The Small Branch

  I live in the woods.   There is a ring of grass around my house and then woods, including lots of weeds.   There are cacti around, which seems odd based on the climate and makes me wonder if someone dumped them out at one time.   There are also some weeds that have weird silvery leaves with spikes on the edges.   Today, I looked out of my window and one of the cacti has a beautiful yellow flower on top.   The spiky weed just a few feet away has a lovely purple bloom.   Isn’t it amazing how something so harsh, even painful, can have beauty come from it?   I am reading a book of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons from the book of Job (I’ll get to a book review on it when I finish).  Job suffered a lot and not because of anything he did or didn’t do.  Sometimes life is just hard.  Sometimes, God allows us to suffer so that we will have all the extra and unnecessary stuff stripped away and He can bless us with better.   That’s wh...

  (I’ve covered some of this in previous posts, but thought I would expand on a few things here.)   Most people consider the elementary school years to be Kindergarten through fifth grade, about ages 5-11.  Personally, as I’ve state before, I don’t see any reason to start any kind of formal school until 8-10 years old, depending on your child.  For the kids in the “elementary years” who aren’t yet ready for formal education, you can continue as you were doing in the preschool years (see previous post).  Remember, though, that you want your children to be ready for learning.  This includes making sure they are learning to be obedient, learning to sit still, and learning to work hard even when something is a struggle for them.  In this phase of “school age but not yet school ready,” make sure they are learning these lessons well.  This is something I utterly failed at.  We were too busy playing and having fun, and I was too lazy as a mom, to...

  When I was first married I taught at a public high school.   One of the teachers there had been teaching throughout her children’s lives and they were now in middle school.   At the end of the school year, she announced that her kids needed her home now more than ever and she wasn’t coming back.   I was shocked.   She hadn’t stayed home when they were preschoolers, but now?   How naive I was . . . . When my first child was born, the decision to quit work and stay home was easy.  No way was I handing my precious boy to someone else to take care of each day!  I continued to stay home through three more kids until my youngest was ready for 1st grade.  We had homeschooled to this point, but I was burned out so we decided that everyone would go to Christian school and I would teach part time at the school the older ones were at.  Part time turned into full time, and six years later I was stressed and finally understood what my fellow t...

  2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us that we are to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”   This phrase is part of a sentence and larger section discussing spiritual warfare.   A large part of fighting the sin in our lives, those strongholds that don’t seem to let go, begins in the mind.   Just because we don’t act on our thoughts doesn’t mean we haven’t sinned.   Letting thoughts that are not obedient to Christ run rampant in our minds is sin.   Yes, just the thoughts.   It seems like our thought life should be private and not censored because no one else can see it.   But our thought life greatly affects our actions, even if we don’t go as far as we are thinking about going.   When we harbor bitter or angry thoughts towards situations or people, our words come out bitter and angry, even to people not involved in the original thoughts.   When we harbor lustful thoughts, even from fiction stories, we begin to be unsatisfied...

 A few weeks ago, God brought together the perfect storm of conviction for me and I began exercising again.  So far, I have worked out every day for just over two weeks.  Not much, I know, but it is a start.  While I am on the treadmill, I usually read, listen to sermons, or watch videos on RightNow Media.  This morning, I was reading Shepherding Women in Pain  by Bev Hislop.  In my exercises after the treadmill, I was pondering the chapter I had just read, all while sweating and groaning as my muscles struggled to work.  The author had made a very good point about the Western view of pain.  We always look at pain as something to avoid.  Something to be fixed.  Something that is just plain wrong.  This viewpoint often leads to very unhealthy reactions to pain.  As I was feeling the pain in my workout, I realized that this is true, except in the gym.  Anyone who exercises will tell you "no pain, no gain."  We all ...

This morning I was pulling weeds and had the very frustrating experience of not being able to get them up from the roots.  I was feeling pretty lazy, so I just pulled what I could.  That often meant just getting the above ground parts.  The Holy Spirit whispered a lesson to me in this.  We can't just clean up the sin on the outside.  We need to be cleaning up on the inside, pulling out the roots of our sin.  RC Sproul talks about this in The Holiness of God .  He mentions the Pharisees' need to look good on the outside, while perpetuating their misunderstanding of the Law that addresses the inside.  Moses talks about this in Deuteronomy.  He makes a covenant with the people and all those who come after them, warning them to serve the Lord only.  Verse 18 of chapter 29 says,  "so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of th...

Just finished reading Mindset  by Carol Dweck.  If you haven't read it, I really recommend it, especially if, like me, you really struggle with the insecurity a fixed mindset can cause.  The book makes me think a lot about growth and how to foster that in my children and my students.  As a teacher, I really despise having to use grades and test scores.  These "products" do so much to undermine what I hope to teach my students - the value of learning and growth.  Part of our school mission statement talks about helping students grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.  Am I really teaching lifelong growing if I emphasize grades?  test scores?  There is a huge difference between students who are focused on learning and students who are focused on grades.  Students focused on grades are focused on an end result that they think will happen right now.  But life is a journey - we grow in Christ, we let Him work in us, in every aspect...

     I am reading a great book called Mindset  by Carol Dweck.  The book addresses having a growth mindset (believing we can grow and change) versus having a fixed mindset (believing we are only so smart, talented, etc. and can't change that).  I highly recommend it.      One thing that I was really convicted about, though, is how much I have a fixed mindset.  I really feel judged by people and I often throw in the towel when things get hard because I feel like I just can't do it.  But that isn't what God has told us:   "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:17)  If we are new, that means He has changed us, we have grown and continue to grow in Him.   "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind," (Romans 12:2a)  If we are being transformed by Him, by renewing our minds in ...