What a real homeschool day looks like…
So here’s the thing: This is a real day.
I’m always tempted, when doing this day-in-the-life-deal, to write a sort of conglomeration of various days melded together to create what I consider “typical.” This is well and good, but unfortunately, by trying to share “typical” I wind up sharing “ideal.” And the truth is that my biggest challenge with homeschooling is that my real day does not match up with the ideal day in my mind.
So scratch the ideal day, or even the “typical” day … here is a real day.
Wednesday, January 7th, in all its mundane glory:
(Read the rest over at Simple Homeschool … thanks!)
“Is there anything else, Daddy?”
“Is there anything else, Mommy?”
Adding that 8th chore card was a rare stroke of genius.
Every morning these words are music to my ears. No matter how poorly I’ve slept or how cranky I feel or how unenthusiastically the kids have embraced their responsibilities, there is something so sweet and glorious about hearing a child ask this simple question.
(Lest you think they are angel-kids who automatically ask such things, genuinely eager to know if there are any more unnoticed or otherwise forgotten work items I have for them … no. They are normal kids who routinely rush through making their beds, thus leaving the sheet hanging out the side like a slack tongue, while the top blanket lies deceptively smooth over the disheveled mess underneath. No, I have more than once found barely-foamed toothpaste spit out in the sink: “There is no way you could have brushed your teeth well while leaving the glob of toothpaste still in tact!”)
*sigh*
But at the very end, the 8th chore on the little key-ring of cards, is this simple question:
Is there anything else, Mommy?
And the funny thing is, they automatically say it with a smile because I can’t help but smile when I hear those words. It means: a) they have finished their chores (!) and b) I have an opportunity to ask them to do ANYTHING ELSE I want!
Of course I’m smiling!
This image, of them asking me and me grinning, happy, came to my mind yesterday as I was reading Scripture. As I read God’s Words, His commands, His truth, it struck me that, when I finished reading and obeying (in that moment) what He’d put before me, I could also turned heavenward and ask, in childlike prayer:
“Is there anything else, Daddy?”
This is, in essence, the daily practice of confessing our sins.
Father, is there anything left undone, unnoticed, anything dirty or unpleasing in me that You’d like to call my attention to? Something you want me to deal with before I move on with my day?
Of course when my kids ask me this question, I answer mercifully. If I can think of something simple, or a specific correction, I say it. They then carry out the unfinished task or we together correct the attitude or address the specific incident. Or, often, I simply hug them and thank them for their good work, and tell them to enjoy the rest of their morning. Of course there’s more. I could easily tell each of my kids a couple dozen things they need to work on and just as many jobs I’d like done.
But I don’t fire-hose them with it all at once.
God doesn’t either.
When we confess our sins to God and ask, “Is there anything else, Daddy?” He doesn’t unload on us. If He did, revealing ALL our weaknesses, sins, shortcomings, failures, we’d be incinerated. Toast.
But He doesn’t. He’s patient, merciful, and gives us just what we can handle in that moment.
But how it must please the Father when we ask! Just as I can’t help but grin, ear to ear, when my littles ask me that question, how it must also please our Father, yes?
Sure, it isn’t always fun to find out there’s even more to deal with than we had thought! Another “chore” seems like … well, a chore. But how rewarding it is to know we are slowly learning to bless His heart, to please Him.
How rewarding it is to see the Father smile.
{Thanks for reading.}
“Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
James 5:16
Forget Not
“Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:1-5
I read the verses for what they are, a powerful prescription: “Praise!” That’s it. Praise! And as I read the thought occurred to me, “It’s easier to take a pill for something than to press in and praise. Praise is actually exhausting work. It’s like prayer. Just hard work.” If I had a problem–say, discouragement–and I was offered two options: Take a pill and the discouragement would go away, OR praise God and the discouragement would go away. Which would I choose? Sadly, I would often just go for the pill. Why? It’s easier.
I am curled up right now on the couch. It’s cold and I feel a little hungry. My heart feels cold and hungry too. I read the Scriptures, God’s Word, and His prescription is so clear: Praise!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Forget not His benefits.
Remember all He has done! Remember WHO He is! Forget not.
How do we forget not?
Keep praising.
Keep recounting. Keep retelling. Sing them, say them, proclaim them, rejoice in them.
One of our family New Year’s Resolutions is to grow in JOY. We resolve to rejoice. Yesterday, we all got tangled up in mis-steps as we made our way out the door for a long day, and as I fumed a bit in the car, we finally asked the obvious: How do we rejoice right now?
This is the answer. Recount His goodness. Forget not His benefits.
And, believe His Word above what we feel. We believe He does forgive our iniquities, no matter how the enemy might remind us of them again.
We believe He does heal our diseases, no matter how the enemy seems to be winning every battle of infirmity.
We believe He does redeem our lives from the pit, crowning us with steadfast love and mercy, that He does satisfy us and renew our youth, even when we are struggling with fatigue.
We must choose to bless the Lord and forget not all His benefits.
How will you rejoice this week? What benefits will you resolve to not forget? List them! Tell them. Write them. Sing them! Make up a simple praise song and sing it with your kids. Sure, there are songs on the radio, but make your own! Make it your song. What song will your heart sing to the Lord? You are the only one who can sing your song of praise for all that God has done in your life.
Forget not all His benefits. See and experience the transformative power of God in your life today, as you praise His name by faith.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
{Happy Monday. Bless the Lord! Thank you for reading}
New dream, new dream-come-true
We’ve all had Joseph’s dream, one way or another.
Right? That dream where all the haters bow?
Sorry for the slang. What I mean is, those other people, the ones who put you down, who didn’t believe you could, or who disliked you in one way or another–haven’t we all daydreamed at one time or another that those naysayers would bow to us in the end?
Maybe it’s only me. Sometimes, even our “godly” dreams are really just a crazy-strong underlying drive for some sort of validation. If xyz happens and our dream comes true, we’ll know deep down that we’re ok. And with pretend humility and secret inner self-satisfaction, we’ll watch those people bow, figuratively, to our success.
See!
I re-read through the story of Joseph (Gen.37) this week and saw Joseph’s dream in a whole new light. Now, before you block this blog and flag it for heresy, hear my out: I do think that Joseph’s dream was from the Lord. The dream does come true, in a strange and completely unexpected sense, but the original dream (which, interestingly, isn’t clearly given by God in the text) is really just, in essence, all the haters bowing.
Right? This is clear, verse 4: “They hated him.”
They hated him, Joseph no doubt knew it, and he conveniently dreams that they all bow down to him someday.
Hm. Suddenly Joseph’s dream doesn’t seem all that supernatural.
Again, hear my heart: I’m not saying Joseph’s dream wasn’t prophetic. It was, in a sense.
But it was also human.
All our dreams are.
All our dreams are a mess of mixed motives. Of God-dreams and self-dreams comingled. This is why, as Joseph learned the hard way, we are wise to keep them to ourselves. *smile*
Six years ago I had a dream. At the time, it seemed like a good and godly one. In some sense it was. And … it came true. But as I walked through the daily of this dream, it proved to be not as I expected.
I’m sure Joseph felt the same. As he walked the road of his dream he found himself sold as a slave, imprisoned, falsely convicted, forgotten.
But somewhere along the line, that incomplete dream gave way to something infinitely greater.
A new dream brought a new dream-come-true.
Four and a half years ago, God shattered that old, incomplete dream, the one I had, like Joseph’s, that was really nothing more than a lot of self-validation and included a few fun details like maybe a few haters bowing down.
Something like that.
He shattered that dream by shattering me. He did that to Joseph too.
And He gave me a new dream.
There’s no chapter and verse for this, but I’d dare to venture that God gave Joseph a new dream too.
No more was Joseph’s dream to simply have the haters bow. No more did he just long for validation and a sort of self-elevation that proved success.
As he suffered, served, grew, his dream shifted from seeing others bow to seeing others live.
He wound up giving his life for saving lives. His genius, his intellect, his energy, all of it became poured out to wisely stewarding Egypt’s resources to save the lives of many (Gen 45:5).
I think this became his new dream and his new dream-come-true.
The new dream that God birthed 4 1/2 years ago … just came true this week. And let me just say: It’s so much better than the first one!
What if, instead of dreaming of gaining we dream of giving?
Instead of seeing others bow, we dream to see others live.
{What are your dreams? Honestly? How are we tempted to “settle” for simple dreams like seeing ourselves validated or seeing the haters bow? How might God want to birth a new dream, and a new dream-come-true? Happy, happy weekend friends. Thank you for reading!}