"I Don't Have the Patience For That"

This title is a common response to the answer to what I do with the majority of my days: homeschool.

I've been trying to think about what it really means to not have patience for something.  Because my immediate thought is often "neither do I."  Unless it's been a particularly good day.  Then maybe I am pridefully smug.  That's very rare. (The part about a great day, I'm sure I have pride issues way too often.)

I can tell you that I keep at it, even though I don't feel I have the patience or organizational, disciplined character to educate my five offspring marvelously.  I also sometimes go to Walmart on a Saturday afternoon even though I don't have the patience for it.  Sometimes I drive in rush hour traffic (though that's not much of an issue here in Williston), or call my health care provider even though I really don't have the patience to wait to talk to someone who won't know how to answer my question.

And so I think in two directions:

1.  Have you thought through your child's education and are you doing what you are convinced is best for you, your child, and your whole family?  If so, great.  Then just say, "I've thought about homeschooling but don't think it's the right fit for our family."  I get it.  I've been there and will be there again.

2.  Do you make decisions on what you have patience for?  I'm not sure that's the best test for how to make commitments.  I don't think I would have had children in the first place if that was my criteria.  I probably wouldn't have gotten married, though I do have an amazing man who doesn't test my patience much, only supports me.  I wouldn't do many of the things I've chosen to do.

Patience is a fruit of the spirit.  It requires growth and time.  More growth and time for some than others, and I lean in the some category.

And so, this is not at all a post on whether you should homeschool or not, but only a challenge to our cultural thinking.

As Christians, we believe Christ's "divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."  (2 Peter 1:3)

Let us make our decisions not on what we think we can handle, but on what Christ calls us to do.  For if He calls us, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13)

Some decisions we get to make by faith--and then we can see God come through for us.  Some situations He allows into our lives without our input.  Either way, he is faithful to strengthen those who hope in Him.

The Flip

I sit on the couch any given morning, the patter of children not yet heard.  I draw back the curtains, pour coffee, pray, and read.

Lately I've been watching the house across the street being flipped.  After a foreclosure, the purchaser at auction is revamping it for resale.

In one day the color changed from purple-blue to sandstone.  The trim moved from periwinkle to deep earthy-brown.  The door went from white to eggplant-brown.  My eyes adjusted quickly, as the change was beautiful.

Still, the yard.  Our former neighbor loved gardening and planted much.  But the last two years of neglect showed in an overgrown, weedfull, mish-mash landscape.

We watched with astonishment as a landscape team came and worked for two days.
My husband said, "I want them to come and do that to our yard."

Neat, orderly, visually satisfying.  I've never seen it lovelier.



I haven't seen much inside, but I'd guess it's the same.

It's a total flip.

So I sit on the couch in the early morn, and I read in 1 Corinthians 6:

"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived:  Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."


The house across the street is a picture of the miracle I so often forget.  A miracle of a changed heart.  Before Jesus, I was dirty, rundown, neglected, dark, and deceived.  But I was washed clean, purified, made holy, given good standing before God.  All because of the life of Jesus living in me.


I think that's an incomparable flip.

Text from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, bold mine.  Photos from Aunt Lorna of the cherry orchard in bloom.

Our Easter Photos

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

"He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;"

"he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth."

"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb"

"be praise and honor and glory and power,"

"for ever and ever!"

Text taken from Isaiah 53: 6-7 and Revelation 5:12

Photos of our family visiting an orphan lamb, nailing sins to our Christmas tree trunk cross, and having a community Easter egg hunt.

Ode to June and Other Birthday Thoughts

Oh lovely June,
The month in which I entered
Over thirty-four years ago.

Little did I know that
You would also be the month
Conceiving three of my greatest gifts.

So now in March
We gather in joy
To thank God for life begun in you, June.

The other night we sat around the table eating fudge cake made entirely by two of the boys.
Brian read Psalm 139:


For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.


Life-giving words.  David knew God's works are wonderful.

And His most wonderful workplace is in the womb.  

Each of us, knit together by God's hands: the womb His workshop.

I pray God helps me believe this is truth about myself....and that I impart this truth to my children--how wonderfully He has made them.

Puddles

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself

and God our Father,

who loved us

and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement

and good hope,

encourage your hearts

and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

1 Thessalonians 2.16,17

photos: cousins enjoying the puddles

A Thanksgiving Gift

Titus 3: 4-7

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared he saved us,

not because of righteous things we had done,

but because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal

by the Holy Spirit,

whom he poured out on us generously through 

Jesus Christ our Savior,

so that,

having been justified by his grace,

we might become heirs

having the hope of eternal life.