Can I have a Redo!?!

I am getting more and more sporadic about posting on my blog - we'll just say I am hibernating! (It is winter after all, right!?!)  We had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families.  How about you?  Was this holiday season hectic or relaxing?

This is what it looks like around the Farm here lately!

Todd and F.J., our new calves.

Salty.  She was the only horse that cooperated for pictures!

Coconut, Babe, Susie, & Benny!  We have had them for a few months, but they haven't visited the blog yet.

We were super excited to do a little decorating for Christmas.  It's so exciting!  This picture is of the basketballs and footballs our Home School Co-op purchased for our local Christian Care Center's toy drive.  We used some of the proceeds from a garage sale we had in October.  I am proud of all the kids who helped.  (We might have got carried away when we were adding icicles to the tree! LOL)

So Friday, December 6, was a big day for me.  It was my first time to go to a prison to minister.  I was looking forward to it as much as I was anxious about it.  The unknown is always a little scary.  I am going to write about my experience soon, but let's just say, I will definitely be going back again!

My sister-in-law, Ruth Anne, and I took our girls to see The Whimsical (Seussical the Musical) for the first time.  It was really cute and, as you can see from the picture above, decorated very festive for pictures.

What a great holiday season!

I have had something on my heart for a few weeks.  I keep writing a post about it, then deleting it.  Here is the problem, I hate confrontation with everything that is inside me.  I have a feeling some might see this as confrontational, but I suppose anything could be confrontational because everyone will not agree on everything.  I am simply trying to obey the Holy Spirit, even when I am unsure of the outcome.  I pray this is received that way. 

I have had the opportunity for mothers of young children to ask me for advice about mothering.  Not because I'm good at it (Trust me, I know my failures well!), but because I am very passionate about it.  My greatest desire in life is to please God in my marriage, and raise children who know Jesus Christ as their Savior and know the Word of God.  It seems simple, but I guarantee you it is very hard work!  You have to have vision and determination, because there is a constant pull on your life to be just like the rest of the world.  That road would be so much easier to walk down, because that road is wide.

The thing is, when women have asked me for advice on how to raise children who honor their parents and love God, I have skirted the one thing that I felt like I should really say.  I'd rather avoid confrontation and keep the peace.  Shame on me because the mothers were sincerely seeking advice!  Honestly, if I could go back and redo some conversations, this is more what it would look like.

If you want Godly children who trust that you have their best interest and future at heart, you have to raise them.  Y-O-U!  Not someone else.  Not the television or the gaming system.  Y-O-U!  I mean working day in and day out, putting every bit of effort you have in to helping them form a relationship with the Lord and cultivating a passion for His Word.

Here is a staggering thought: From Kindergarten to 12th grade, a child who attends public school is being taught by someone else for 14,000 hours.  Did you get that?  This gives them thousands of hours being taught a purpose for their life that someone else has come up with.  Our children are immersed in a society that says that education is all that you need in life to succeed, but THAT IS A LIE. 

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.  Acts 4:13

As far as I can tell from scripture, what we need to succeed in life is just to be with Jesus.

Here are some scripture to ponder on.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
⁶ “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

1 Corinthians 11:1
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
(They need to see God's commandments walked out day after day.  Children learn by example.)

Proverbs 23:26
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

I have many women in my family who are public school teachers that I love and respect.  (As a matter of fact, they are some of my dearest friends!)  I know these women are good at their job and care deeply for their students.  We can agree to disagree about our educational choices, but we do agree on one thing and that is this: not everyone can or will home school.  This is not an attack on public school teachers or anyone who sends their children to school.  This is a suggestion for a mother who may have never thought about this option before.  I WANT TO MAKE THIS POINT VERY CLEAR.  (Keep in mind that this is my response to someone asking for advice.)   

I was listening to a sermon one day on how to disciple your children.  The preacher said that there is a call for Christian women to rethink the outcome of someone else having as much, or in some cases more, influence on your children than you and your husband.  This was very thought provoking to me.  If you are a Christian, who desires with all your heart to gain your child's heart as in Proverbs 23:26, one of the greatest way to do that is to be with them everyday, see their struggles, and help them grow into Godly men and women by training them in the Word of God.

Just to be fair, on the other end of the spectrum, you can have homeschooling parents who don't spend time in the Word with their children daily, or spend time giving them an education or Godly character, and that path is not effective either.  Maybe the parents think they are sheltering their children, but that is not what they need.  They need you to equip them for a life of serving Jesus Christ.   

So to the moms of young children who have asked me what I think I could share with them about raising children, this is my answer.......EMBRACE YOUR PLACE AS A WIFE and AS A MOM.   And, have you ever considered homeschooling?  No one cares more about your children's future than you do!