Planning Ahead -More about Homeschool-

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We know those days will certainly come, those days where you are sick, or one of your children needs to be taken to a doctor’s appointment, or your husband asks you to go with him somewhere in the middle of the day, or your parents visit you from out of town.  (Hopefully those days do not happen very often!)

So here is one idea, as you plan ahead your school year…

Plan ahead which subjects can’t be put off, what is priority for you.

Math has always been for me a priority because I do not like it, (and my children do not love it either). They had to work Math 5 days a week if one week day was missing they had to work on Saturdays.

What about reading? Children can keep up with their reading even in those days, maybe you will let them not write an essay about it, but the reading must be completed.

With little ones, specially, it is very important to keep up doing math and reviewing their memory work during summer, so what I am doing this summer vacation, (in August we will be out of our country for  a month) I will be taking her review math cards, for Math and Bible, it will take us only ten minutes per day to do this, and it will be a good thing to do.

Another note about Math. Consider extending your Math work all year round, extend their math through the summer, this will  help them keep up with all they have learned. Three month without math is way too much. You will certainly feel frustrated at the beginning of the new school year as you find out that they forgot their multiplication tables!

I remember, with sadness, that at a certain point in our homeschool, when my older children were all in grammar stage, I put aside some times our early morning devotions, at least I would make them shorter, because there was so much to do. The Lord was merciful and chastened me, and since that day, giving  preeminence to God’s Word has been on my top list of priorities. I do not want them to learn that they can put away, or make shorter, their devotions because of time. If something needed to be changed, then it was the waking up time, not the length of our Bible reading and praying every morning. (If you are wondering where is my husband in all this…he leaves home very, very early)

If you want to do a nice Home Planning Notebook, visit this place. I think I would love to have one!  (but to be true, I am not doing it, I am all happy and settled with my journal!)

Well, I am off  to finish (hopefully today) rearranging some book shelves.

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Tomorrow, don’t miss visiting this place, my friend Diane who blogs at Theology for Girls, will be my guest blogger. She is a lovely lady with a passion for our Lord and sound doctrine. I am very happy and humbled that she accepted my invitation. She will be sharing about prayer. (Summer has been all about prayer in our home)

And for the next coming Fridays, I will have a different guest sharing about prayer, as well.

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Our Homeschooling Goals

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 This time of the year is planning time for Moms who homeschool, but most of all, I think Summer should be a time for us to make an effort to examine our motives, (obviously this is best when done with your husband, the headmaster of your homeschool!)

Why are we homeschooling our children?
What keeps me up and going every day?  

There is one book in particular that I have read many, many times now, always in the summer, and it helps me focus on what I believe is the heart of homeschooling, it is entitled When You Rise Up. a Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling, by Dr. R.C Sproul Jr.

If you are homeschooling and haven’t read this book, I would love to encourage you to read it, it will be like honey to your soul.

Besides reading and searching my heart, and praying, and organizing shelves with books  and shopping online for more, and register my children for new online classes, I take the time to go through the goals our husband and I  have set  for our homeschool.

So here they are, from the archives (September 17, 2009) some have been added later.

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My husband and I drafted some of these goals in the year 2006, we have been updating them since then; now I want to share them with you.

Maybe you are thinking about starting to homeschool, or maybe you are weary after some years of doing it and need to be reminded of all the goals, that I am sure , you set before your eyes one day. I am sure I will come back many a  days to add more goals as my children keep on growing.

May God help us achieve them!

1. Raise men and women who honor God and fear his commandments.

2. Raise men and women with godly character qualities, virtue, honor, responsibility, truth, love, faithfulness, honesty, hard workers, merciful, generous.

3. Raise men and women who will know by heart the Scriptures, that can make them wise unto salvation.

4. Raise men and women prepared to make right  decisions and stand firm on them.

5. Raise men and women who marry Christians, and build godly families.

6. Raise men and women who  love to study, read, learn; capable of teaching.

7. Raise men and women able to love and appreciate aesthetics; music, arts, literature.

8. Raise men and women capable of expressing clearly  their thoughts and defend their beliefs, both, verbally and  written.

9. Raise men and women who will leave a heritage of godly principles to their children and   grandchildren.

10. Raise men and women who’d love their Mom and Dad until the day they’d be taken away to their home in Heaven.

11. Raise men and women who will be able to understand that God’s Sovereignty has shaped our world and our history up to this day.

12. Raise men and women able to communicate in more than two languages, to be able to share the gospel in different places, and different circumstances.

13. Raise men and women willing to serve others, willing  to live with open hands, always ready to give.

14. Teach our children that their best friends will always be at home.

15. Teach them to be godly fathers and mothers. Our young men need to be taught how to be providers and our women need to be taught how to be homekeepers.

16. Love the elderly and come to them. Be wise enough to listen to them and take their advice.

17. Do not walk in the way of the sinners.

18. Be able to discern sound doctrine from false teaching.

19…

 What are some of your main goals when raising your children? 

Please share!

I Love Jesus

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All of us have seen a sign like this one everywhere, from earrings to tattoos; but most of the time I have seen it it breaks my heart and to be true it also makes me mad, because many (I do not want to use a universal statement here, although I am tempted….) of those who wear it live as haters of Jesus, and bring shame to the precious name of my Savior.

Jesus said,  
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”
Now… Do you truly love Jesus?
 Do you even know what  His commandments are for us?

So, please…. search your heart before wearing a T-shirt with a logo like this, and please, do not let your children wear it if they are walking as Covenant breakers.

The Only Safe Way to Look Back

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“What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me?” 
Psalm 116:12

The Christian, as he journeys onwards in the pathway of life, 
ought frequently to look back, 
and standing, as it were, on the shadowy side of the hill, 
review the way by which God has led him. 
If we would keep alive our gratitude-–
if we would have it to increase more and more, until, 
like a holy flame, it burns within us–
we must often, 
in thought, 
retrace the varied turnings and windings of our earthly pilgrimage. 
We are so prone, amid our daily duties and our converse with the world, 
to forget and overlook the benefits received, 
that only by a careful and frequent retrospect, 
can we continue, 
from day to day, 
cherishing a spirit of true and ever-increasing thankfulness to God. 
But, the oftener we make the review, 
the greater cause will we have for saying, with David, 
“Who am I, O Lord God, 
and what is my father’s house, 
that you have brought me hitherto?”
 The only safe way to look back is remembering all the benefits we have received from God’s hands. It is safe to stop frequently, and carefully look back to count all the benefits we have received from our Heavenly Father, unmerited benefits,flowing from the throne of grace.
 
Today I am looking back with a grateful heart, and I will try to do the impossible, count His endless gifts…as I stand in awe at His amazing grace.


637. Lettuce grown in my friend’s garden. Delicious!
638. Tears and hope.
639. Friends sending virtual flowers.
640. Lesson plans ready.
641. Dinner with friends.
642. My children encouraging my husband and I to go out on a date.
643. Being able to laugh.
644. Breathing.
646. Catching hurting birds, and helping them get well.
 
647. Holding a baby in my arms. So tiny, so perfect, so wonderfully made! 

648. A loving son.

649. More beautiful conversations with my daughter.
650. The story behind the hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.
651. Loving friends, lovely company.


“O God, 
endue me with a spirit of true and pious gratitude 
for all Your benefits
–temporal and spiritual; 
maintain and increase the same in my heart. 
Grant me the blessing of a thankful spirit, 
and dispose me ever to take delight in Your service.”
Look back and count your many, undeserved, blessings…


Remember the Sick in Prayer

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Today I am breathing, are you?

Take a deep breath, can you feel the air filling your lungs?

Can you take a deep breath after the summer showers and walk over the damp green grass?

Can you fill your lungs with air to sing praises to our God?

My friend cannot.

Jo, (The Reformed Traveler),  is dealing with Pulmonary Hypertension. She cannot laugh out loud, but she smiles a lot, she cannot sing, but her heart is full of praises to our God. She trusts a Sovereign God, and she says so:

“the road of PH lays in pleasant places…”

May I ask you to pray for her, to bring her before the throne of grace today?

We can certainly not visit her, but we can certainly pray for her.

One Passage, Nine Days

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Read, ponder, meditate over a passage for seven nine days, “meet God in the same place…”, Lyla suggested and I did so, and I was blessed.

The passage was I John 3; those words I ate for nine days.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (v. 1a)

See…just see what kind of love the Father has given to us…
and I had to stop there.
I had to see.
Lord, the only way to see, to really see your love is looking
to the cross.
The Father sent His only begotten Son to suffer,
to die,
to bear the sins of many.
He then turned His face away from
His Son who in spite of not knowing sin,
became sin.
The Lord appeared.
You, Lord, hanging there; You God made man,
humbled unto death,
bearing my sin,
my guilt;
And I did not love you, I did not deserved you;
and yet you died.
I see the kind of love
the Father has given us
and I ponder over it for nine days.
And thus I start my nine days pondering over one passage; and then, the word of God which is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword; pierced  to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerned the thoughts and intentions of my heart. 
I cannot write here all I learned, it is kept in the quiet chambers of my soul.
He appeared! (v.4) The Lord appeared to take away the sins of His own, and He appeared to destroy the works of the devil (v.8) And this is should make us rejoice, and I thanked Him, but the context says more …
“No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” (v.6)
“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” (v.9-10)
No one who has sin Him keeps on sinning.
There is no excuse.
If I have seen hanging on the cross,
If I have truly seen Him.
I have no excuse
for my sins.
I cannot live in sin.
And the words are there, more words in one passage ready to pierce my heart.
The first sin John mentions I should not live in is lack of love. (v.11-18)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us…
as I see the Father’s kind of love for His own, 
I see how far from loving like He does I am.
And I see that lack of love is murder,
and not loving like He does 
is to live holding and not giving.
Love reaches out.
The kind of love the Father gives
is love that gives until death.
The passage has not finished, neither my desire to learn from it. Verses 19- 24 are  more that I deserve.
The Father sent His Son to die on the cross, to suffer my guilt, and that was not all…Now He, as  loving Father, gives me precious promises.
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” (v 21-22)
Now we can come before God, with a cleansed heart, a heart free from the bondage of sin because of the blood of Jesus. And not only that, but we can come and ask boldly before the Throne of Grace, knowing that He hears us and wants to give us whatever we ask from Him…. if we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him.
And I close my Bible and I pray.
I see Him.
I have seen His love.
I am loved.
And all is grace,
undeserving grace.

This post is linked to Lyla’s post today. (Gracias Lyla)