Over the weekend, my husband and I watched Facing the Giants. I’ve seen it before, but it’s been a long while. I love this movie, because it reminds me so much of my husband and I, when we were first married. The low income, the infertility, the unreliable car…
One scene I hadn’t remembered from the first time I watched the movie, was a scene in which the football coach hears a story from a Godly man, who prays daily for the students of the Christian school.
The conversation goes like this:
Coach Grant Taylor: “I just don’t see God at work here.”
Godly man: “Grant, I heard a story about two farmers who desperately needed rain. Both of them prayed for rain, but only one of them went out to prepare his fields to receive it. Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?
Coach Taylor: “Well, the one who prepared his fields for it.”
Godly man: “Which one are you? God will send the rain when he is ready. You need to prepare your field to receive it.”
Am I preparing my field for the rain? I say I believe God can do great things. I have seen God do great things. And yet so often, I get bogged down in the day to day worries of this life, and I forget how mighty a God we serve.
My prayer for myself today, tomorrow, and each day following, is that I would look beyond the concerns of earthly life, and live my life by the love and power of the God of all eternity.
Photo by iowa_spirit_walker.
It’s been raining for a few days, and the kids and I have been cooped up in the house for too long. So has the dog, for that matter. This evening, as the kids were wildly yelling and playing and being just a little too loud in my tired opinion.
I thought back to what my children’s teachers did on rainy days. They mostly did quiet indoor things, like reading and playing board games. Sometimes the kids got to play under a covered area outside. And then at the end of the day, they sent the antsy kids home.
While playing games and reading are certainly great options for a homeschooling family, I can’t just pack up my rowdy kids and send them home at the end of the day. And we don’t have a covered outside area where the kids can play. This is truly the first time I’ve come to the end of my proverbial homeschooling rope.
In frustration, I posted on the Sonlight forums and asked other homeschooling moms what they do when it rains for days on end. One wise woman told me to put the kids in rain gear and send them outside.
What? Play outside in the rain? That’s absurd! Nobody does that!
But why not? The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like a great idea. After all, my kids are healthy. Unlike kids in public school, if I send them outside for a rainy recess, they can change out of their wet clothes when they come in the house. In fact, if they’re too wet and cold, they can even take a hot shower in the middle of the day!
It honestly never occurred to me to send my kids out to play in the rain, because, well, because I didn’t do that as a kid, and my kids hadn’t done that in school. It’s funny how the mind works. Sometimes you’re so conditioned to be practical that you don’t open your eyes to an opportunity to just have some good ol’ messy fun.
I still have a lot to learn about being a homeschooling mom.
Photo by laffy4k.
7 years ago today, your dad and I were sitting in a hospital room, anticipating your arrival. We were a little frustrated that you were taking your sweet time getting here, as your older sister had come so quickly.
As we waited, we talked and watched TV. The World Series was going, the Anaheim Angels vs. the San Francisco Giants. And snipers were terrorizing Washington D.C. and Maryland. We watched and waited.
Finally around 5:30 the doctor came in and broke my water. Things started to move quickly, and you were born at 8:15. The nurses laid you on my stomach, and you immediately peed all over me! We knew then you’d be quite the character.
By the time we left the hospital two days later, the Giants were winning the World Series, and the snipers had been caught. But we hardly noticed. Our focus was on you.
Those first few weeks you hated to sleep. And you loved to eat! It seems that I was nursing you around the clock. I was tired, but every moment was worth it.
When you were around 18 months old, you wouldn’t talk. We were scared that something was wrong. You were tested, and the “experts” agreed that you could benefit from speech therapy. So off you went to toddler school and then preschool.
At age 3, you still weren’t talking, but you could preach a great sermon in gibberish! You would pull your dad’s Bible off the shelf, lay it carefully on our bed, opened to some random passage. Then you would march back and forth, urgently trying to get some message across…a message I couldn’t understand. But man, it was cute!
Then around Christmastime, you decided to start talking. You talked and talked. And in the 4 years since, you haven’t stopped talking. Questions, facts, opinions…you want to know things, and you want to say things!
Last year we sent you to kindergarten. I was sad, knowing you were growing up so quickly, yet happy with the energetic little boy you were becoming. I loved volunteering in your class and seeing you play with all the other kids. I was proud that you never picked on others and that you were willing to be a friend to anyone.
This year we’ve done things a bit differently. Instead of going to school, I’m teaching you at home. And I love every minute of it. I love how you always want to go to the map and see where the stories we read take place. I love how you laughed at the gum-chewing tigers in My Father’s Dragon. And I love how you enjoy science! I never enjoyed science as a kid, but I’m finding it’s much more fun, now that I see you loving science!
I’m so grateful to God for allowing your dad and I to parent you. You have brought much energy, laughter, and joy to our lives. Happy 7th birthday, Bug! I love you!
Love,
Your Mommy
