Perspective

This is actually an excerpt from The Homeschool Minute that was very encouraging to me:

"Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah...O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows."
Psalm 61

There are several things in this passage that are very applicable to us today, and which always lead me out of those overwhelming feelings:

• Prayer is vital--how is my intimate relationship with my God doing? How much conversation goes on daily? I need to do more than pray; I need to cry out. More.
• I need to be led to a higher place--that high rock where I have a better perspective of my surroundings. I can't get there myself. God understands our need for help.
• As I am looking from that higher, eternal, perspective, I can look ahead knowing that the Ruler of the universe, rules me. I can look back knowing that the God of history who preserved others will preserve me. I can look back at God's sheltering of me; His strong protection from the enemy. Why should I not trust Him?
• I look to His dwelling place, wanting to live there with Him and trust in His covering. Trust comes from knowing someone very well. Do I know Him that well?
• He says He hears us--and He doesn't lie.
• He has given us a heritage of those that will fear Him; I see my children there.
• It's His mercy along with the truth of His Word that will preserve us. How is our time in the Word? Is it enough to sustain us? Are we not seeing what is really truth because we are not spending time in the Truth?
• I will sing praise unto His name (yes, even when overwhelmed). This helps greatly with perspective when we see just how big and holy God is; and worthy of praise--no matter our circumstances, because they don't change the fact of Who God Is. Begin to praise Him, and He will begin to change your view and your heart.
• A heart that has been lifted from an overwhelming place to a place of praise is a heart and life that can daily do what God has called us to do--for that day. Overwhelmed again tomorrow? Cry out again and begin to sing His praises.

Homeschooling Ancient Greece

Hanna and Maggie have been researching Ancient Greece and so they came up with an afternoon of activities, games, and fun for Trey and Lily. They made sandals (cardboard and leather) and dressed them in "authentic" outfits--although I'm not sure how the feathers tie in! Then they made them pose for a photo. They made flutes out of straws and played special games! I served up yogurt with canned pears, drizzled with honey, sprinkled with walnuts, and finished off with a Spekulatius.

A comment by a friend...

"I always find it hard to complain when my mind and heart are entrenched in a good mission bio." So true!!! Also hard to complain when my mind and heart are entrenched in the Bible.

Psalm 19:32 "I will run in the path of Your commands for You have set my heart free."

Guard Your Love

If we must jealously guard our love for Christ, we need also to guard our love for people. Just as the Holy Spirit moves us to love Christ, he motivates us to sacrificially love others. But as we have seen, believers can act selfishly and disobey God's Word. As the eighteenth-century evangelist Henry Moorhouse observed in a letter to a friend, "Love seems in so many hearts to have gone to sleep."


When love goes to sleep, we grow cold and unfeeling toward people. We love material possessions and personal comforts more than people. We love our work more than people. We become bitter toward people because our feelings have been hurt. We become weary in serving selfish, ungrateful people and become content to show love only to those who are agreeable to us. We become lazy and complacent about love. We neglect our duty to love the unlovely and the disagreeable. (p. 61-62)

From Love or Die by Alexander Strauch

"Streams in the Desert" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

If we could see beyond today
As God can see;
If all the clouds should roll away,
The shadows flee;
O'er present griefs we would not fret.
Each sorrow we would soon forget,
For many joys are waiting yet
For you and me.
If we could know beyond today
As God doth know,
Why dearest treasures pass away
And tears must flow;
And why the darkness leads to light,
Why dreary paths will soon grow bright;
Some day life's wrongs will be made right,
Faith tells us so.
"If we could see, if we could know,"
We often say,
But God in love a veil doth throw
Across our way;
We cannot see what lies before,
And so we cling to Him the more,
He leads us till this life is o'er
Trust and obey.

My verse of the year:

Romans 13:14

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Or

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

Bible reading, anyone?

Check out these plans for reading through the Bible this year:

http://www.navpress.com/dj/content.aspx?id=138