A little bit about my family – my husband works away from
home (Afghanistan) and is only home a brief amount of time every few months. He
was just home and we had a wonderful time together, our sons (8th
& 4th graders) are always anxious and excited for when Daddy
gets to be home, so the time when he has to leave are always very hard on us – especially
so with the holidays. While hubby is home, I take a break from my blog and any
other volunteer activities to concentrate on him.
Two years ago, I became a stay at home mom, which was a huge
scary step for me. I had always worked, but with my husband gone for 9 months
out of the year, our sons getting older and my full-time work consuming so much
of my time, I felt God was leading me to stay home. Instead of obeying what God
was telling me, I asked my husband if I could work just part-time – I thought
that might be ‘good enough’; but if you didn’t know, when God tells us his plan
for us, He doesn’t change His mind or say, ‘you know what, I didn’t think of
that, maybe your way is better’. So part-time didn’t really work, instead I was
doing the same amount of work in less time and even more stress, with less pay –
so after ‘letting go and letting God’, I quit working all together. When I had prayed
on this, God gave me a word (or direction, if you prefer) He basically told me
that my new ‘job’ was to raise our sons the way God intended them to be raised,
to be godly young men – not of this world.
Several things have happened in the time since, I’ve grown spiritually
and I know I’m far from done in that capacity; I also started this blog and my
Facebook page, and every blog I’ve written has increased my faith on how God
can use someone like me, to reach and teach people all over the world. Now I
believe God has given me the next step to this adventure – homeschool. It’s a
big step of faith and it’s one I believe God has been preparing me for, no way
would I have been able to do this when I first quit working –but now, I believe
I am at the place where God wants me to take on this challenge.
My boys and I are all home sick today with the flu and since
we couldn’t attend our church services, we had church at home. In the lesson
today we talked about Matthew 14:22-32, where Jesus walked on the water and
Peter stepped out of the boat in faith. I was able to use the example of Jesus telling
Peter to ‘come’ and how his faith was strong while he focused on Jesus but when
he let the distractions of the world overcame him, he began to sink; as an
example of God giving me the word to quit working, raise my children as godly men and now to
homeschool. When I made the mistake of just part-time work, I began to sink - it was when I focused on God and quit all together that I began to grow in faith and have come to where I am today. I can’t be distracted by what I, others or the world thinks, God’s given me direction – I’m to focus on Him and His
Word and follow His direction.
God doesn’t lead us into trouble, He leads us to blessings;
yet the devil will do his best to distract us - to try and get us off the path
we’ve been given. This path might not be for everyone so remember –
God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. I’ve been praying for
continued guidance and subtle little things have been given to me to confirm
the direction we are going, my sons are excited and anxious to start
homeschooling – we’ve discussed what it will be like and what is expected of
them and of myself. We know this will be a huge change for us all and we know
this is not a task to be taken lightly, but I’m so thankful for this wonderful
opportunity. I’m not sure of the direction of my blog in all of this; but I know that
no matter where this adventure leads us, our faith will only grow stronger and
blessings will follow.
