When Your Youngest Leaves the Nest

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all things are possible, changes, dealing with change, dealing with changes, dealing with retirement, empty nester, faith, family, God's faithfulness, grateful, home, homeschooling, how to deal with an empty nest, how to handle change, how to love the journey, how to trust God, it's a God thing, journeying on, only God, our faithful God, sending your kid to college for the first time, sending your kids to college, trusting God, trusting God with our children, what now, Who am I

I remember in late July of 2000, my oldest son Wes and I sat in a little corner alcove in a second floor apartment in Albany, Georgia, and began our school career. I say, “our” because my husband and I felt called by God to home school our kids. We never took for granted the call and prayed before each school year whether it was still the right decision for our family. In fact, at times, I may have even begged God that the call would change! That little alcove was the perfect size for a student desk, so we stacked our little books, prayed, and began our journey.

The reason why we started in July was because I was pregnant. Our second baby boy who was due in October, so I wanted to get a jump on things. I wanted to understand how this homeschooling thing was going to work before a new baby entered our world.

I could go on and on about my oldest son, Wes. He is so smart, y’all. He zoomed through Kindergarten and First Grade in the same year, graduated high school at sixteen, had me answering questions I never knew existed, and still to this day is one of the most motivated people I know. He’s amazing, but today, this blog is about my God, and that baby boy who we named Gabe.

Both of our boys are all grown up now, and as of tomorrow, my husband and I will officially be “empty nesters.” I can’t even describe all the emotions taking place. I am so proud of Gabe, so excited for him, and so looking forward to sharing with him this next journey of life, and yet, I’m sad. But more than being sad, I am in this incredible state of awe because I absolutely know that taking these kids from not being able to read and write, to the incredible, intelligent individuals they are is completely due to God’s empowerment.

I remember back in 2000, and often thereafter, reminding God that I’m great a starting things, but not so great at finishing them. I remember reminding Him that this is His call, so He has do it. And do you know what? He did. He always had my back.

I would hit a snag with curriculum that wasn’t quite what we needed, we would pray, and He would show us another path to choose.

I would teach a lesson and one of the boys would still have a glazed-over, no idea what I’m talking about look, I would pray, and God would give me an idea to come at the lesson from a different angle. Oftentimes, these ideas were so creative, that I knew it was not coming from me!

I would need strength to get up in the mornings and stick to our agenda. He would provide.

I would need flexibility to do what worked for us and not what a certain “expert” suggested. He would always give the grace to relax and depend only on Him.

I could fill page after page and give example after example of how God and only God homeschooled these boys for all these years. I just simply had the privilege of joining Him in the endeavor.

Mark 10:27 says, “Looking at them, Jesus said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God’.” I have literally seen this verse be absolutely true in every single day of every single school year, but especially this last one. It reminds me of King David in II Samuel 7:18 where he says, “…Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me this far?”

So, on Saturday, the day we drop our baby boy into the world of college life for the first time, I choose to remember that God has always had my back, He’s always had my boys’ backs, and He loves my kid even more than I do.

Not only that, but I am choosing to run into this next phase of life with joy, excitement for each day, and an expectation to see what God has for me, this homeschooling mom who’s now retired and knows without a doubt that her God can do anything.

Seeking Hearts Ministries

 

 

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When Your Husband Gets Beats Up By Your Blender

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annoyances, being grateful, being thankful, clean story, encouragement, first world problems, frustrations, funny marital stories, how to deal with common annoyances, how to deal with frustrations, how to handle annoyances, staying grateful, stories with a lesson, vitamix story, what really matters, when things just happen, wholesome entertainment

So…a few Sundays ago my amazing husband asked me what I wanted for supper and I said, “Actually, I think I need a smoothie. My nutrition hasn’t been what it should be today. I’ll fix you and G whatever, but that’s what I’m going to have.”

A few minutes passed and he said, “Don’t worry about G and I. I’ll fix us both supper and I’ll fix your smoothie too.”

I was super thankful and stayed seated on the couch taking in this awesome gift that I was receiving from my man.

A few minutes later, I heard my Vitamix start up. (If any of you have heard a Vitamix you know that the WHOLE HOUSE knows when it starts. It sounds like a jet engine and is AMAZING at crushing ice, but I digress.) Then, I heard this horrible crunching sound. My heart dropped and I calmly said, “I’ve never heard it make that noise before.”

Nothing.

Crickets.

Finally… “Yeah. I messed up.”

Gulp.

“What do you mean? What happened? Did the Vitamix break? Is my smoothie okay?” (I do have priorities, y’all.)

“Well,” he says, “the plunger got caught in the blade and about ripped my hand off, but I’m okay.”

I would love to tell you that at this point I totally laughed it off, ran to my amazing husband and kissed him, thanking God that he was okay, but that’s not what happened. In fact, I was very angry. I could not for the life of me understand how my man had bypassed the safety guard and managed to plunge the specialized accessory into a roaring jet engine. I had to explain how these smoothies are all I can eat (exaggeration), how this accessory cannot easily be found (slight exaggeration), how I couldn’t understand how in the world he had managed to go out of his way to figure out how to ruin my plunger (ridiculous statement number 27). My emotions went nuts.

After a few minutes, I did calm down. I began to realize it’s just one of those things. I even acknowledged that I, at times, have had the safety lid to slip, and I even asked if his wrist was okay.

After he ordered me a new accessory on Amazon, I took a breath, thanked him for trying to make me supper, and life went on. After all, I’m a Prime member and my accessory was getting here on Tuesday. That would be two smoothies at the most that I would have to “tough it out”.

That was July 24^th. Still no special accessory. You guessed it…lost in the mail.

Now, I do laugh. What else can you do? It takes me at least 8 cycles of stopping and starting the Vitamix each time I want a smoothie. I specify “stopping and starting” due to another part of my man’s Vitamix beat down that I haven’t mentioned yet.

After the first fiasco, my guy remade my smoothie (without all the plastic remnants of the special accessory floating around). As he was stopping and starting the machine, so he could adjust the ingredients to finish blending, he removed the lid a little too soon. I hear, “Ugh! Your Vitamix just spit all over me.” At that point, he just walked away… and who can blame him? I finished up and noticed there was smoothie splattered EVERYWHERE! All over him, the counter, the Vitamix itself, and even the ceiling. I had never seen anything like it. I truly think that Vitamix was mad at him for destroying his friend. It was weird, and I was truly thankful that my smoothie was orange and not red. (Think about that one!)

He wasn’t ready to laugh yet, so I just turned away and giggled to myself.

I totally know that this is a “first world problem” and in the scheme of things, whether I have to stop and start my Vitamix fifty times a day is not even the point. The point is that little annoyances pop up every day. Some are a lot more annoying than others, but as children of God, let’s not let those annoyances cause us to be annoying. Let’s shine like stars instead. Philippians 2:14-15 says, “Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.”

Let’s look around and be grateful for what we do have. Whether we have a $20 blender from Wal-Mart, a Vitamix, or simply food on the table, let’s allow God’s Light in us to shine through so that all others see is Him.

P.S. – We re-ordered our accessory and are told it should be here tomorrow. When it arrives (I’m believing in faith, y’all), I may take a picture of it to celebrate!

*image by 123RF.com

Seeking Hearts Ministries

Overworking the Dough

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Christianity, contentment, faith, God's faithfulness, how to trust God, is contentment possible, laziness versus resting, let go ad let God, letting go, our christian journey, peace, resting in God, resting in Jesus, truth, what does God expect, working hard, working out our faith

Contentment is something none of us like to talk about, or maybe it’s just me that doesn’t like to talk about it. It is definitely not part of the American Dream and is often seen as a lifestyle with no goals, no ambition and a “going with the flow” kind of an attitude like that not too smart surfer dude we’ve all seen on T.V.

Biblical contentment is so different from this picture. In fact, I think that the Biblical rendition of contentment is some of the hardest work we are called to do. There is nothing lazy about it. The apostle Paul says in Philippians 4 that he had learned to be content in whatever circumstances he found himself. He says in verse twelve, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.” Notice he says there is a secret to contentment and he had to learn it. He admits to us that contentment does not happen naturally. It takes work, but Paul doesn’t leave us in suspense. In the very next verse he tells us how he has learned the secret of contentment. It says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Paul willingly admits that only through Christ’s strength can contentment be a part of who he is and who we are. That doesn’t sound lazy to me. In fact, contentment sounds like hard work if it can only be accomplished through the strength of Christ.

We see that contentment is not defined by laziness, it’s defined by resting in Christ’s strength. There is a big difference. Laziness is simply sitting on your bum and not doing the work you are called to do. Resting is completing necessary tasks and then, you guessed it… resting.

It reminds me of baking bread. When baking bread, you get your recipe out that the great recipe creator of all time designed (Betty Crocker). You put your ingredients on the counter. You mix all of the ingredients at their proper time and in their proper way, checking your recipe continually and then, you work the dough. You knead it until your wrists are going to fall off. Then, you let it rest. You might go to another task, or you might read a book for a while, or even watch T.V., but you leave that dough alone. Are you being lazy? No! You are content with letting the bread rise. When the time is right, you go back to the dough, work with it some more and once again allow it to rest. At the proper time, the dough finally gets put in the oven where once again you will rest while the bread is doing its thing. The awesome aroma of baked bread fills the space and you are content knowing that the recipe you followed has helped produce the results you want.

In our spiritual life, just like in the process of physically making bread, we get the recipe out (the Word of God) and we get the ingredients together for the task He has before us (Don’t worry. His Spirit will tell you through His Word what those ingredients need to be). As we check the recipe continually, we are sure to mix the right ingredients at the proper time and in the right amounts. Then, we work the ingredients until His Spirit in us says to let it rest. I think this is the hardest part. We look at the lump of dough and then back at God and say, “But, it’s not finished.” We try to work the dough more and finally He has to stop us in some way knowing that we will ruin the dough if we don’t allow it to rest. This is what contentment is all about. Trust. We have to know that even though we aren’t “working the dough”, He is.  Second Thessalonians 5:24 says, “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.” This verse tells us that we are called, but ultimately, He does the work. He is completing the perfect work while we rest in Him. Are we lazy? No. Some of the hardest work we will ever do will be resting in Him, learning contentment and not over-working the dough.

I might just nail that phrase to my forehead: “Don’t overwork the dough!” If there is something that drives me to distraction, it is an uncompleted task. Learning contentment is knowing when to step back and let the dough rest in Him. That doesn’t mean it’s unfinished. It just means He has it handled. Contentment is remembering that if I keep working the dough it will become an unusable, elastic mess, but when I allow it to rest in Him, it will turn out perfect every time.

Let’s press in close to Him this week, allowing Him to speak to us as we read the recipe of His Word over and over again, teaching us what ingredients to place on the counter (knowing that He has already provided every one) and then allowing Him to gently remove our hands when our part is completed in the task knowing that He who began the good work will complete it (Philippians 1:6). That’s the secret of contentment Paul was referring to. That’s allowing Him to be strong in us. That’s allowing the dough to be perfected. Rest in Him today.

 

Seeking Hearts Ministries

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