Handling Worry - for Homeschool Moms

23 April 2013 / Healthy Living, Personal Growth, Prayer / 0 Comment

Homeschool moms have lots of things to worry about.

We worry about illness, finances, our academic weaknesses....and at this point in the year we are tempted to worry about whether all of our schoolwork will get done on time!

Am I the only one who doesn't find a lot of comfort in Matthew 6:34?  This Bible verse presents a challenge to me, and it's not very comforting to read that trouble is the rule, not the exception.

Making devotional time with God a priority is the only way I can resist the temptation to worry.

My dear homeschool friend of many years, Lisa Schea, has things that tempt her to worry.  In addition to the normal concerns of life, she herself suffers from a chronic illness.  Her commitment to time with the Lord and His word resulted in a book of devotions that we published here in the 7Sisters EBookstore.

Here's a taste of the rich material you will find in God Meets Me Here:

For more inspiration to fight the urge to worry, download Lisa's devotional book today for $2.49 in the EBookstore.

 

 

 

 

Learning from the Arts - Music and Teamwork

16 March 2013 / Fine Arts, Personal Growth, Prayer / 0 Comment

This year I am again team-teaching a Praise Band Class for homeschoolers in our area.  We have 16 kids signed up for the class...that's a lot of musicians!  I've noticed something about our class that is interesting.

The hardest thing for our fledgling Praise Band to do is to be quiet.

When our multiple pianists, keyboard players, guitarists, bass players, drummer, violinist, flautist, and singers take the stage, they immediately start playing and singing....and they are all playing and singing different songs at the same time!

We've made it one of our class responsibilities to STOP playing when you are not supposed to be playing. 

Sometimes our own homeschools are so focused on our own child's gifts, needs, interests and challenges that we have trouble teaching the social skills necessary for working effectively as a team.

Why is teamwork so important?

Teamwork is preparation for life in society in general, but more specifically in the body of Christ.

If one pianist, who plays beautifully, always begins playing the song that is in his heart when he sits down at the keyboard, he may sound just lovely.  But what if the guitarist also has a song in his heart at that moment....is his song less important?

By requiring participation in teamwork situations we help our kids practice the skills of:

 *  observing those around them

 *  valuing the needs and feelings of others

 *  taking turns (on the grown-up level, where no one is requiring a specific rotation of turns)

 *  patience

I am a big believer in the importance of fine arts, but I am an even bigger believer in the importance of learning to work as a team.

QUESTION:  What teamwork situations have you found beneficial for your homeschooler?

 Visit the EBookstore for encouraging resources for your quiet time with God.

The Healing Power of Gratitude

08 March 2013 / Healthy Living, News, Prayer / 0 Comment

Cheesy, I know- but it is true: being grateful helps you feel better.

The relationship of gratitude to optimism was illustrated in an interesting study done by Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami., and reported in the Harvard Health Newsletter.  http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2011/November/in-praise-of-gratitude

Participants were assigned to three groups and asked to write a few sentences each week.  One group wrote about things that had happened during the week for which they were grateful.  One group wrote about things that had irritated or displeased them.  One group wrote about events that affected them but with no requirement on whether the topics be positive or negative.

After 10 weeks, those in the first group were more optimistic and felt better about their lives than those in the other two groups.

Dr. Emmons and McCullough also found that the gratitude group (as compared to the other groups):

• Were also exercising more and having fewer visits to their physicians;

• Were more likely to have made progress on personal goals (academic and interpersonal);

• Were more likely to have helped someone else.

Participants of a 21-day version of the research who had neuromuscular disease reported:

• More days of “high energy positive moods”;

• A greater sense of  being connected with others;

• More optimism about life;

• Better sleep duration and quality.

(Reported by Emmons Lab: Gratitude and Well-Being Research) http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Labs/emmons/PWT/index.cfm?Section=4

So, it might feel a bit cheesy to practice gratitude- but then again, a daily gratitude list might just help you feel better!

Click here to download 7 Sisters' FREE white paper on how to truly help a friend in hard times: Carry Each Others' Burdens.

Can you think of a time that you practiced gratitude and felt better for it?

 

Homeschool and Real Life in 2013

04 January 2013 / Healthy Living, News, Prayer / 0 Comment

How are you, Friends? How was your Christmas?

I would like to share my homeschool mom's real life themes and my Letter to God for the year.

Bless you,

Kym

My themes for 2013 from Him so far are intentionality, balance, wellness, celebration, simplifying by looking ahead, communication, living in the present and expectantly looking to the future. That should help make a healthy, happy homeschool year!

Here is the letter:

Happy New Year, Lord Dad!

You know I've never been one for New Year's Resolutions. They seem to lead so easily to self-criticism and and feelings of failure.

This year I'm following your lead and going with the idea of themes. Themes are much more forgiving - just like You!

I'm giving you a New Year's gift- me.  I am again publicly giving You myself - the good, the bad, the ugly, the fun, the dorky, the (mostly accidentally) funny, the easily-distracted, the over-committed, the dis-organized, the overweight, the loving, the giving, the best, the worst and everything in between.  I know that by giving myself, all of me, to You every day (sometimes every minute), you will use me, and renew me so you can continue using me, in ways that go beyond all that I could ever ask or imagine.

All my quirks and shortcomings aren't bad to You. You wired me just this way to make me unique, special and remind me and the rest of the world that we need each other and You! I love everything about You - especially the way You forgive me and continually forgive all of the sins of all of us. I pray that you teach me to get better and better at doing likewise.

Your loving daughter,

Kym

Friends, What are your themes this year?

One theme we Sisters have is to remind you that we have LOTS of freebies in the estore. Important and useful things like:

Carry Each Other's Burden (How to really, actually help when a friend is having a difficult time).

Genesis 1 Bible Study

How to Start a Learning Co-op

How to Start a Homeschool Support Group

Scheduling Backwards

 

Sabrina talks about Scheduling Backwards here:

 

God's Will for Your Homeschool

31 December 2012 / Healthy Living, Holidays, News, Personal Growth, Prayer / 2 Comments

This week, we're talking about seeking and planning in our homeschooling. PERFECT for New Year, right?

Let's start with seeking God as we plan our homeschooling adventures for 2013. How do we seek God for His will about our homeschools?

1) Pray

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let  your requests be made known to God." Philippians 4:6 ESV biblegateway.com

Ask Him with thanksgiving about His plan for your homeschool. Clear, simple, easy...         

2) Listen

Then make a habit of listening quietly- He'll make known as much of His will as He sees fit. If you don't feel skilled at listening,here's a post from my prayer blog to get your started. (These posts, btw, often find their way into the 7 Sisters Prayer Journals.)

Of course, the more you practice listening, the easier it gets (just like when you listen to people)!

3) Ask God for a Bible verse

Have you ever felt like God gave you a Scripture verse to guide you? Although it won't have specifics like, "Use Bright Ideas Press", (non-sponsored name-dropping, I know) a gift-verse will often calibrate HOW you look at curriculum or choose courses.

4) Look back over last year, where did you feel "in your zone" homeschooling?

These are times that you said to yourself, "I LOVE doing this, I could keep at it for hours!" Maybe this is part of what God is blessing in your homeschool- maybe it is something to invest in even more.

5) Here's the GUARANTEED Know-You're-Doing-God's-Will idea: Give thanks!  

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. - I Thessalonians 5:18 KJV biblegateway.com

That's His will for you: In everything give thanks! No kidding- how simple, clear, and difficult. But there it is!

Thank God for this New Year, for all our 7 Sisters buddies we've met this year, for all our homeschool community! May this year be the best one yet!

============

You'll be delighted with Sabrina's help in her FREE article "Scheduling Backwards- get your homeschool time under control!

AND to help with your praying and listening, we've dropped Prayer Journal and Prayer Journal 2 to $2.49- good stewardship of time (prayer) and money (lost cost).

===============

AND just for fun: Poor Pastor Joe (of poor hermeneutics fame) is at it again- trying to keep his son, Little Joey, from putting more into his Nativity Scene than Scripture supports. (And my sons, Ezra and Seth re-enacting a scene from LOTR while they're's at it...)

Acrostic: A Homeschooling Prayer

20 October 2012 / Prayer / 0 Comment

================================================================

For more to encourage your prayer life,

click here to view excerpts from Vicki's Prayer Journals and other Spiritual Walk resources in our EBookstore.

The $4 Boots

27 July 2012 / Healthy Living, Personal Growth, Prayer / 0 Comment

 

 

There’s nothing like pregnancy to make you want to grow up. 31 years ago, my husband and I were young-married hippies, the discovery of child #1 on the way, gave us enough startle to notice all the things God had been doing to attract our attention.

So we were blessed to begin our walk with Him before any of our 5 children were born. However, we were also blessed to come into parenthood as penniless ex-hippies...

****

“I need those boots,” was the weekly pronouncement of my firstborn son, four years later.

“Well, Son, you are going to have to pray about that,” would be my reply.

Because, you see, the boots were $4. And $4 we did not have for spending on boots.

We would see those cowboy boots each week at the local superstore- displayed right as we came in the door for our weekly grocery shopping. Now in backwoods Florida in those days, cowboy boots were haute couture- a must for every boy. It made sense that he felt he needed them.

So every night, the kid politely prayed for the boots.

One day we were visiting some friends from church. After a lovely visit, it was time for us to get home. As we were climbing into the car, the wife came galloping toward us.

She called out, “Wait, I have something for Micah! I just had the strangest feeling that God wanted me to give him $4.”

She didn’t know my son’s prayer, but we did. God had heard and granted a young boy’s childlike petition.

He wore those boots to church on Sunday so that we could all celebrate together.

BTW- That boy is now Dr. Micah Tillman this May. He is out to change the world by shaping young philosophical and theological minds through writing and teaching at Mt. St. Mary's University.

Micah helped me put together the poetry and short story curriculum back in the day when we first used it at co-op. Check out 7 Sisters' essay, research paper, and bundles (Intermediate Essay just launched this week- at 20% off, it is just $5.49).

What childlike prayers have your children seen answered?

 

Here's Sabrina's take on Literature Study Guides:

Everyone Needs Retreats

20 April 2012 / Personal Growth, Prayer / 1 Comment

The Sisters are on a retreat with other leaders in our homeschool umbrella/day school program this weekend, so this is a re-run of a classic post about...retreats!  Enjoy!

 

I love retreats and I believe that they are good for the soul.

They help me keep perspective in my sometimes chaotic and crazy life. They help me maintain relationships with important people. Most of all, they help me reconnect with God in a very special way.

No two retreats are ever the same, even if they follow some of the same basic format. Here are some “types” of retreats and the purpose of each.

The church retreat: Okay, so to some it seems like going away with 60 or 70 other women is not really retreating. But, I come away from each one with a new level of relationship with some of the women, a better understanding of God, and my batteries charged for ministry. Sunday mornings and Bible Studies don’t give us women the same opportunity to just relax and enjoy each other because we are all so busy serving that we don’t have time to connect. Going away (in our case to a hotel by the beach!) where we do not need to cook, clean, or watch kids, is a great time to get to know each other in a deeper, more meaningful way. Our speakers and discussions are always inspiring, and we come home with a new perspective and deeper relationships.

The “we have an agenda to complete” retreat: The first time I did one of these was with our co-op moms. We had always done our planning for the year in between other events, with kids wandering in and out of the room. This works okay, but one year it had been so hectic that the whole year felt discombobulated. So, we went away. We each took about an hour to get by ourselves to pray. When we came back, we talked and planned, uninterrupted, for about three hours. The plan was entirely different than we had expected, but it was an awesome year. Imagine that! When we all prayed, we could hear God’s voice and He directed our path! {If you have some big plans for your group, you might consider hiring a “coach” to help you.}

Business retreats: Similar to the above retreat, a business retreat lets you step back and look at the big picture of your business. For Christians, it also gives you time to pray - individually and corporately - so that you can stay in tune with God. At 7 Sisters, we start all our meetings with prayer, but retreats give us more time and uninterrupted focus.

Personal prayer retreats:  This is by far my most favorite of all retreats. In fact, I am so convinced of the importance of these that I try to schedule three or four a year. Most of these are held in a cabin in a state park. Vicki and I do these together (truthfully, I’m too much of a wimp to go to a cabin in a state park for a couple of nights by myself, besides it’s more meaningful if I can discuss things with my best friend). In this kind of retreat there is no agenda except to have time alone with God and follow His leading. We have probably done around twenty of these and no two have been the same. I like to hike and pray,Vicki likes to sit and listen to the birds (she can even tell them apart, just by listening). I always come away feeling like I am ready to handle, with God’s help, what life is going to bring.

BTW- If you'd like to retreat with a good prayer journal to guide your prayer time, check out our 7 Sisters Prayer Journals.

 

Personalizing Scripture

10 April 2012 / Bible Verses Revisited, Personal Growth, Prayer / 4 Comments

Your homeschool is a great place to teach your children to memorize scripture.  When I was young I memorized many Bible verses, and that word that was hidden in my heart comes to mind quickly and easily even after all these years.  Another skill you can teach your children that will bless them for the rest of their lives is to personalize scripture when they read it.

Personalizing scripture is more than just intellectually acknowledging that the Bible is God's word speaking to me today.  It is asking the Lord to help us take real ownership of the truth in His word as we read it.  Here are a couple of ideas for getting started personalizing scripture.

Psalms are an easy place to begin.  Many of the psalms are very much a personal expression of the psalmist's feelings.  Memorizing a few verses from various psalms expressing feelings common to human beings provides a vehicle for getting comfortable praying the word of God.  When we pray to God what He has already included in His word, there is an immediate focus and power in that prayer.  For example:

• "You are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head," (Ps. 3:3) is a great verse to pray when I am discouraged.
• "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure," (Ps. 16:5) when I am trusting Him to provide what I need in a situation.
• "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer," (Ps. 19:14) when I realize that my thought life is straying into critical judgments, or worry, or bitterness.

Beyond simply learning to pray scripture verses that I have memorized, I have also found great blessing in meditating on a particular short passage of scripture, emphasizing a new word or phrase each time I run over it again in my heart.  For example:

"Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long."  (Ps. 25:4-5) is a verse that becomes personal as I meditate on each piece of it.

• SHOW ME Your ways...  I need You to show me, Lord.  I will mess it up if I just try to figure out Your word and my life on my own.
• Show me YOUR ways...  I am surrounded by a world that wants me to do things the way other people think I should.  I need to live YOUR way, or not at all.
• Show me Your WAYS...  I find lots of knowledge about You in the Bible, but I need to learn the WAY to apply that knowledge, to live out what I have memorized.

And so forth!

Many of the epistles are filled with instruction to Christians.  From these passages, I can personalize the scripture in the passage to help me clearly focus on the importance of owning that truth in my own life.  For example:

Galatians 3:23-24 says "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.  So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith."

As I read it again, I learn that this applies to me specifically.  "Before faith in Christ came to me, I was held prisoner by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.  So the law was put in charge to lead me to Christ that I might be justified by faith in Him."

As I meditate on it, I can pray His words back to Him:  "Before I had faith in You, Lord - and thank You for GIVING me faith so that I could believe! - before that I was a prisoner.  I was bound up by my inability to fulfill the requirements of the law.  I was locked into that failure, unable to ever break free from the sentence of "Falling Short" that hung on me all the time.  You revealed faith in Christ to me, You introduced me to salvation because I had already seen that my situation was hopeless under the law.  I understood that I was never going to cut it as PERFECT on my own; the law showed me that, and I was prepared by the law to know that I needed the salvation Jesus Christ provided in Himself for me."

Wow!  My heart gets happy and my eyes get weepy just typing this blog post.  Those verses in the Bible are there for us to take as our own, to understand as God's word to us personally.

Including these types of exercises as we have times of devotion with our kids in our homeschools will help lay a foundation of understanding in their hearts.

They will grow up knowing that God's word is more than a book; it is life.

========================================

For a personal look at the first chapter of Genesis, download the FREE Bible study guide from our EBookstore.

Vicki's Prayer Journals are filled with various exercises to sharpen the focus and deepen the richness of your prayer life.  Click here to view excerpts.

5-Minute Friday: Empty

09 March 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Literature, Personal Growth, Prayer / 7 Comments

Could I really empty my life of all the familiar stuff that makes me feel significant if God called me to?

Could I empty my schedule?  My email contacts?  My closets?  Could I just give it all away, even the shoes???

Sometime around 1650, a man named Nicholas Herman gave away everything that was familiar and significant from his 40 years of life thus far, and he entered a Carmelite monastery in France, taking the name Brother Lawrence.  Because he had not received enough education to be a priest, he was a simple lay-brother, and served first in the monastery kitchen, and later in a sandal-making shop.  His life was emptied of all that had defined him for 40 years in answer to a call from God.

I don't know whether it was that radical step into a cloistered order of monks or not, but SOMETHING in this man's life caused him to take hold of a very concrete "practice of the presence of God," and later he also encouraged others (he never considered himself a teacher because he was untrained) to adopt a similar attitude in their relationships with God.  The little book that was published as a collection of conversations with and letters from Bro. Lawrence has been a huge impact on my life.

He learned that every activity is FULL of the presence of God, no matter how EMPTY it might superficially appear.

He learned that every moment of our day is FULL of conversation with God if only we will EMPTY our ears to listen to His voice instead of the noise of life around us.

He learned that a kitchen with a FULL sink of dirty dishes is just as holy as an EMPTY stretch of floor before the altar in a church.

I want more of the kind of EMPTINESS in my mind and heart that will allow for the FULLNESS of the presence of God!

=======================================
Click here to download the study guide I wrote that accompanies Brother Lawrence's Christian classic The Practice of the Presence of God.

Your homeschool high school student can get a lot out of this little Christian classic, and the study guide questions and background information will help turn this literature assignment into a Character Study.  It was said of Brother Lawrence, "his example was a stronger inducement than any arguments he could propose.  His very countenance was edifying."  Add this often overlooked man's life-story to your list of Character Studies in your homeschool!