Today, Dec 2nd is a day of prayer for the Supreme Court over this issue.

Here is a blog that will keep you up to date. it's a MUST READ! http://garyeubanks.blogspot.com

What!!!!  I didn't post a picture of my son's wedding?  I need to get my priorities straight!

It was a wonderful time.  They married in Arkansas at my husband's parents beautiful yard.  It was immediate family only except for my son's best friend and wife who were the photographers and my in-laws best friends who helped serve the dinner after the ceremony. They went to Acapulco for 7 days and when they returned, my son dropped his photo disk out of his pocket in a parking lot and someone ran over it.  He got a company to try to retrieve the pictures, but it coulcn't be done.  I guess they'll have their memories.  When they returned, we had a reception for church, family and friends at our church in Oklahoma.  It was a great time.

The mantra of the Obama era is "Yes we can!"  This is a perfect time to teach our children the very core of humanism.  Man thinks they can do it.  They think that we will continue "evolving" and somehow create a perfect world.

It will take very little time for this to all fall, just as the Tower of Babel had to.  Such pride. 

No we can't.  Man cannot, and will not do it.  We'll be talking about this in our family, with the children.  As we watch and follow the news over the next few years, I'll remind them of the mantra, and how mankind thought "Yes we can!" 

When mankind finds out they can't, they tend to look around to see who they can blame.  President Bush was blamed for Katrina, for crying out loud.

We live in a fallen world.  No we can't.  Yes, GOD can.  A man centered world will never work, just the same as it never has worked.  Mankind just doesn't get it, do they?  No we can't!  No we can't!

I pray that as things fall apart over the next few years, many will finally come to realize that "No we can't" and decide to put God on the throne of their hearts.  The time is short.  He is coming soon.

"Momma, you don't ever rest."  These were the words my sweet five-year old Brennan uttered to me this afternoon.  Words that were spoken with the utmost in honesty.  And, in fact, those five words stopped me in my tracks.

I don't rest?  Worse than that, my kids don't see me rest?  Sure there is tremendous value in hard work, but is there still value in only work and no rest?  All throughout Scriptures we can read about the value in rest. Think of Mary and Martha.  The Sabbath. Our Father even rested on the seventh day of creation.  So why not me?  Why is it so hard to rest?

My husband knows when things are bothering me.  He'll find me deep in some obscure project working away.  Somehow working keeps my mind busy, and allows me the short-lived luxury of not thinking about everything that is trying and difficult.  So I'll organize the school supplies, or sort through old clothes, or start a new painting project, and so on.  But, I won't sit.  I won't be still. 

These past months I've become more and more convicted about the need to be still, to rest.  And yet I still keep on moving, spinning around...not resting. And my children notice.  So throughout the day I pondered why I don't rest. Here's what I discovered...somehow I've taken the time of rest and allowed anxiety to creep into my mind.  When I'm busy, I occupy my mind with other things.  Many times, these activities aren't even needed or worth my time.  The Lord doesn't want my rest time to be robbed!  I have been living removed from true rest.  A rest full of peace.  Instead, my rest, or down times, have been difficult and unenjoyable.  It's quite hard to be engaged in life with your kids when your mind races over problems.

Several posts back I wrote about finding joy in daily life. It's become clearer and clearer that joy can be found in real rest.  Those times of rest, those breaks, those are the times that the Lord blesses us with!  If I was always busy then I would miss that smile of achievement on my 15 month old as he walks between the couch and the chair.  Or the joy in my seven year old as she watches snowflakes dance in the sky.  Oh, how easy is would be to live busy, preoccupied with so many seemingly needed things. 

"Come, come,"  He calls you, "O soul opressed and weary,

Come to the shadow of My desert rest;

Come walk with Me far from life's noisy discords.

And peace will breathe like music in your breast."

 (from The Still Hour)

True pauses and moments of rest only come from spending time with my Lord.  When I get caught in the frenzy of life there is no peace, no rest, no joy.  Reading His Word, praying, and sitting at His feet...these are the actions that promote times of quietness in my life.  Where I am free to sit and read with my children without feeling the need to be "busy" with tedious tasks. It is good for my children to see me rest.  To laugh.  I cringe at the thought of the memories of mom as one always working.  I praise the Lord that He gave my precious Brennan the need to inform me that he, too, knows that I don't rest.  Well, at least I didn't.  With the Lord's help, I aim to pause...to breathe...to live again.

During this Advent season, I pray that you, too, will find moments of rest in your schedule.  And that in those gifts of time that the joy of the season fills your heart.

Rachel

...to stay here at homeschoolblogger.  I kept going back and forth trying to decide my next move, and then it became crystal clear that I was to remain.  To stick it out.  To figure this out, and not move onto something else.  Funny how that relates to life.

It's so easy to get caught up in the next thing, the next idea, and thus give up on today.  And in that process of moving, jumping ship, today is lost.  So often I find myself stuck daydreaming about how great it would be if stuff was, well, different.  Sometimes when things get tough it seems all to easy to abandon what I am currently doing and seek something easier.  But that easier means starting over, and not digging deep.  It's in the process of struggle where the depths of who I am are tested.  Where stamina and courage are formed.

Now, granted I'm probably not going to get stamina and courage from sticking with homeschoolblogger, but I will get focus.  When there are too many options screaming for  attention it is easy to flitter from one to the next.  In the act of intentionally choosing to stay here at this blog site then I am, in fact, focusing.  In my life it is the same. Here's an easy example....think of curriculum...the heavy Rainbow Resource catalog has to be close to 3 inches.  That catalog probably has a new curriculum for each day of the year.  If I were to simply look for a new curriculum when it got tough, we would never finish.  

 For me, in many areas of my life not choosing was less frightening.  Sort of as if I had an out if something went wrong.  But, in that not choosing I wasn't moving.  I was stuck in ambiguity.  And sitting in that place for so long robbed my heart of joy.

Society thrives on options.  And yet, when there is no choice, there is no movement.  At some point there has to be a decision.  When I gave my life to Christ, I made a choice for Him.  I chose to live my life as a daughter of the King.  And that choice gives my life direction.  You know, I've been writing about joy lately...when I choose to flitter around looking for joy in the world I am easily disappointed.  When I sit at my Father's feet joy surprises me.  Just now, my soul feels at rest.  It's not of myself.  It's from my Father.

God wants us to live victoriously.  He wants us to live for Him, but He also wants us to use our talents wisely.  We need to chose to make choices.  We need to stand firm in our convictions even when the world tells us we're wrong.  We need to teach our children to be children of the Lord, bringing His kingdom here on earth.  We need to be bold. We need to know our choice, our decisions, our convictions.  The Lord needs His people to be strong. Courageous. And focused.

Friends, I've decided...have you?

Rachel

.