The Journey

This blog began in an attempt to provide resources and encouragement for homeschoolers. However, during this homeschool adventure, I've found it's also about life. Specifically about losing my own life, that I might find it in Jesus and thus discover the joy of REAL life. (Matthew 10:39)

In March, 2012, our family stepped out in faith again as we moved out to the country. The first step of faith was trusting the Lord to sell our other home before our emergency fund ran out. He is faithful, and though I was hoping this would happen sooner, He knows what we needed.

I just know that He is going to use these 5 acres and this old house to teach me even more lessons in abiding with Him...and I look forward to the Adventure!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

By Faith, part 2...

To follow up my first post, I thought I would share what I wrote in my journal on May 3, 2010.  

By Faith:  Following Him Down the Winding Homeschooling Road
A place for encouragement, observations and sharing on our homeschool adventures.

The above is what I awoke thinking about this morning.  It was a few months ago, now, that I discovered Hebrews 11, specifically verse 8.  That doesn't mean it's the first time I've read it.  However, it was the first time I saw it in light of homeschooling.  Verse 8 reads:

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."  NIV

Thinking about this verse, we realize Abraham left all he knew.  He left his family, his home, his friends, a way of life that was familiar to him.  His father, grandfather, and great grandfather grew up there.  They had all walked on the same land.  What did Abraham's parents, family and friends think?  Did they celebrate his obedience to the LORD?  Did Abraham get a going away party?  And if they did support Abraham's obedience, were they supportive through and through?  What might they have been saying in their heads?  Maybe they thought, "Boy, I'm glad the Lord chose Abraham, that's not something I could do."  Or maybe, "Oh, I'm so glad He chose him and not me!"

Do any of these questions relate to our own homeschool adventure?  Have you thought them?  Have your heard them from others?  Have you wondered if others had these thoughts about you when you try to explain why you homeschool and what brought you to that fork in the road?

For me, the similarities have been amazing, eye opening, and comforting.  We do not travel down this road alone.  He will guide us, though that often means giving control to Him on a regular basis.  As a homeschooling mom, I teeter on that brink a lot.  (Sometimes that translates to minute by minute for me.)  I am so thankful to the LORD for leading me to this road.  Some days are more difficult than others, but I wouldn't have it any other way!  (Even when some of those days are all in the same week or month.)

As I typed up this journal entry, I realized that Abraham's nephew Lot and his family went with him, so he was not completely without family.  However, knowing the whole story, one has to wonder how much of a comfort his company was given some of the choices Lot made on their journey.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

By faith...

On February 10, 2010 my daily flip calendar was from Hebrews 11:3. 

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3 (NIV)

Intrigued, I turned to the book of Hebrews, which opens with the following: 

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.  Hebrews 11:1-2

As I continued reading through the rest of the chapter (of course), I really resonated with Abraham's obedience to God calling him to leave his home and family in verse 8.  I began to think of our own call to home school and the parallels with Abraham's journey. Maybe you've been home schooling for years, maybe you've just started, or maybe you're still in the pondering stage.  Where ever you find yourself, please take a moment to reflect on your own home school journey as you read Hebrews 11:8-16.  (Emphasis is mine.)

8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
 11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he[a]considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
 13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.