Thankfulness...

It has been awhile since my last post and Part 2 will have to wait. So what have we been up to.... tons!! Learning and living doesnt leave a lot of room for posting, but we are steadily making our way through the school year.

We have started working in our Daily Grams workbooks and have went back to working in our Lifepac language arts workbooks. Although we still use our daily reading and writing for most of our grammar activities. In math we are continuing to work on those multiplication tables, but I must admit that it is becoming tedious. It looks like we will need to come up with another way to practice those facts. 

This week we are focusing on all things Thanksgiving which includes history, poetry, and our read aloud times. We also started a character study on thankfulness today and will be working to memorize 1Thessalonians 5:16-18....

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Beautiful verse and so very important to our faith. After talking about this verse and what it means we read a post from a friend of mine which exemplified what it means to give thanks in all circumstances. She and her family are counting their blessings in the face of cancer. Very inspiring stuff and it led to a very good discussion about how we might deal with the same circumstances and why they have so much hope. This is the post from Nov 2, 2010 below....

No greater love...

There is no greater love in this world that the love of God! In fact, at times, I find it quite overwhelming. Not overwhelming in the sense that it makes me uncomfortable...overwhelming in the sense that I cannot possibly understand and fully grasp the depth and magnitude of it. In spite of all I've been and all I still am...He chooses to love me so deeply and bless me so generously. After all...He IS love...He cannot be anything apart from love...it is who God is....not what He chooses to do...He is perfect, holy love!
Sunday, Mike was asked to say a few words to our church family about our journey. I was so incredibly proud of him. As difficult as this journey is for me, it must be exponentially difficult for him. I try to understand, but I am not sure if it is possible to walk in his shoes and experience what he is experiencing. He is so strong, determined, and disciplined. He has such faith and genuine love for God. He is truly an inspiration to me and to so many of you, I am sure. As I sat in church Sunday, I thought the many ways that God has blessed my family over the past 6 months. I thought to myself how in the world can I ever thank you, Lord, for the outpouring of your grace on my life? The only thing I came up with was that I could live my life as a constant prayer of thanksgiving to God...ever aware of His presence, grace, and mercy...ever aware of and responding to His touch...with words of praise continually on my lips and in my heart.

Both Lotus and I cried as we read the words.. "How in the world could I ever thank you , Lord, for the outpouring of your grace on my life?" Im pretty sure I noticed a tear in Killian's eye as well. Those are words coming from someone who has 2 kids and whose husband has one of the most deadliest forms of brain cancer known to man. That is a faith I want to pass on to my kids and hope to have myself. So as I said to the kids today... "We have a hope that surpasses our troubles, our fears and all our circumstances. We can, in the face of adversity, give thanks! We have a saviour that calms the storm." That hope alone is worth being thankful for; even when everything around you is falling apart.

**On a side note.. if you are interested in learning about their story and praying for them as they navigate this time in their life go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mikehearn1. You might have to register, but it will be well worth your time

Update....

An update is in order..... the last time I posted I was struggling with Killian, but a lot can change in a week. That very night I realized something; I had not been spending the time in prayer like I had been. In fact with so many things going on I had let many aspects of my spiritual life go by the wayside. I wasn't reading the bible, I wasnt worshipping with all my heart. I had got so busy that I was forgetting to turn to the one thing that offers me comfort & strength. I had taken my relationship with Christ for granted & I was feeling the weight of stress upon my shoulders. However as I tend to do, I was denying that I was feeling any stress at all. One of my favorite one liners is, "Im fine!" when in reality I can be breaking apart. Thankfully through talking with some friends I was able to realize what I was missing. I was missing him. I was going through the motions, but not letting God inside my heart. Well that night I let it all out to him. I cried out to him on my knees & turned worship practice into actual worship and he was faithful to take the weight of it upon his shoulders.
So.. back to the update. I cant say that Killian was suddenly healed of his lack of diligence, but I was inspired to be more diligent myself. I was restored to the place which led me to homeschool in the first place.... Killian does need help & I can help him with God's help. Its in my job description Deuteronomy 6:7...

"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

Of course they were talking about the commandments, but for us its all of scripture and its scripture that teaches us the wisdom that helps us in our daily struggles. Even our struggles with learning. The point is we are in this together. It want be fixed in a few months, but we are making progress. I already see the difference, but first on our agenda was outlawing the use of the words "I can't!". I informed the family that this is basically a cuss word in to the ears of God. I know I've been telling him that for a long time & he has patiently shown me, "Your right, you cant, but I can!" (Newly banned words in the Masters home... freaking, crapt & I can't.) Im sure I will have to do a few push-ups over one of these in the near future.

Actually first on the agenda was impressing them on my heart. Second was outlawing the use of "I cant". Third was waking up and doing what needed to be done. It was taking one day at a time and sometimes one minute at a time. It was realizing that if Killian was saying "I cant", well then that was the lesson we needed to be working on at that moment. We brought him home with the realization that we are not just trying to get him to graduate. We are raising them both to be people able to take care of themselves and their families. We are raising them to be healthy in heart & mind. We are raising them to love God enough to give their best. All the other stuff will come, but not to the detriment of who he is or who we are as a family. Our character is just as, no its more important than head knowledge. All the intelligence in the world means nothing if your heart is not in the right place. Hopefully at the outcome of this adventure we will be able to say that we are all more book smart, but most importantly that we are wise.

Tolerance

Last night as I looked at our blog I wondered what people thought when they saw how much importance I place on teaching the gospel of Christ. I wondered if the words I wrote did justice to what we actually teach. Let me explain. In the past few years my life has changed tremendously and I attribute that to my faith. God is the reason for the healing, for the joy & for this opportunity. To be honest a few years back I wouldnt have had the patience to homeschool my kids. In fact I barely could do homework with them without losing my cool. In the past I yelled more than I would like to admit. Some might ask isn't that just the result of maturing or couseling, but without a doubt the thing that made the most difference was allowing Christ to transform me. Allowing him to heal the parts of my heart that were once broken.
This has become a major part of my families life, because the children & Scott have seen the difference it has made. I believe ,because of that, that teaching the kids about the bible, about who Jesus was & is, and teaching them who God is & what they mean to him is more important than anything else. I take very literally Matthew 6:33,

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness & all these things will be added unto you."

I know that if I do nothing else that I must instill in them a faith that will carry them through this life. However I also know the importance of teaching them tolerance & to think for themselves. Obviously history teaches us that Christianity has been misused & misrepresented. We as Christians would be foolish to ignore our history, the good & the bad. The fact is there is no religion (or spirituality) out there that has not succumbed at one point to hatred, inequality or various other negatives. No matter how pure something is, in the hands of imperfect people it becomes tarnished.
I want them to practice a faith that brings wholeness & I believe that Christ offers that. I believe this because I have taken many different paths to get where I am today & in the end I found what I was looking for in the one thing I tried to run away from. Yet although I believe the bible is true & I believe Jesus is the answer. I also look back on where I came from & see God in it as well. So I balance my teaching of the gospel with tolerance. Although that word doesnt quite fit what Im trying to say. I want my children to do more than just tolerate other faiths. I want my children to be able to discern whats right & wrong even in the church we serve. I want my children to love like Jesus loved. I want them to put their faith into action & faith in action is more than just judging everyone else thats different. Its seeing the heart of a person. Its seeing whats behind the way a person lives. It's looking past what something appears to be & seeing what God see's. There are a lot of grey areas that one day will be made clear. However in the here & now all I can do is make it as clear as possible to my children & pray that God guides them as he sees fit. That may or may not look like the faith I practice, but in the end that might be something greater than what I have come to know. Perhaps they will not make the same mistakes that I have made or that have been made throughout history. Maybe what I teach them today is only a small vision of who God truly is. I can only hope that they will do greater things than these (John 14:12), but in the meantime I teach them what I know.