Pastor John Piper has a son named Abraham. Abraham has a blog called: 22 words. Each post he writes is 22 words long. Being a female, I don't think I've ever been able to say anything with only 22 words.
The last ten months have been extremely hard for me. It's affected my relationship with Jesus, my schooling, my wifing, my mothering, my friendships, and even my blogging.
Just for fun I'm going to try and sum up the last ten months in, you guessed it, 22 words:
emptying nest:
missing
not needed
purposeless
counting down
stressed marriage:
1 Corinthians 13
mother-in-law passing:
heartache
America changing:
nervous, sad
God:
convicting, dissecting, challenging= 2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5
January 23, 2009
January 20, 2009
Today
Last fall I found a book on worldviews I wanted to read out loud with my 16yr. old son. It's called The Deadliest Monster by JF Baldwin. Have you read it? We haven't yet, because he bases the book on two stories: Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. We've never read Frankenstein so I decided we should read that before we read the book by Baldwin so we would know what the guy was talking about as he made reference to the story.
Anyway....for the last several weeks I've been reading Frankenstein out loud each morning, a chapter or more a day. Wow...that was such a fascinating story. I am so glad I read it.
Toward the beginning of the book Dr. Frankenstein says this:
The first of those sorrows which are sent to wean us from the earth, had visited her.....
From what I gather Mary Shelley was not a Christian. But isn't that quote beautiful? That's what the Lord does for us. Sorrows, hard things, disappointments, confusions, broken dreams...He uses all those things to wean us from this sickly planet and show us that it's only in Him that we find our heart's needs met. He is it. He is all we need. And I've noticed that He does wean us, gently, from this earth. Just like a nursing mother weaning a baby. Step by step He shows us there is food that is Eternal and way more fulfilling and satisfying than the things here we cling to and hope in......
Anyway....for the last several weeks I've been reading Frankenstein out loud each morning, a chapter or more a day. Wow...that was such a fascinating story. I am so glad I read it.
Toward the beginning of the book Dr. Frankenstein says this:
The first of those sorrows which are sent to wean us from the earth, had visited her.....
From what I gather Mary Shelley was not a Christian. But isn't that quote beautiful? That's what the Lord does for us. Sorrows, hard things, disappointments, confusions, broken dreams...He uses all those things to wean us from this sickly planet and show us that it's only in Him that we find our heart's needs met. He is it. He is all we need. And I've noticed that He does wean us, gently, from this earth. Just like a nursing mother weaning a baby. Step by step He shows us there is food that is Eternal and way more fulfilling and satisfying than the things here we cling to and hope in......
January 5, 2009
This Year is Not That Year
Well, we are mid-way through our 18th year of home schooling. In all those years we've only had what I'd call One Golden Year.
What that means is
-one year where our marriage was thriving
-one year where my relationship with the Lord was thriving
-one year where we were quite comfortable financially
-one year where all the boys were still at home, but independent and creative enough that I had some free time. (As opposed to now where I have some free time, but it's intermingled with the heartache of a half-empty nest.)
-one year where all the boys liked their curriculum
-one year where I stayed on top of lesson plans and grading
-one year where school seemed fun for all of us-I was creative and we had a lot of hands-on activities.
-one year where the rivalry of siblings was at an all time low
-one year where I was able to keep the house fairly clean and felt organized and was able to plan healthy meals for our family
-one year where I felt like I wasn't stretched too thin by outside activities but wasn't a hermit either
-one year where I had tons of energy and felt great
-one year where I felt completely confident and was sure the boys were actually learning something
And all this during one. Single. School. Year! No wonder it seemed like a Golden Year.
I'd like to tell you this year is not that year. This year has been normal. It's been filled with weariness, doubts about curriculum, and piles of math papers waiting to be graded.
That year we should've been photographed and placed on the front cover of several, if not all, the home school magazines being published.
The amazing thing to me is this. We've had One Golden Year. If you do the math, that leaves 17 years of Not-So-Golden. However, even without piles of gold to stumble over, three of our sons have grown into young men who love Jesus. They love others. They hunger for the Word. They
have jobs they actually get paid to do and they can even read and write.
The Lord is able to Accomplish with or without the shiny stuff.
What that means is
-one year where our marriage was thriving
-one year where my relationship with the Lord was thriving
-one year where we were quite comfortable financially
-one year where all the boys were still at home, but independent and creative enough that I had some free time. (As opposed to now where I have some free time, but it's intermingled with the heartache of a half-empty nest.)
-one year where all the boys liked their curriculum
-one year where I stayed on top of lesson plans and grading
-one year where school seemed fun for all of us-I was creative and we had a lot of hands-on activities.
-one year where the rivalry of siblings was at an all time low
-one year where I was able to keep the house fairly clean and felt organized and was able to plan healthy meals for our family
-one year where I felt like I wasn't stretched too thin by outside activities but wasn't a hermit either
-one year where I had tons of energy and felt great
-one year where I felt completely confident and was sure the boys were actually learning something
And all this during one. Single. School. Year! No wonder it seemed like a Golden Year.
I'd like to tell you this year is not that year. This year has been normal. It's been filled with weariness, doubts about curriculum, and piles of math papers waiting to be graded.
That year we should've been photographed and placed on the front cover of several, if not all, the home school magazines being published.
The amazing thing to me is this. We've had One Golden Year. If you do the math, that leaves 17 years of Not-So-Golden. However, even without piles of gold to stumble over, three of our sons have grown into young men who love Jesus. They love others. They hunger for the Word. They
have jobs they actually get paid to do and they can even read and write.
The Lord is able to Accomplish with or without the shiny stuff.
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