Attitudes and Mission Statements

Parenting is hard work isn't it?

You are constantly doing something, checking on progress, teaching, praying for and with, building relationships, tying heartstrings, putting out fires, and growing yourself as well.

We have had to come back to ground zero if you will over some building of attitudes that are not very nice.

I hade each of my girls write a mission statement that started like this "My mission from God, in being a part of this family is, ..." they had to fill it in. I was actually impressed with what they said, they soak in so much!

Then, we concentrated on Matthew 7:16-29 in 2 parts. First 16-20 then 21-29.

16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

We talked about being known by your fruits, choosing who you will serve, and following through with that choice. I tried to get through to them when you make a choice not to choose this day who you will serve, you are still making a choice and you would not want to be known by the fruit that will bring.

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:
27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,
29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.



We talked about how important a foundation is and why they have to do things a certain way. It is not because we are legalistic parents who love having strict sets of rules. It is for the setting of firm foundations so they know for themselves why things are the way they are.

We (Mr. Brown and I) are so strict on certain things, but let other things go. We have lost friends who see us a too lenient, but have gotten flak from others who think we are too strict. We really do try to let things go that are not a salvation issue, but we want them to understand and develop a strong faith and love for the Lord. We don't want our children to be "religious", we want our children to Love and Serve the Lord with all they do.

It is funny too, because as we were watching Todd Friel last night (excellent show on theology by the way - Todd works with Kirk Cameron on the way of the master radio show and then has a tv show called Wretched - as in who saved a Wretch like me from Amazing Grace)

Anyway, he showed a clip from a pastor who said if we are going to talk about debt being a bad thing, and I have the drama team make a skit about debt being bad, and I have the worship team make a song about debt being bad, and we sing when you only have $4 and you spend $7, that is bad, and I talk about not spending more than you make, and we sing the song again so you can remember, when times get bad you won't remember. Somewhere in the back of your head you will know spending 7 when you only have 4 was bad, but you won't understand the underlying principle. You won't hold this as your own, it was just some song and skit you saw and you weren't taught a biblical principle.

We saw a correlation between this and what we were trying to do with our kids. Making sure they understand the principle behind the rules is what it is important here in our household. Making sure they understand they have a choice who they will serve, and trying in LOVE, not legalism or religion, to help them be a good tree, bearing good fruit, whose roots are deep in the rock.

Hopefully, they see us trying to do what we are teaching them to do. Hope that makes sense!

Prayer needed for a baby

Hi, would you pray for my online friend and her newborn baby who has been hospitalized and diagnosed with group b strep?

Her husband is deployed, and she and her baby need our prayers.

I can't post a link, because I can't ask her if its okay right now since she is so busy with the situation. God knows her name and the baby, and I am sure she would appreciate it. Thanks!

Free Things

Check this site out:

www.HomeschoolFreebieOfTheDay.com I have listed the free things for the rest of the week, pretty neat stuff.

Wednesday, Feb 18th:
"Harriet Tubman & the Railway to Freedom" (MP3 audio)

A classic old time radio dramatization of the story of
Harriet Tubman and the activities of the "underground railroad" during slave years.


Thursday, Feb 19th:
Blessed Is The Man: High School Unit Study Sampler (PDF ebook)

"Blessed is the Man" is a wonderful High School Unit Study
geared to Christian young men, and based on Psalm 1.
Today's resource is this extensive 74 page preview
of the complete four year curriculum - normally $10 on the
publisher's website - but yours to download today!
If you have growing boys in your household, DON'T MISS THIS!


Friday, Feb 20th:
Creatively Simple: How to Make Butter in the Blender (PDF ebook)

Learning to make butter is something everyone should do at least once. This simple ebook by Penny Raine can teach you how, using items you probably already have in your kitchen. Detailed instructions and lots of pictures.

Video worth watching

There is a very moving video (Thanks CB!) on this blog :
http://gatheringlilies.blogspot.com

This was rejected by the Superbowl for commercials during the game, but shouldn't have been. Watch the video. It really makes a statement. Don't get me started on why that was rejected with all the other crud they showed, but that's a different story.

Here's something else to think about:

Q1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, and she had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis; would you recommend that she have an abortion?

If you said yes, you just killed Beethoven.


Q2: It is time to elect the world leader, and your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:
Which of these candidates would be your choice?


Candidate A associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whisky every evening.

Candidate C is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.



Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler

Valentines

Here is how to find the word Valentine in John 3:16: I like to print it out and use it with our meal on Valentine's day. I hope you can see it, you can type it into a word program and line the "Valentine" part up better.

for God so loVed the world
that he gAve
his onLy son,
that whoEver
believed iN him
would noT
perIsh but
have eterNal
lifE

Babies, Environment, and Population Control

I am sure you have heard of the environmentalist new *plan* Several people are blogging about it already. The new idea is if they limit child size then we won't ruin the planet.

This is absurd! We should all as humans care about being good stewards of what we have been given. As Christians, we see this earth as something God created for us to live on and populate.

News Flash - God didn't create cars and manufacturing plants. This we did. Back when people had more children, and worked their own land, we were not ruining the earth. Now, I love my car as much as the next person. And the Internet, my computer, my cell phone, and numerous other things that make my life more convenient. These things were created at a plant, with often times dangerous substances in them, or as a by-product of them.

And I love using them, but they are not necessary for me to live. I love being able to get on my computer and talk to my friends in Australia and all around America just about everyday when I live in South Carolina. Impossible without these inventions we have.

But, lets stop pretending it's the amount of people hurting the planet. It is what we think we deserve to do that is hurting it.

When people, lawmakers, think they can fly in their own little planes all over and then tell us that the amount of people are ruining it, as they buy "credits" to damage the earth, how can we not laugh??

When people take cruises that pollute the ocean, and buy products from nations that devalue their people and what they are exposed to, and watch shows like Whale Wars and not try to stop the killing whales which is illegal, or buy their food out on a regular basis with all the trash individual wrappings make, and then the try to blame population on the problems, what will we do or say?

Most large families I know, try much harder than the average person to make things themselves and take care of the earth. Let me tell you what we do:

We buy our milk local. It is organic, non-homogenized real milk from local cows.

We eat fresh eggs from chickens that eat bugs and scraps and get real sunshine not fake lights.

We garden ourselves and try to freeze or dry our surplus.

We go to the farmer's market, which we have 8 months out of our year, for local things we don't grow, and great deals on the surplus someone might have.

We recycle everything. People laugh at us when we do go out, because I have been known to pack up others trash into my bags to recycle instead of throwing it away.

I make my own yogurt now. I was buying it, but it only came in number 5 plastic which we can't recycle. So, now I make it. It tastes better anyway.

I grind my own wheat for bread, and buy in bulk from a local co-op for things such as beans, lentils, oatmeal, rice etc. My wheat comes from Montana but everything else is grown within 3 states from me.

We have power strips in every room. They are turned off when we leave the room so nothing (tv, computer, lamps, chargers, etc) is pulling electricity unnecessarily.

We try to dry our clothes outside as much as possible. Rain is a problem here, so I will use the dryer when I need to. I have an inside rack as well, but if it rains for 3 days in a row the dryer is used. I also don't hang outside if it is below 50 degrees.

I try to plan my route in the best way when I leave my house. I try to complete as many things per trip as I can. I personally believe it is better to order online and have the delivery person bring it to you than go to get it as well. Think about it. They are in a neighborhood delivering to everyone there that has ordered. Most people I know have at least 2 cars. If they are gone going here and there, they are using more gas, and probably more resources such as plastic water or soda bottles and individual snacks than the delivery person.

We only play sports that we can feasibly walk to, ride bikes to, or when totally necessary drive to.

We are very careful with our thermostat. We wear sweaters and thick socks in the winter and tank tops in the summer. We run fans and open windows as much as we can. We turn our heat down at night and use down comforters.

And we homeschool. So, my kids aren't riding the bus and using all that extra gasoline and resources.

If you are still reading my rant, Thank-you. I honestly feel like my family of 6 makes less of a bad impact on this earth than most families of 1 or 2 I know.

Now, I am going to have my coffee and wake my kids up.

Being Judgemental

Sunday after church, my older 2 went on a 12 mile bike trail ride with my dad. Mr. Brown said, hey wanna go to lunch? I said sure. We went to lunch at a chinese place and only had Piglet and Pear with us. There was a family with 6 kids, all boys dressed the same as the dad, except the baby a girl. The mom was expecting again and they were all so cute and very well behaved. I made the comment how cute they were when passing her on my way to the buffet. Later, I stopped and asked if she homeschooled. She said yes, and I told her about our local Christian support group. I told her I had 4 kids and really emjoyed the group, yada yada. She seemed turned off and kinda snobbish at that point. So, I walked away.

It really bothered me. I was embarrassed for talking to her at all. I asked Mr. Brown what he thought after they left. After talking about it, we realized we only had 2 kids with us. I think she thought that my "older 2" as I referred to them as (I often do that since there are almost 4 years between them and my 3rd child) were from a different marriage/relationship etc.

Then I got mad. First of all, I was offended about it since they are not. Then, I was really mad that she jumped to that conclusion so quickly. I really felt like she wrote me off after I said I had "2 older kids" Then it was if the Lord whispered, "Have you never jumped to conclusions about someone?"

Lord, please forgive me for doing this myself. I want to be outreaching, not judgemental. This is what give Christians such bad names. Thinking they are so much better, because they are saved. I know I have seen that myself in my own actions. I must remember not to be so quick to be critical, and remember just how lost I was without Christ. No one deserves forgiveness, but it is available to us all!