeschoolers far and wide. The challenge seemed simple on the surface – to write an advice column about how to homeschool a child written by the homeschooled children themselves. Many kids stepped up to this challenge and the result of their efforts should be required reading for all homeschool parents! Enjoy and be inspired by the heartfelt, thoughtful, and practical advice penned by these extraordinary homeschoolers.

There are many books written by adults and homeschool veteran parents about homeschooling. But don’t people need to know what kids think? We believe so! In this fantastic, insp iring and informative collection of short stories written by homeschool kids, you’ll find all sorts of amazing homeschool tips and advice from the real experts … the kids!

Click here to download both volumes for free!

Moving Again???!!!

Well, maybe. Gary is going to South Carolina for a job for at least three months. We don’t know what the Lord has in store after that. The job may go on after that, but we don’t know if he will be asked to stay on or if the Lord will want us all to move there or what.

So here we are again. In another state of transition. That seems to be our permanent state of residence. Pennsylvania would like to own us. But they may not get much of a chance!

We don’t know what the Lord is doing, but He said yes about the job in South Carolina. It’s a great opportunity. It’s the job we’ve been wanting for the last four or five years. But Gary is not excited about it because he doesn’t want to leave us. We feel like the rest of us are to stay here at least for a while. Some of us feel that God is saying PA is our home.

Personally, it hasn’t felt like it to me. The homeschool law is enough to make me run from here screaming. After five years of freedom in Illinois and Missouri, I don’t like being put in more bondage to the state, excuse me, commonwealth, than ever. I can’t believe the stranglehold the local schools have on homeschoolers here. They feel so bound by the portfolios and rules that the state law has put them under. My feeling is: Let’s get out of here! I know that not everybody can just up and leave, but maybe the Lord is making a way for me to go. I’ve been praying for PA while living here.

We love the mountains and the lay of the land. It’s a very pretty state. But the government sure is heavy-handed. And the school taxes are extremely high. And the public libraries are neglected.

So, we could use prayers again for wisdom and direction.

We almost got a van but have felt that the Lord said this is not the right van or the right time.

Things have been working out pretty smoothly for Gary to get down to South Carolina with a friend who will also be working at the same place.

I’m thankful for what He’s doing in our lives – even if I don’t understand it. I see His fingerprints all over the things that are happening.

We just met a neat group of people working here in York, ministering to people on the streets. They use food to draw people in and then give them spiritual food and love and are able to make a difference in many lives. The main headquarters for the ministry is a restaurant called the wHoly Chicken, believe it or not! Some of us may get involved with that in the near future.

Our journey continues. Who knows where we will go next. Home? We shall see. We’re just following the Lamb wherever He goes. Maybe He will lie down soon and establish us in a broad place where we can rest with Him.

How to (Hopefully, Not!) Sabotage Your Homeschool

Eight Ways to Sabotage Your Homeschool
by Wendy Young

The power of a successful homeschool journey cannot be over emphasized. Every parent who home schools wants to enjoy the adventure, grow close to their children and have well rounded children at the end of it. But moms hold the power to sabotage their own homeschools and often they do not even know they are doing it. Here are some warnings (and remedies) for homeschooling parents so that you do not become one of them.

Warning #1 — You have no systems in place

How do you know this is happening? You cannot find your school books, the children cannot find their pens and pencils, your laundry is piling up and your cupboards and fridge are empty.

Solution — Take one afternoon on the weekend to plan your meals, do your grocery shopping, get your books ready for the next week and get your children to make sure their desks and pencil boxes are ready for Monday. Set up a laundry system in your home to make sure that your family has clean clothing and linens.

Warning #2 — Your children take forever to do their work

Some children are slow workers, but many are dawdlers. If your junior grade children are taking more than a 3 hours to do their work or your high schooler more than 6 hours then chances are that they are wasting time.

Solution — Make sure that you are giving your children short lessons so that dawdling is discouraged. Ensure that you alternate a hard lesson for a easier lesson. Take the time to train your children in the habit of attention so that they learn the importance of giving something their full attention and completing work in a timely fashion.

Warning #3 — Your children spend more time on school work than life

If your children are spending more than a third of their day in formal academic pursuits, it is a sure fire way of producing burnout in mom and child.

Solution — Raymond and Dorothy Moore, grandparents of the homeschooling movement, make use of a head, heart and hand principle. They said that a child’s day should be balanced equally between these three occupations. Head refers to academic pursuits; Hand refers to work in and around the home like chores and entrepreneurial activities and Heart refers to spiritual and moral training a parent should impart.

Warning #4 — Your children are allowed unlimited daily doses of TV and computer

Children should not watch TV or work on the computer everyday. It is an unhealthy situation as the stimulus that the brain receives from these two activities causes a dumbing down process where the child forgets how to entertain themselves, play out imaginary games and be productively and creatively busy — to mention just a few negatives.

Solution – Make a list of all the productive pursuits that your child can do and put to when they nag and ask for TV or their computer games. Ensure that you draw them alongside you in your day to day activities — and set the example yourself!

Warning #5 — Mom does not ensure that she is sufficiently rested

When a mom is tired, burnt out and running from play-dates to sports all afternoon and never takes a moment for a quiet cup of tea and a book, she is bound to be tense and overwrought. When mom has nothing left, she cannot give to her children and be a healing presence in her home.

Solution – Mom needs to set aside small moments in her day to take a breather. This can be a chapter of a good book, a walk around the garden, a cup of tea — on her own. It could also mean getting to bed earlier so that she can rise before her family with a small head start on her day. Mom needs to take time out monthly as well, so that she can set her hand to a craft or hobby where she can take off the “homeschooling mom hat”.

Warning #6 — The homeschooling parents talk of nothing but their children

Does it seem like whenever mom and dad go out or have a moment together, all they talk about is homeschooling and parenting? While there is time for that, it is also very important that they take time to remember that their relationship ranks right up there in importance.

Solution — Make a pact that you will do something special together, weekly or monthly, where you do not talk about homeschooling, parenting or household matters. Just enjoy being together.

Warning #7 — Parents control their children rather than build relationship with their children

This is a tough one, isn’t it? We want the best for our children; we want them to be all they were created to be and to achieve much in their lives. But often a parent will go overboard and forget that the reason they are raising children is so that they can be strong valuable members of a community.

Solution — Like a young sapling tree, protect your children as they need it. Train them in moral and spiritual guidelines as you take hold of those truths as well. As they grow and show maturity in certain areas, permit them to begin making their own decisions within the realm of what is permissible to your boundaries as a family unit.

Warning #8 — A homeschooling mom who spends too much time feeding on other lives

I left this for last because this one point can be the single most damaging thing that can happen to any homeschool. When a mom is always comparing herself and her children to what the next person is doing, what the other children have achieved, the projects that they are doing, instead of getting on and living her life with her children, she is bound to become frustrated and defeated.

Solution — Accept the season that your family is in — perhaps you have just had a baby and an in-depth unit study will send you teetering over the edge! Perhaps your children have special needs and are not able to concentrate for long. Whatever the reason, accept the season. Also remember that each home and family is unique and your family has a specific flavor to it. When you try and bring in another family’s culture to your own, you dilute the beauty of your family.

—

Wendy Young is a homeschooling mom to 4 children aged 7 to 14 years and they have always been at home. She has been married for 19 years. Her website, Homeschool-Curriculum-For-Life, is dedicated to helping moms choose curriculum, get organized, and enjoy the homeschool journey by equipping them in their roles as wives, women, and moms.

Reprinted with permission from The Homeschooler’s Notebook, a newsletter put out by Heather Idoni of http://www.familyclassroom.net
Thank you, Heather!

Love and Respect: A Royal Marriage

Love and Respect: A Royal Marriage

Princesses Need Love; Princes Want Respect

from Emerson and Sarah Eggerichs, Susan Mathis

Marriage is a lot like royalty. A wife wants to be first in the heart of her prince. A husband wants to be the hero that his princess admires and respects.

There is something intriguing about royalty – and a royal marriage. It’s as if something within all of us longs to be royal. Did you know that God says we are royalty? “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

God has put in the heart of every little girl to be a princess. She dresses up, talks about it, even dreams about it. As a woman, she wants to be first in the heart of her prince. She wants to be loved and treasured like a princess.

A little boy wants to be the hero, defending the fort and saving others from danger. As a man, he wants to be the prince, the hero that his princess admires and respects. He is designed by God to be a man of honor, one who is responsible to provide and care for his princess.

The wedding ceremony is a great picture of the prince and the princess dynamic – the love and respect is evident, and it is beautiful. But what often happens in that first year is that he isn’t as loving as she expected or needed him to be. And she often stops treating her prince with the respect that he needs. She needs to be loved, to be his princess; he needs to be respected, to be her prince. When this dynamic breaks down, the relationship gets crazy.

In my book, The Language of Love and Respect, I talk about the concept of wanting to be treated as a prince and a princess. “The man with basic goodwill wants to serve his wife, and he would even die for her. When his wife shows him unconditional respect, in most cases he will feel like a prince and be motivated to show her the kind of unconditional love she desires. She is a princess who is loved.” (p. 18)

Benevolent Goodwill

In a safe and secure kingdom (even when that kingdom is a home), its people thrive. Effective kingdom leaders demonstrate benevolent goodwill to the people. In marriage, the importance of goodwill is just as important.

One key to making your relationship safe and secure is to demonstrate benevolent goodwill toward your mate – to believe he or she has good intentions, to expect the best of the other person. Even when your mate messes up, you can choose to believe in the goodwill of your spouse.

Unfortunately, what often happens when you feel unloved or disrespected is that you start predicting and judging the other person’s motives. Research shows that successful couples don’t make condemning judgments about the other; they choose to trust their mate’s intentions.

Once a couple decides to see each other as good-willed people, it changes their perspective and the filter through which they view their relationship. “Good-willed” doesn’t mean we’ll do good all the time; it just means that the intentions are good.

Matthew 26:41 says it well: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”. Since a man and a woman naturally view conflict differently, they too often judge each other. During those times when your spouse is frustrating you, you can still believe in your mate’s goodwill, respond accordingly and treat each other as teammates, partners, even allies.

Royal differences

Though the differences between men and women are part of the relationship challenge, God intended it to be this way. Women and men simply have different filters through which they experience life. She sees through pink sunglasses, hears with pink hearing aids and speaks through a pink megaphone. He sees through blue sunglasses, hears with blue hearing aids and speaks through a blue megaphone.

Yet, when blue blends with pink, it becomes purple, God’s color – the color of royalty. He made us male and female to reflect His image, and as we love and respect each other, we create that purple, blending together as one to reflect the very image of God. When we understand this, we can begin to value our prince and our princess as God does, and we can trust that this is a truly magnificent design.

Even as allies you’ll have moments of conflict. But whether it’s a disagreement over sex or taking out the trash, each of you can rehearse what you know to be true: He’s a good-willed man; she’s seeing the situation through princess-pink glasses. He’s not wrong; she’s just different. We are friends; we are allies. Then, by going to God during conflict, we can discern His answer, what His royal purple, is. When we do this, we find the heart of God.

A Peace-filled Kingdom

Though the prince and princess of the movies tend to be perfect, you’re married to an imperfect person. So how do you show unconditional love and respect when your spouse is so obviously imperfect? Unconditional means there is no condition or circumstance or situation that would cause him to be hostile (the opposite of love) or cause her to show contempt (the opposite of respect). It is choosing to show your princess a loving attitude, or your prince a respectful attitude, regardless of the weaknesses of the flesh.

It’s not always easy, but we must avoid passing condemning judgment on our spouse. Judas and Peter both denied Jesus. Jesus saw Peter as having a willing spirit but weak flesh, so He never passed judgment on Peter. If you’re married to a man like Peter, don’t see him as a Judas. How does the Lord see your husband or wife? He’s a prince, a co-heir with Christ. As a child of God, he is royalty. As a child of God, she is royalty.

Seeing each other as God sees us, as His prince and princess, will cause us to treat each other differently. God has an unconditional commitment to loving us, and so should we. That’s part of maintaining a peace-filled, good-willed kingdom – and a royal marriage.
Copyright © 2011 by Susan Mathis and Emerson Eggerichs. All rights reserved. Used by permission.  via Focus on the Family

I Had No Idea It Would Be His Last Blog Post

You may have noticed that I share a lot of David Wilkerson’s devotionals here on my blog. The ones that really touch me right where I am have usually ended up on my blog. Well, today’s devotional was one of those, so I posted it here Wed. morning, the same day I received it in my email. It was about believing when all means fail.

Here’s a quote from that article:

Blessed are those who believe when there is no evidence of an answer to prayer—who trust beyond hope when all means have failed.

I found out tonight that David Wilkerson was killed in a car wreck today (Wednesday) in Texas. His wife, Gwen, was airlifted to the hospital and is in critical condition. Please pray for her and the rest of the family.

His last blog post seems especially fitting. It seems that all means have failed for him in an earthly sense. But as some of my Facebook friends have noted, “… unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

We are believing for thousands of people like him to be raised up – true prophetic voices in these last days.

And this part of his post seems especially prophetic:

“To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.” Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love.

I will miss him. I was so inspired by his words and his life.

But God has a plan, and I can’t wait to see what He’s about to do.