Well, I made it through a whole week of Homeschooling and
let me just say, it was amazing!! I am so overjoyed that God has led our family
to this exciting adventure! I've loved spending so much time with my sons and
getting to know a different side of them (I really do think teachers see a side
of our children that we don’t always get to see, after all they get 40 hours with them a week).
One lesson that Mommy/Teacher learned this past week: one
sure fire way to discover if you are on the path God has for you – constantly taking direct fire from the enemy - if you have that happening, you are probably doing something right!
So it’s no shock when there have been various little issues
that have plagued us – my sons and I would stop what we were doing and pray for
God’s provision. Each time we were
blessed by God’s provision, building up and strengthening our faith. Now, a
HUGE financial pitfall/disaster/circumstance has occurred and the weight of it was simply too much
for me to bear, so I did the only thing I could do – I gave it to God, and you know He
is faithful and true, His mercies are new everyday – I've been so blessed by the sweetest peace He has given me! This issue hasn't gone away and I don’t know how the Lord will provide, but I KNOW He will.
I feel like the devil is attacking us especially hard right
now, simply because of the glory we are giving to God for this opportunity. More people have come up to me and asked about
homeschooling, which has opened the door for me to talk about God and how He is
the reason we are doing this.
Although I was sure homeschooling was what God wanted for my
sons, my husband hadn't received that answer yet – time messes with you when you’re sure what God wants for your family, but your spouse hasn't received the same answer yet – you will question yourself. I knew that in order
to homeschool, I would need to put our sons back in Karate – they had been out
for only 6 weeks but my budget was pretty tight that month, so I wasn't sure how I
could pay for it. Then I got a call from our church on Dec 21st , someone had anonymously given a monetary gift for my family (no one
knew we were having a hardship – no one except God!). So on the way up to the
church I was thanking God for however much I was about to receive; I then said,
‘God, I honestly believe you want us to homeschool, and I believe you want us
to start as soon as Christmas Break is over – but God, I would need to be able
to put the boys in karate and I don’t have any extra money for that right now –
so if this ‘gift’ is enough for that, I’ll know that without a doubt, you are
telling me YES, go ahead and do this NOW’. So when I got home and opened the
envelope, it was enough for karate and ‘then some'. I knew in my
heart that God had said YES, but knowing there was ‘more’ to this - I held on
to the cash, waiting to discover what the ‘then some’ was for.
Our church has an awesome Youth Retreat every January; four
days of teenagers worshiping God, having fun, fellowship, and drawing closer to God – but again, the cost was more than I could afford at this
time and I believed it was really important for my teenager to be able to go,
especially now that I knew we would be homeschooling! A friend at our church told me that I should apply for a scholarship (after all my
teenager volunteers every Sunday to help with the Pre-K kids) I would only have
to pay a smaller deposit with the scholarship.
Totaling up the cost for the karate lessons and then the deposit
to the youth retreat, that would leave 10% of the total blessing (hello,
tithe!!) – Which showed me, without a doubt –that God’s hand was in this; he showed
me that HE is our provider, no one else!
So now, I’m clinging to that promise – God was so exact in
that blessing, that He needed me to see before the seas got too rough, before I
would even have a chance to take my eyes off of Him, that we are doing His will
and He will not leave us or forsake us – HE is Jehovah-Jireh (The Lord will provide)! (Genesis 22:7-14)
Every school
day, we start out with prayer and then read from our Bible and have a
devotional time together. I was even able to share this experience (God's provision) with our sons last week, they were in awe - not realizing how intricate God's provision can be and just for them! This time has been my favorite part of our day and my
sons have even told me, that it’s their favorite too. God knows exactly what we
need, when we need it and how we need it – the blessings He gave us, are an anchor to hold onto during the storm we are now experiencing. We know that God doesn't give us the storms
in life, but He will give us shelter through them and having His promises to
fall back on gives us a peace that only God can deliver.
