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There are plenty of blog posts and youtube videos out there that share the reasons for homeschooling. And I thought about following this trend and making one or writing something like that too but every time I sat down to write I just fell short on what to say. 

I know my reasons for why we started this journey and those reasons are still so valid even now but I believe that if you're making a big move like this you already have your reasons. And if you need validation for those reasons, it's not me that you should be getting it from. 

This is a huge step and you should get your validation from God because you need to learn to lean into him as you wade the homeschooling waters. Because these waters are full of creatures, if you will, that want to scare you out of it. I know I would have been right back on shore long ago if I didn't first trust God with this. 

With that said I want to use this post to share two unexpected sides of this journey with you. One being very positive and one being something I've been trusting God to guide us through. 

The first aspect of homeschooling I didn't expect often manifests itself as quite the pesky little road block. Having my kids home all the time I'm finding we are all learning how to establish and regularly see this invisible line of home and school. For years there was a clear distinction often clearly shown by a separate building and hopping on a bus but now it's the same building and we don't leave to get there. As a family we are learning, everyday, what it looks like to "enter school" and not "leave for home" when we are bored, or things get difficult, or we've had enough. It's easy to leave for home when all it takes is a mental transition. 

This, I actually didn't prepare myself for and to be honest I'm not too sure how I would suggest preparing if I could go back. I think the best advice I can give you, that I would have given myself, is to use this first year to get used to this transition and to expect it to not always be easy. To remember that we are creating new habits and a new way of doing life. We are rebuilding our home around a concept and lifestyle that is very foreign to all of us. The thing I would tell myself, and still do, is to be patient and be kind to myself. Be gentle with my expectations and to not let the lie that we have to figure it out now or we'll be nuked as a "school" and family unit. 

I also want to say that we are a little more than half way through our first school year and it has gotten easier. SO much easier. Our expectations are evolving and we are coming together with more joy and diligence than we did before. Which definitely gives me hope. 

The second aspect of homeschooling I strangely didn't expect was to fall so madly in love with it. I never saw myself as a teacher. I cringed at the thought of volunteering in Sunday School programs and when I tried opening a day home once I thought I'd never like kids again. I was never a big supporter of the concept of home-education in the past and often had very strong, uneducated, opinions I was too quick share. 

So to think I'd pick up this baton one day and love it so much never crossed my mind. Even when I started I was going forward out of obligation and duty for my kids but now it's become one of the greatest joys of my life. 

To watch my kid's minds and hearts grow and thrive in my hands is such an incredible gift. To be with them for more than two hours a day, which I often thought I couldn't bare to be honest, is the most precious use of my time. They are deepening their education in a way that wasn't happening before and we are deepening our relationships in a way that wasn't happening before. 

It's not often easy and there's conflict and struggle all along the way but it's in that and the resolution we unite more. It's in the AHAH moments that they know I truly see them and care. 

This has been the most unexpected, wild, and counter-cultural decision we've made as a family but I pray with all my heart we can cling to it as long as God lets us. 

Bring on the unexpected.
"Revival" Is Huge



This theme of a coming revival shaking the foundations of Christianity and awakening a movement of people crazy about following Jesus has been preached long before I was born. 

Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe that as the days come closer to an end and we get closer to Jesus coming back, there will be a huge wave of truly devoted Christ followers being discipled and brought to life. This I believe is biblical, and this I believe, is happening right now. With the huge rise of house-churches and leaders in the faith reestablishing what "true church" is supposed to look like, I know people will be "ALL IN" or will fall to the side. We see this foretold in the bible and now we see it happening all around us. 

I guess the issue I have with the revival mindset is what it's done to discipleship and our mandatory call as Christ followers. This revival mindset, I believe, tells people that something outside ourselves is coming. It's a mindset of waiting. And this I don't see in the bible. We are told that the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. We are told to GO. Jesus very plainly and clearly tells us that WE are the revival. The mighty force we are waiting for, already came. Revival happened when the Holy Spirit came into the first believers and it continued when they obeyed the Great Commission. 

I think we look back and we see all these incredible movements of people coming to Christ, from the first church onward. But somewhere along the way we stopped seeing that it's our simple hands that bring these movements. We stopped understanding the heart of what we do. Instead of seeing lives we started seeing numbers. We inflated with pride when we brought 30 to the front and we went cold when we only saw one. We lost sight of the actual mission. To find the one and then celebrate with all of heaven at their true repentance. Not the emotion driven, sinners prayer of the masses. 

Somewhere along the way we started looking for someone else to bring the revival and as harsh as it may sound we just stopped obeying. 

We fell into the hands of corporate religion that was preaching "No religion" and we bought it. We fell into the pews, taped up our mouths with every sermon on "speaking with our lives" and we became religious do-gooders. We filled our intellect on Sunday and bought coffee for the guy behind us in the drive-thru and checked off our religious "live it out" lives. We left our bibles dusty as we married podcasts and theologians bent on burying the sanctity and validity of God's word below their success and growing podiums. 

We have been silenced in a world preaching the most appealing and beautiful rise of darkness we've ever seen. We've cultivated the thorns all around us because they've been topped with elegant and delightful roses. And we don't feel bad because we are in very good company and we've seared our consciences with feel-good notions like "not by works", "once saved always saved", and "I'm a good person compared to that guy". All bred from a dangerous trend of plucking bible verses out of context and making our translation of the bible fit into the context of today. 

We eat up the words of hipster dressed pastors who proclaim a Jesus that transcends the bible and we leave churches that make us uncomfortable in our sin for churches that worship a god that takes you as you are and leaves you there until you somehow get tired of your fulfilling and desirable sin. Which I've yet to see actually happen. 

My dear friends, we need to wake up and stop waiting. Stop preaching an oncoming revival and just go. We need to stop waiting for the right moment, the right conversation to strike up, or the right person. We need to see that every single person we come in contact with deserves to know. We need to open our eyes and realize that absolutely everything is at stake. Put aside our selfishness and pride because we ARE exactly the revival Jesus had in mind. Get out of the mega-church lazy-boys, take our earbuds out, and actually get to know Jesus and the truth. Dust off our bibles and sit and let God's word speak for itself. And we need to pray! Pray that God will dig us out of the glamorous deception that has gripped the "Christian" world for far too long. It's time to get uncomfortable. It's time to tell the truth. 

With all my love <3
Candace 
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