Good morning :) Please forgive me for missing yesterday, after I made this big thing of how I'd try and be here every day ;),lol! I am finding that challenging in the midst of this chronic pain I am having ith my ear & now tooth, so now keeping up with homeschooling in iteself, and the other blog, is becoming about all I can handle.Lol. I know this is not homeschool related, but should you desire to pray for me, please pray that my root canal will go well this afternoon and that my MRI I am getting for my tooth/jaws on Wedsnesday will reveal just what it is supposed to, to help my Dr. understand my symptoms better. Thank You.

Yesterday, as I sat outside of RACC waiting to pick my sister up, I had time to spare and rifled through some books and magazines I keep on the side pocket of the car door for times of waiting. I pulled out Family Worship by Jerry Marcellino, a small booklet full of big ideas that I bought at our churches resource table years ago. (The book only costs $4.00,from Audubon Press, 2601 Audubon Drive/ PO Box 8055, Laurel,MS 39441-8000.)

Reading it, I felt encouraged all over again about how I am part of the church of God,set apart, different from the rest of the world that is decidedly Un-Christian,meant to remain salty, remaining on the ancient paths... I think we can all use this kind of encouragement regularily?.... From the first page:


" Because the Christian is not his own, but bought with a price, he is to aim at glorifying God in every relation of life. No matter what station he occupies, or wherever he be, he is to serve as a witness for Christ. Next to the church of God, his own home should be the sphere of his most manifest devotedness unto Him. All it's arrangements should bear the stamp of his heavenly calling. All it's affairs should be so ordered that everyone entering it should feel "God is here!" A.W. Tozer.

I love that quote... and this one to go along with it from Jonathan Edwards, found on page 2 of this booklet:

" Let me now therefore, once more,before I finally cease to speak to this congregation,repeat and earnestly press, the councel which I have often urged on the heads of families, while I was their pastor,to great painfulness in teaching,warning, and directing thier children; bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord; beginning early, where there is yet opportunity, and maintaining constant diligence in labours of this kind."

...How great a quote is that! It sums it all up; what we are to be doing here in this world with the little ones entrusted to us, beginning early~ whre there is still opportunity to shape their minds and hearts~ and maintaining, with constant diligence, these kinds of labours! And the fist one, "Next to the church of God, his own home should be the sphere of his most manifest devotedness unto Him....",
"All it's arrangements should bear the stamp of his heavenly calling. All it's affairs should be so ordered that everyone entering it should feel "God is here!"... Oh how thankful I am that, as I look around my house, I see lot's of books about Him and Living the Christian Life, pretty decorations that boast His scriptures (no prettier words to display) and warm, comphy furniture that says come sit,take a tea or coffee, it is comfortable here; God is here.

Yet, how easy is it to decorate the outside ~ and ignore the inside? Like a white-washed tomb, scripture says. I want to follow the biblical commandment to be bear the stamp of His heavenly calling inside of my own heart, and instill it inside of my childrens hearts. When you walk into my home, do you find a family devoted to God and His good works, a loving family, a helpful family? Do you come into an environment free of strife, and gossip and follish divisions within the home? I hope this is mostly true, but of course it is not always true. Sinners live here, me truly being, as David once said ( though in my case it is true) the biggest sinner I know; I am busiest battling my own sin. As the administarion in this home when my husband is not in the home (usually quite a bit, as they are the main earners)we women are in charge of the atmosphere of the home and the content of the home while our head of the home is gone... are we keeping our own sin ever in front of us, battling it daily, and striving to make glorifying God our chief aim for each day?


This book may hold the most important message of all for homeschoolers, above mere academic curriculum and hoisting up the most important aim of all Christian households, and that is glorifying God in all that we do and remaining salty!


Another really neat tool for Bible Study (that I found at Christian Books.Com) is A Family Guide to Narnia~ Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia by Christin Ditchfield. many of us, as well as our children enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia series. This book really explores the Biblical Truths found in the storyline( of which there are many) and is a great window of opportunity to involve the kids in finding the Biblical paralells, in this chapter-by-chapter, book-by-book examination of The Chronicles. It is by Crossway Books and we bought it last Christmas for only $10, so it is prob. cheaper now ;)

HAVE A GREAT GOD -GLORIFYING HOME SCHOOL DAY!
<3 Stacey XOXOXO'S