For Simple Things

31. January 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Gratitude Community

This poem captures my thoughts on gratitude this week.

For Simple Things
by, Amy Carmichael


God of my praise, to Thee be praise
For children and their loving ways;

For all the things that lighten earth,
For quiet peace, and merry mirth;

For every friendly bird that sings,
For little, lovely, simple things;

For loyal comradeship that grows
The stronger for each wind that blows;

But most of all because Thou art
The sunshine of my happy heart.

God of my praise, to Thee be praise,
Today and through my length of days.

237. Snuggling with my 3 yr. old and reading a younger kids version of “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.” He was enthralled and at the end he pointed to the picture of Aslan and said “I like him the best.”

238. Getting to use my Christmas gift from my husband: an afternoon at the spa. Quiet, peace, relaxation.

239. The sun rising behind the clouds and reflecting on the river as I drove over the bridge this morning.

240. Friends who know me well enough to understand what I’m saying even more than I do.

241. The beauty of God revealed in everything He made, reflected in His children, and in the life of Christ.

The Source of Beauty

29. January 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: poetry

This poem came about as I was meditating on these verses: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:3 and “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” Psalm 27:4

Sadly, beauty in our culture is focused on surgeries, expensive clothing, hairstyles, dress size, etc. Real beauty is something else all together…

We glimpse it on a canvas framed;
brush strokes with colors that delight.
It’s heard in sounds that entertain,
in harmonies, the soul it excites.

Seen and felt in the ocean’s roar,
in the turquoise blue, sparkling bright.
Reflected in the range that soars,
the peaks glorious in its might.

It’s in the smile on a child’s face
and in the snuggling newborn.
We feel it in a loved one’s embrace
and our hearts that glow from their warmth.

Its fulness is revealed in Him-
not in looks, for plain was His face,
nor in clothes which were worn and thin,
but it is in His love and grace.

His love that scribbled in the sand,
setting an ashamed woman free.
Dirty feet cleansed by Servant hands,
showing how love should really be.

A King that scorned His rightful place
to be sacrificed for our sin.
Real Beauty is seen in His grace
that made all our debts forgiven.

Homeschooling 101

28. January 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: gifted education, Homeschooling, Teach Me Jesus

I’ve confessed in previous posts about my strong desire to homeschool. My husband and I have been in discussion about it more recently and he seems a little more open to it than before. Over the past five years I’ve been researching and learning more about it. I’ve talked to a number of homeschooling parents and read books both by those who do it for biblical reasons and those who do for purely educational reasons.

Lately I’ve been researching about the various curriculum choices and have come up with more than I ever thought possible. It seems that a parent has to first determine their “style” of homeschooling before selecting curriculum. By “style” I mean mode and method and philosophy of homeschooling. There are a few main styles I’ve come across. There’s the traditional style where homeschooling is set up exactly like that at a school but done by the parent. There are textbooks for each subject and the day is spent going through each subject, completing work sheets and other things one might expect from a regular school. There’s also a classical view of homeschooling that is traditional in nature but emphasizes logic, reasoning, latin and greek and encourages a lot of memorization. There’s the Charlotte Mason method which is holistic in nature and emphasizes learning through literature and nature. And then there’s unschooling. There seems to be a variety of ways to “unschool” but most of what I’ve read focuses on learning through life experiences. There may not be any curriculum used. Math is learned through shopping or cooking for example. There also seems to be an emphasis on following the child’s interest in learning. If the child shows an interest in bugs, then their days would be used by investigating and researching that topic.

I have more of a moderate personality, I kind of prefer flexible structure. There is a curriculum that seems to have some connection to the Charlotte Mason method where learning is done through unit studies. A topic or theme is chosen and reading, spelling, grammer, social science, math and science are incorporated into that theme. Unit studies are actually what the gifted teacher uses in Ethan’s weekly gifted class. They are “traveling the world” this year and learning about geography, history, culture, studying fairy tales from different cultures, doing research on the computer, and even incorporating math. It’s the one day a week where he is excited to share what he has learned. The other day on the way home from school he related a story they had read about a man who had gone mountain climbing in Pakistan (3 Cups of Tea). It’s a true story and he remembered every detail and I could hear the fascination and excitement in his voice as he recounted it. Most days of school when I ask him what they did he can’t remember.

I’ve found some interesting resources on unit studies. I’ve found homeschooling curriculum developed especially for gifted learners. I really liked it but think I’d rather use curriculum that is based on scripture. After all, that’s the main reason I want to homeschool-to help my kids see all of life from the perspective of the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Here’s a neat one I’d like to do this summer on geology that is from a Christian perspective.

Here are a few more interesting links:

Homeschooling and testing

Why homeschool a gifted learner?

Pros and Cons to homeschooling from Ann Voskamp

The Gospel and Parenting

27. January 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: God's still working on me, Teach Me Jesus · Tags:

We’re coming to the end of our study of Jonah at my church. Our study focuses a lot on the gospel in Jonah (really, it is a book that is more than a story about a fish!). In our culture, it often seems that the gospel ends with salvation. Once a person becomes a Christ follower, we think the gospel’s use is done. Scripture teaches otherwise and we’ve been exploring the idea of “preaching the gospel” to ourselves everyday. The book we’ve been reading is Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels by Tullian Tchividjian. He says, “The gospel isn’t simply a set of truths that non-Christians must believe in order to become saved. It’s a reality that Christians must daily embrace in order to experience being saved. The gospel not only saves us from the penalty of sin (justification), but it also saves us from the power of sin (sanctification) day after day…Christians need the gospel because our hearts are always prone to wander; we’re always tempted to run from God. It takes the power of the gospel to direct us back to our first love.”

What does this have to do with being a mom? I have to remember the grace of the gospel in my life in my daily interactions with my kids. The very things they do that may upset me are the very things God has forgiven me for. How often do I say “How many times do I have to tell you to…? The Spirit reminds me how many times I have done the same to God. When I live out the gospel, I want them to see Jesus and what he did for them. I want them to run to the cross each time they stumble. Because Christianity often mistakenly teaches that once you’re a Christian you then need to work hard to behave like one, we frequently remind them that they cannot do anything that is good apart from the help of the Holy Spirit. (Is. 64:6) After they have sinned, we pray with and for them that the Holy Spirit would help them to change and grow to be more like Christ.

I need to hear that too! I recently confessed a sin in my heart to my accountability group. When the Holy Spirit reveals sin to me, I want to try and correct it right away. How can I change or make things better? The guilt begins to mount and before you know it, I’ve forgotten what Christ did for me. Jerry Bridges describes in The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness what it means to live out the gospel everyday:

“It is not our contrition or sorrow for our sin, it is not our repentance, it is not even the passing of a certain number of hours during which we feel we are on some kind of probation that cleanses us. It is the blood of Christ, shed once for all on Calvary two thousand years ago but appropriated daily or even many times a day, that cleanses our consciences and gives us a renewed sense of peace with God…To preach the gospel to yourself, then means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.”

Father, I thank you for your plan of redemption that made a way for your children to come before you. Help me each day to “face up to my own sinfulness and flee to Jesus through faith.” And help me to live a life that points my children away from self and works but to the cross.

Teaching Moments

26. January 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Teach Me Jesus

A friend remarked to me that there are teaching moments all throughout the day with our children. And that is very true. My problem is that I frequently miss them.

God gave me a teaching moment today with Ethan as I picked him up from school. He occassionally complains about getting in trouble for doing nothing, or getting blamed for something he didn’t do in the classroom. Most kids are sensitive to things being “fair” and he’s no exception. Sometimes I think it’s even harder for him to accept when things are “unfair” because of the way he views things. Normally I would have tried to figure out more details about what happened and try to help him see the situation from his teacher’s point of view. But today I decided not to. I simply replied, “Do you know who understands the most what it’s like to be unfairly mistreated?” “Who?” he asked. “Jesus.” I then went on to explain to him how Jesus was treated by the teachers of the law during his ministry and ultimately how it resulted in his trial and death. I pointed out that none of it was fair but that Jesus accepted all of it, for you and for me. Had he not, we wouldn’t have the hope of heaven.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15,16

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” James 1:2

His healing words, part 1

25. January 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Depression, God's still working on me

I recently read Mary Beth Chapman’s book, Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope and was struck by her transparency as she shared her heart. A few years ago, I saw an interview of her on tv where she shared her struggles with depression. This was one of the first times I had heard another Christian share about their battles with depression. Watching that interview was tremendously helpful to me to begin to open up to others about my own depression, instead of hiding it because of shame. As I read her book, many times I said to myself “it’s like she’s telling my story.” I have not had the same experiences in my life as she but the way she described her struggles with depression, the intense and overwhelming burden of it, I could see myself.

I’ve mentioned in my blogs from time to time about my own painful struggle with depression but I feel led to share more. When I was a teenager, over a period of about a year and a half, I experienced significant loss in my life as well as ongoing emotional trauma. As a result, I gained a great deal of weight in a short period of time. I found myself feeling lost, hopeless, crying constantly, wishing I weren’t alive. I did not know I was suffering from depression and did not know how to verbalize what I was experiencing. I tried to tell a couple of friends about what was going on but it scared them away. I felt unloved and unlovable. Always an avid reader, I found myself withdrawing more and more into reading. Books were my best friend. The place I felt most safe was my job at the public library. I pored over nearly every book they had in the religious section that related to how I was feeling. It was there that God used books by Christian authors to lead me to his word. Though my depression didn’t go away, I was able to keep from drowning by resting in the healing words of God written in the bible. My walls in my room were covered with 3×5 cards with bible verses written to remind me of God’s promises. My favorite: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:4. God also brought good friends through my church youth group and the youth leaders that while they probably didn’t know what I was struggling with (I didn’t either) they were supportive and loving.

When I went away to college, it was like God was giving me a chance to start over. I majored in sociology with a concentration in counseling and it was there I learned so much about brokeness, dysfunction, the how’s and why’s of it all as well as how God can work to bring healing through counseling. In talking to one of my counseling professor’s about the pain I had experienced in high school, he said I had sufferred from clinical depression. While in college, I received counseling and practical helps to cope with the stresses and pains of life. I did not experience as much intense depression while in college, but it was always there lingering in the shadows. When things became challenging or stressful, I could feel it try to take over. The friendships I had developed and what I had learned from my professor’s was so helpful in keeping me from falling back into depression again. Being at a Christian college, I was always in the word, always praying, always learning more about God and his love for me.

After college, I got married and moved to Florida. This was a really hard transition for me. I was in a culture I didn’t identify with. We were in a town where we knew no one and had no family nearby. We struggled to find the sense of community we had experienced in college. I had many down periods where I struggled to hold back the onslaught of depression. Looking back, I realize that I had relied on the community provided for me at college to help me, rather than relying on God.

About three years after graduating from college, I started graduate school studying counseling psychology. It was extremely stressful to be in school full time and work full time in the counseling field. My doctor prescribed antidepressants for me because he was concerned about my stress levels. Being back in the academic setting was rejuvinating for me though and I learned even more about myself, about depression, how to diagnose it and how to treat it. I doubted I would ever suffer from a major depressive episode again, but if I did, I thought I knew how to handle it.

Next to come, part 2 and post pardum depression.

Helpful resources:
Depression: A Stubborn Darkness-Light for the Path
Joy Comes In The Morning: Psalms For All Seasons
The Search For Significance: Seeing Your True Worth Through God’s Eyes
When God Weeps
Inside Out

God’s gracious gifts

24. January 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Gratitude Community

I’m working on planning my Sunday school lesson for this next week for a two and three year old class. We’ll be reading about Jesus healing ten lepers. Only one leper returns to thank him. I’ve been thinking of activities to do with these little ones under my care and one thing I want to do is cut out pictures of things they are thankful to God for. The things I imagine they will think of would include their toys, pets, food, house, bikes, etc. Very concrete things. Planning this lesson challenged me to remember that all that I have comes from the gracious hand of God and I need to be grateful for those concrete things as well.

226. My car that takes me all the places I need to go each day.

227. My computer which I use to communicate with others.

228. My comfy bed:)

229. My crockpot which makes cooking dinner easy and yet yummy at the same time.

230. All my books which encourage me, teach me, challenge me, sadden me, and entertains me.

231. All the copies of the bible I have around my house. One for beside my bed, one for bible study at church, one for morning devotions in the kitchen, etc. Where many around the world fear prison or worse for owning a bible, I have more than I can even use and often don’t stop and thank God for that gift of grace in having a copy of his word.

232. My sound machine alarm clock. Snoring husband, need I say more?

233. Dishwasher.

234. Running water (and since we have a well that often gives us trouble, I actually don’t take that for granted:)

235. Antiques I’ve inherited that remind me of a family member who has passed on.

236. Pj’s-why can’t we wear them everyday, all day?

Welcome to my new site

22. January 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized

After more than five years at Blogger, I’ve decided to change my name and my site. A lot has changed on my blog since I first started it in 2005. It’s no longer about the daily challenges of meeting a little one’s physical needs and documenting my son’s growth. It’s become more about parenting them in their spiritual/emotional/mental growth. And about God’s work in growing me to be more like him.

So welcome to my new site, come back and visit often,

Christina

Orchaboky

22. January 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: gifted education

Orcha what? I’ll explain, but let me say first that I am so fascinated by the highly gifted brain. I guess it’s because I don’t think the same way so I find it so interesting. Ever since Ethan was a baby I just followed along in whatever he wanted to learn. One of his first words was “clock” so I exposed him to lots of clocks. When he asked to learn math, I taught him math. When he wanted to learn about space, we studied everything we could find on space. When he wanted to learn cursive, I showed him how. When he wanted to memorize the 50 states, I got him a map. His mind has an insatiable desire to learn and he has led me on quite an adventure!

One of his daily challenges is getting his mind to slow down enough so he can sleep at night. We try to give him tons of books to read, drawing supplies and give him ideas for what to do in his bed at night. One night he came out and said that he had nothing to do. I suggested he invent his own country and tell us about it in the morning. Well, that’s just what he did.

Most nights since then he has been working on the country he invented: Orchaboky. He created a flag and can tell you about their natural resources and their industry. He has been working on a power point presentation of his country and the other day we all sat down to listen to his presentation. It was really cute and we had fun raising our hands asking him questions. It’s an ongoing project that will hopefully keep his mind engaged for quite some time.

River of Grace

19. January 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: poetry

I’ve still been meditating on God’s grace and mercy in lives of rebels such as myself.  Even though I’ve been a Christ Follower for so many years, my sin nature continues to pull me away from him.  Yet he continues to pursue and draw me back.  This is a poem reflecting those thoughts.

I am a leaf, fallen from the tree.
The wind carries me, I know not where.
The worlds distractions take hold of me;
I follow it’s fads, concerns and cares.

Lord, plant me firmly in your vine
growing in your light that shines.

I am Gomer, restless, weak and untrue.
The idols of my heart consume me.
Loving myself and things more than you,
in the prison of shame I can’t flee.

Lord, cleanse my heart and make me new.
Fill my heart with passion just for you.

I am a young child lost in a storm.
Fearful, I curl up tight and small.
There’s nowhere to go that’s safe and warm;
scared there’s no end to the rain that falls.

Lord, may I find my shelter in you.
No matter the storms, you’ll see me through.

An adopted child of the King,
I’m cherished, loved, and accepted.
If I stray from my Source of being,
I know I’ll be found just as He said.

Lord, help me to seek and love you more
as your river of grace on me pours.

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