August 23, 2008

Our School Principal

The Lord is a tough principal. We are a homeschooling family and as I tell the boys often, I am the teacher, but God is the principal. This year He took my original game plan and changed it all around. Had me pull away from somethings I was comfortable with and try some new things that are stretching me as a teacher. He has also revealled to me areas I needed to improve on. Talk about sitting in the Principal's office!! Then just this week, our third week of school, the Lord showed me why my son was loathing a subject. God's timing is always perfect and this time was no exception. My son was about to take a unit test and an end of the book test which he would have bombed due to him struggling with a couple of concepts. So I threw my teacher pride out the window and we took some steps backwards and are proceeding forward cautiously making extra sure that each lesson is cemented before proceeding to the next one. But the greatest result is the struggle between my son and me on this subject is gone. I understand now why he dreaded it and he is understanding that he was making it more complicated then it needed to be. Instead of butting heads, we are on the same team again. God is so good and I am learning to just trust more and more in His All-Seeing eyes.

When Thou Walkest By The Way......

The Bible in Deuteronomy 6:7 it says "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. " Today we had a very teachable moment. Snipp and Snapp have been working hard at building forts and hide-outs in the grove close to our home. This involves much wacking down of weeds and careful planning which one to leave standing for cover. Today they made a new path and hide-out and after showing them to me, we headed to the house. Yet when we got to the porch, I refused to let them in. They were covered with burdocks and other "sticky" seeds from plants. We spent the next 20 minutes carefully plucking them off, one by one. The Lord prompted me that this was one of those moments. So we talked how the "stickies" were like sin and you got to find each one and diligently cast it away. Sometimes they seemed to get right back on you if you didn't throw them far enough away. In the process of cleaning them off, I ended up getting several "stickies" on myself!! So we chatted about other people's sin rubbing off on us or as they say "You can't run with a skunk and smell like a rose." These insightful little fellows then perceeded to explain to me that it was like just a little bit of dirt make water too dirty to eat. Oh, how I pray that their heart understands what their minds has begun to grasp.