Homeschooling Journey

Peer pressure from among parents, church leaders, church people, within families and friends tend to get so unnecessarily discouraging. Everyone has their opinion about how other people's God-given children ought to be educated, taught, "socialized".

As much as I, the only God-qualified parent-teacher, shepherd, pastor, carer, protector, guide, accountable-to-God for and to my own children--- I, hereby declare, will not relinquish my God-given duty to anyone else. Please, our job as parents and friends to our home-schooled children is never easy and breezy. But we love this sense of calling from our Father, King of the universe to teach and love our children 24/7 diligently. Deut6:4-10..

It helps wonderfully when we lavish our homeschooling friends with encouragement, grace, love.and acceptance. We need those. Pray WITH our homeschooling friends.Your kindness is bonus, it goes a long way. Your blessings help make the wonders of God in our homeschooling path stronger, awesome to believe!

Encourage them, bless them in their homeschooling journey to be faithful to God in their response to obey God all that He has instructed them to do.

 C'mon! Let's do them all for our home-schooling friends and their home-educated children. The LORD blesses those who bless others. Amen? !

At The Water's Edge

Last week, I was to go forward to my unknown wilderness. I was quite prepared for it. Though a little shaky on the knees. But, God is stronger. Stronger than any wobbly knees that the whole earth has felt the miserable quaking put together. God is ever so gracious!

So, I went all the way for it. Come to think of it, it was awesome to know that God was all around me in that crossing.

And then, there, in the wilderness, I said goodbye to all rights to Him. There, He instructed me. There, God answered all my questions. There, I wanted to know more about who God says He is.

There in the wilderness, God's grace reassured me.

God's Promised Land. To go forward to and posses it has been ringing in my soul for the past 20  months. It hasn't been that long ago.  Compared to 40 years for Moses and God's covenant-people. I feared. I complained. I wailed. I feared and felt to stick it out just a bit longer in my twenty-month-wilderness journey. Soon, at the end of my twentieth month, the ringing turned into singing. Glorious momentum!

Nonetheless, the thrill in the faith-walk God was showing me kept right to my skin, deeply. But as exciting my running could be, I needed to catch my breath and run back, hence, this writing. Would you come along with me in believing God who calls, "Go now and see what I have in store for you"?

I was going forward.  Without a doubt, God opened up the Promised Land beyond, which I was to do work for Him in the little I’ve got.

However, I encountered problems.  I knew that God’s perfectly well-planned activity was made just for me. But I am fearfully short of talents. Short of theology. But then again, His covenant-folks had been slaves in Egypt for 430 years.

Simple folks, who God sent out to cross the Reed Sea. Untalented. Theologically unsaavy. BUT they understood God and unquestioningly responded, "All the things the LORD said, we will do."

So then, in this deliberate, brave crossing over ---God will equip. I must never forget His grace. God's grace  came first before His rules of life to carry with me in the safe journey ahead.  If I keep at it.

So, I thank God that He will never let me fall out of grace when I stick to the rules in my journey-- with Him.

The Promised Land which I was to posses is, simply and wonderfully, this:  in the abiding love of God through Christ.  A place of believing-doing. I've come to that abiding love of God through Christ's atoning sacrifice. 

I've seen folks who've made their knowledge of the Bible (theology ) work together with their humble living it. The doing acts of love with God-- In the here and now. And I want that for myself too!

  

If you were at the water's edge. What would you do? Cross it and meet God's possession of you?  That's what I did. He said to be very brave and be courageous. Believing God at the water`s edge. I began to see greater things because of the great God He has proven to be.   

God's loving ways must have stuck with  me like supaglue in the wilderness through study. And through brave friends who've the same thrilling sincere search and growing love for God. I've seen hope in them. Glorious hope!

God does not only invite me to the Water's edge to my Promised  Land through Christ. But, He insists upon me courageously stepping forward. 

And abiding-- Yes, abiding, indeed.  And God has paved the way of the waters' walls telling them, "Let my child cross forward  to serve Me. In the way I have shown her to go."

(Joshua 1:1-9)

Mk

For Crying Out Loud, Go Forward!

Have you ever wondered where those words come from? It sounds uncaring. It jabs to the core of the pusong-mamon (a coward, like a soft-sweet bun), like, a knife driving through melted butter. It cuts to the root. It sounds strong. It sounds confronting and hurtful.

Actually, the original words go like this, "Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why  are you crying out to Me?"Tell the sons of Israel to GO FORWARD." (Emphasis in CAPS, mine).

Rewind a little bit. The people whined. And whinged, they did.  After all the power God showed them! After all that He had done to let His people go in the wilderness and serve Him?

 And then, God said about not fearing. To standby and see deliverance. And more, He would do for them which they'd never seen before. That they would "never see the Egyptians forever". Of course, God did not mean that He would wipe out Egypt from the face of the earth.

And God said, "I will fight for you while you keep silent."

I don't know what God meant about keeping silent. But the people were stuck on to whining. Complaining about not having enough graves in Egypt why Moses was leading them into the wilderness --to die! Maybe they were too noisy in their grumbling and could not hear God.  Maybe.

Here's the clincher : "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell them to go forward."  

Here's one more:  God gave no hope of forgiveness for unrepentant Pharaoh.  But God "pushed" the Egyptians with their chariots to push His people to "go forward" at the brink of crossing the Reed Sea.

You can imagine yourself not moving forward because of fear of the unknown, and fear of those behind. Thus, stunt you from following God's clear "go forward and serve Me." Hence, blur  your vision from the real power of God which is just right there.

"...and I will be honoured through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and through his horsemen."

How about that ?

What things does God Most High allow to have to push you because you would not move forward? You would not move forward even when He had already said of you,  "Let her/him go forward to serve Me" ?

When there are bad things happening, or looming to happen; and you feel it--  think of it this way, "It is good." For our sakes, God allows bad to affront us, or make us meet our enemy head-on. To push our freewill into doing the right thing and move forward.

In the process, when we've yielded our total trust and obedience to God, we will not fear. We will experience God fighting for us while we keep silently at peace with Him.

Is there a reason to be sour about our faithful King telling us, "Go forward. I will be with you."?

None at all. Then, isn't a trusting-obeying life awesomely sweet?

MK
(Exodus 13-14)

"Ah, Yeah! It's Good. I Will Do It!"

Hi to all my lovely co-Moms out there. I'd like to hear about what you do to go about being so good at what you do to succeed as Mommas. You know, that kind of gut-level success in your attainment of your dreams and wishes for each of your children? 

As Moms, don't we all want what is best for them? And at some level of achievement, does it preempt you to share that passion with other Moms about what success is like? And desire that good for us, mothers, as well?

You see, I'm a stay-at-home Mom. To those who don't fully know me, I'm a mom of seven. I feel that with them, I'm forever learning. As I think about it, learning always follows doing.

I'm pretty much a hands-on Mom at most jobs at home. What amazes me is that, my work as mommy is never done. As my children grow as individuals, I'm growing too. I'm gaining so much through my experiences with my co-human beings at home-- together.

I believe, success in being a parent, is to be able to have set goals. Then, have your goals realized and be able to say :

• "I'd like to do it."
• "I can do it."
• "Ah yeah, it's good. I will do it!" 

As a Mom, tell me if your mind nudges you to think:

1. That you want to earn money--at home. 
2. Or if you're working outside of your home, that you want to stay home and earn at the same time.

 If you have, then, it's a confirmation that I'm pretty normal. I thank God for all the Moms out there!

Would you like to share your success story? Please do.  So, here's a little bit of my share of the story...

"The mind of man/woman plans his way. But the LORD directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9

To be happy. And to have happy children is success to me. Yey! 

11 Reasons Why a Date With a Photographer is Awesome

I've just broken a principle. I've always reserved "awesome" to things heavenly. Isaac-John, 12, thought of "Awesome" for the title. Well, why not?

Firstly, our time away was absolutely bliss. "Fun," in contemporary tongue. Memorably worth it, to whom who just had the date. Hence, a date with my brilliant photographer-husband.

As I wrote down "11 Reasons..." I was at breakfast with Reuel at the Intercon Hotel, Melbourne. While my brain was fresh and was on top of things, I set to work with writing. And be there for my husband while he was tinkering at his Olympus OM3. Good time. It was Saturday. So, I steered clear of my iPad and internet. And confined myself to my little purple journal and pen. Real page-turning at the tip of my fingers.

Why I'm writing and sharing 11 reasons is to keep the memory alive. We only step into our ages once. So, here they go.

1. Study your photographer-husband in advance.  It doesn't matter whether he's been a photographer for 25 years, or only for 2.5 days over weekend. It still is a fascination to study him. His freerer expression with his natural gift enhances his eye for the aesthetics. Including you—as one of his subjects. Even in your most insecure "panoramic" figure, he will try to frame the “eye’ of his love into his camera lens. He loves you just the same.

2. Don't rely on Photoshop editors. You will never make your photographer-husband edit your 'pre-loved' face. He loves you too much just the way you are. Doctoring a few or several lines and golden-bags under your eyes will never happen. He will never take bribes either. Just keep buying him the latest, updated camera apparatus. He'll be forever grateful for “experimenting” with your face just the way it is. Keep that flame burning in your heart for your photographer.

3. Dig out your most colourful, out-of-the-box outfit. Mine are pretty plain and simple. So, on our date, I don't wear them. I dig out my orange, fushia, golden-beaded, silver blouses—anything to reflect available light. Your night-dress doesn’t  necessarily have to be low-cleavage if you're uncomfortable. Your smiling face, intelligent conversation with him will do just fine. It will bring shine to your overall—you.

4. Make sure you lavish your plate with greens. Another plate of  fruit of all sorts, even if you don't really eat them, is excellent. By this time, being married to a photographer, you’ve earned a connoisseur title in fine arts to your husband’s heart.

5. Never. I repeat, never eat your own meal without asking him if he’d like to take a photo of it first.

6. Bring your iPad, Google Reader, or Kindle Reader. Keep it handy in your bag. If you don’t have these, get one for your birthday or anniversary. Make sure you're loaded with books. City night-life keeps him very busy and occupied with things to see and capture.

7. If he’s seen beauty in his cranberry juice halfway through, suggest your full glass how it may look like in the picture, somehow. He’s brilliant in what he does as a photographer, remember? You never know, it can be a story-idea for you too.

8. See things through his eye. While you’re trying to observe people around (not stare), new ideas from your jar of stories may add to his camera lenses with your words.

9. While carrying on a deep meaningful conversation with him, be prepared.  Suddenly, a huge lens is staring at you. While your flow of thoughts gets disrupted, don’t blow up, just smile. Trust him, he’s a brilliant photographer.

10. Don’t pay attention to your Fb notification beeps.  You can do it!  Comments on your latest blog must wait. Your husband’s opinions take priority.

11. Be more interesting than your photographer-husband’s FB photo upload conversations. That, he would not care much about FB notifications while you’re dating.

So, hope these reasons will keep us going for life.

Awesome!

~Mrs. Reuel Santos

The Root and Branches

 Here's another tool I've added to my tool box. A book! 

I find history fascinating. Especially, Biblical history.  As I delve deep into studying, the more I realize I don't know much. I thought I already did know so much! But as I take on board studying the  Bible, whose writers are Jews,"Our Father Abraham" is a wonderful eye-opener that introduces to us the world of Hebrew thought.  

Thankfully, knowing and understanding are indeed a can-be-done exciting habit to cultivate. For God, Who inspired the Hebrew writers of the Bible, delights in us when we seek truth as little children. (Jeremiah 9:23-24).  

Here's short excerpt from "Our Father Abraham":  Also concerning Israel, Hosea (in the OT) states, 'His splendor will be like an olive tree (Hos.14:6). David refers to himself by saying, 'I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God.' (Ps. 52:8). Thus, the Church firmly planted in Hebraic soil, finds its identity in connection with Israel. The Church is fed, sustained, and supported by this relationship." Ch.1, The Root and Branches; page 13. 

Please read on...

The Canary Girl

Following CanaryGirl's Blog  is one of  honest writing.

*But, I'm so sorry to update you about CanaryGirl's deleted posts. However, you may encourage her back to writing to bless many of her readers. Thank you.

Firstly, she’s opened her blog for everyone to read. That was brave to do to one who has known shyness akin to her skin. I’ve gained a lot from her post, “Eye Like Mine”. I’ve achieved some keener understanding from her perspective.

Dear CanaryGirl :
 I’m learning through you. At the same time, experiencing the freedom of wonderful ‘baby steps’ with you at separate times and in our separate ways. Not minding the falls. But can rise up again with you, and with people who love you (and me), and who understand you (and me).

Thank God with people who have gone, or are going through some kind of learning from the pain of unmet dreams; and from the frustrating demands of human clichés and churchianity.

Believe in what God has laid there in your heart. He loves giving and giving. Loving and loving as He gives. And as bonus, God lets us see what He’s been up to. Only, you must learn to keep asking for boundaries only God sets from His Word. And you try to adapt around God’s standards, not man’s -- to be the best He purposes you to be.

From the abundance of Heaven’s dwelling Place, God bless you richly for loving Him with all of you. And for seeing life (in beautiful colours) through God’s eye.