Christmas

Heaven is hushed. No angels sing. No harps sound. Serious faces reflect the serious thoughts in every heart.

He is leaving.

Not as He’s left before—in silent, invisible Creatorhood; in fire-and-thunder majesty; in blazes so bright no one could bear to watch. This time is different. He steps into the Father’s presence one last time—it will be a lifetime before They meet again. If his mission succeeds.

If it succeeds. Will it? He is God—yet, somehow, He is becoming Man. He must do what no man has ever done before, while being tempted just as much—or more—than any man has ever been. For One just as much Man as He is God, is it possible? What if…what if He never returns?

He has come from the throne. And now He is almost at the gate. He turns one more and looks at all the gathered watching throng—and there’s a tear in His eye.

“It’s worth it,” He says. “It’s worth it if only one sees a glimpse of My Father. It’s worth it if only one ever chooses to follow. It’s worth it if only one accepts. Goodbye! I love you!”

The gates swing open, and He is gone.

The Infinite has a beginning.
The Invisible is human cells.
The All-Powerful is all-dependent.
The Creator is the poorest of poor.
The Son of God is the Son of Man.

All because God loves a dirty, sinful, insubordinate world. Angels can barely understand it—will men accept it?

Homeschooling from a Homeschooler's Viewpoint, Part 2

Especially for parents :)

Last week we talked about homeschooling, some of the differences it’s made in my life, and some of the things that make homeschoolers so different from (seemingly) everybody else. I also touched briefly on what is many people’s main concern with homeschooling…“socialization.”

Socialization. Some come down on one side of the fence, some on another. In today’s post, I’m not claiming to have everyone’s answer—I’m only relating my experiences. So, on with the story.

Until about my freshman year in high school, I lived what most would term a very “sheltered” life. Our family did things together—sometimes with just the four of us, sometimes with other trusted families, but almost never just us kids on our own. I can’t remember ever feeling deprived, as my brother and I invented a whole world of imaginary friends and adventures for ourselves, but it probably helped that we (not even on purpose) ended up living some distance from friends for most of the early times I can remember.

When we moved to Tennessee at the end of my eighth-grade year, we suddenly found many more opportunities for socializing. In addition, my mother was led, by a series of unexpected events, to start allowing my brother and me to begin “spreading our wings” a little more without the in-person supervision of her and my father. We each got a short “debriefing” about some aspects of social life our parents hadn’t touched on before, and were encouraged to always share about anything we wanted to—then, more or less, we were free to “try our wings” while getting all the help, advice, and guidance we wanted from home.

Was it a brave move? You can be sure. Was it foolhardy? I know I’m biased, but I don’t think so. My parents did it with absolute trust in God’s care for my brother and me—knowing they could put us in His hands without worrying.

What happened? As far as I know, my brother, being the “good” kid, didn’t have many problems besides attracting attention from a large flock of girls while he was at summer camp. (No, he didn’t start going out with any of them!) :-)

As for me, I started hanging around a crowd of quite popular girls at church. For a while, everything looked fine; even our parents were friends. Then things started changing a bit in my friends’ attitudes; they started being less respectful, more rebellious, and I started “sliding” that way too, more and more.

But my parents’ trust in God’s care still succeeded. Just before they were planning to talk to me about my friendships, God graphically showed me what was going on with my friends and myself. And I pulled away. It wasn’t pleasant; it was a year of extreme loneliness and confusion for me. But it pulled me closer to God and my remaining best friend and family like nothing else could have.

So I know I'm only a rising college freshman and I'm no expert. But I know that if my parents had not relaxed their hold on me once God impressed them I was old enough to apply the lessons I'd learned, I would never have learned and grown like I have. This is a long post and I know it won't be everyone's choice. But it's what I've seen work amazingly well. I admire all you parents who are trying to raise your kids in God's way more than I can say. May God bless you!

What's "The World"?

(beginning of a weekly devotional series) :)
The universe is just amazing. Incomprehensible numbers of suns, planets, and moons, swirling in pinwheels and orbs and platters across an unending ebony backdrop. Solar systems scattered like sand on the ocean shore. Mountains and canyons and swirling masses of stars and planets and gas creating three-dimensional landscapes on the background of “forever.” And if you zoom in close enough you see our world. A little blue marble with green and white designs on it. It looks so homey. So small. So loveable.
But when you start reading the Bible, you get a different view…or is the subject of the texts a different world altogether?

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (I John 2:15)

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

What is this “world” that we are supposed to avoid “loving” or being like? That’s something I’ve been learning about for nearly two years now. I used to have this rather vague, fuzzy picture of a “world” that shunned God and did everything it “wasn’t supposed” to do. So it wasn’t too hard to reconcile myself to these statements. I appreciated and respected God and didn’t go too far from what I ideally should do, so I was fine. Right?

But recently I’ve gotten a new view on this amorphous “world.”

The world is anything that draws me away from Jesus.

It can be a book, a movie, an activity, a friend, even an environment. Some of these things I can choose to leave out of my life, or I can “pull away” from them so they don’t influence me as much. I’ve had to do a lot of that in the past two years, as I found many things that weren’t encouraging me towards God’s plan for my life. It isn’t fun…but it’s a choice you have to make. But other things I can’t get away from, and even if I could—I suppose I could go be a hermit somewhere, theoretically—it wouldn’t be the best thing for me or for other people. What then? We'll be looking at that January 1!

Where do you most commonly find the “world” in your life? How have you chosen to deal with it—or have you chosen to do anything about it? Do you think it’s even an important issue?

Next Weekend: We’ll take a break from this series (yes, I know I just started it! lol) for a special Christmas post! What does the first part of Jesus’ First Advent mean to us…besides just a wonderful holiday to spend with family and friends? Coming December 25!

Homeschooling from a Homeschooler's Perspective: Part 1

I've had this conversation plenty of times:
New friend: “Oh!—you’re homeschooled...?”

Me: “Yes, I’ve been homeschooled ever since kindergarten. We kept thinking I’d transition to traditional school, but it hasn’t happened!”

“Oh…”

Pause.

“Do you like it?”

I always tell them yes, because the good parts over the almost-twelve years I’ve been homeschooled have well overwhelmed the not-so-good parts.

But then the problems. “I was homeschooled for a while, but I was a really social kid, so it was horrible!” Or, from the adults’ perspective, “The whole socialization factor—I’m not sure it’s wise to have my kids not spending much time with other kids.”

I must say I don't always understand this. Soon I am transitioning to college. I have a job on campus, get along very well with the college students and staff, and am not encountering any problems transitioning socially. I make new friends easily, have only met a few people who really didn't like me (and they're my friends now), lead a small Bible study group, and have never had any problem despite my "lack of socialization." So why does homeschooling get the reputation it has? In my opinion, this reputation is rather over-exaggerated, but does have some truth to it. I have met many college students who quit homeschooling in their grade-school years because they were too lonely. I won’t say it’s for everyone, but I will say that if you are thinking about it, give it a try! Part of a year won’t kill your child or you, and it might be a great thing.

In most parts of the United States (other countries are more difficult), churches, church groups, homeschool co-ops, and similar groups allow you or your kids to have a great deal of interaction with other families. No, it’s not every day, but on the other hand, you learn lessons you wouldn’t learn so easily if you were in school. For example…

--My brother and I get along well and have been friends almost our whole lives. When you live together all the time, you have a lot more incentive to get along!

--I can take care of laundry, cooking, cleaning, the dogs, etc. any time if Mom needs me to. As long as no terrible disasters come up, I can pretty much run the house for most of the day if it’s needed.

--I have received individual attention on subjects like math and science (my difficult areas) that has enabled me to do above average on college entrance exams.

--I can now give individual tutoring on subjects like English and writing (my strong points) ;) to my friends and brother, whenever they need it. And learn valuable teaching skills in the process! :)

--I have time to have a job, with people I (usually) enjoy, doing useful things, and sometimes getting to bring home recipes for my mom!

--I have time to write, take pictures, and practice my instruments, honing my God-given talents and preparing for my future career.

--Most importantly, I have learned to be myself.

I think this latter point is what makes homeschoolers different, more often than not. Homeschooling forces you to be yourself—there is no crowd you can hang out with and imitate all day long, every day. Either you simply copy what you see in your family, or you decide for yourself where God’s calling you, and you go that way. This point is also what lets homeschoolers often be more comfortable with adults than their traditionally-schooled counterparts are. I have struggled hard with this idea, but finally I think I’m starting to “get it.” It’s all right to be what God’s calling me to be! It’s all right to be different (in a good way) from a lot of my acquaintances! That’s okay!

But there’s a balance to walk. Most of us don’t believe that living in a hermitage is healthy or right. If you’re a parent, how do you teach that to your kids without having them jump full-length into unhealthy things? Coming up in part two, some things I’ve seen (and experienced) that seem to work quite well!

Christmastime

I love Christmas! I love the lights, I love the music, I love the socials and get-togethers, I love wearing "Christmas-y" clothes...I'm not sure there's anything I don't like about Christmas! I took this picture of our amaryllis plant last night; it was up next to the Nativity scene and I just couldn't resist the lighting!

Especially for Girls...

A "new" (not really new, but newly re-designed) website that one of my friends directed me to! Daughterhood by Design is a primarily web-based magazine written by girls to encourage us to reach the high standard God wants us to reach. And they've recently re-designed their website to be particularly friendly to those of us who reach them from the web! I'm looking at it right now (multi-tasking, yes) :) and am excited about keeping up with their new articles as they come out. Check them out!

Reaching Others while Staying at Home :)

I love writing to people! Whether it's letters, hand-stamped cards (my personal favorite) :), emails, Facebook messages, or forum/blog posts, I love communicating with people! And I've found it's a wonderful way of developing friendships and reaching out to people. I have been "e-pals" with two missionary kids so far and it's been a wonderful experience both times. One of those e-mail and chat buddies is now my best friend in real life (although we're back to phone calls and emails since he left for boarding school), and another is currently overseas, but hoping to come to college with me. Whether you're writing emails to and chatting with an MK who just needs support, encouragement, and prayers; making a card for your work supervisor or other friend who's having a tough time in life; or helping other kids with their questions about life, writing is a wonderful way to communicate and make people feel loved and special. And you can do it all from your desk and/or computer! It's a simple outreach that can have big results!

Thursday Thoughts--Who Are You Being?

What am I showing to other people? What do they see in me? It's fascinating to me to watch people's reactions as they get to know me. I am reasonably conservative compared to most of my friends here where I live, although I'm not very conservative compared to a lot of other people. For example: I wear jeans and shorts, but my clothes aren't skin-tight, low-cut, or revealing; I listen to some contemporary Christian music, but I still can't figure out how you can really praise God by destroying your hearing; I watch movies, but not very often (at all!) and not most of the ones that my less-than-conservative friends are watching; I'm allowed to date, but I'm choosing to fall in love with GOD first and not worry about guys till later.

For a long time I was afraid to be labeled. I wanted to fit in with the crowd. I still do, to one extent or another, but I'm beginning to be more comfortable with the person God is leading me to be. If I'm just like everyone else in the world, what do I have to give them?

And it's amazing to me to watch people's reactions. At first they may find it difficult to talk to me, if all they can talk about is the latest movies and popular songs; and that's always frustrating to me. I want to be friends, but how can we talk if you seem totally uninterested in real life? ;) But when they really have something on their hearts, God has over and over been able to use me to reach them. Which, when He does, is an amazing experience!

So it's something I find myself thinking about. Who am I being? Who am I showing to others? Am I showing them that all I really care about is the normal way of doing things, or am I showing them that there's Someone even better out there?

Well Things May Be Quiet...

I will still post from time to time but for a while my life will be taken up with this! Our family is receiving another puppy to raise from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) and he'll be flying in on Friday! So I'll be busy for a few weeks. :)

Random Thoughts

I have been working more on my Bible memorization lately. Memorization has always been comparatively easy for me and a while ago (a couple years) I was impressed that I should probably be using that gift for more than just school! So I started memorizing whole chapters of the Bible. That makes it much easier for me to remember where a text is found...I am horrible at remembering individual texts! If I can memorize a whole chapter, getting the context in that way, it's much much easier to remember!

So I thought I'd share my personal method of memorizing. I like to make up a sheet with the verses marked on it, and the beginning letter of each word. I also include the punctuation. It's a little hard to describe, so here's a (unfortunately not too good) picture:


The slashes mark every two verses. If I'm really "on the ball" I can memorize about two verses a day, so that divides things up more easily. To do the actual memorization, I read the verse two or three times in my Bible, then switch to the sheet and try to do it with only the first-letter "clues." After a few times going over it this way, I can try saying it without looking at anything. I always review the past half-a-dozen verses or so as well, so I don't forget.

Since I'm taking my second year of Spanish this year, I'm also LOVING memorizing chapters in Spanish! So far I'm working on my second Spanish chapter--I Corinthians 13. So cool to learn the same thing in a different language! I'm looking forward to adding French chapters next year!


Well that is all for today, more later. :)

Poem :)

I write poetry every now and then...well actually pretty frequently...and this is one of my many favorites. :) Reminds me to wait for GOD's plan for my life, and not go running off after something that just looks good, or that everyone else thinks is great.

BIRD OF PARADISE

It shimmers, it gleams
It’s like flames in the night
Every color of the rainbow
Silk-brushed soft feathers

They ran for nets
And set up snares
Arranged lures
Even fought with each other

I stepped away
Just held out my hand
Watched it flit by
From tree to tree

If you come you’re not my captive
Neither will I be yours
Though I love you just like they do
I will never force

You must choose to land
Will you? I don’t know
But the true bird of paradise alights
Only on the open hand.

Pictures :)

It's starting to look like fall even here in the South, and I just can't resist taking pictures, especially of the last few flowers! Besides, I'm taking a photography class this year, so I have a good excuse. :) I love the seasons--they're such a wonderful example that God really does "make everything beautiful in its time"!