Changed By Love

Valentine’s Day Ideas

Feb.3,2014

Valentine’s Day is coming quickly! If you need some ideas for ways to celebrate it in your homeschool, check out these ideas.

Here is a Freebie for Copywork!

Valerie at The Crafty Classroom shows us how to make a cute Valentine that includes a hidden cross in the middle of it. It makes a very pretty craft that you could use as a card. She also has Valentine’s Day Bible Verse Coloring Pages at her blog The Crafty Classroom.

Apples 4 the Teacher has lots of ideas here.

Here are some online games with a Valentines Day theme.

I got a waffle iron that made heart-shaped waffles and served those for breakfast on Valentine’s Day. The kids loved those!

Fiona put hers together to create a butterfly!

If you want your kids to make some beautiful hearts during the days leading up to Valentines’ Day, I have pinned lots of beautiful, colorful hearts that are easy to draw and make on Pinterest. You can find them here on my Pinterest board.

I made this one myself after looking through lots of hearts on Pinterest.

Of course, you will want to cover the history of Valentine’s Day, too. It is very interesting and spiritually encouraging. St. Valentine was a real bishop who lived around 270 A.D. in Rome. The Roman emperor had banned marriage because he wanted men to be soldiers who were only focused on fighting for the empire, not concerned about family. But Bishop Valentine knew this was wrong and unfair to couples that were in love and wanted to be married. So he performed marriage ceremonies for them in secret. But he was found out and imprisoned. His jailer heard that he could work miracles, so he brought his blind daughter to Valentine. He taught her about God and prayed for her, and she was healed. Her family loved the bishop and wanted his life to be saved, but the emperor had him put to death for his beliefs. This may not sound that encouraging to some. But to me, it illustrates again that God does do miracles, and he uses them to draw people to Himself. People are looking in all the wrong places for a supernatural experience, and I want to tell as many people as I can that we serve a living God who cares about our needs, and He will suspend natural laws for His children to answer their prayers and heal their sicknesses and diseases and do other miracles for them.

You can read more about the history here at this webpage, The Holiday Spot.

Many people celebrate romantic love and friendship on this day. I prefer to make it about love for our family. We make valentines for each other, and I do nice things for my children to let them know I love them. I encourage them to look for ways to show extra love to each other, too. My husband usually gets me something, and we go out if we can. But throughout the day, I like to do special things for the kids and am even more intentional in letting them see how much I love them and how much God loves us.

National Week of Prayer for Homeschool Families

Feb.2,2014

And on this – the final day of the NATIONAL WEEK OF PRAYER FOR HOMESCHOOL FAMILIES – we’ve been asked to pray for REVIVAL in our families:

Please pray for the Holy Spirit to do a mighty work in
homeschooling families across the world. Pray for hearts to be
humbled and submitted to the Lord. Pray for true repentance and
turning from sin. Pray for entire families to seek the face of
God together, crying out for His presence in their homes. Pray
for a harvest of souls through the witness of the power of the
Holy Spirit in the lives of homeschoolers.

Psalm 130:1-6 ~ Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of
my supplications. If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord,
who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may
be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I
do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch
for the morning. Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
Kim Winter’s photo.

National Week of Prayer for Homeschoolers

Jan.31,2014

For today during the NATIONAL WEEK OF PRAYER FOR HOMESCHOOL FAMILIES, we’ve been asked to remember SECOND-GENERATION HOMESCHOOLERS:

Please pray for second generation homeschoolers who are
discipling and educating their own children at home. Pray for
these families to create their own traditions and learning
environments while building on the good things their parents
did. Pray for them to stand firm in their convictions and
follow the Lord in all things.

Psalm 78:6 ~ That the generation to come might know [the laws of
God], the children who would be born, that they may arise and
declare them to their children that they may set their hope in
God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1437367196494480/?source=1
Kim Winter’s photo.

Jan.30,2014

Today’s focus for the NATIONAL WEEK OF PRAYER FOR HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES is on HOMESCHOOL GRADUATES:

Please pray for those children who have graduated from
homeschools. Pray that the truths of the Word will accomplish
the purposes of God in their lives. Pray for clarity of thought
as they build their own families and careers. Pray for strong
relationships with parents and healing of any broken
relationships within their families.

Philippians 4:1 ~ Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren,
my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

Relationships Within the Family

Jan.29,2014

We are still learning the ways of the Lord in how we are to relate to each other. The Lord speaks to one of us and that person shares with the rest of the family what He is showing them. Just last night our two oldest said that God revealed to them that we have been handling disagreements and conflict in a way that causes more strife instead of in a loving way that produces peace and closeness. So we repented of that as a family, and we will be watching our attitudes, intentions and motivations and make sure we do everything out of love.

We are in a constant battle against selfishness and pride. I want our family to be glorifying to God. I want us to walk closely with Him and keep Him first in all we do. I see that we are making progress. The older kids are developing their own relationships with God and making their faith firm and establishing what they believe in.

The younger kids are asking questions and learning to pray and trust God to answer their prayers.

But I want so much more for us spiritually. I want to have an atmosphere of prayer and worship in our home. I would like for us to be tuned into God all the time. We have so many distractions with TV’s, computers and video games. We really need to devote ourselves to prayer more than we do, especially with such pressing needs.

I received a gentle admonition about not spending enough time one on one with each of the children just talking with them and finding out what they are thinking and feeling. I was told that sometimes this is all it takes to correct problems before they become an issue that stirs up strife. I am taking this to heart and will try to visit with them more often throughout the day. We have noted a tendency that we all have to go our separate ways and do our own thing instead of doing things together as a family. It’s hard to change this habit, but we are going to work on it.

We know that strife is really destructive, so we are going to be more intentional about keeping it out of our home in the future.

The definition of strife from Dictionary.com is:

1. vigorous or bitter conflict, discord, or antagonism.
2. a quarrel, struggle, or clash
3. competition or rivalry

Synonyms are: 1. difference, disagreement, contrariety, opposition. 2. fight, conflict.

The Bible tells us: “For where envy and strife are, there is confusion and every evil work.” James 3:16

And in Philippians it says: “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Phil. 2:3

Two resources that are helping me understand more about how to deal with disagreements and relationship problems are a book called Keep Your Love On by Danny Silk and Lifestyle of Learning Ministries with Marilyn Howshall at lolache.com.