Feb. 21, 2007 - Vision or Blidness
In Prov. 29:18 it says "Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law." The Lexical aids say this for "unrestrained" "In Proverbs, the sense is to let something slip through the fingers by ignoring an opportunity. It probably means undisciplined in Prov. 28:18"
So then I had to ask myself "How many times have I missed an opportunity because the Lord led me to a particular curriculum or style of teaching for a certain child of mine and it just didn't "fit" the way I would do things? Because I couldn't see how it would help I didn't do it or get it? Therefore how much money have I ended up spending because of my own foolish ways?"
In the long run my spending was undisciplined in the area of curricula. I know I am not the only homeschool mom who has struggled with this. I know there are many others out there, for I have spoken to many of them.
I also like the way the Message Bible puts it..."If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed." This way of saying it can totally describe our school years before I sought the Lord on our Curricula choices, it was chaos. However since I have been asking and praying what we are to use (only the last two years have I actually followed His lead) we have been truly blessed as He has revealed those things. My 9 year old son who had previously cried and cried over the simplest of math concepts is now thriving and doing very well in math, because of the curricula the Lord led us to. God was patient with me. I didn't buy the first two years I felt prompted to. Then last year, when I wasn't planning to attend our convention, they showed up, so I went and looked at it. It was exactly what our end of year tester was suggesting for my son to do. Hum, what time and energy I could have saved if I had just followed the Lord in the beginning!
I hope that you will let the Lord guide your choices even when you are unsure as to whether or not you will be able to implement it. He will guide your teaching as well. I have learned I must place my complete trust in the Lord no matter how small the "thing" or matter seems to be. I must choose to listen and follow.
Luke 9:23 - 27 Says (Message Bible) "The he told them what they could expect for themselves: 'Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat - I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I;ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way (emphasis mine), to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?.'" Imagine if we follow His lead completely the "real you" in our children will be able to blossom and how much farther they will be in spite of us.
