Good Grief!

I remember hearing this saying often when I was a child. I'm not sure from where; maybe my mother, maybe t.v. I don't know but what truth is in this statement! Jesus tells us the truth in this statement in Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn.

Now if you've been reading my blog you'll notice I'm mentioned the sermon on the mount a couple of times now. I want you to know that I don't only read the sermon on the mount. I love it all. I like referring to the sermon because it is so incredibly black and white, clean cut, clear to read, strait to the point, and right from the mouth of our Saviour while he was here on earth. The whole bible is strait from his mouth mind you (John 1:1) but this part is spoken to us by God the son; man, human being; to us, people, human beings.

Back to my post; Blessed are those who mourn. What a contradictory statement. How can we be blessed in a time of mourning? How can we feel hope and freedom and grace and everything else that comes through the death of Christ when we lose someone we love? How do we loose a child or parent or sister or friend and say to ourselves "Well, God says I'm blessed so this is good." What a hard thing to even consider thinking about.

What if we lead lives that were great, all around. We had good jobs, we didn't loose anyone in our lives except perhaps through old age, you never experience tragedy, you've never been hurt to the inner most part of you, you have a great marriage because you and your spouse agree on everything, you have a nanny for your children so you don't even need to teach or train them and by the time you see them in the evenings they've been prepped to be obedient pleasant little children, you go on holidays, you have a disposable income for special times etc...Would you have lead the ideal life? Not really.

When our 3rd daughter, Ellie, died we were in total mourning. There were months of time off work, months of no cooking as our church, family and friends provided it to us, months of just stopped life. In the moment would I have traded that pain for anything? YES. Now would I? Absolutely not. If we hadn't gone through that raw state of grief we wouldn't know just how great great is. Everything would be on level ground. Happy would feel almost the same as sad. There was no concept of the plain of difference between the two. We would live in a state of grey instead of black and white.

In Romans 5:20 we read that the law in the old testament was put into place so that sin would increase. So that there was a line between black and white. So that when you did wrong you'd know damn well what you did was wrong. But the verse doesn't stop there. We know as Christians that we have died to sin. We have risen again through Christ. Sin's chains no longer hold us down no matter how much it feels that way sometimes. Christ came to break those chains apart. We don't live in the black anymore, we live in the white. The white is grace. Here's the second half of Romans 5:20: But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Here's the white. We live in God's grace. The black is there so that the white will abound even more than we could have imagined if there had been no black at all. Verse 21 says: So that as sin reigned in death (BLACK) grace might also reign through righteousness leading to [WHITE:] ETERNAL LIFE :) :) :) through Jesus Christ our Lord. We know good more because of bad. We know happiness more because of sadness, we know joy more because of grief, we know perseverance more because of trials in our live.

Jesus says Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted because you will know a comfort and happiness far surpassing all understanding if you go through hard times such as loosing a loved one; hard times with your spouse; trying times with a rebellious child.

Blessed are you readers, who go through hard times. Persevere through them and come out with a greater understanding and capability of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against these things there is no black [law]. (Gal 5:22-23)

Why do I Homeschool?

Since being back from Oregon I think about 1000 people have asked my "why do you homeschool?". It's a hard question to answer to people because no matter what I say, I feel like the recipient is gong to feel like I am making a judgment on how they do school for their kids. I want to share our reasons but not in a way that will put up barriers so often I don't say much about the topic. I love having this blog because I'm not really talking to anyone in particular. I can just share the reasons without the fear of offending someone else' parenting tactics.

"Do you homeschool because you're on the road so much?" "You don't plan to homeschool during all of their schooling do you?" "what's wrong with the public school system?" "Don't you need to be accredited to teach your kids school?" "How do you do it? I couldn't spend all day every day with my kids" (That is actually something I would have said a year and a half ago so if anyone reading feels that, I get it) "How are your kids going to learn how to socialize?

These are just a few of the questions I have received and continue to receive often. I think it's one of the reasons why I miss Oregon so much because it's so accepted and I don't feel interpreted when it comes to the girls education. So the reason is this: Dan and I have accepted all responsibility for the teaching of our children. If it is something extra curricular that we do not have the ability to teach, we are right along side them, learning with them. The bible tells us as parents to raise up our children so that they may not turn away from the faith (Proverbs 22:6). Also, I have a verse from Deuteronomy 6:4. Now I know we are not bound to the laws in the old testament but I do believe that the promises God makes are true yesterday, today and tomorrow, so just because we don't have to follow the laws, doesn't mean that the teaching along side them are null and void.

⁴"Hear, O Israel:^(E) The LORD our God, the LORD is one.^{[b] 5}You^(F) shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶And^(G) these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ^7(H) You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ^8(I) You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9(J) You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

This is so beautiful. Imagine plastering your whole house with sticky notes so that you might teach your children diligently and teach them so they will never walk away from God. These are the things we are trying to do by homeschooling. In every single subject I can teach them about the Lord, whether it's math, English, Geography or anything else. Dan also leads us in bible study and worship every morning. Our day is saturated in the Lord and it is beautiful. I can see the hearts of my girls transforming as they come to know Christ in a deeper way, understanding more and more of his word.

I can't even tell you how much joy I have experience in teaching my girls all of their schooling. It's only been 3 weeks since the start of this school year for them and already I am amazing as to how they are learning and how well they are learning. We also get to bake cookies in the afternoons when ever we want haha.

As far are the socializing of it, if any of you know Jenny, you know that she is a magnet and a good one too. She tries her best to set a good example for the other children because of her learning and because she is learning how to use this gift of leadership that God has blessed her with. Bullies tend to have the same personality but use it to the opposite effect. She's amazing. MeghanRain is perfectly happy following Jenny around hanging out with the smaller kids who might be following along.

I am so happy. There are definitely moments of frustration and that's when meditating on scripture all day comes in handy :) It has been and continues to be such a blessing to have the girls home all day.