Is it too early to start setting up for Fall? 

The temperature beyond the walls is in the upper-90’s and my body is being boiled and steamed by this heat.  I simply dislike stepping foot outside after 6:30 am.  I have been plotting Fall recipes and Fall candle-choices.  And yet, it is extraordinarily Summer-hot still.  I seem to ALWAYS forget how Georgia-Summer does not even show itself until August.

Emma’s school year kicked off this week.  So, Fall IS coming.  She has been asking me for a full month-each day- when she will finally head out to her new class.  “Soon”, was always my answer.  Until Monday, when I told her excitedly, “Tomorrow!”  I let her pick out a new dress, and she so adorably thought that if she wore it immediately, school would begin.

  She tried it on and said: “Oooh, Da-Da’s gonna love dis one on me”. 

And he did.  She chose something all purple-y.

Will was not sure whether to be happy or sad that his sister was heading off into the real world.  I think he prefers her departure, as it solidifies his status as an only child- which he mistakenly believes he is at times.

Emma was very proud to wear her name-tag with a bear on it.  She also accessorized with a pearl bracelet and a Tinkerbell lip-gloss necklace. 

She was wanting toes painted, but we ran fresh out of time, and ended up saving pedicures for the second day of school.  She spirited some of Anna’s glitter-polish out of her bathroom- and I thought about when the cat’s away, or so the saying goes.

And on my agenda these next few weeks: Get my devotions done more regularly.  Keep on top of our finances.  Keep our meals healthful and balanced.  Maintain uncluttered closets and living spaces. 

 Stay ahead of homework and music and AWANA.  Stay home-based more afternoons than not, so we can speak and relate and know one another well.  And so that we get in the habit of work before play.  I am pounding the words: Do not be a quitter, into the kids’ heads this year.  If there is a choice for a B, or the option of an A, choose to spend 15 extra minutes and claim the A.  Realize that homework is merely setting you up for a lifetime of work, and learning how to cope in a work/home world of hard, daily labor is a very important lesson.  Work not only glorifies God, but it provides opportunity and reward. 

Kids who work hard are simply open to greater possibilities.

But as any parent knows, it takes hard work to make kids work hard.  Training their minds to be willing, training their hearts to see its importance and value.  These are all long-term goals we have, and kids are short-sighted.  I have found that by being home more, we are more relaxed.  We are better-invested in our tasks.  And we are doing it! 

Day-by day-by day.

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; [1]
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

My friend was gifted with these apples last week.  She in turn gifted me with some.

Isn’t it a different experience, working with fresh-picked/wild  vs. force-ripened, store-bought fruit?  There are many more imperfections in “real” fruit, yet generally a better, sweeter taste.  The analogies which could come from this comparison are many.  I’ll refrain.

Pat’s heart beats for anything cobbler.  And since he did come in the door last night with a beautiful letter for me, jotted on a Zaxby’s napkin with a Sharpie- I couldn’t help but return the sentiment.

We have sunk to new lows, with Sharpie-notes.  But it’s nice to be thought of by a husband on a commute.  And I applaud his recycling. 

America’s Test Kitchen produces an amazing cook-book with recipes, tools and ingredients tested for quality.  It’s a Consumer-Report of cooking tips- very helpful- and I refer to it often for help with basic kitchen-type questions.  I love to cook, and recently when I was with my Mom, poring over a magazine of recipes, she found it very mystifying that we share DNA.

(She is the one who regularly cuts her finger while cooking, and has been seen on more than one occasion with a bandage on her index finger.  She cooks more to eat, less for the experience).

I received a letter from the kids’ school yesterday.  Apparently, our county is one of three state-wide which is now partnering with local farmers to bring fresh food to the cafeterias.  How cool is that? I was told that fruits and veggies are going to be increasingly locally-grown: such a blessing for community growers, and better for our kids.  I love this, and when I shared news with the kids, they were duly impressed.  Though not as much as I.

On a different note: Anna has been enjoying Will’s blocks.  This is Paris, complete with the Arc de Triomphe. She has a right-accurate French accent- so cute.  We have a French recording that she likes to practice to: Je suis Teddy.  Quel heure et il?  She may head north yet, joining her cousins in a bi-lingual culture.  My niece and nephew are enrolled at a public school- an immersion school- in which students learn and speak half the day in English/half in French.  So even now, they are virtually able to work with both languages.

We are heading smack-dab into school-zone, as our first assignment came home yesterday.  The projects the kids receive are so interesting: generally based on books they are reading at school.  This one gives 4 options to illustrate reading-comprehension: this week’s story based on early settlers building up a small town.

Option 1: Draw a Venn Diagram comparing character qualities of children in the story.  Find a minimum of 3 qualities.

Option 2: Create an ad poster for a business.  Draw a poster which will persuade consumers to come in and buy certain products.  Create a brand-name.

Option 3: Research jobs in your community.  Create a poster referencing one of these jobs, and write down a numbered list of facts about it.

Option 4: Think about a business you would like to start and write a business plan for it: list materials you will need, people you will hire, etc.  Write a conclusion sentence, telling why you think your business will succeed.

I am consistently impressed with the creativity of the projects my kids are assigned.  I thank God so much for their school.  The teachers are committed, hard-working and regularly find ways to diversify learning, so that students are excited and impassioned.  I applaud them- as they are very gifted.   Even though budget-cuts and a county in debt have changed some of our footing this year, parental involvement and teacher-commitment is high enough that we seem to be progressing well.  And I continue to be thankful for and encouraged by our experience as we public-school.

This morning begins the year.  A year my two “big ones” have greatly anticipated for the last two weeks.  Summer has been a blast, but then the Summer-Wonder fizzles and behavior starts to exhibit the need for structure.  This is the point we met several days ago, so all are ready to launch into the 2010 school year.

All ready!

(Frustration: The lens on Pat’s camera fogs terribly in this humidity.  All our pictures are dull and grey.  I am ready for the heat to pass, so crisp photos can happen again!)

None has been more poised for action than Josh.  He has been telling everyone he meets how much he wants school to start up.  I sincerely believe he cannot wait to beat up his friends Garrett and Asher again- as I find the three roughing one another each time I go to school.  Boys and pushing and manhandling are a concept foreign to Josh’s mother.  I just can’t seem to appreciate being suprised by a flying fist-and no matter how hard I try, physical aggression is not my love language. 

Excited, holding supplies for classroom

Poor Josh.  He has been chomping at the bit for this day to arrive, and has desperately needed some hair-editing.  He refused to get his hair cut at Great Clips, holding out for his Dad to trim him up.  I am wondering whether I should stop referring to Pat’s hair-cuts courtesy of Great Clips as “crew-cut with bangs”.  Short of affecting Pat’s confidence, apparently Josh might be experiencing some scars too.  Josh will have nothing to do with those stylists.  Can they be termed stylists at Great Clips?  And if so, what style do they have?  Dumb-and-Dumber?  Anyhow, Pat did trim Josh, with great results.

Shearing sheep

Josh’s only insecurity of the morning: finding his new hall.  Anna offered to walk him down, so I am hoping he found his way and is not wandering the halls at 2pm.

Big Bag, Small Girl

Anna has been eager also.   And even more so, since finding out that her good friends Hailey and Sophie will be in her class again.  It did my heart good to look at her class roster- to see some repeats, and to see some names I am excited to know better this year.

This morning, I woke a little early to get ahead of our day.  My friend calls this playing “offense”, rather than “defense”.  I agree.  I was able to fix lunches and pray over their day- and over Pat’s day as well.  This man’s life is full of dead-lines lately, and while he wears stress well- better than me- stress IS stress.  I pray better for him when we are in routine.

The kids are responsible to wake themselves this year. 

Good Morning, Sunshine!

 We picked out alarm clocks at Target- pink and blue, respectively.  They are set to 6:45 am.  That is early for children, right?  We have moved bed-time back to school-time:  7:30.  Anna feels this is a strong injustice, since some of her friends stay up until 9pm.  Unfortunately for her, 9pm and my particular 8 year-old would translate into a strong injustic for me.  So for now, I win.

On to the day: Emma and Will and I are carving out a new schedule for our days together. Off to implement!

Every day while we were in Virginia, I determined to spend my running time praying in part, for our school year.  I have certainly prayed previous to this, but vacation cleared my mind to REALLY concentrate and take my miscellaneous thoughts and stream-line them.  Amanda- my pastor’s wife- recently encouraged me to spend  consistent time praying for my kids’ friends.  Reminding me of the importance of bringing before God who they spend time with.  Peer relationships cultivate character – or have the potential to- more than almost any other factor.

So, I ran through Bear Creek Lake Park and prayed toward their friendships.

And then I prayed for their placement in the absolute right classrooms.  With the right teachers and class-mates.

Back-to-School Presents for little feet

Yesterday, I walked into school to “Meet-and-Greet” our new year.  And walked right into my heart’s desires.  Wonderful. Yesterday encouraged my faith much.  God does not ever have to answer our prayers the way we want.  Not at all.  He is sovereign, and sometimes the very thing we desire is with-held.  This does not make God insensitive.  This does not mean God is not listening.  It simply indicates that He does what He wants, how He plans.  And we walk in faith, in submission to HIS will for our days, trusting that what is clear to us, or maybe what is hazy- is nonetheless clear as day and blue as sky, to Him.  What we may not want is still an answered prayer, just a different one than we had imagined.  And an answered prayer that looks like what we prayed toward is just ICING.

Being in the palm of God’s hand is comforting.  It strips the angst of small decisions away.  It strips the comparison away.  When God is totally on His throne, and we pray whole-heartedly to accept our lives from His hands, there are no mistakes.  There are kinks, sure.  There are tough days.  There are inconveniences.  But the totality of faith adds up to comfort in a sovereign hand, working things for good- even when they look bad or unfamiliar, based on our expectations.

Nonetheless, Meet-and-Greet was faith-building for me.  I have covered our year in prayer, so honestly….I was merely curious- not anxious- walking to school.  I was free.  I was enjoying seeing where our names were.  Who our class-mates were.

Josh is in class with a seasoned teacher.  A structured, quiet and orderly woman. I perused her book choices on the wall, and in the reading corner, and was impressed to see many classically-minded titles.  And many traditional readers.  In other words, quality literature.  Book choices are small glimpses into life.  What we read says much about interests, values and preferences.  Where we spend our time says more about world-view than any amount of words.  So, regardless of teacher-philosophy, my eyes generally glance through the supplemental readers and the toy choices.  And my eyes were pleasantly relieved and excited.    Toys were manipulatives- blocks and “smart” toys, requiring thought and imagination.  Overall classroom personality: structured.  First-graders who are still wriggling their way into learning need plenty of rules and order. And my basic guess is that the need for order will be met here.  Josh is in class with several of his old class-mates, and this delighted him.  Three of his closest male friends were placed in a class together, but not in his.  To my concerned inquiries, he replied: “Don’t worry, Mom.  I’ll see them at recess”.

One last summer craft: Josh's plasticine fighter-bird

I love you, son.  Your emotionless responses bless my soul:). (Although this generally laid-back child has been VERY emotional the last 2 weeks- chomping at the bit for school to begin).

Anna is in class with a newer teacher.  A young, fresh, and energetic woman. In my mind- without having any familiarity with the 3rd-grade teachers- this is what I envisioned for Anna.   Someone young.  Someone kind of charismatic and dynamic.  Anna is artsy and imaginative, and passionate people always understand her best.  Teacher piped up: “Hey girl-friend!” , and I could see Anna melt into her hug with joy and shy confidence. “Mom, that’s the exact teacher I wanted!” Thank you, God.  It’s just icing to have her choice, but icing IS good and sweet.  The student folder was purple and cute.  The calendar laid out clearly and neatly.  The volunteer sign-up meeting was a good sign: parental involvement is desired, and having a plan set in stone always indicates class-room order to come.  I told Ms. G that I would do anything festive.   And anything to do with reading good literature.  I will not sign up for anything weekly, due to to many home responsibilities still.  But I WILL help when and how I can.

One last slumber party, and coordinated outfits

I look so forward to meeting up with the kids in their classes.  I plan to enlist some more baby-sitting help this year.  My Mom has encouraged me to hire a mother’s helper when I need to, now that Will has Energizer-drive and activity levels.  Pat is happy for me to thrive however I can, so am thinking of making use of our church’s excellent teenage girls.  They are an impressive crew, and are trained well in handling children.

Though I plan to tote Will along initially and see how it goes-  due to exercising his vocals more assertively these days, and due to his propensity toward hurling himself head-first out of the stroller whenever possible-I am imagining more bad than good coming from this arrangement.

This has been a great summer for our family.  So much “down-time” .   So much conversation.  So much laughter.  And my personal favorite: some domestic training mixed in- which has very obviously blessed my life…

But all relaxing time-capsules end.  And now we are 3 more days until go-time!!

School is 2 days from done.  Today was Josh’s Kindergarten Luau.  Tomorrow is Anna’s End-of-Year Party.  And Friday is Josh’s Kindergarten Graduation.  Whew!  And then we are officially on vacation.

This year I was more than pleased to send in my $18 donation- which covered all fun for the children.

SLUSHIES.

And LEIS.

Josh did surprisingly well at LIMBO.  Maybe Pat’s son will have a future in the circus, and Pat can go watch and support him.  I mean, we can’t all be computer programmers and live in the suburbs.  Someone has to NOT be the status quo.

Emma was never far behind her big brother.

And Will was never far behind his big sister.  We sort of travel in a long, curvy line.

It takes lots of towels to dry off after a fun day at school.

Good friends are like gold, and this has been one of Josh’s closest this year.  Nothing makes me happier than showing up at school and finding him too busy to want to hover near me.  He is laughing.  And throwing balls.  And pelting his friends with water toys.  It is chaos, but in a friendly-fire kind of way.

I will miss J’s teachers.  The end of year is always hard, as the bonding process shows itself in the face of departure.  They have been wonderful: the perfect Kindergarten combination of nurturing as the little ones adjust, and firm enough to command respect and order in the class-room.

We are walking out of one year and into another!  My oldest is about to turn 8, which reminds me how quickly it all goes…

Were you a summer birthday like me?

Well, three out of my four are summer babies.  And that means lesser glory within the realm of class-room birthdays.  No Mom bringing in treats during the school-day.  No wearing the paper crown.  No singing Happy Birthday. 

Even though it’s not a big deal to adults- as we sometimes desire to be incognito on our special days- to children, the recognition  of birthdays is immeasurably special. 

Birthday Sweetness

Later this morning, I will tote cupcakes and a book and a craft to a class-room full of 5 year-olds.  Josh’s Fun Friday.  His class-mates will say “Hi Josh’s Mom!”.  The ones who know me will give me shy hugs.  And the ones less familiar will smile as they always do, with their missing teeth and their strewn-about hair.

I will bring along an excited Emma.  Providing her the same craft and treat.  I will bring many toys for Will and some veggie-puffs…

… and I will sit him in the stroller to play noisily.  The kids will walk by and touch him and say “He’s cute.  I have a  baby brother/sister too”.  They will be gentle and I will go ahead and close my eyes and other sense to germs, because their petting of the baby is really love.  And I want them to know that they are free to love on Josh’s baby.  And Will will grin happily, because the babe loves attention and lives in a world of constant activity- so he’s never more content than in the midst of it.

Sweet Will

I will be busy.  I will be tired by the end.  But I will be glad.  Because my son reminded me this morning “I’m so excited for Fun Friday”.  And I thought: What if I wasn’t there?  What if he knew by my absence that he wasn’t a priority?  Our school has high levels of parental involvement.  Stay-at-home Moms and working Moms and those in-between….seem to rally pretty hard for their children.  It’s touching and inspiring to see.  We are mostly of the same schedule when it comes to working for our kids.

At the end of the day, the kids will have a Happy Mother’s Day card. 

Cards for Mom

Something to tuck away.  It’s more girly than I would like.  But Josh was not humiliated and reassured me that since it’s for Mother’s Day, flowers are alright.  Otherwise, for a child who dreams of Star-Wars and swords and fierce battles-it would be humiliating.  His growing-up ceaselessly amuses me:).

I love where we are at right now.  This community and this school. 

And I really love this boy.

Happy Fun Friday!

We are finished.  It went well, and it was a fun and rewarding evening.  These hurdles of courage are so good to jump, and I was a proud parent on Friday night.  I am also a parent who is glad to retire a certain musical score for the time being.

Friday morning, I heard a rapping on the door.  And suspiciously I peered out. A florist!  Standing with flowers for me.   How sweet!  I immediately thought about how highly Pat must think of me, and raced to drink in the romance:).

In actuality, these flowers were for a 7 year-old girl that lives with me.  Sent with love and pride from her aunt and uncle in Toronto.  I am not one to tear up easily, but I did tear up for this moment.  The thought of my children having family that is so invested in them, is touching and humbling.  All day long the phone rang and the emails came through from siblings: We are praying for you.  We love you.  And the minute we walked in the door afterwards, the phone rang from a nail-biting Mimi:  How did it go? 

I hope my kids will always love one another like this.  Pat and I do the best that we can, but ultimately only God can give the love and selflessness that fosters mature adult love.  And that is what we pray toward.

I posted this clip to YouTube already for Facebook friends.  Many of you are not linked up through Facebook, so here it is. 

Please ignore a) my love-handles AND b) the spit-up on my left shoulder.  Both of these imperfections are part of my Mom-identity.  And though I wish that I could always leave the house smelling fresh and without stretch-marks and extra skin around my middle, those 4 faces have made me who I am, which is less like me: and so I’ll take the flaws. 

Not always gladly in the moment, but ultimately with joy.  I am losing myself for a purpose that is nobler than my ego.

My Dad lopped these branches off a tree he was pruning for a client.  My Dad rarely skips a beat in kindness: most times he arrives at the door, there is something small in his hands.  A carton of ice cream.  Bakery cookies for the kids.  Cherry blossoms for me.  He is very thoughtful.  I love that man.

Some for the dining room.

…and for the table out back.

And I plan to include some with a meal I have to deliver this afternoon.  Once again, it is a moment to prepare a meal in my neighborhood: a place where new mothers are supplied with 6 weeks of dinners.  Isn’t that impressive?  I think so.  I have been the recipient of two sets of meals for two babies now, so always a thankful experience to return the kindness and sacrifice.  I well know the time it takes to cook with little ones around, and it was humbling to receive food from other hard-working moms when I was recovering…

Tonight is our big night. Talent Show.  My girl is getting some raw nerves in her stomach, anticipating a moment solo-ing in the spotlight.  Please pray for her, if you are so inclined.  She is so brave and sincere…but this is a pretty frightening moment for a 7 year-old… with only one front tooth.

As for my end, I am ready to retire Grace Flows Down. I have already been playing through possible songs for the next show.  I am hoping that eventually, Josh can be up there with acoustic guitar.  One more year until his hands are big enough, or so we have been told by several music teachers.  This whole preparation in song and music has been so interesting to me: I used to dream about learning musically with my kids, back when they were both tiny.  And now it is here.  And it is HARD WORK. Anna is expected to practice 150 minutes of piano each week.  Her teacher is of the mindset that working hard now not only advances quickly, but also sets the stage for hard work later.  I agree.  And 150 minutes for her means quite a few for me, as I am really wanting to teach her correct posture and hand position and tone right from the first year.  Bad habits are HARD to undo with music (or anything).

Grace Flows Down

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

Amazing love, now flowing down

From hands and feet that were nailed to the tree

As grace flows down and covers me.

This grace: It covers over the sins of my heart.  Everything inside that emanates from my heart.  Each rude internal thought  Each malicious word.  Each selfish gesture toward my children.  Each disrespectful word to my husband.  Each thoughtless deed, each moment of not placing others first because I placed myself at the head of the line.  Everything inappropriate and offensive: all that was nailed to the cross when Jesus died.

That is why we are singing tonight: to celebrate blood meets love at Calvary.

(You know that Paparazzi-Pat will be there shooting photos and video this evening, so I am hoping to have a clip to share here tomorrow.)

The family we are staying with feels quite familiar to me.  This morning I awoke to small foot-steps on the floor above, as one of the grand-children came downstairs for breakfast.

Mr. and Mrs. W have 5 children and 14 grand-children!  Mr. W owns this company (www.woodfruitticher.com) and even though he had thought perhaps one of his sons might inherit the family business, none have desired to and all 5 kids are solidly locked into lives of ministry.  Church-planting, RUF, seminary.  How incredible is that? It does not take long driving around and eating around Mountain Brook, Alabama to see the tremendous  affluence.  It is a very wealthy community full of beautiful people.  So it is with great admiration that I look at parents whose children are all walking with the Lord and who have placed independent ministry-lives for their families, above income.  Who have walked away from the affluence in search of something richer.

Interestingly, Mr. and Mrs. W are pro public-schooling.  He is an elder in the PCA church which makes it even more refreshing!  We had great conversation the night I arrived and it was informative and encouraging to pick their brains on various topics.

Here is an article my friend emailed me last night.  It is worth the read.  About life as a public-school family.  The site is www.sortacrunchy.typepad.com:

*****************************************

On feeling called to public schools

I’ve written this post no less than a dozen times in my head.  I pretend to be perplexed as to why it is so hard for me to share this part of our family’s life with you, but that’s just charade.  I know exactly why it’s hard: I’m afraid. I’m afraid of being criticized and questioned.

But then I read words of wisdom from finslippy (in A few words about fear) and she reminds me:

if no one dislikes you, you’re not doing it right.

So, I’m turning my chin up to the fear and trusting you with this from my heart.

This will not be a

1) criticism of homeschooling (if you are new here, you may not know I’ve run a series of guest posts from homeschoolers.  Click on the “schooling” tag from the category cloud in the sidebar to read more.)

nor a

2) defense of the public school system in the United States of America

Most every family that I know (online or offline) who homeschools will tell anyone who asks that they feel called to educate their children at home.  The reasons for this vary greatly, but most feel utterly confident that this is the best choice for their family.

In a very similar way, we feel called to public schools. I’m going to share a couple of things with you that flesh out that statement, but I want to make clear from the start that sending our girls to public school is simply what we feel led by the Lord to do.  For now.

My sophomore year in high school, in an Honors English II class, we were given the assignment to write our own obituaries.  I doodled around a bit, and then quickly wrote out what I felt was a quite satisfactory homage to my long-lived, much-revered life.  (I was fifteen, after all.)  My friend Kelly sat next to me and worked the whole hour on hers, but grew increasingly agitated.

I just can’t stand thinking about dying.  I’m afraid of dying.  Aren’t you afraid of dying? she asked.

Well, I mean, not really. And that’s when the Holy Spirit stirred within me and compelled me – she of little courage – to stammer out that actually, I wasn’t afraid of dying because I believed when I died that I would spend eternity in heaven because of my faith in Jesus Christ.

Later that afternoon, our minister to students accompanied me to Kelly’s house where she prayed to receive Christ as her Savior.  I went to a different high school in our hometown after my sophomore year, but I know that soon after high school graduation, Kelly got married and she and her husband went on the mission field to spread the gospel abroad.

That was a defining moment in my life.  Who knew one conversation would bring so much yield?

I graduated from college with a degree in English – emphasis on Secondary Education.  I married a man whose degree is also in education.  From our earliest days of student teaching, we saw the dynamic and powerful impact of Christian teachers and Christian students in public schools.

When I taught English for three years in Texas, my heart and faith were encouraged by the amazing and authentic Christian students I had in class.  I can see their faces in my mind as clearly as if it were yesterday, even though it has been six years since I last had a classroom of my own.  A small group of them were given permission to meet on campus in the morning for prayer and a quick devotional time, and they asked to use my classroom for that purpose.

All of this is to say that I passionately believe there is a place for Christian families in the public schools of our communities.

I will say, however, as Dacey’s first day of Pre-K neared, I probably asked Kyle eighty times or more if he still thought we were doing the right thing by choosing public school.  We’ve prayed and listened and prayed and listened and for this moment in time, we still feel strongly that this is how God is leading us a family.  We believe that He has placed us in this community for a time such as this, and that we, as a family, can minister to other families in our community through the common ground of a shared schooling choice.

I feel like I can’t publish this with complete transparency without this one last note: Bear in mind that we live in The Buckle of The Bible Belt.  We sit behind the Superintendent of Schools and his wife (an elementary school counselor) every. single. Sunday in church.  Dacey’s Pre-K teacher is also the Director of Children’s Ministries at our church.  Last month, I was in the front office signing Dacey out early one day, and the door to the principal’s office was open.  I heard him on a personal phone call saying, “I’ve prayed about it and I think . . .” (anddon’ttellanyonethis but at the Pre-K Christmas program, Away in the Manger was worked into the program.  shhhhhhhhhh!)

Does this mean our public schools closely mirror a Christian school?  Oh no.  Not even close.  But we have the luxury of a comfort level there that many, many families do not have.

I say all of this to re-affirm that today I am simply telling you a little more about a topic I’ve managed to avoid for four years.  This is why we choose public schools.

Disclaimer: Any posts I write based on education are simply there out of context to our lives.  I am not putting down other models, as I love and respect many of our friends who do things differently (and very well). We take our academics year-by-year.  And with the understanding that our “choice” may change from year to year.  But I DO hope to shed light on “another way”, and one which can be viewed at times with perhaps undue suspicion.

*********************

This afternoon is audition day for Anna’s solo. And so I began the morning with loads of laundry piled up from the weekend….and playing through sheet music.

Emma was entirely upset with me, as she was trying her best to concentrate on Dora Super-Babies. It was not happening for her, and the background noise rattled her inside-out and she kept hollering: “I can’t hear Mama!” Bless her soul, her life-concerns are so small.

I had rifled through the many. many boxes my parents store in our basement.  They believe these boxes are safer and in good hands as they live downstairs.  But we did have a broken pipe burst, shooting sewage through the box-room.  And we did have to towel off a few things, books included.  I’m just saying these two things happened, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Richard’s Wurmbrand’s book was sitting on top of the pile.  Tortured for Christ. Isn’t that the most ominous title of a book ever?  I have long desired to page through this particular writing, but my heart has always been too weak to do so.  I hate hearing bad news.  Or dwelling on suffering that is beyond my control.

Wurmbrand lived through the Stalinist occupation of Russia.  As Communism extended itself through the country, many Christians and even Orthodox Russians were locked up- because they veered from the choke-hold of extreme socialism.  Collectivism and such ideology flies in the face of protestantism and its emphasis on freedom of thought and enterprise.  “We are all the same and need to think and live the same.  And own the same things”. It is oppression to the nth degree, stripping down until all are alike.  So it is no wonder these out-spoken and bold Christians were seen as threatening, as they voiced dissent.

Many kids from Christian homes were made to walk through Communist schools.

As rampant and man-centered thought took over Russia, Christian parents were forced to either send their children to school or to hide their children away.  Circumstances differed, and so some chose the former, some the latter.  Tough choices were made, but God gave discernment to families based on prayer and individual lifestyle.  My interest was heightened by Wurmbrand’s remarks on those who pushed through a very fallen, God-less educational system.

They survived it.  They were subjected to systematic and conflicting thought, and as they emerged, here is what he says:

“During this work we had the joy of meeting brethren from the Underground Church in Russia and hearing about their experiences.  First of all, we saw in them the makings of great saints.   They had passed through so many years of Communist indoctrination.  But just as a fish lives in the salty waters and keeps its meat sweet, they passed through the Communist schools and universities but had kept their souls clean and pure in Christ.  These Russian Christians had such beautiful souls!”

After graduating, many of these believers, went on to further the work of the Underground Church in Russia, using their children as a means of sharing the Gospel with friends and teachers.  My heart gave a little skip at this thought: Believing so much in freedom in Christ that I would risk my children to gain it?  That I would care so much about people and their eternity, that I would place my security and those I would die to protect, in harm’s way, because it was so worth it to me?

I am not there yet: I know this because of how I was inwardly yelling at parents to “Hide them (their kids) away!”.

I pray boldness for my own children.  I pray that they will have more compassionate and bold hearts than Pat and I have.

I do not always agree with what they are taught.  I am not the school district’s biggest fan of Drug Awareness for 6 year-olds.  I am also not sure that children should have much energy committed to sex ed. when they are young.  Hello, they’ll find out as surely as sparks fly upward!  But, this is the world they live in.  These are their peers.  These are the adults they will be friends with.  This is their context now and for the rest of their lives.  It is not how I would like it if I were to re-invent the world, but 2010 is the fallen model I must work with.

We will trust God’s promise that “there is nothing new under the sun”: nothing seen now has not been experienced before.  And God’s Word promises a lot.  It says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever“.  So the God who saved and sanctified two generations ago, is the same God alive and well today.  This is my promise and my prayer.  Nothing has not existed before.  And nothing surprises God: He has seen it all.

And so I pray that no matter how we educate, what environment we are in, that when our children have completed their time in school,we will be able to say: They have such beautiful souls!”