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I have said it and I have heard it said by other home school Mothers – “I don’t know if my child is learning anything but I sure am!!”

Home schooling, has nothing to do with text books – math, reading, handwriting, science and other forms of so called “formal” learning but it has everything to do with sharpening dull rocks into finely sharpened arrows.  The end product is strictly up to us as the parent.  This is both scary and challenging as you are working with several different personality types and living in a society that no longer values righteousness.

I can truly say I feel sorry for, and yet at the same time envy, Mother’s who can pat their kids on the head, kiss their sweet cheeks and send them off to some institution for 8 hours or more a day to be trained by  other people.

I envy them because their lives will never be “mussed” up.  No mustard stains on brand new Moby wraps.  No sub-floor adhesive can’s blown open on brand new tile floors that the grout is not sealed yet (someone is going to have fun fixing that one).  No finger prints at a constant 3 foot level on all the walls and door jams.  Cell phones locked with no idea what code was typed in so you can’t unlock it.  No computer screens blurred by little finger always touching it.  No extra stress of constantly having children under foot and dealing with the many different personality types – Iron is constantly sharpening iron.  Godly Love is constantly being learned and perfected. 

I feel sorry for them because what character training is being done in the Mother’s life.  They can simple stay in their selfish stupor.  There is no “fire” to go through. They will miss a Godly maturity that will never come by allowing someone else to train their children.  They will never learn what true Godly Love is.  The latest saying of our society is “I saw it, I wanted it, I through a fit, I got it.”  We are creating a society that has no responsibilities. 

Would God have us trade the souls of our children for the “worlds” perfection or make sure our children are properly “socialized” so that they will be able to meet the world’s standard – I THINK NOT!!

Perfectionism is a very bad thing and it rules our society today.  We want perfection – NOW!!  The clothes, the car, the house, the money to buy it all – Oh, the debt!!  And we don’t want our children embarrassing us or A child for that matter.  Americans have sacrificed souls for material possessions.

I found this quote on MamaArcher’s blog “The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing; but in our culture, we settle for a curse and reject blessings.  Something is wrong with this picture.”  Doug Phillips founder of Vision Forum.

 Children are no longer thought of as valuable but disposable!

 A Lady recently told me that she was a “loving” person because she lived during the 60’s “love fest”.  Huh?  This love bore many illegitimate children, created many incurable diseases (AIDS, STDS), led to the legalization of murdering unborn babies – or we tactfully call it abortion -, and turned children into a burden and money into a god.  We now honor and glorify people who have “it all”.

I am learning that God’s love is much different – The Old King James translates it as Charity.  Charity is a complete giving up of one’s selfish desires, a laying down of ones own interest to help someone else.

 John 15:13 – Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

 Who are our friends, who should our friends be?  Our society today treats aquitances as friends and our own children as acquaintances.

True Godly Love is no longer practiced in our society anymore.

 Godly Love has been diluted to a happy, happy, huggy, wuggy, think of a purple dinosaur (Barney), humanism kind of love.  Home schooling parents, parents with children with learning disabilities or who are struggling financially understand that “love” isn’t always grand.  Sometimes Love is tough.

 Home schooling comes with no rewards; no recognition, no honor or glory; there is not even a guarantee of a job well done at the end, you won’t win a popularity reward, but instead be branded as socially inept.  Our houses will never be featured in Better Homes and Gardens. The sacrifice is great, the enduring hard at times, We can only believe that God’s grace will over shadow our short comings and hope that all of our hard work will someday produce a Godly heritage. As home school parents we have made it our job to not allow our children to be taught the heresies and the evil of our culture but learn and rejoice in truth. Patients is worked out everyday. Kindness is knowing when to push the child the extra mile. Gentleness is making your yes, yes and your no, no. 

 Our children are our crowns – someday we will lay them at the feet of Jesus - who we allow to write on the pages of our children’s lives will mold that child into who he will be in the future. 

Our reward is babies chewing on our hair, sticky kisses on the cheeks, a constant messy “school” house, a constant over flowing of dirty laundry that when cleaned always seems to end up on the floor, never getting enough sleep, no time to ourselves, and constant finger prints on our clothes.  “Life” is constantly happening all the time.

 No, I don’t think I will be trading my children for all the perfectionism in the world; after all,
Titus 2 makes it clear that if we are not “loving our children, than we are in danger of blaspheming the Word of God” !!

 To loose our children to the lusts of this world (money, popularity, fame, drugs, alcohol, premarital sex), the humanistic philosophies taught today and lies, well, would be to loose.  I am more than willing to fight the fight for my children’s souls.

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I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around.  We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section.  Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received."

I looked around in this area and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scrapes from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.  The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section.  Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them."

I noticed again how busy it was there.  There were many angels working hard at that station since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the corridor we stopped at the dor of a very small station.  To my surprise only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing.  "This is the Acknowledgment Section," my angel friend quietly admitted to me.  He seemed rather embarrassed, "How is that?  There's no work going on here?"  I asked.

"So sad," the angel sighed. "After people received the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments."

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?"  I asked.

"Simple," the angel answered.  "Just say, 'Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge?"  I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep....you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

And if you get this on your own computer you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.

Also...If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive the day.

If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death....you are envied by and more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married you are very rare.

If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you are unique to all those in doubt and despair.

'Ok, what now"  How can I start?

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

Attn: Acknowledge Dept. :  Thank you Lord!

Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people to share it with. 

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A few months before I wan born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small Tennessee town.  From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family.

The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to wlecome me into the world a few months later.  As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family.  In my young mind, he had a special niche.

My parents were complementary instructors:  Mom taught me the Word of God and Dad taught me to obey it.  But the starnger was our storyteller.  He kept us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mystries, and comedies.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history, or science he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present, and even seemed able to predict the future!  He took my family to the first major league ball game.  He made me laugh and he made me cry.  The stranger never stopped talking but Dad didn't seem to mind.

SOmetimes Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other in order to listen to what he had to say and she would go to her room and read her books (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them.

Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home; not from us, our friends or any visitors.  Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my Dad squirm and my Mother blush.

My dad was a teetotaler who didn't permit alcohol in the home, not even for cooking.  But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis.

He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished.  He talked freely (much to freely!) about sex.  His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by this stranger.  Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked...and never asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved inwith our family.  He was blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first.  Still, if you were to walk into my parent's den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.

His name?....We just call him "TV."

He has a younger sister now.  We call her, "Computer."

Author Unknown

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like into whites sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

Is it time to kick out the stranger!?!

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When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.  We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done.  We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.  Amen!"

The response was immediate.  A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest.  In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.  The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.  With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation Under God."

If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends.  "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything!"

Remember to vote on November 7th. 

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ThreeLittleLadies posted this on her blog and has asked everyone who would like to answer these four questions to do so.  Here are my answers:

What does it take to be a good friend?

I have come to the conclusion that it is encouraging one another and sharing .  It is always alot of fun to be able to share common beliefs, common thoughts, common interests and to be able to help somebody else.  My husband says:  When women use to meet at the well, they probable used that time to discuss the "lastest".  Now women use the phone or blogging.   

What attracts you to others that you are good friends with?

Common interests-   homeschooling, home birthing, eating healthier, reading the same books,  It has been my experience that conversations with people who don't share the same interests or experiences usally don't last very long.  You usally get this blank look  which tells you, don't add me to your roll-a-dex.

What makes a person become a good friend?

 Time.  A friend of my husbands told him that friends take a life time to develope.  Anquiantances happen every day.  Anquaintances you never let part of your heart.  Only friends get to be part of your heart.  Another thought on that -  it takes time to build a marriage, it doesn't happen over night. 

What are some things that annoy you about people that you tend to steer around?

I refuse to answer this question without a laywer present. (just kidding)  

People who don't want to educate themselves on certain subjects.

People who have no Try.

People annoy me that don't think the same way I do. 

People that have no passion, no drive.

Religious people annoy me.  Controling people annoy me.  Extremely selfish people annoy me.

People who just "don't get it."

Needless to say:  I don't have a lot of friends.  I do have alot of acquaintances though.

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With everything going on I came up with this.  Babymakers inspired me because of their bus.

Revelations 4:10 - The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying.........

Have you ever wondered what those "crowns" where?  I have.  I have heard that they are our "good" works, things that don't get burned up in the fire, etc...but nobody really knows for sure.  So I looked up the word Crown in my Bible the other day and this is what I found:

Proverbs 12:4 - A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

     This should give us all the more reason to strive to be Titus 2 women.  What joy it should brings our husbands to throw their Crowns (wives(IF I make it into this catagory I hope he doesn't throw me to hard) before the thrown, singing "Holy, Holy, Holy."  I pity the man whose wife has her own agenda going.

Proverbs 17:6 - Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.

Paul referrs to himself as "Fathering" people in the faith.  Timothy, Philemon, and churches as well.

In Phillippians 4:1 - Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

According to I Timothy 3:2-7 - An Elder ( the same as a Bishop) is to be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine.......(4) ruleth well his own home, having children in subjection with all gravity(for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God(paul isn't worried about "making friends and influencing people here"))Not a novice, Lest he fall into pride - I Timothy 5 says Elders are to be treated like fathers. And, 3:1 says the younger men are to desire this position.

Paul goes on to say (and I love this verse and yet it scares me too) in 1 Timothy 5:8 - But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. (*ouch*)

Definition of provide - to make available; furnish. to supply or equip - to stipulate beforehand - to take measures with due foresight - to supply means of support: to provide for one's children.

Revelation 3:11 says Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crowns. 

Conclusion:  Children are our #1 Crowns!!  Hold fast to them!!  Protect them from the evil one (TV, Disney movies, Public School System, tickling ears doctorine, the neighbors kids)!!  Equip them to be mighty warrior's for God!!  Our Girls to be mighty Titus 2 women for God so that their husbands may have something of value and the Word of God be NOT Blasphemed!! 

Dueteronomy 6: 6-7 says And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

What kind of Crown are you going to be throwing!?!  One tarnished with the world (prono, lust, lover of ones self) or a pure and holy one!?!

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"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."Philippians 4:14

I woke up sick today.  Sore throat, frog in the throat stuff.  I think I may have a urinary tract infection, I had 1/3 of my toe nail ripped off the other day and it hurts to bump it.  I got sunburned on Monday when we went to the beach.  Didn't put enough sun screen on I guess.  And then last night I stayed up to 2:30 answering emails and "blogging."  Boy, did I feel like not getting out of bed today!  So today was a battle of the flesh.  Did I feel like not having patients?  Yes!  Which impatients leads to anger, double wammy!  Selfishness was upper most in my mind.  Kids just don't get it, It's not all about Mommy - her wants and desires- No!! - Their flesh says it is all about them!  So I have to deal with their flesh as well. Three of them!  The baby wants to be nursed and held and is refusing to take naps because she might miss something.  The 5yo is coming down with a cold as well so he was sporting a 'tude.  The 2yo is.....well, 2.

Not only that but we are putting a roof on our house this weekend and we will be having a couple extra guys over to help with that and I am cooking!!  Am I being tested here?

Did I mention it was raining?  So the kids couldn't go outside.

My brethern, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your fainth worketh patience.  James 1:2-3

This is were the rubber meets the road boys and girls.  Flesh says its all about me.  Flesh doesn't want to Love.  Work now begins. The Flesh must come under submission!!

Blessed be the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.

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Have you ever used this statement?  Or maybe the one: "I am only human"? 

Interesting how Matthew 5:48 says -  "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"   James 1:4 says - That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.  James 1:4 says - But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

The word patience jumps out at me.  What is patience?  Love is patience.

1 John 4:18 says - There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Hmmmmmm.  Could it be that we also have a distorted view of what Perfect is?  Perfect is not "being perfect" in the worlds eye.  Did you get straight A's on all your tests? Did you ever shrink your husbands T-shirts before.  Is your house perfectly clean?  What!, your life isn't perfect?

God is not looking for "perfect" humans, He is asking us to Love Perfectly.  Remember what Love is?

Love is Patient (suffereth long).  Love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking (selfish).  It is not easily angered (provoked), it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects (beareth all things), always trusts (believeth all things), always hopes, always perseveres (endureth all things).  Love never fails. 

In conclusion, No, we are not perfect humans nor will we ever be, although we are asked to Love perfectly.  "Perfect Love casts out all fear."  What a load off!!

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As I was pondering the scripture Titus 2:4-5:  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

For one the scripture has shocked me out of my little world that I created and into a new kind of woman.  As a Christian my desire is not to blaspheme the Word of God.  Could I possible be doing this?  Yes, I was!!

On this paticular day I was thinking on the word Love.  What is the definition of Love?  Does anybody know?  I knew I had to know what Love meant but I just couldn't think of a definition.  God says He is Love.  We are command to Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might....And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt Love thy Neighbour as thyself.  Matthew 22:37-39

  There was still no definition there though and then, it hit me.  Right between the eyes it hit me, leaving a lasting impression with it. 

"Charity (Love) suffereth long ( Patient), is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;  Rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Charity never fails."

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Ouch!!  Doesn't leave much room for any excuses does it.  John13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 

If we were to change that to, Do your children, (husband) know you are a "disciple of Christ" by your Love for them?  

I now have a different veiw of what Love is.  The type of love that I was taught and what the dictionary portrays is the worldly love.  One of passion and all about a feelings.*   The love that we are to portray is much different.  If we are not Loving in this matter than we are Not Loving.  DeLyssa

*I recommend spending the money and getting an original Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary from Vision Forum for they have even removed God from  the dictionarys of today.  How unloving!!

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Before I had a little girl I would see these little girls clothes that said Princess on them.  I thought it was rediculous.  Who would ever put that on their daughter?  Everyone knows princess' are snotty and spoiled and bratty, I would never desire my little girl to be all those things.

This past weekend as I was at the Woman's of Faith conference I got a new look at what a Princess was from Shelia Walsh.  Her new book is titled I'm not Wonder Woman but God made me Wonderful, it comes with a matching Pink bag, mug, and you can get a shirt also in pink.  She talked about how there are Princess.   Those girls who look in the mirror and say "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest one of all" and the mirror would reply "You".  It replys YOU because their Daddy's tell them so.  They tell them that they are beautiful, talented, and they can be anything that you set your mind to be.

Then there are the Tom Boys or Wonder Woman, they look in the mirror and say "Mirror, mirror on the wall was is the fairest of all" and it replys "NOT YOU."  They don't have a Dad or Dad is to busy for them. Their Daddy's never told them that they were beautiful, or talented, or that they could be anything. 

We all know a Wonder Woman or maybe we are a Wonder Woman.  I was, am, is and I have no desire for my daughter to be a Wonder Woman.  I want her life to be wonderful. 

As I was talking to my sister-in-law about this I thought of the fable a Princess and the Pea.  I never did get the meaning of that story, Did you?  I mean how silly.  How could you feel a pea under all those mattress'?  You can't, I tried it once.  Then it hit me, I finally get it!!  The Princess had never experienced anything uncomfortable before that is why she could feel the pea under all those mattress!!!  (I want you all to know that I am not blond!)  The rest of us Wonder Women would just roll over and go to sleep.      

Princess has a new meaning to me now.  A Princess is a girl who's Dad tells her he loves her.  A Princess is a girl who's Dad protects her, spends time with her, thinks she is the greatest, tells her she is beautiful.  I desire for my Daughter to be a Princess.  I don't want to raise another Wonder Woman.  I want to raise a kind, gentle, loving woman, one who won't be preoccupied with the battles of Wonder Woman.

And I went out and bought the book, bag, hat, and shirt.  And I got Shyahna a train case (why it is called a train case, I have know idea), that says 'God's Little Princess' because that is what I desire her to be.

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