The following was born out of my time of much pressure and many feelings of weakness, doubt, and many questions.  While I do not know the reason for it all nor do I have answers to the questions this is what the Lord gave me coming out of this past week which proved to be a very trying and tiresome week for me as I struggled to keep up with my responsiblities as wife, mother, teacher, referee, etc and to keep my prayer life at a decent pitch.  My workouts have gone KAPUT...but that will probably be another saga :-)

II Corinthians 12:7-10

⁷To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Hardships….Persecutions….Insults…WEAKNESSES…

Such undesirable and unwelcome events….but it is one avenue that God uses to manifest His power in our lives.

Amid the many ‘stresses’ (good and bad) that life and especially homeschooling can bring, where feelings of inadequacy and feelings of being overwhelmed can abound, God’s grace is sufficient to “make up the difference” and carry us through to victory.

So many times we may try to compensate for our weaknesses(in parenting, teaching, etc.) in our own strength.  That only leads to discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and even hopelessness.  But God tells us that it is His Grace that will “fill up what is lacking…” in our lives, homes, in our efforts to obey Him, even in our children.

We serve THE All-Powerful God.  Is Anything Too Hard For Him?

So in our journey to disciple our children in the knowledge of God and His ways, even as we are hard-pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed….we do no lose heart…for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all…  (II Cor. 4:8-18)

Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…let us fix our eyes on Jesus… and lift up and strengthen the feeble arms that hang down and the weak knees…for we’ve not come to a mountain that cannot be touched…but we’ve come to Mount Zion, the city of the Living God and the heavenly angels…and to God The Judge of All…and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant…(Heb. 12:1-24)

Finally, I pray that we all be encouraged that God will indeed supply His strength and power in our time of weakness, as we consider His Word spoken by His prophet, to..

“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
       Who created all these?
       He who brings out the starry host one by one,
       and calls them each by name.
       Because of his great power and mighty strength,
       not one of them is missing.”

(And not ONE of them is lacking in anything…and neither will we!!!!!!!!!!!!)

“Why do you say, O Jacob,
       and complain, O Israel,
       ‘My way is hidden from the LORD;
       my cause is disregarded by my God’?

Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary
       and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,
       and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.”