A 30-DAY CHALLENGE

Does anyone want to join me in a challenge? I found out about it through reading some blogs and thought it would be great. Revive Our Hearts, a ministry founded by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, designed this challege to encourage wives to bless their husbands. You can find all the information at this website. So, is anyone willing to join me and blog about the experience? I'll be starting tomorrow since it will be September 1st and there's 30 days in September. Come on, it'll be fun.

TAGGED AGAIN?

Well, I've been tagged again by Karen (NY). This one is fun and I've seen it on a lot of other people's blogs.

1. Five things in my freezer ~

Homemade bread, banana muffins and banana bread made out of freshly ground wheat. Yum!

After Eights mints - my dh knows I like those :)

Various ice packs from different things.

A cup of ice cubes on the door (for little ones who can't reach).

My son says to tell you we have those pop ice popsicles that you buy unfrozen. Great deal at Aldi but they never put in enough grape ones.

2. Five things in my closet ~

Like Karen, I too, have my wedding dress up on a shelf, carefully sealed and not opened since 1996.

A box stuffed with journals from 1990.

A bag of Christmas stuff that I bought on sale after Christmas last year.

A box and a file box of papers someone needs to go through and throw out (I won't metion any names but he shares the closet :)

Suitcases - how boring.

3. Five things in my car ~

Some library books I'm sure.

My bible and journal that I read at the YMCA every morning.

Little House on the Prairie on tape.

Three yellow noodles - for the pool you know.

An empty tissue box.

4. Five things in my purse.

Paper I need to throw out.

A pad of paper for my lists.

Envelopes for the grocery fund, homeschool fund, etc.

Gum wrappers I'm sure.

And obviously my wallet and checkbook.

There. That's all you need to know about me...for now.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

Ruthanne has tagged me with this meme. What's a meme? Well, it's just a questionnaire that you answer on your blog and then pass it on. This one is interesting and makes for good discussion~

1. What is one homeschooling book you have enjoyed?
I will break the rules and give two answers. I really enjoyed A Mom Just Like You by Vickie Farris. I like reading about how other homeschooling moms really get everything done and what their convictions are. I especially liked her very honest chapters that discussed their decisions to not use birth control, their struggles with miscarriages and the joy of having so many children. I also liked A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola. My introduction to homeschooling was through The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. However, the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling has always had more appeal to me and Karen's book is so homey and describes homeschooling in such an organic, everyday life way.

2. One resource you wouldn't be without.
Other than the Bible, I'd have to say the Internet. It is simply amazing all the stuff you can access - and a lot of it without cost! Just yesterday I was studying the Bible and used the Internet to 1)Read some online sermons by John Piper, 2)Read the commentary of Matthew Henry, and 3)Read parallel translations of several verses. Twenty years ago, or even ten, you couldn't have done that. And with DSL, it takes you no time at all.

3. One resource you wish you'd never bought.
Well, even though I really like Veritas Press, I wish I had never bought their comprehension books that went along with the early reader books like Corduroy and Blueberries for Sal, etc. I just thought of them as too much busy work. They didn't work for us.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year.
I have to say the library. We go every Friday and check out at least 30-40 books a week. Along with that, the books we read aloud last year were great. That is, hands down, my favorite thing about homeschooling. We started the Anne of Green Gables series and are now on book 4. We also discovered the Hank the Cowdog series thanks to Cumberland Books and Rick Saenz. Those books are hilarious.

5. One resource you will be using next year.
We just started "next year". We'll be using Saxon for the first time. I had used Singapore for my oldest son but I needed something more comprehensive and since I bought it used I got the Dive CD for my oldest son who's doing Saxon 6/5. He's watching the lessons on CD-Rom while I'm teaching Saxon 1 to the younger two. So far, one week into it, it's going great.

And like Ruthanne, I do hope to be using my sewing machine more this year. I'm realizing as my daughter gets older (she's 5), the options for modest clothing are slowly disappearing, unless I want to pay an arm and a leg. I think there's a couple easy patterns out there that I could do. We'll see.

6. One resource you would like to buy.
It's not a resource - it's a piece of furniture. I'd like a big bookcase and an unlimited budget for Henty books and good hardback copies of the Little House series, the Anne series, and others.

7. One resource you wish existed.
It's probably out there, but I haven't found it. I wish there was a curriculum out there that taught art and music, possibly together, in a way that I could do it with different age groups and not spend too much on materials.

8. One homeschooling catalog you like to read.
I have several. I like Cumberland Books, Rainbow Resource, Veritas Press and Visionforum catalogs. Better yet, I like to go to my local homeschool bookstores and just look, touch, read, and dream.

9. One homeschooling website you use regularly.
I probably use the homeschool curriculum review websites regularly but really, I like to visit my online friends who homeschool especially Ruthanne, Ann V., the ladies at Choosing Home, Cindy, Karen, Karen from NY, Roberta, and others. If I go to too many homeschooling websites I can get easily stressed out.

10. Tag five people with this meme.
Ok, it might not be five, but I'm sure these people haven't answered this meme:
Lauren
Denise
(These people might not even read this but I'll remind them when I see them in person!)

A WILLINGNESS TO BE NOTHING AND KNOW NOTHING BUT HIM WHO IS ALL IN ALL

from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers - August 14

"Am I fully prepared to allow God to grip me by His power and do a work in me that is truly worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me - sanctification is God's idea of what He wants to do for me. But He has to get me into the state of mind and spirit where I will alow Him to sanctify me completely, whatever the cost (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)"

from the same - August 4

"God's friendship is with people who know their poverty. He can accomplish nothing with the person who thinks that he is of use to God. As Christians we are not here for our own purpose at all - we are here for the purpose of God, and the two are not the same."

from Ken Boa's ministry newsletter, Reflections

"Renunciation is an attitude of the heart; it is a matter of apprehending our spiritual poverty rather than a commitment to material poverty. Nevertheless, it does involve abnegating our right to possess anything as well as a looser grip on the things we already possess in order that they do not possess us. This includes not only property, but position, friendships, and even reputation. Listen to a portion of another prayer by Tozer: 'Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream.'"

from Elisabeth Elliot's Keep a Quiet Heart

"You can never lose what you have offered to Christ."

EXPECTATIONS AND GRACE

I've been having some conversations recently about these two things and I have some questions. Is it right to have expectations? Of yourself? Of others? Where does grace fit in? I have a good friend, an older woman, who often mentors me in living the Christian life. I met her in a bible study that focused on grace. We often talk about how to walk in the Spirit and how to live a life completely dependent on grace. The questions come when we talk about our church. Our pastor just started a series on membership expectations. Our church not only has a statement of faith but a list of core values and membership expectations. My friend is not too high on these expectations because she feels that encourages legalism. When I talked to my husband about it, he said he thought expectations were good. He was in a leadership position at a former church where people were kind of slacking off and any attempt at exhortation was seen as legalism. I know there has to be a balance between these two things but how do you strike it? On a personal level and on a church level.

I've been reading Jonathan Edwards' resolutions. He wrote 70 resolutions, almost goals, that he wanted to strive toward. I haven't read a lot of Edwards' other writings, but I do know that he did not preach a legalistic gospel. Maybe Edwards' had the right balance. I've recently been writing out my own resolutions. I'm being careful not to slide into legalism and false guilt because I know myself too well. Ever since becoming a Christian, God has been weaning me from a performance-oriented faith. I'm trying to find this balance. I think it exists and that's why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 15:10 -

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me."

What do you think?

WISDOM FROM ANNE (REALLY L.M. MONTGOMERY)

From Anne of Avonlea, conversation between Anne and Mrs. Allan ~

(Mrs. Allan) - "...You've worked very hard this past year and you have succeeded."
(Anne) - "Oh, I don't know. I've come so far short in so many things. I haven't done what I meant to do when I began to teach last fall. . . . I haven't lived up to my ideals."
"None of us ever do," said Mrs. Allan with a sigh. "But then, Anne, you know what Lowell says, 'Not failure but low aim is crime.' We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great. Hold fast to your ideals, Anne."


Anne, reflecting on her past two years teaching at Avonlea School ~

"For two years she had worked earnestly and faithfully, making many mistakes and learning from them. She had had her reward. She had taught her scholars something, but she felt that they had taught her much more . . . lessons of tenderness, self-control, innocent wisdom, lore of childish hearts. Perhaps she had not succeeded in 'inspiring' any wonderful ambitions in her pupils, but she had taught them, more by her own sweet personality than by all her careful precepts, that it was good and necessary in the years that were before them to live their lives finely and graciously, holding fast to truth and courtesy and kindness, keeping aloof from all that savored of falsehood and meanness and vulgarity. They were, perhaps, all unconscious of having learned such lessons; but they would remember and practice them long after they had forgotten the captial of Afghanistan and the dates of the Wars of the Roses."

I wish I knew more of L.M. Montgomery. She poured so much beauty and wisdom into these books. I'm grateful that I can appreciate it now. If I had read these books as an unsaved teenager they wouldn't have had nearly the impact they have now. I like these two quotations because they put into perspective what successful teaching really is. I've been thinking about success lately and how it should be defined and quantified - in God's eyes, not mine. Anne started out with very high and lofty ideals. I am very much like Anne and I suspect most homeschoolers can relate as well. She had dreams of how she would impact her students. She realized after two years of teaching what a lot of homeschoolers come to realize, hopefully sooner than later - teaching and pouring your life into your students (children) changes the teacher more than the student. You realize that real success is defined by changed hearts - yours and, Lord willing, your students' (childrens'). This morning I came across a post that speaks to this very thing. Thank you Kari, from Healed Waters.


Another conversation between Anne and Mrs. Allan ~

(Anne) - "...Perhaps college may be around the bend in the road, but I haven't got to the bend yet and I don't think much about it lest I might grow discontented."
(Mrs. Allan) - "Well, I should like to see you go to college, Anne; but if you never do, don't be discontented about it. We make our own lives wherever we are, after all . . . college can only help us to do it more easily. They are broad or narrow according to what we put into them, not what we get out. Life is rich and full here . . . everywhere . . . if we can only learn how to open our whole hearts to its richness and fulness."

I love Mrs. Allan. Her character has so much depth and wisdom. No matter what Anne is struggling with, Mrs. Allan comes along as a faithful older woman and imparts words of wisdom and beauty. Her advice to Anne here is very profound. The depth and impact of our lives consists in what we put into them not what we get out. Sometimes I wish there was more excitement in my life, but what I really mean is I wish I were doing something more profound in the world's eyes, something that would make a mark. God knows better. He knows that would only feed my pride and fleshly desire to impress others. Mrs. Allan says that anyone's life can be rich and full if we only learn to embrace it fully. In a later book Anne is talking with an old college friend about she's been doing with her life. The friend laments that Anne had given up writing and the noteriety that could have come from that. Anne wisely responds that she hasn't given up writing. She's writing something different now - living epistles. Her children were her legacy. She and Gilbert end up raising six children who would have more impact on the world than a writing career ever would. Let us never underestimate the quiet impact a God fearing mother and father can have on their children and the generations to come. What we're doing "in the trenches" really does matter.


Anne's reflections on what she has learned at Redmond, from Anne of the Island ~

"I think," said Anne slowly, "that I really have learned to look upon each little hindrance as a jest and each great one as the foreshadowing of victory. Summing up, I think that is what Redmond has given me."

I don't know if L.M. Montgomery was a Christian but this quote has a lot of underlying spiritual meaning for me. For the Christian, we know that God works everything in our lives for our good. Everything that comes into our lives is from the hand of God, even trials, setbacks and suffering. Anne says that every great hindrance is a foreshadowing of victory. I think God wants us to think of our troubles in this way too. God is working through our troubles to make us more like Christ. We also know from 2 Corinthians 4:17 that, "...our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." I've been experiencing some "soul trouble" this past week. I experienced what I would've called a failure. It was the worst thing that I thought could've come out of the situation. But God has been producing a spiritual victory in me out of this "failure". This brings me back to the definition of success. I am not equipped to define what true success really is. And in my desire to always define and quantify my experiences, I miss the real lessons that God wants me to learn. I need to get my eyes off myself and fix them on what is unseen. As Mrs. Allan says, I need to open my heart to all the richness and fulness of life that is already right in front of me.

MY DAILY FOCUS

June 28 Morning - "Looking to Jesus" Hebrews 12:2 - from Charles Spurgeon's devotional Morning and Evening

It is always the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus. But Satan's work is just the opposite; he is constantly trying to make us look at ourselves instead of Christ. He insinuates, "Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you do not have the joy of His children; you have such a wavering hold on Jesus." All these are thoughts about self, and we will never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: He tells us that we are nothing, but that Christ is everything. Remember, therefore, it is not your hold of Christ that saves you - it is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves you - it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, although that is the instrument - it is Christ's blood and merits. Therefore, do not look so much to your hand with which you are grasping Christ as to Christ; do not look to your hope but to Jesus, the source of your hope; do not look to your faith, but to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of your faith. We will never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our deeds, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we are to overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by "looking to Jesus." Keep your eye simply on Him; let His death, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession be fresh upon your mind. When you waken in the morning look to Him; when you lie down at night look to Him. Do not let your hopes or fears come between you and Jesus; follow hard after Him, and He will never fail you.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness:
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.