Miraculous Change After Only 2 Days

Yesterday was our first day back with HOD as our core curriculum.  It was a long day.  But it was a good day.  Joshua spent a lot of time saying he hated it but he was the happiest hater I've ever seen LOL.  It was our first day and I knew it was going to take a while for us to get into the grove of doing things in this new way.  I also knew we were going to have some heart issues to deal with but that is another post entirely.

I was still exhausted from the MidSouth Convention and ended up sleeping until 9:30 this morning.  Jacob also slept in and woke a few minutes after me actually.  Anyway while I was sleeping this morning Joshua worked on his independent work. We are still doing Reading through the BJU Distance Learning (I can not wait to start HOD Drawn Into the Heart of Reading this fall though) so he did that lesson and also did his Saxon math.  He also voluntarily completed his Independent History and Independent Science from the HOD Preparing manual.  This was approximately 3 hours of work without a prompt from me.

Now I need you to understand that this child has been one that could not follow a schedule or do any work without a constant push to do so.  He would rather be doing ANYTHING than school. ANYTHING!  Physical labor would probably get done without whining before school.  I hope you are understanding the depth of change that took place yesterday for him to do this this morning.  It truly was the first miracle of the day.

So I got up and got Jacob and I some breakfast and did some necessary catch up from waking late while Joshua took a break. Have I mentioned that Joshua is writing phobic?  Seriously.  Getting a sentence out of him has been like pulling my teeth out without a shot for the pain.............  So while on his break he decides he's going to WRITE A BOOK!!!!  And write he has done today.  I had to pull him away from writing after lunch to finish school.  Miracle #2 today!!

We are reading Grandpa's Box: Retelling the Biblical Story of Redemption for History right now and we read Ch. 2 today.  Joshua loves this book already.  After reading Ch. 2 our Preparing manual had read most of Romans 5 today and do the discussion questions listed in the manual.  Those discussion questions led into an hour long talk about the law, Jesus' gift, and whether or not we could keep the law.  It enabled me to share more intimately with Joshua why I follow Jesus and my relationship with him.  I explained to him that I don't love Jesus because I'm afraid of going to hell or anything like that.  I love Jesus because the law has shown me just how black my heart is and how much I deserve death yet God loves me anyway.  I love Him because He first loved me and continues to love me even when I sin.  I attempt to not sin because I love Him and I know it breaks his heart when I do sin. I love Him so I don't want to hurt him. Every motivation is based in love.

There were tears from both of us and Joshua made a confession to me about some sin in his life.  When I didn't directly address the sin he asked my why.  I told him that the Lord was convicting him and I didn't need to punish him any further.  I realized that he thought I didn't love him because I wasn't angry about the sin he confessed to me.  We had the sweetest time together talking about how, like Jesus, there was nothing he could ever do that would take my love away from him.  NOTHING! No matter what he does he's my son and I will love him forever.  I also told him that as much as I love him God loved him even more than me.

I am simply amazed at the miraculous change that has come after only 1 day with Heart of Dakota. I fully credit HOD with the new found creativity that Joshua is experiencing and for guiding us in a truly Jesus centered day that brought my son and I to a most wonderful place with Jesus. If you are feeling unsettled with your current curriculum or are missing out on time with your children having truly deep conversations about the heart of God then may I humbly suggest you take a look at Heart of Dakota.  I think you will be blessed if you do so.

Praising Jesus for the presence of His Holy Spirit today and for finding Heart of Dakota!

But I Believe in Faith

But I Believe In Faith
by: Justin Harvey at The Anchor Fellowship

For 14 years I have believed in Yeshua, but my faith in him as not been so long lived.

It’s easy for me to believe something… prove it to me. Irrefutable evidence is a sure way to make me a believer. I want to touch it, taste it, feel it, smell it, see it, hear it. This is the type of belief I‘ve had in Yeshua since he proved his existence to me in ways that could take pages upon pages for me to tell. I wasn’t a church kid… quite the opposite actually. I was raised without religion and by my own reasoning deemed Christianity a worthless crutch for the mentally weak. I aggressively gave Christians a hard time… and even recruited others to join me in the assault. It was in the height of my resistance that Yeshua knocked me off my high horse. He personally revealed himself to me and that encounter had a dramatic and instantaneous effect upon the very core of my being. In a moment I went from being a professed enemy of Christ to being one of his followers. Ever since then I have believed in him… and he has continued to reinforce that belief with his constant presence and action in my life. This is why I believe in Yeshua: he proved himself to me.

This belief, however, is not a clear indicator of my faith. Belief is something we hold internally. We can believe many things and never speak of them or act upon them. Belief is nothing more than a state of mind. Faith, however, supersedes the confines of our thoughts. Faith is the manifestation of belief in the form of action. Faith is what happens when something we believe overrides the other things we believe, particularly those contradictory things, and we act on the belief despite how unlikely, impossible or unimaginable our expected outcome may be.

It’s faith that caused a man named Simon to jump out of a boat far at sea and walk to Yeshua who was also standing on the water. It’s faith that caused Martin Luther King Jr. to proclaim his dream of a racially united America in a time when racial unity seemed an impossibility. And, it was faith that lead me to say to a girl with a broken leg, “Because of God’s great love for you, you are healed.” …and she instantly was. There was a season in my life in which I had faith in Yeshua to do the unlikely, impossible and unimaginable. But over time that faith dwindled. What was a constant soon became an occasion. For the last few years it has been a rarity.

I’ve come to realize that I now live with a great belief in Yeshua, but merely marginal faith in him. It seems rationally absurd to me, but even Yeshua’s water-walking-friend, Simon, had a similar dilemma. On another occasion Simon was again on a boat far at sea. Yeshua was with him asleep in the hull of the ship. A huge storm swelled up, tossing the boat wildly. Water was coming on board and Simon, a lifelong fisherman, knew this was the end. He knew they were going to drown. He went under deck to Yeshua, shouting their certain doom. Simon had the faith to walk on water with Yeshua, but he had never seen Yeshua save a sinking ship. It would seem Simon lacked faith that Christ would save them, perhaps even that he could save them. Yeshua sat up and calmly walked on deck. He raised his arms up and told the storm to stop. It obeyed! The sky cleared and the waves stopped. Yeshua then turned and asked Simon, “Why did you have no faith?”. Simon wasn’t the only person on board. Everyone saw what Yeshua did and they were amazed. They couldn’t explain it – they couldn’t understand it – but they believed what they had just seen.

There was a man among them named Judas who also saw many of the amazing things Yeshua did. He was a believer and professed his life to following Yeshua. But, he proved himself faithless when he decided a fat paycheck was valuable enough to betray Yeshua. He believed Yeshua was God’s son but was unfaithful to that belief for the belief that money was more important.

In a lot of ways I feel like both Simon and Judas. I’ve walked on the water with Yeshua. I’ve been terrified he couldn’t save my sinking ship. I’ve sold him out for a cheap thrill and a wad of cash.

Satan believes in Christ, but it’s clear that’s not going to him much good. Just believing something to be true is a far cry from living like it is true. It’s not enough for me to believe in Christ… I need faith in him.

I once heard a man quote this scripture to justify his choice to not commit to a disciplined lifestyle modeled after Christ’s: “If we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is our Lord, we will be saved”. That’s great! I’m sure that quoting bible verses to God will work out great on our day of Judgment. Clearly the meaning of this verse was lost to him. What it’s saying is to put belief in Yeshua somewhere other than our heads – to integrate that belief into our core – at the very center of what we think and feel. When we believe things with our heart our lives reflect it… it consumes us, it bleeds out of us. Simply confessing a head-belief of Yeshua’ Lordship in my life is pretty pointless. I mean, its good show and sounds right, but what good is it really? That kind of belief isn’t faith. It’s just another categorical fact that may or may not have any weight in my life. I can believe a life jacket can keep me from drowning but that won’t do me any good if I don’t wear it.

I need my belief to turn into faith again. I long for the days when my faith in Yeshua overshadows all that I believe. I anticipate the times when I not only hear the Lord tell me to heal the sick, or prophecy to a stranger, or speak life into a dead child… but when I actually do it. The scriptures tell us that someone who hears the words of God but does not act on them is like a person who gazes in a mirror but walks off not remembering what they look like. Here I am staring at my reflection. Will I walk away and still remember who I am?

Lord, I believe. Increase my faith.

From Paige: Amen Lord! Increase my faith!!

What's motivating me? Why do we homeschool?

I want to thank Daisy for bringing this Holy Experience post back to my memory. In light of my previous post about making sure I'm not chasing the wind with all my toiling this was a very fitting post by Ann Voskamp.

I'm linking you to Mrs. Voskamps post because I really couldn't say it any better myself. I hear I'm in good company with that sentiment.

So please. If you would like to know what's motivating me with homeschooling please read here.

Labor and Achievement: What's motivating me?

"And I saw that all labor and achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Ecclesiastes 4:4

In my Bible reading earlier the Lord reminded me through this verse to check myself on why I do the things I do. If I am not motivated to do the Lord's will in ALL things then it's MEANINGLESS and I might as well be chasing the wind.

Wow that knocked the wind out of me. I mean one of the things that stresses me out each day is feeling like there is not enough hours or minutes to get it all done. I sure do not want to be wasting my time chasing the wind. I'll be taking this to heart and really examining what's motivating me with every minor action. Making sure I'm not chasing anything but the Lord Jesus Christ.

What's motivating you? Is it really meaningless in the big picture of Jesus' will for you? Are you running around chasing the wind?

Precious Jesus,

How often I delight in what I have done: my achievements, my family...my victories, my possesions, my family...my, my, my. But what is it all worth apart from You, Holy One? "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." Lord, unless You work through me, my labors will be empty. Unless I abide in You, I can do NOTHING THAT MATTERS. Unless I do Your bidding, my life will never bear fruit that will last. But when I live by Your grace and for Your glory, then my toil will not be in vain. Help me, Lord, to devote my life to doing Your will, for then I will have treasures in heaven, treasures that will last for eternity. (Ps. 127:1; Isa. 65:19-23; Mt. 6:19-21; Jn. 15:5)

In Your name, the name ABOVE all names,
Amen

Prayer: why we struggle (and how not to)

Ann Voskamp's Walk with Him Wednesday post does it again. Don't miss her blog period but by all means do not miss this post.

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/08/prayer-why-we-struggle-and-how-not-to.html

One Of My Favorite Blogs

A Holy Experience

Words can not do it justice. Get a cup of coffee or tea and read, read, read.

I never fail to be speechless as I am now having just come from reading there.

This weeks Preschool plans

I have received all my books for Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven except for the Singing Bible. I should receive it tomorrow. I absolutely adore Playtime Devotions. I am so glad I decided to spend a few extra dollars and get this book before I couldn't get it in the future. It's the perfect devotion book for Jacob. That is what I love the most about Carrie Austin. She is so discriminating in her book choices for each of her manuals. I have come to trust her and that is why I really looked at the out of print books that were originally used in Little Hands to Heaven. I knew they would be top notch and I am not disappointed at all. I am really looking forward to snuggling up with Jacob to read our Bible stories and do our letter activities. Jacob loves to read together and he loves saying his ABC's and many of their sounds. I have no doubt Jacob will love the fun learning activities in Little Hands to Heaven. I will try to take some pics of him on his first day or preschool. I didn't do things like that with Joshua and I regret that I didn't now. We will be doing more memory type things with both boys in the future.

Fun stuff in store for us this week. How about you? What are your plans for this week?

Our Preschool Curriculum

Well I ordered my books for our preschool curriculum for Jacob. We will be using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven.


When Mrs. Austin wrote the Little Hands to Heaven manual she used a devotional book called Playtime Devotions . It's now out of print but Mrs. Austin has substituted it with another great book called Big Thoughts for Little People. I decided to buy Playtime Devotions because of Jacob's age. He will just turn 3 on April 12. I wanted a very easy intro to school things and Playtime Devotions looked like it was just what I was looking for. I want to instill a love for learning in him and make some wonderful memories with him. I looked at Big Thoughts extensively and I think that when he's just a bit older I will get that book and use it at night before bed. Big Thoughts is a very good book and I was torn because I didn't want to miss out on it either. Little Hands to Heaven also uses A Child's First Bible. In Little Hands to Heaven each unit has a theme centered around Bible characters. These stories provide the focus for the day's plans. The daily activities are linked to the Bible stories. There are musical selections from The Singing Bible that correspond with each unit. I have no doubt this will be a favorite of Jacob's.

My plans at this time are to do Little Hands to Heaven a couple of times a week because of his age. I plan on taking 2 years to complete it. Jacob has shown signs of being gifted so I might end up doing LHTH every day and have to change my long term plans for him but in the beginning this is the schedule until I see how he does. On the other days I plan to use some Kumon First Step workbooks called Let's Cut Paper!, Let's Fold!, Let's Color!, and Let's Sticker & Paste!.

I am also strongly considering using Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning Prek with Jacob. It's for 3 & 4 year olds and I think this book and maybe even the ones that follow it would dovetail very nicely into Singapore math which we will use when Jacob is older. Singapore is known for it's mental math component so I think these books will be an age appropriate precursor.

When I start will depend on when my books arrive. I will be posting about some of our days and weeks in review also.

I'm also working on a new daily schedule now since I will need to make sure I allow enough time for working with Jacob. I will post my new schedule when I'm done with it.