We switched schools this year. My oldest daughter did her first year of school at a charter school in town last year. I chose that school because it is a great school. This school year my husband said he would really rather our kids (now 1st grade and kindergarten) go to our local public school.
I've turned over in my head the idea of homeschooling but my husband said no to that. I'd love to send my kid's to private school if we could afford it but we can't, so that eliminated that. The next best thing, besides homeschooling, for me would be a charter school. They tend to be smaller schools with higher academic achievements and without a lot of the liberal agenda (yup, I said it!) that public schools have.
It was REALLY hard, I mean REALLY REALLY hard to submit to my husband in the area of school for our children. Probably harder than any other situation. These are my kids we are talking about. I want the best for them. I got on my high horse and stated that, obviously, I knew better seeing as I'm with them all day. I felt that he was just being stingy with money and trying to save a buck at the cost of our children's future. Are you laughing at me yet? It's OK, I'm laughing as I write it. But I really felt that way at that time. I brought up the subject often with my husband to try and get him to see my side. His stand was that lots of kids go to public school and turn out fine. To me that just wasn't a good enough argument. Lots of kids grow up in poverty struck homes or abusive homes and turn out fine. Again, feel free to laugh at how emotional and ridiculous I was being.
So the next thing I did was to pray that God would change my husband to see my side. Go ahead, keep laughing at me. Do you think God changed HIS mind? If you know me personally, you'd know that my kids were enrolled in the local public school, so no, God didn't change my husband's mind. Instead, God changed my mind and heart.
My conversation with God went something like this:
God- Whose kids are these anyway? Didn't you dedicate them to me?
Me- Gee, God, when you put it that way.... the kids belong to you. But don't you want the best for them too, like me?
God- What if this is the best for you kids? Did you stop to think that maybe I know what I'm doing? That I have a great plan in all of this?
Me- Not really, no. How can public school be the best for my kids? I want them to grow up to be Godly people. To do good things like serve other, tell other's about you, be a light to the world when they grow up.
God- Why do they have to wait until they grow up to do those things?
Me- OK true. They can be a light to the world now. Probably even in their school. But what about all the ugly stuff they will see? More kids means more influences on them. I feel like I'm going to have to spend what little time I have with them each day counteracting all the negative they got at school.
God- Just a small part will be negative. Which they will face at some point in their life anyway. It's better for them to deal with those things now when they have your influence and guidance instead of when they are grown and need to make those choices on their own. They will be better prepared for being a teen and adult.
Me- sure. But, it's such a big change. I feel lost in the shuffle. Out of control really. Can you help me have peace about this?
God- Of course. I'm going to make sure you have great families around you who also send their kids to that school. Did you happen to notice how awesome those kids are?
Me- I DO think all those kids are awesome. And they have been in public school for years. Even the kids that are now in Jr. High and went to that public school are on fire for you and are great kids! Thank you Lord for helping me see that my kids are exactly where YOU want them to be. Thank you Lord for settling my heart about all this. I should probably go apologize to my husband huh?
God- Ya think?
Since that conversation with God I have been abundantly blessed with other moms who have sent their kids to the same school coming along side me and answering all of my questions.
I've been praying that God would use my kids in that school to show the other students God's love. The second day of school my daughter told her 1st grade class that God loves them, that He is everywhere and that they should come to our church. God really has a plan. It REALLY is great than our own. Trust in God's plan for your life. You will not regret it.
************Please do not leave me comments about why homeschooling or private school or whatever kind of school is better. There is good and bad about all schools. I would encourage each set of parents to pray about the decision and make sure that is what God wants for you kids. I know many of my friend that have done that and none of them are all in private or all home schooled or all public. Each situation and each child is different because God has a unique plan for each child's life. For us it's public school. And we really are loving it and seeing God's hand in it.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Me, God or satan? In that order.
I've been trying to be acutely aware of God's hand on my life. In trying to keep that perspective daily, I've realized a few things.
1. We do A LOT to ruin God's plans for our lives.
2. Satan plays a part in all this. Read Job 1:1-12
3. God has His hands on a lot more than we give Him credit for.
So I've come up with a great question that we need to ask ourselves if we are trying to see God's hand in our lives. That question is "Me, God or Satan?"
First we need to look to see if we are the ones causing the problems. For example, if I were speeding in my car and I got pulled over by a police officer. Satan did not cause the police officer to give me a ticket, I DID. Right?
How often would we like to blame things going wrong on Satan? I'd love to say that Satan is the cause of every time I lose my temper and yell at my kids. But that is really just my fault.
Another situation in which we would like to blame Satan is when things break. My car broke last week and the first thing I did was blame Satan. See, I had just gotten done with a whole day of learning how to be a great leader at my church. I got the opportunity to worship God and make plans to start a new ministry at our church for our community. So my first reaction was to blame Satan when my car broke. He was trying to ruin this wonderful day for me. But then I stopped and thought, did I have anything to do with this? The answer was yes. I ignored the rattling sound in my car. To be honest, even the check engine light was on. So was it really Satan trying to steal my joy or me not taking care of the maintenance of my vehicle?
On the other hand, there was one evening when my family was sitting down to dinner. I had been praying for God to help show Himself to me and an amazing thing happened. At dinner each night we go around the table and each say a prayer. Youngest to oldest. Most of the time my 3 year old just says the word "amen" and then we move on to my 5 year old. But this night, my 3 year old started to thank God clearly and correctly for several things. Then it was my 5 year old's turn. That boy usually has such sweet prayers that melt my heart but tonight it was even sweeter. He was praising God! It went on for a few minutes and then my 6 year old daughter who's prayers mostly consist of "Thank you Lord for this food, amen" started to praise God also. I was already in tears by the time it was my turn and how could I do anything but thank our Creator for this moment and everything else? It continued with my husband. While he was saying his prayer I strongly felt the Holy Spirit there with us. God answered my prayers to see Him that night. Absolutely. Right after dinner, however, our freezer and refrigerator broke. It was not our fault, It definitely wasn't God's fault. I truly believe that Satan tried to ruin our special family moment. But my husband and I were aware of that and praised God out loud while rushing around trying to save our frozen and refrigerated food.
I believe that every good thing is from God. But, sometimes I believe that God does things that seem bad to us which turn out to be blessings. Take for example the other day. My husband leaves town for several days often. So it was not a big surprise that he had to leave town this week. But we still didn't have my car or refrigerator completely fixed (yup, both my fridge and car broke the same week). My husband is great at fixing things so he tried to fix both. He thought he had the car running enough to drive it to his uncle's car shop where they could finish the job that week while he was gone. He decided to take the greyhound bus to save money (and leave me with his truck) so we could buy the part for the fridge that we needed. That morning, the car wouldn't start again. So I had to load the kids and his stuff into the truck and drive him to the bus station which was suppose to be right around the corner from his uncle's shop. But the station was closed down. If he had driven to his uncle's shop and then walked (in 100 degree heat) to the bus station only to find out that it was shut down, he wouldn't have made the bus in time. I believe that God made sure that my car did not start that morning, knowing that my husband wouldn't have made it in time to get to the new location (even if I drove down to pick him up and drive him there). Because I drove him to the station and then to the new location, he made it in plently of time to depart. By the way, he said he loved taking the bus. He slept half the way and then played traveling games with the other passengers. How great is God?!
God DOES take care of us. He has provided us with a friend who stored my freezer food until another friend of ours could lend us his extra refrigerator. He provided us with friends who will trailer my car down to our uncle's shop where they will fix it. Everything will be taken care of and most importantly, God will be glorified for what He did for us.
Lord, I pray that you open our eyes to see every little detail that you do for us daily. I pray that we remember to praise you in every situation. Help us to cry out to you when we need to. And to take responsibility for our wrongs when we are the cause. Help us to clearly see Satan's tricks to steal our joy. Thank you Lord for this day. Amen.
1. We do A LOT to ruin God's plans for our lives.
2. Satan plays a part in all this. Read Job 1:1-12
3. God has His hands on a lot more than we give Him credit for.
So I've come up with a great question that we need to ask ourselves if we are trying to see God's hand in our lives. That question is "Me, God or Satan?"
First we need to look to see if we are the ones causing the problems. For example, if I were speeding in my car and I got pulled over by a police officer. Satan did not cause the police officer to give me a ticket, I DID. Right?
How often would we like to blame things going wrong on Satan? I'd love to say that Satan is the cause of every time I lose my temper and yell at my kids. But that is really just my fault.
Another situation in which we would like to blame Satan is when things break. My car broke last week and the first thing I did was blame Satan. See, I had just gotten done with a whole day of learning how to be a great leader at my church. I got the opportunity to worship God and make plans to start a new ministry at our church for our community. So my first reaction was to blame Satan when my car broke. He was trying to ruin this wonderful day for me. But then I stopped and thought, did I have anything to do with this? The answer was yes. I ignored the rattling sound in my car. To be honest, even the check engine light was on. So was it really Satan trying to steal my joy or me not taking care of the maintenance of my vehicle?
On the other hand, there was one evening when my family was sitting down to dinner. I had been praying for God to help show Himself to me and an amazing thing happened. At dinner each night we go around the table and each say a prayer. Youngest to oldest. Most of the time my 3 year old just says the word "amen" and then we move on to my 5 year old. But this night, my 3 year old started to thank God clearly and correctly for several things. Then it was my 5 year old's turn. That boy usually has such sweet prayers that melt my heart but tonight it was even sweeter. He was praising God! It went on for a few minutes and then my 6 year old daughter who's prayers mostly consist of "Thank you Lord for this food, amen" started to praise God also. I was already in tears by the time it was my turn and how could I do anything but thank our Creator for this moment and everything else? It continued with my husband. While he was saying his prayer I strongly felt the Holy Spirit there with us. God answered my prayers to see Him that night. Absolutely. Right after dinner, however, our freezer and refrigerator broke. It was not our fault, It definitely wasn't God's fault. I truly believe that Satan tried to ruin our special family moment. But my husband and I were aware of that and praised God out loud while rushing around trying to save our frozen and refrigerated food.
I believe that every good thing is from God. But, sometimes I believe that God does things that seem bad to us which turn out to be blessings. Take for example the other day. My husband leaves town for several days often. So it was not a big surprise that he had to leave town this week. But we still didn't have my car or refrigerator completely fixed (yup, both my fridge and car broke the same week). My husband is great at fixing things so he tried to fix both. He thought he had the car running enough to drive it to his uncle's car shop where they could finish the job that week while he was gone. He decided to take the greyhound bus to save money (and leave me with his truck) so we could buy the part for the fridge that we needed. That morning, the car wouldn't start again. So I had to load the kids and his stuff into the truck and drive him to the bus station which was suppose to be right around the corner from his uncle's shop. But the station was closed down. If he had driven to his uncle's shop and then walked (in 100 degree heat) to the bus station only to find out that it was shut down, he wouldn't have made the bus in time. I believe that God made sure that my car did not start that morning, knowing that my husband wouldn't have made it in time to get to the new location (even if I drove down to pick him up and drive him there). Because I drove him to the station and then to the new location, he made it in plently of time to depart. By the way, he said he loved taking the bus. He slept half the way and then played traveling games with the other passengers. How great is God?!
God DOES take care of us. He has provided us with a friend who stored my freezer food until another friend of ours could lend us his extra refrigerator. He provided us with friends who will trailer my car down to our uncle's shop where they will fix it. Everything will be taken care of and most importantly, God will be glorified for what He did for us.
Lord, I pray that you open our eyes to see every little detail that you do for us daily. I pray that we remember to praise you in every situation. Help us to cry out to you when we need to. And to take responsibility for our wrongs when we are the cause. Help us to clearly see Satan's tricks to steal our joy. Thank you Lord for this day. Amen.
Monday, August 6, 2012
I am loved by my Savior!
I had to take time off from blogging because it was getting in the way of my family life and quiet time with God. I was getting so wrapped up in "the will of God" that I was loosing sight of just being with Him. Being able to pray to my Savior and feel His love surround me is a feeling that I crave. Yes, I want to dive into all the different aspects of being a Follower of Christ. But I need Him as my friend more. I need to take the time out of everything else and focus completely on praising Him, thanking and acknowledging Him for all my blessings and reading about all He has done for me on the cross.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
Christ loves us. What more do we need in this life? Do I REALLY need to be a biblical scholler to be a Christ follower? Do I need to know the bible backwards and forwards? Or can I just stop and feel loved by my Savior?
This next week is going to be hectic. My 2 older children are starting school and my church is hosting the Global Leadership Summit on telecast. We can get wrapped up in just making sure we are spending our required 10 minutes a day in prayer and reading the bible, not retaining any of it and go on to the more "important things".
I pray that this week, BECAUSE it is hectic, I spend more time in the word, more time celebrating the blessings that God has given me and remember to show Christ's love to others.
My Gorgeous Family
Lord God, I want to thank you for my beautiful family. That I live in an amazing town with amazing friends and family there. That I have an incredible church filled with Christians who know what it means to walk with You daily. I pray that you strengthen their walk with You and show them your unconditional love this week. Amen.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
Christ loves us. What more do we need in this life? Do I REALLY need to be a biblical scholler to be a Christ follower? Do I need to know the bible backwards and forwards? Or can I just stop and feel loved by my Savior?
This next week is going to be hectic. My 2 older children are starting school and my church is hosting the Global Leadership Summit on telecast. We can get wrapped up in just making sure we are spending our required 10 minutes a day in prayer and reading the bible, not retaining any of it and go on to the more "important things".
I pray that this week, BECAUSE it is hectic, I spend more time in the word, more time celebrating the blessings that God has given me and remember to show Christ's love to others.
My Fun Parents and Siblings
Lord God, I want to thank you for my beautiful family. That I live in an amazing town with amazing friends and family there. That I have an incredible church filled with Christians who know what it means to walk with You daily. I pray that you strengthen their walk with You and show them your unconditional love this week. Amen.
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