06.13.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:28 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Sadly, I have made the decision to leave Homeschool Blogger, as many of their features are no longer available since their switch to the WordPress format. After waiting and waiting, and thinking and thinking, I have made the decision to switch to Blogger. Please take note of my new web address, as I will no longer be posting on this blog. Join me HERE: http://asecondgenerationofhomeschooling.blogspot.com/ I will take me a while to switch over this blog’s content to the new blog, so please feel free to use this one for reference purposes until then!
See you THERE!
Lisa Metzger
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Posted in Uncategorized at 6:16 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Go check out ou daughter’s website - Blossoming In Grace (www.BlossomingInGrace.com)! Annalise, 18, just sarted writing a few days ago, but everything she has on there so far is well-written, including her own adoption story! Go HERE to visit ANNALISE!
~ Lisa Metzger
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06.01.10
Posted in Letting God Plan Your Family, Quiverfull at 7:44 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Q. Is it okay to sustain life medically, or are we overstepping our bounds, just as we are overstepping our bounds to prevent the creation of life?
A. This is actually a great question that isn’t addressed often within quiverfull circles! For me, I have trouble keeping pregnancies due to low progesterone levels. This can be remedied by taking suppositories through week 14 of the pregnancy. With this, I have been able to bring two babies to term since discovering my imbalance. I also have lost 2 babies while on progesterone (clotting disorder that was just now discovered), so it is still ultimately in God’s hands. I believe that if something is physically wrong with your body that rejects a pregnancy, it is okay to take medicine to sustain the life that God already placed within you. The same logic could be used with CPR…would you refuse to administer CPR because you might be “stepping on God’s toes”? No, you would most likely try to save that life that God had already created! If God chooses to take that life after you’ve administered CPR or after you took medicine or herbs to sustain a pregnancy, then that is His Will. You can then, rest assured, knowing that you did all that you could do for that life. There are then no regrets as to if anything could have been done differently. The problem was with my body not producing normal, God-created levels of a hormone. I don’t think this would be interfering with God any more than it would be if I took an aspirin for a headache or chemo for cancer. I was merely preparing my “nest” for a baby that God sent me!
In the same way, I see this particular discussion of preventing life in order to potentially save another life as a “gamble” based on man’s limited scientific knowledge that prevents God from doing as He sees fit in CREATING a life (even if it’s supposedly in order to save another). However good that knowledge might be, man is still not God and we discover new things every day about GOD’S world. Bottom line…I’d rather trust God than man’s ”ever-updating or changing” knowledge. God can still work many miracles in saving pregnant women who were “doomed” by medical professionals and urged to stop the creation of life within their wombs…there are many stories of that of which you probably are aware.
When I told Mark of this particular part of the discussion he said….”Life should be saved and treasured…honored and protected.” This can be through CPR, chemo, transfusions, etc. God still has the final say in that, in my opinion. When you prevent life, you are playing God. You are deciding who is worth more…the mother or the potential baby that God might see fit to create. You are also deciding who knows more or knows best….the doctor and his/her stats or God and His life-creating hand. You are basing your decision on whether or not to let God be God or to listen to the fear and ”wisdom” of man. When you are saving a life with medicine, CPR, transfusion, etc. you are attempting to sustain a life that has been deemed precious by God in the sole fact that He created it.
Okay…so to the Bible! When doing this “quick study” of this, the verse Deuteronomy 30:19 immediately came to mind. It says, “Now choose life so that you and your children may live…” This was the instructions from God in regards to keeping the Lord’s commandments. The Israelites were given specific instructions as to what to do to follow the Lord (obey the law given them), which would result in life…physical and spiritual. And the result of disobedience was usually a cruel death…again, physically and spiritually. So, here we see that our actions *do* have the ability to sustain our lives AND the lives of our children. Yes, I know…this is in regards to obedience, but I believe that we are obeying by giving God the “keys” to my womb and the open door to create life as He so chooses. It’s His domain to create life!
In Job 33:4 is says, “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Since GOD (the Almighty) GIVES life. He has the final say in whether we live or die, whether we are saved using preventative or life-saving measures or not. The sustaining of life is God’s realm, as it is His realm in creating life. the ALMIGHTY gives life. We can’t force Him to give what is not ours to give.
Psalm 49:7 “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him…” So, we cannot redeem our lives without God’s approval. And, yes, this is a PHYSICAL life, not a spiritual (although obviously God is the only redeemer of the spiritual life, as well), because In verse 15 it says, “But GOD will redeem my life from the grave…” So, here we see that God will redeem lives, as He pleases….not man. We are unable to redeem life on our own and without His hand on the matter (CPR, meds, transfusions…)!
In Luke 12:25 Jesus says, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this little thing, why worry about the rest? O You of little faith!” This just sums it all up! We are unable to add to our life without GOD’s consent and His hand in the matter. We assume the awesome responsibility of preventing life, making the costly and boastful assumption that God needs, requests or expects this help (in whatever circumstance), yet we can add no hours to our own lives. THAT is why I leave it ALL to Him!
Still studying on this particular part of this subject….but this is what I’ve found thus far!
~ Lisa
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Posted in Letting God Plan Your Family, ProLife, Quiverfull at 4:26 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Q. Our definition of abortion (via homonal birth control methods) differs greatly, there is also the debate of when a life actually begins. I try not to judge the “legal” choices of others…isn’t that up to our maker?
A. Scientifically, life is recognized to begin at conception. Look at what these (yes, pro-choice) embryologists and medical doctors/researches say on when life begins…
1 Corinthians 2:14-15 “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things.”
Even if I just had a *hunch* that the pill MIGHT cause an early abortion, I would always err on the side of life. To me, though, it’s quite obvious that hormonal bc causes a newly conceived life to end quite often.
As for judging…this was and is meant to INFORM those who care about killing their children, which presents a choice between life and death to those unaware of these matters. Yes, it is a judgment on my part between right and wrong…not a judgment of eternal salvaton…that is God’s domain. Biblically, we are to make righteous JUDGMENTS on all matters (John 7:24), while not being hypocrites by practicing the same sin we are condemning (hence, the conveniently quoted and misapplied Scripture…Matthew 7:1 – “Judge Not…”). For more on making righteous judgments (if you even care, which I don’t believe you do, given your all-too- casual position on matters of life and death) read this.
I pray that your eyes will no longer be blinded, nor your heart hardened to life and truth.
Lisa Metzger
“Development of the embryo begins at Stage 1 when a sperm fertilizes an oocyte and together they form a zygote.”
[England, Marjorie A. Life Before Birth. 2nd ed. England: Mosby-Wolfe, 1996, p.31]
“Human development begins after the union of male and female gametes or germ cells during a process known as fertilization (conception).
“Fertilization is a sequence of events that begins with the contact of a sperm (spermatozoon) with a secondary oocyte (ovum) and ends with the fusion of their pronuclei (the haploid nuclei of the sperm and ovum) and the mingling of their chromosomes to form a new cell. This fertilized ovum, known as a zygote, is a large diploid cell that is the beginning, or primordium, of a human being.”
[Moore, Keith L. Essentials of Human Embryology. Toronto: B.C. Decker Inc, 1988, p.2]
“Embryo: the developing organism from the time of fertilization until significant differentiation has occurred, when the organism becomes known as a fetus.”
[
Cloning Human Beings. Report and Recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Rockville, MD: GPO, 1997, Appendix-2.]
“Embryo:
An organism in the earliest stage of development; in a man, from the time of conception to the end of the second month in the uterus.”
[Dox, Ida G. et al.
The Harper Collins Illustrated Medical Dictionary. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993, p. 146]
“Embryo: The early developing fertilized egg that is growing into another individual of the species. In man the term ‘embryo’ is usually restricted to the period of development from fertilization until the end of the eighth week of pregnancy.”
[Walters, William and Singer, Peter (eds.).
Test-Tube Babies. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 160]
“
The development of a human being begins with fertilization, a process by which two highly specialized cells, the
spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female, unite to give rise to a new organism, the
zygote.”
[Langman, Jan.
Medical Embryology. 3rd edition. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1975, p. 3]
“Embryo:
The developing individual between the union of the germ cells and the completion of the organs which characterize its body when it becomes a separate organism….
At the moment the sperm cell of the human male meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum (zygote),
a new life has begun…. The term embryo covers the several stages of early development from conception to the ninth or tenth week of life.”
[Considine, Douglas (ed.).
Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia. 5th edition. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976, p. 943]
“I would say that among most scientists, the word ‘embryo’ includes the time from after fertilization…”
[Dr. John Eppig, Senior Staff Scientist, Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, Maine) and Member of the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel -- Panel Transcript, February 2, 1994, p. 31]
“
The development of a human begins with fertilization, a process by which the
spermatozoon from the male and the
oocyte from the female unite to
give rise to a new organism, the
zygote.”
[Sadler, T.W.
Langman's Medical Embryology. 7th edition. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins 1995, p. 3]
“The question came up of what is an embryo, when does an embryo exist, when does it occur. I think, as you know,
that in development, life is a continuum…. But I think one of the useful definitions that has come out, especially from Germany, has been the stage at which these two nuclei [from sperm and egg] come together and the membranes between the two break down.”
[Jonathan Van Blerkom of University of Colorado, expert witness on human embryology before the
NIH Human Embryo Research Panel -- Panel Transcript, February 2, 1994, p. 63]
“Zygote.
This cell, formed by the union of an ovum and a sperm (Gr.
zyg tos, yoked together), represents the
beginning of a human being. The common expression ‘fertilized ovum’ refers to the zygote.”
[Moore, Keith L. and Persaud, T.V.N.
Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects. 4th edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1993, p. 1]
“The chromosomes of the oocyte and sperm are…respectively enclosed within
female and
male pronuclei. These pronuclei fuse with each other to produce the single, diploid, 2N nucleus of the fertilized
zygote.
This moment of zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development.”
[Larsen, William J.
Human Embryology. 2nd edition. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997, p. 17]
“Although life is a continuous process,
fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed…. The combination of 23 chromosomes present in each pronucleus results in 46 chromosomes in the
zygote. Thus the diploid number is restored and the embryonic genome is formed. The embryo now exists as a genetic unity.”
[O'Rahilly, Ronan and Müller, Fabiola.
Human Embryology & Teratology. 2nd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996, pp. 8, 29. This textbook lists "pre-embryo" among "discarded and replaced terms" in modern embryology, describing it as "ill-defined and inaccurate" (p. 12}]
“Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)… The
time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.”
[Carlson, Bruce M.
Patten's Foundations of Embryology. 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 3]
“[A]nimal biologists use the term
embryo to describe the single cell stage, the two-cell stage, and all subsequent stages up until a time when recognizable humanlike limbs and facial features begin to appear between six to eight weeks after fertilization….
“[A] number of specialists working in the field of human reproduction have suggested that we stop using the word
embryo to describe the developing entity that exists for the first two weeks after fertilization. In its place, they proposed the term
pre-embryo….
“I’ll let you in on a secret. The term pre-embryo has been embraced wholeheartedly by IVF practitioners for reasons that are political, not scientific. The new term is used to provide the illusion that there is something profoundly different between what we nonmedical biologists still call a six-day-old embryo and what we and everyone else call a sixteen-day-old embryo.
“The term pre-embryo is useful in the political arena — where decisions are made about whether to allow early embryo (now called pre-embryo) experimentation — as well as in the confines of a doctor’s office, where it can be used to allay moral concerns that might be expressed by IVF patients. ‘Don’t worry,’ a doctor might say, ‘it’s only pre-embryos that we’re manipulating or freezing. They won’t turn into real human embryos until after we’ve put them back into your body.’”
[Silver, Lee M.
Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World. New York: Avon Books, 1997, p. 39]
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05.26.10
Posted in Homeschool Mom at 3:44 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Here is my “new” oh-so-cute blog on the Blogger platform. I really was quite happy with Homeschoolblogger…I’ve been blogging with them for over 5 years. However, they switched to a new platform (WordPress) on the 16th, and I have yet to be able to access my template to play around with my HTML on the site. This really, really bugs the graphic designer in me. I need to have my own little “thing” going on. So, I started playing around on Blogger and I LOVE IT. I can also buy my own domain name (www.a2ndgenertionofhomeschooling.com) to go along with it. Now, I have been told by Homeschoolblogger that I will be able to edit my template, and thus the look of my blog, soon…but I am very impatient and rather hesitant to post new content if I’m indeed changing blog hosts and will need to move EVERYTHING over by hand. Soooo…..wat do y’all think? Take a look at my other blog and let me know by leaving me a comment here. I’d really appreciate it!
~ Lisa
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05.19.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:54 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
This has been extremely frusrating for those of us who blog at Homeschool Blogger, as we’re still working out the kinks while they switch to the WordPress way of blogging. So, please be patient as I learn the new bells and whistles and componsate for changes made that I do not like very much! 
Much Thanks!
Lisa
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05.12.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:41 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
“Show me a believer who has become both a lover and a doer of the truth, and I’ll show you one who has been rejected and persecuted by the entire lukewarm Church. Rest assured, if you give up on this world, it will quickly give up on you.” David Wilkerson
“If no one is accusing you of being too legalistic, then you probably aren’t living a holy life. If no one is accusing you of being a ‘bleeding heart’, then you probably aren’t loving enough. If no one is accusing you of being too dogmatic, then you probably aren’t standing for the truth. If no one is accusing you or criticizing you, then you probably aren’t doing anything significant.” Israel Wayne
“Being right with God, often means to be at odds with men.” ~A.W. Tozer
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Posted in Letting God Plan Your Family, Quiverfull at 10:01 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
“If we accept Scripture’s teaching that children are a blessing from God, what would constitute a proper justification for the limitation of these blessings?
Just asking the question takes us a long way toward answering it. If Christians are to seek God’s gifts and blessings, our fundamental attitude toward the gift of babies should be to pursue–not to reject–them.”
Read the rest HERE!
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05.03.10
Posted in Letting God Plan Your Family, Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Infant Loss, Quiverfull at 10:27 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Having been through 7 losses so far myself, I can relate to how you must be feeling right now. Our most recent loss was our 4 month old, Levi Samuel (his small hand pictured above). Read more here, here and here on our loss of him. I pray that these verses, sayings and poems minister to you as they did and still do to me. Feel free to comment with additional verses and I will add more to this collection.
Luke 24:5 going through my head right now… “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”
“And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world…” ~ 1 Corinthians 15:19
“Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.” —Elisabeth Elliot
“When you go through deep waters,I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…” Isaiah 43:2-3a
“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought! ~ Job 19:25-27
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3
“It’s ok, we’ll be fine… Because we know how this ends…” ~ Sara Groves
“I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Psalm 121
“When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers then out of all their troubles. The LORD is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34: 17-18
“I will fulill my vows to You, O God, and will offer a sacrifice of thanks for Your help. For you have rescued me from death; You have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in Your presence, O God, in Your life-giving light.”. Psalm 56:12-13
“And though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm.”
“In thee,O Lord, do put my trust, let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength. Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O lord God of truth.” Psalm 31: 1-5
“Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”’ 2 Corinthians 12:8, 9
“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” Psalm 56:8
Rejoice! You chose LIFE for your child…no matter how short it was…by loving that child from the time of conception to natural death, through stillbirth or miscarriage!
A BABY’S SECRET
I’m just a little person who didn’t make it there;
I went straight to be with Jesus,
but I’m waiting for you here.
Don’t you fret about me, Mommy,
I’m of all God’s lambs most blessed;
I’d have loved to stay there with you,
but the Shepherd knows what’s best.
Many dwelling here where I live,
waited years to enter in;
Struggled through a world of sorrow,
and their lives were marred with sin.
So, sweet Mommy, don’t you sorrow
Wipe those tears and chase the gloom
I went straight to Jesus’ bosom
from my mother’s womb.
Thank you for the life you gave me
It was brief, but don’t complain…
I have all of heaven’s glory…
suffered none of earthling’s pain.
- by Sandi Johnson
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04.25.10
Posted in Academic Excellence, Adoption, Metzger Family, Raising Godly Kids at 9:51 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Ainura Annalise Metzger, daughter of Mark and Lisa Metzger of Matthews, graduates May 29, 2010. She is a second generation homeschooler who has been homeschooled since her adoption from Kazakhstan seven years ago. Annalise is a popular babysitter who adores children, especially her seven siblings. Following Jesus in her calling to missions, Annalise’s post-graduation plans are to work with the missionaries at JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Service). As her parents, we are overjoyed to be experiencing III John 1:4 when we rejoice in the fact that Annalise chooses daily to walk in God’s Truth!
This is the video we will be playing at the beginning of Annalise’s Graduation Blessing Celebration on June 5th! It is a photo collage of her adoption from Kazahstan when she was 10 years old. Watch the video HERE!
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04.24.10
Posted in Family Ministry, Passing the Torch, ProLife at 10:37 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
In just one short week, our family was able to raise $525 for The Charlotte Pregnancy Resource Center through their Walk for Life. The center raised over $33,000 on that day! Praise Jesus! Here are photos of our crew at the walk!
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Posted in Keeper of the Home at 11:16 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
As I sit here, I have the window in front of my desk in my kitchen open and the gentle spring breeze is flowing through the screen. I smell our fire pit (below) burning mixed with the fresh smell of the flowers! I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!
Our family has been gardening for many years and to tell you the truth, most of the work (except for some of the harvesting) is done by my husband, who has taken up gardening as his main hobby. We grow everything! Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, corn, sugar snap peas, beans, different varieties of lettuce, onions, many kinds of peppers, potatoes and more! Mmmm….we love to eat fresh produce and to garden year-round! Not only is this much healthier for us since our garden is organic, but it also saves our family a lot of money! The benefits are so many and Mark has really come to enjoy the toil involved in making everything grow!
Another way that that our family uses our little homestead is by utilizing the fire pit. We burn things that we would normally just chuck into the trash bin…things like junk mail, things we might shred for security purposes, cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes and such as that. We also use our fire pit for entertaining and family cookouts….hot dogs and marshmallows are so yummy over an open fire! So, this little spot not only saves us from filling overfilling our trash can, which is rather easy to do with a family of 10, but it also is a wonderful way to bond with family and friends!
Chickens are our newest addition to our homestead. We have 4 (sad story as to what happened to ALL the others…don’t ask) and we get about 4-6 eggs (yes, SIX…from 4 chickens!) a day. We would LOVE to expand our flock, but will have to wait until the spring garden is in because we want to take the time to intorduce more chickens to the current flock, as that can get rather ugly. Our chickens not only give us fresh organic eggs, but they also provide a rich fertilizer for our garden. Mark and Ethan will rake the leaves from our many trees into their run and let it sit for two weeks. During those 2 weeks, Kaitlyn feeds them our family’s scraps (scrapings off of plates, peels, pits, ends of lettuce, etc.) along with some chicken scratch. When the chickens eat and do their business, they scratch around in the leaves and this creates a fine fertilizer, which is then added to the compost pile and used in the garden in the spring.
I hope this encourages you to look into either starting your own garden or better utilizing your resources. You do not need a large amount of land or space. Many people do large gardens in neighborhoods, using the methods of square foot gardening (which we also use). We are blessed to own 4 acres in the suburbs of Charlotte, NC, but we’d LOVE to have 100 acres in the middle of nowhere. But…until then, we will happily bloom where we’re planted!
~ Lisa
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04.23.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:46 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Read the rest of the article HERE after reading the excerpt below….
Based on my experience, I believe that students in regular classrooms learn many self-defeating lessons from their teachers and classmates. These include:
- The rules are always changing, and since you never know when the teacher is going to enforce them, try to get away with as much as you can until she starts screaming. Then blame your neighbor.
- You don’t need to think about your education. The teacher will decide what you should learn, you’ll do the things that she decides matter, then she’ll give you a grade that represents how well you can follow arbitrary directions.
- While the teacher can make mistakes and move deadlines all the time, you will be penalized if you misunderstand the directions.
- Almost everything you learn is a measure of your docility, not your intelligence or your effort.
- Working with others is more important than learning actual content. Group projects, no matter how unfair, inefficient, and tedious are here to stay, and if you complain about it taking 10 hours out of class to make a collage that demonstrates 15-minutes worth of learning, tough. Life isn’t fair.
- Life isn’t fair, so thus it is okay for me to be unfair.
- Don’t question textbooks, even though most of them are riddled with errors and omissions.
- Learning is for school, school is painfully monotonous, so learning must be boring, too.
- Learning is for school, so once the day ends, you’re free to do whatever you find fun.
- Learning can only take place in hard plastic desks, in crowded classrooms, while being told exactly what to do.
- Nothing is more important than fitting in. If you don’t fit in, there must be something wrong with you. Maybe you should buy some more accessories? Try a different hair style?
- The earlier you start dating, the more important and grown up you are.
- Talking about Jesus is for people who are “not open minded” and are “trying to push their beliefs on others.” Incidentally, would you like to wear a rainbow pin to support the gay marriage?
- Reading in school? Are you crazy? We have to get ready for the state tests!
As an adult, I find myself reading and studying to make up for the fact that, during most of my years in “regular school,” I didn’t learn anything. Nothing. I can barely describe who fought in major wars, the type of government France has, the capitol of more than half of our 50 states, how to calculate compound interest, how to diagram a sentence, how mitochondria fuel cells, or how electricity makes its way through power lines and into my computer. Given the state of education, I’m lucky I can read, and that was something I learned while homeschooling.
I spent eight hours a day, 180 days a year, waiting for the teacher to get to the point or for the class to stop talking or for us to stop reviewing, for the third time, the material we had already learned, in order to help the kids who had talked right through it the first two times. School is tough on the good kids, because they don’t have the solace of goofing off and enjoying time with their friends in class. They might spend 30-50% of their time in school watching the teacher manage the behavior of other students, while getting scolded for reading during the downtime.
Modern-day schooling is a daily exercise in mediocrity, or worse. Students are taught in hundreds of ways, all day long, that your output doesn’t matter, how much you’re learning doesn’t matter, what you think about it doesn’t matter. What matters are grades and popularity. Read the rest of the article HERE
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04.22.10
Posted in Homeschool Mom at 3:21 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
If you haven’t checked out this great devtotional site for women of all ages, please do! I am on the team of writers and all I can say is that this ministry is SUCH a blessing to me!
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Posted in Quiverfull at 3:15 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Click above to see my column on Homeschooling Many on The Company Porch!
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Posted in Homeschool Mom at 3:11 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Thank God we already knew of this and refused to have these used on (most) our children! I knew there’d be repercussions for using human fetal tissue in the making of these vaccines!!!! Shame on those who approved it so many years ago!
"The date confirms an increasing body of evidence implicating the use of aborted fetal cell material in the nationwide vaccinations impacting nearly every child born in the United States." The Rest Here
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04.15.10
Posted in Homeschooling Ideas at 3:24 pm by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Almost every homeschooler I know LOVES books! I know many moms who buy more books than they know what to do with….and, yes, I am one of those moms! Let’s face the fact that most of us homeschool moms have little to no willpower when it comes to passing by a large selection of books and not buying “just one or two”. We just have no desire, let alone intention, to pass up support group book fairs, homeschool convention sales or a visit to the local homeschool used bookstore. Since there’s no use in trying to curb our appetite in this area any more than we already have, we need to figure out how to best use and organize what we have on hand! The rest of my post this week at The Company Front Porch HERE!
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04.14.10
Posted in Common Homeschooling Questions or Concerns at 10:01 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
Q. My husband said that we need to send our older child back to public school while I homeschool my younger child at home. Some have told me that I need to obey him. What do you think? Also, what are your thoughts as far as the education and religious aspects? Do you have other homeschoolers that you do activites with?
A. Yes, I totally agree with the godly counsel you have received. If your husband has put his foot down, you are under his authority. I would never step out from under that "covering", so to speak. God will have to work on his heart. Honestly, usually it is the wife who sees the benefits (spiritually and otherwise) before the husband does, in regards to homeschooling. I wouldn’t give up hope quite yet. I definitely wouldn’t push ideas on your husband, but it might be nice to share these ideas, without putting any pressure on him or sounding like a nag. So, anyway I totally agree with the husband being the leader of the home, etc.!!!!
I do believe that homeschooling is the only way to fulfill many commands to parents in Scripture AND to reap the blessings that God has clearly spelled out for us in His Word. Below are some verses that we have come to use as our spiritual foundation for homeschooling in our family. Now, I will say that since I was homeschooled as a child, I do come to this decision a bit more naturally than others. I have seen the benefits…both educationally and spiritually…and I have always wanted the same for my own children. Mark, my hubby, on the other hand could have cared less one way or another when we married, but now he is full-out sold on homeschooling! He, too, has seen and studied on the many benefits and is glad that I have held to the opinions I formed early on from my own homeschooling experiences. Below are some reasons we wouldn’t choose anything other than homeschooling for our family. Maybe that will give some food for thought.
- Studies have found that between 70-88% of Christian teens are leaving their parent’s faith by the time they are in their second year of college! They’ve also found that the vast majority of Christian teens do not hold a Biblical world view. YES, there are the other 12-30% of those who DO make it through school with their faith and beliefs intact, but many Christians parents do not want to take that HUGE risk! Here is more data that I blogged about here And here’s an article on how some studies who that 3 out of 4 children/teens are leaving their parents faith after being in the public school systems.
- Our family honestly seeks to obey Deuteronomy 6:6-9 "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." We cannot obey this commandment if we send our children out to school, because then we wouldn’t be with them but for a fractional part of a day.
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Luke 6:39, 40 "Jesus said: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." Do I want my child to sit under a "spiritually blind" person for 8 hours a day? Do I want him to emulate that teacher? Maybe he will come out of it as the 12-30% who are STRONG and STAND FIRM to the faith, but do I want to take the risk that he will not, especially after considering what Jesus is saying here? I take this warning very seriously.
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Proverbs 22:15 "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him." Some children are very responsible and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. These children might do well being salt and light at young ages. However, this clearly states that children are foolish and that they give into foolish things, albeit less and less as they mature. I do not want my children, as sweet and godly as they are, to give in to their foolish ways, lose their saltiness and maybe even determine that their faith is not "for them" at some point in their future.
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Jeremiah 10:2 "Learn not the way of the heathen."
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Proverbs 13:20 "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."
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Psalm 1:1 "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers." Our family desires the blessings promised with not sitting under the wicked’s counsel.
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"I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place their child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt." Martin Luther, A.D. 1537
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"In not mentioning God, my public school teachers preached a thundering message daily. By implication they taught that God is not relevant to most areas of life…with every lesson, in every class period, all day every day for 12 years I was being taught to think like an atheist in the academic realm and didn’t even know that I was being indoctrinated." —Chris Schlect, Scriptural Worldview Thinking
- Here’s a great article on how we compare raising/educating our children to raising plants in a greenhouse!
- A lot of people like to use the "salt and light" argument as to why their children should attend public school. This is our family’s view…Matthew 5:13-16 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." This passage is taken from the Sermon on the Mount, which was actually preached to the Pharisees and those who thought they were nearly perfect in their obedience of the Scriptures, not just the bystanders. It was to show them how quickly they can "lose their saltiness" and not recover it and how important it is for them to be examples of God’s Light in the world. In this particular part of the Sermon on the Mount, he discusses the salt of the earth and shows that if they lose their saltiness, how can they be made salty again. They will be thrown out (transliterated: "violently thrown out") and trampled on (transliterated: "rejected with disdain"). The section where it says, "loses its saltiness" actually is transliterated from the Greek as "being foolish" or "to act foolishly." Then, after they lose that saltiness, he rhetorically asks how they can be made salty again? They will have lost their reputation for being salty. So, if Proverbs speaks so frequently about children being naturally foolish (because the control of their sin nature is not yet conquered), why would we send our half-grown children out to be the salt and light without our consistent direction and instruction, which IS spoken highly of in that same book of the Bible? When they are able to BE mature, stand their ground unceasingly, while eloquently and decisively defend their faith as in 1 Peter 3:15 – ("Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."), THEN they are mature enough to be out on their own, consistently free of their childish folly spoken about so often in Proverbs. Our children ARE salt and light! The only difference is that at their different stages in the "greenhouse", they minister along side us in various ways! We can actually observe our children living out their faith while we are guiding them in the world. After that greenhouse period of initial training, we can watch them slowly head out into the world. THAT is when they can be salt and light ON THEIR OWN. But for now, under our training and instruction is where they belong. Both Matthew 5:13-16 AND Deuteronomy 6:6-9 can be used in conjunction with each other, instead of in conflict. We minister as a family to those who are unchurched or unsaved - still being salt and light – while teaching them the Lord’s commands while we sit down, stand up, walk along the way, etc. We don’t see a need to let our children go out on their own, with the tendency to be foolish or to "lose their flavor", when there are wonderful and Scriptural alternatives to sending them out not fully spiritually mature.
- For more information check out: "Homeschooling from a Biblical Worldview" by Israel Wayne. I have yet to hear a biblical argument against any Scriptural principle in that book . Another good resource is Voddie Baucham and his ministry.
Well, if you’re still reading this (sorry….a book, I know!)….yes, we do have outside activities…MANY! Most of our activities and outside lessons come from The Homeschool Hut in Mint Hill. Our children take: Judo, sign language, ballet, art, high school Bible and before they have taken Spanish and science! LOVE that place! They also take many field trips and classes through our homeschool group. I know that many are scared of the perceived lack of socializing in homeschooling, but I promise you…one look inside any homeschool family I’ve ever known and you will see that they are probably more socialized than the average public/private schooled family. Can you keep them from socializing? Yes. But to me it’s more difficult to do that, than to not!
My brother and I are both homeschool graduates. I went on to a 4 year college and made the Dean’s List every semester. I was also asked by a Congressional candidate to be their public relations manager while still in my junior year of college. My brother was appointed to West Point USMA by 3 congressmen/women, instead of the usual 2, because he had such diverse experience in community involvement, social and sports activities and the like, as well as being academically superior to others seeking the appointments. He never would have been appointed if he had been held back from social activities. He ended up graduating at the top of his class at West Point and is an Army officer now. Even those kind of stories show that even in the "pioneer" days of homeschooling, anything was possible!
Another thing to consider is this….public/private school children socialize horizontally (with their peers), whereas homeschooled children socialize vertically (with all ages) and can usually carry on conversations with people of all ages. To me, this better prepares them for "real" life than to let them only associate with their peers.
ANYWAY…now that I’ve written a book, I hope you made it to the end! LOL! I am passionate about homeschooling (hmmm…wonder if you can tell!) and love to talk about it’s MANY benefits!
~ Lisa
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Posted in Keeper of the Home at 9:58 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
REPOST from March 2008
I recently was asked how our family uses auctions to buy our vehicles, drive them for a year or more and then sell them for more than we paid for them (basically driving them for free). I thought some families would be interested in this information! ~ Lisa Metzger
<<Lisa- Could you tell me a little about the cars at auction and how that works? >>
Well, we’ve been doing this since college…buying, driving and then selling our vehicles for a profit. You have to find auctions that are open to the public OR you have to get your dealers license (we don’t have one). Mark goes to the auction (1 1/2 hours from where we live) and I stay at home to do the research work. He checks out very basic mechanics on the vehicles (usually 6-10 per auction) and if he’s interested he calls in the VIN number to me and the info on the vehicle.
Then, I go to www.edmunds.com and use their free used car appraisal to see what the car is worth…for auctions we use the first set of numbers they give, which is the trade-in value…we never bid more than that. I, then go to www.carfax.com and sign up for the "month-unlimited" package for $29. I type in the vehicles VIN and see if there’s any negative history. If there is, we NEVER bid on it.
The most important thing to remember is to ALWAYS buy repossessed cars….NEVER buy dealer’s seconds. Dealer’s seconds are cars that dealers couldn’t get rid of on their lots and they are usually in really bad condition. Sometimes you won’t know about it until after you’ve purchased the vehicle. We always stick to the ones that the banks have repossessed and we’ve only ever had one car that we lost money on. BUT we only lost $200 and we’ve always driven our cars for "free" and sold them for more than we originally paid for them….although we’ll probably run this 12 passenger into the ground.
Some people think that auctions aren’t as "safe" as buying a used car from a dealer. We have found that to not be true at all. In fact, dealers buy their used cars usually at auctions, wash them and throw them on the lot. So, usually you’re paying for an "auction car" from a dealership anyway. Sometimes things need to repaired or fixed, which is why we always go with the trade-in value of a vehicle…it helps to leave some financial wiggle room.
Hope that helps some!
Lisa Metzger
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04.10.10
Posted in Keeper of the Home at 10:40 am by Lisa (Lively)Metzger
"We try to "Christianize" the teachings of feminism, saying to the men around us, "anything you can do, I can do better"… we just try to cloak it in spiritual-sounding language. We try to do everything we see the women of the world doing: managing a business, managing our husbands, managing our wombs, all the while ai…ming to never being seen as subject to or weaker than anyone else." Read the rest of this WONDERUL post at Making Home: When Women Argue with the Potter!
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Lisa (Lively)Metzger