Sifting & Sorting ... 2 of 2

Continuing in the sifting and sorting the words of wisdom shared during our mom's conference, I have pulled out the notes from the workshop, "Heartfelt Home-schooling" by Sally Clarkson. She is definitely someone I was encouraged by and inspired to passionately pursue homeschooling. And, homeschooling for the sake of HOMEschooling... In other words as we are called to train our children according to Deuteronomy when they wake, along the path, and when they rest their heads each night we are to be intentionally planting seeds of faith, modeling compassion for growth in the kingdom, and quenching their thirst to learn.

Their days should be oriented toward growth and not mediocrity. True "recreation" can come from such things if it flows from the Holy Spirit and His fruit living in mothers and fathers. If He calls us to such a purpose even for a season, what a blessing to be able to walk with them in such a way. Though humbling as well for they see us, as parents, stumble, fall, and have to pick ourselves up more times than we'd hope for them to see.

She talked about how women are the "civilizers" and trainers for the next generation. What a noble and fun thought for me to chew on. In fact, I have begun using that term "civilizers" with my daughter and in front of my husband and son.

In my mind, I visualized the men as mightily protecting and fighting for... civilization as we know it whether that be through the sword, the pen, or the preservation of noble institutions and systems. While we have the privilege as mothers to nurture the family so that those apart of the family are able to stand strong and full of beauty. Ultimately ensuring that society, once preserved, can pursue the things of purity, nobility, honesty, beauty, good repute, and virtue.

We were able to get through six of her twelve foundations of home-centered learning. Children need a home and a family. Children need to be discipled. They need a purpose and a hope, specifically to be stewards of their world and to be accepted as a person. They need many relationships, including seeing you with God, your husband, and with them. Spend time with them so that you can be their confidante. They naturally love to learn. And they learn through, to name a few; art, music and poetry.

Finally some thoughts to turn over. In the absence of biblical convictions, people will go the way of the culture. To be thinkers, communicators, love life, and love the Lord. Our goal is not to fill a bucket, but light a fire... to ignite passion.

Three powerful ways to educate our children include: raising them around great books, God-honoring adults who engage them in great conversations, and the time to be "bored."

And some passages to practice and plant deep.
Proverbs 14:1
1 The wise woman builds her house,
but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

Her house, as well as her children, and a heritage to pass through history.
Her hands, what and how she touches; and then oh how often do I wrestle with my tongue, my tone, my thoughts.

In Romans 12, Paul urges us to be living sacrifices. And living out life amongst our children will definitely provide the opportunities for them to see knee-bending experiences so that we might truly create an aroma that is well-pleasing to our God.

Sifting and Sorting

In the past two months, I have had the blessing and treat of attending two different conferences. And, yet I look forward to attending one more at the end of May. If you have had the opportunity then you know how fun but overwhelming such experiences can be.

Join me in these posts as I sift through the abundance of antidotes and information for the sake of tilling the soil and planting any seeds of application into the soul that might make this journey of sanctification more fruitful.

Dr. Kevin Lehman was our keynote speaker this weekend. What a character... which I am sure supports his assessments of birth order. He is the youngest in the family, and he has found that they are the ones who are very happy-go-lucky, more inclined to go-with-the flow, often humorous and able to see the lighter side of life. Their tendency to be unstructured can pose problems on more urgent matters.

As for those who are firstborns, they tend to be the perfectionist type and very driven because they were often seeking to please the adults in their lives, seek to be very organized in order to accomplish and perform, and often become too up-tight having to remind themselves to relax.

Middle children are often the flexible ones, peacemakers,see both sides of the scenario, and perhaps can become frustrated because of this position. They also will seek to identify with non-family in order to further enrich or affirm their own person. Middle children often feel squeezed out because of the firstborn who sought center stage and the youngest who often "got their way."

Obviously these are nuggets of a much fuller theory. I see much evidence for such findings as these and I think that healthy nurturing... spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually can corroborate birth order, can foster how someone steps into life, and can impact people's innate personalities. I wonder if a person's birth order is about a predisposition because of birth sequence and can impact people's innate personalities, but does not dictate the personalities themselves. The personalities are uniquely organized within the womb while birth order is an "environmental" factor that impacts the personality outside of the womb throughout ones childhood.