| I am reading a book called 'The Complete Green Letters' that my brother and sister-in-law bought for me - it is really deep in it's content though each chapter is very short. it takes me reading each chapter several times to really be able to digest the information, but it is so worth it! There is a chapter about the time God takes growing each one of us and how for each person it is obviously different and we need to just sit back and let him grow us at exactly the rate He wants to because that is what will bring true maturity. The author tells of a college president who was asked by a student if there was a shorter class than the one prescribed that he could take. The president replied "Oh yes, but then it depends on what you want to be. When God wants to make a mighty oak he takes an hundred years when He wants to make a squash He takes 6 months!!" The author explained that sometimes in one month we can grow more than we did in the previous three years combined. He said that trees go through tremendous growth stages only three months out of the year and the rest of the year that new growth needs to solidify or it will be useless. Wow isn't that awesome?! The author then went on to say that God told us that "He who began a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6) and He will take that long, so again we need to relax and just let Him do the work at His pace He has set for us!! One of the ladies at the Principle Approach Yahoo group used the term 'microwave education' to describe the kind of education we are seeking when we are trying to hurry through the things God has to teach us and I think it is an excellent decription.
Now I can absolutely apply that to my life, BUT I didn't seem to be remembering this principle in my children's lives in our first two years of school. It was hurry, hurry and get this so we can move on and sometimes we even moved on without them understanding what the subject really was about and why we were studying it. I had put my own time constraint on our school!
God is so good at showing me my inadequacies. I have now come to realize though that it is actually not a hard thing for me to accept but a burden lifted when God says 'you' can't do it but 'I' can and I will do it in My time!!
Thank you Lord for continuing to renew my mind about education through Your eyes. Thank you for teaching me to slow down and really take in the things you have to show me in all areas of life. Thank you for using me to plant those little seeds of understanding in all areas of life into my child's heart and for helping me to realize the growth process takes time and a great deal of nurturing. Thank you for the times of growth as well as the times of solidification that are so necessary to sustain us through whatever comes our way. Thank you for helping me to see that I can relax in you and know that you will bring about the increase inour lives and that there is no one better equipped to do the job. | 
