The girls & I just got back from an incredible week at a homeschool conference with a whole bunch of like-minded people. The time was invaluable. The girls got to enjoy a week of 'normalcy' meaning that they sat in classes with kids their age and did standardized testing and gave out valentines and took choir and did a talent show and a project and played on the playground. Just all kinds of good for the soul, body, and mind goodness!!!!
I, too, got to enjoy time with peers learning and praying and talking. It was great. The guest speaker for the week was the amazing Pam Tebow (yes, the mother of the amazing Tim Tebow...GO GATORS!) That was pretty cool in and of itself, but even cooler after realizing just how awesome she really is. She's a woman after God's heart. She, too, was a homeschooling mom who had no idea what she was doing and just learned along the way, and she, too, lived across the world from her normal. It was such a pleasure to sit under the teaching of a true success story! ;)
The one thing that stood out the most in the life of Pam Tebow was that she was a woman of the Word!!!! She knew it. She memorized it. She loved it. And she passed it down to her children. Story after story she shared about verses in the Bible that got her through difficult times and glorious times. And to see that ringing true in the life of her kids as well was such an inspiration.
Looking at my own life, I was encouraged that, yes, we memorize Scripture (All thanks to the Seeds of...Series!) Thank God for my kids' Bible class, otherwise my first year overseas would have been a dry one!!!! I look back and wonder if the only opportunity God had to speak to me was the times He spoke through my girls' Bible lesson or memory verse! (I'm slightly exaggerating but there were definitely days where that Bible class was all that got me through!) But, all the while, I recognized in my own life that I need more of God's Word. I need to be in His Word far more than I am and I was challenged to pick up the pace!
I was also encouraged that throughout the week I had plenty of opportunities to melt into a pile of worry on the floor and not get back up until my kids graduated high school... of course, that would be silly because without me I guess they wouldn't graduate high school! ;) But, anyway, there were plenty of moments where God's Word literally suppressed the worry in my heart (you know, when you hear of about 50 things you could be doing with your kids' education that you're not doing!), but God Himself suppressed my worry and I can rest assured that a year ago I really would have been a basket case lying in a pile on the floor! That was my greatest victory of the week! That even before the test scores came back, I was able to be calm and know that God is filling in the gaps in the places where I am insufficient! How great is He!!!!
Anyway, my main purpose in writing this particular blog was because God laid on my heart a really fun way to memorize Scripture with the whole family and a few friends had been anxious to hear about this idea so I thought I'd jot it down for anyone who may want to use it.
So, here it is... Luke 2:52 says, "And Jesus grew in wisdom & in stature..." This verse came to me and I decided that I would print off a variety of verses that I want to memorize and that I want my kids to memorize and that everyone in the family would be challenged to memorize as many verses as they are tall. (Yes, that means that Jason & I will be learning far more than Kamden & Kiley... but, we lead by example, don't we?) So, I'll print these verses off on strips of paper (hopefully rather LARGE strips of paper! ;) and as we learn verses we get to tape them to the wall starting from the ground up! When you reach your height, you get a major prize!!! I'm not sure what yet, but it will be major!!! So... that's it. Not complex by any means, but a fun way to visualize growing in wisdom and in stature!!!
I, too, got to enjoy time with peers learning and praying and talking. It was great. The guest speaker for the week was the amazing Pam Tebow (yes, the mother of the amazing Tim Tebow...GO GATORS!) That was pretty cool in and of itself, but even cooler after realizing just how awesome she really is. She's a woman after God's heart. She, too, was a homeschooling mom who had no idea what she was doing and just learned along the way, and she, too, lived across the world from her normal. It was such a pleasure to sit under the teaching of a true success story! ;)
The one thing that stood out the most in the life of Pam Tebow was that she was a woman of the Word!!!! She knew it. She memorized it. She loved it. And she passed it down to her children. Story after story she shared about verses in the Bible that got her through difficult times and glorious times. And to see that ringing true in the life of her kids as well was such an inspiration.
Looking at my own life, I was encouraged that, yes, we memorize Scripture (All thanks to the Seeds of...Series!) Thank God for my kids' Bible class, otherwise my first year overseas would have been a dry one!!!! I look back and wonder if the only opportunity God had to speak to me was the times He spoke through my girls' Bible lesson or memory verse! (I'm slightly exaggerating but there were definitely days where that Bible class was all that got me through!) But, all the while, I recognized in my own life that I need more of God's Word. I need to be in His Word far more than I am and I was challenged to pick up the pace!
I was also encouraged that throughout the week I had plenty of opportunities to melt into a pile of worry on the floor and not get back up until my kids graduated high school... of course, that would be silly because without me I guess they wouldn't graduate high school! ;) But, anyway, there were plenty of moments where God's Word literally suppressed the worry in my heart (you know, when you hear of about 50 things you could be doing with your kids' education that you're not doing!), but God Himself suppressed my worry and I can rest assured that a year ago I really would have been a basket case lying in a pile on the floor! That was my greatest victory of the week! That even before the test scores came back, I was able to be calm and know that God is filling in the gaps in the places where I am insufficient! How great is He!!!!
Anyway, my main purpose in writing this particular blog was because God laid on my heart a really fun way to memorize Scripture with the whole family and a few friends had been anxious to hear about this idea so I thought I'd jot it down for anyone who may want to use it.
So, here it is... Luke 2:52 says, "And Jesus grew in wisdom & in stature..." This verse came to me and I decided that I would print off a variety of verses that I want to memorize and that I want my kids to memorize and that everyone in the family would be challenged to memorize as many verses as they are tall. (Yes, that means that Jason & I will be learning far more than Kamden & Kiley... but, we lead by example, don't we?) So, I'll print these verses off on strips of paper (hopefully rather LARGE strips of paper! ;) and as we learn verses we get to tape them to the wall starting from the ground up! When you reach your height, you get a major prize!!! I'm not sure what yet, but it will be major!!! So... that's it. Not complex by any means, but a fun way to visualize growing in wisdom and in stature!!!
-The 4 Cokes
yeah, girl!!! such a fun idea! I love how fun and creative you are!
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