Scribblings from a twenty-year homeschool veteran about homeschooling, life after homeschooling, occasional peeks into the world of writing for children, and the ups and downs of life in general.
I bet you're wondering how I possibly found time to create THREE blog entries this week PLUS re-do my template. Good question.
Anyway, so...what do you think? I felt like going simple this time, and I needed a bright, cheery look for summer, since it's so gray around here these days. I took out the header and used a Suzy's Scribbles banner Ryan made for me almost a year ago. I even put up a new picture--an outside, summery one!
I'm just not "techy" enough to do all the very "professional" look that many of your templates have. Oh, well. But I will tell you that THIS time it only took about 30 minutes to whip it together (deleting things is always faster than putting things in, you know).
I didn't want to wait for Show and Tell Friday to put it up, but I might use it as my Show and Tell, anyway, because Friday and Saturday Marie (Troopers for Christ) and I will be manning The Old Schoolhouse Magazine booth at the WHO convention (Washington Homeschool Organization) at the Western WA fairgrounds in Puyallup. All you WA state HSBers stop by and say "Hi."
I hope to take pictures of the booth. Thursday evening we will set it up. We're a bit unsettled, never having done this before, but I think it will be a BLAST to hobnob with homeschoolers all day long.
As you can see, that's the title of my new header. I thought I should explain why I changed my blog's theme around a bit. I'm beginning to get in the habit of thinking towards our eternal home every day. This eternal perspective has really, really helped me keep from letting frustrations and disappointments get me down. If the biggest human "fear" is no more (the fear of death), then everything else falls much easier into place.
I've discovered that the Christian saints of old all thought about Heaven a lot more than most of us do. They wrote about it all the time. And not just "Heaven" but the New Heaven and New Earth. It's real. It's coming, and we'll be US, doing things we never dreamed of, having adventures that never end, enjoying the fellowship and laughter of Jesus Himself. (I can't wait to hear Him laugh!). Running and riding and doing it in fresh, young bodies ("I'm goin' for the Upgrades" is my newest motto when something starts breaking down in my physical body).
Like anything else, an eternal perspective does not come naturally. It is a discipline, just like the rest of our walk with Christ. But here are a few quotes about the reality of our next life that hopefully will encourage you to think of dying as walking through a door into the greatest adventure man could ever possibly imagine--and beyond. ("Blessed in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.") You may think I'm weird, but that's OK. I'm having a wonderful time dreaming and imagining what's to come!
--Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind. --C.S. Lewis
--The best is yet to be! --John Newton
--Surely it is not wrong for us to think and talk about Heaven. I like to find out all I can about it. I expect to live there through all eternity. If I were going to dwell in any place in this country, if I were going to make it my home, I would inquire about its climate, about the neighbors I would have -- about everything, in fact, that I could learn concerning it. If soon you were going to emigrate, that is the way you would feel. Well, we are all going to emigrate in a very little while. We are going to spend eternity in another world. … Is it not natural that we should look and listen and try to find out who is already there and what is the route to take? --Dwight L. Moody
--We can enjoy Heaven now. We can have half of the enjoyment ahead of time by looking forward to it, thinking about it, reading about it and anticipating it.----David Brandt Berg
--Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that death cannot touch. -- Dwight L. Moody
Here's something to chew on. I was thinking about Joseph (I love the story of Joseph) awhile back, and it dawned on me that Joseph could have escaped. What a thought! Really. Ever thought about it? Joseph, as steward of the House of Potiphar, was in charge of everything. The Bible says everything. Joseph no doubt came and went as he pleased, managing his master's accounts and household. What prevented this young man from packing up, setting aside enough funds for a caravan trip home to Canaan? Could he not have slipped away one night when Potiphar was out of town on business? Who would have stopped such an important steward? Egypt is not so far from Israel--a couple weeks by camel, maybe?
Why didn't he leave? He was sold into slavery; he had no control of the events that took him to a foreign, pagan country, far from home. Surely it was his "duty" to escape and return to his father, who we read is always grieving for his son. What stopped him?
Perhaps it was knowing that Potiphar trusted Joseph, and Joseph couldn't let him down--a man of integrity in spite of being a slave; perhaps Joseph was willing to let God have His way, whether home in Canaan or on the "mission" field of Egypt.
He could have walked right out of Egypt, I bet. But he didn't. He stayed and fulfilled God's plan for his life.
If Joseph could do it, why can't we? No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in during this short earthly life--let's just please God and trust Him. "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...."
Have you ever wondered why Jesus used some of the examples He did in His parables? For instance, in Matt. 21:21, Jesus says that if you have faith you can say to this mountain, "...'Go, throw yourself in the sea,' and it will be done..." Why a mountain? Why not another example? It's not that the mountains in Israel are much to talk about when compared to such majestic peaks as Mt. Everest or Mt. McKinley.
I watched a "Lost Worlds" program the other day that helped me relate to Jesus' example. The episode was all about the building projects of King Herod the Great. He built all kinds of things to his own glory, including the second Temple in Jerusalem. Now, everybody during Jesus' time must have known about this king's great projects, so it would be common knowledge, sort of like everyone knowing about the Brooklyn Bridge when it was built, or the Empire State Building.
One of the king's more ambitious projects involved building the Herodium (named after himself, of course). He basically scooped the dirt from a lower hill in the area and hauled it over to make his hill the highest point around (he moved a mountain, in other words). Must have taken his minions years to accomplish this feat. All of a sudden it made perfect sense to me why Jesus would take examples from the culture of the day as a common point of reference for his listeners, and then draw a faith lesson from it. It was enlightening, and I can imagine the disciples' eyes bugging out, since they all knew what kind of faith it must take to move one of those hills, when it took years and thousands of workers to move the "mountain" for Herod's pleasure.
Here is a picture of the Herodium from Bethlehem, towering high, which was what Herod no doubt intended. I can imagine the disciples glancing that way as Jesus talks about faith moving mountains.
Here's a close-up of this nutty, scary king's obsession with being great (say, isn't this the King Herod who got eaten by worms and died because he didn't give glory to God? Or is that one of Herod the Great's descendents, carrying on the family tradition of pride and arrogance?)
And lastly, the excavation of the Herodium from the top:
An artist's reconstruction of the fortress atop Herod's mountain:
Have you ever felt so excited in your spirit about something you just know God is leading you to do? You feel you're finally figuring things out and and it's as clear as glass about where you're going and what you should be accomplishing.
Then....BANG! The day arrives when you wonder, "What was I thinking?" Is God even in this? Am I positive this is the direction I should be going? Was this really from God or just a nutty thought of my own flesh? Discouragement sets in.
I often feel like that. It's like a crazy roller coaster. Then, amazingly, I am reminded of something I heard a long time ago. And so, here is a Thursday Thought for you and me:
"Do not doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the light."
This sustains me during those uncertain, up and down times that probably plague all of us.
I think it would be fun if we shared some encouraging thoughts and sayings from great Christians through the ages. I'd love to make a collection of them. So...if you have any great quotes that can encourage us, please post them on your blog. I even put a Mr. Linky here so I can go to your blog and glean (AKA copy and paste) these quotes and keep them in a file on my computer.
I've been so busy scrounging up pictures to share and clever little happenings, that I've forgotten to share my thoughts recently. I actually do more than just flip through the photo albums, looking for pictures of my by-gone homeschooling days.
I SO wish HSB had been a part of my life ten years ago. I sometimes feel a little "out of the loop" since my last homeschooling child is 16 and doing Running Start, which means I have little input into his curriculum at this point. I am extremely grateful to see Bobbie and Karen actively blogging. It's nice to know I'm not the only one on HSB who shares pictures of grandkids!
Today during my quiet time I came across a quote in my "Today in the Word" that I have never seen before. It hit me and I loved it. I want to share it with you:
"Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God."---John Piper
Kind of puts a new perspective on things, doesn't it?
