Now that it is February 1st, I managed to miss writing anything at all during the month of January. Actually, I started two posts and just didn’t get them finished. Both were on the subject of “What is your vision?” I find that in the winter months I like to take stock of what we are doing as a family in homeschooling and homesteading, as well as in homemaking. It is a time to focus on what we have in our hands, and on doing the best we can with what we have. It is also a time to draw near to the LORD and lift up to Him all hopes and dreams and heart’s desires and exchange it all for the sheer delight of seeking and knowing Him. Sometimes I think we get distracted with our own wants and goals and forget that the first ambition of our hearts and minds should be to delight ourselves in Him. What does HE want for us? How can we be faithful to Him to do His will with where we are and what He has given us? Do we desire HIM, or do we desire what HE can do for us? Of course we desire and need His provision, but what we really need is His fellowship and to sit at His feet. We need to wait upon Him. We need to wait in the way that we wait for Him to move on our behalf. We also need to wait upon Him in the way a servant waits on his Master – to be ready to do whatever He asks us to do – at any moment. This is the first priority as I ponder everything on my lists of duties and responsibilities. If we seek Him first, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness – then everything will be added as needed and in due time according to His will. This is not just rhetoric, this is undeniable truth.

As this nation faces a new President and a lot of difficult things, many look increasingly to the politicians, the scientists, the doctors, the government, the teachers, the experts – for help, for answers, for money, for rationale or recourse. Everybody thinks they have a better idea for how things should be run, what needs to happen, what shouldn’t have happened, or who’s fault it is that we are in “this mess.” Today when we were having our Bible study, we read Psalm 146. It proclaims just whom it really is we need to put our trust in:

“Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD while I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.
How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
Whose hope is in the LORD his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
The sea and all that is in them;
Who keeps faith forever;
Who executes justice for the oppressed;
Who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free.

The LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
The LORD loves the righteous;
The LORD protects the strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the widow,
But He thwarts the way of the wicked.
The LORD will reign forever,
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!”
~Psalm 146~

So as we continuously lay before the LORD our plans and concerns, we are trying to be diligent. All the children in our household that are school age (and Amanda who is in college) are working on diligence with regard to school lessons and chores. I am working on trying to finish revising my e-book Nurturing The Generations. This is a diligence test for me because even though I love to write and spend time interacting with people, I find that being a wife and mom takes up most all of my time. I look with admiration at women who homeschool, have a home-business, write and speak and keep blogs and Facebooks and Twitters and travel to conferences and then do all sorts of creative things in their spare time. I truly admire these women, because they have managed to do a lot more than I can with the same number of hours in their day as I have. I have decided that at this point in my life, I will endeavor to finish revising my e-book and it will be available. Then if anyone has questions, they can e-mail me. I am always available for questions, especially about nutrition or health concerns, but also on homeschooling or home-managing. If I don’t know the answer, I will research it or find someone who does. This is what I do. All day. Every day. My job is to love and support and keep happy my husband, love, clothe, educate and train my children, and keep house so that everything stays in fairly decent order, there are elements of beauty all around, the meals are nutritious and good-tasting, and there is a lot of laughter and happy voices for the most part (and some beautiful music!). If you wonder why I don’t blog more often, it really is because all the things I just listed take up most of my waking hours. And I truly love my job! And on that note, I need to close now and get on with my job.

Blessings to all,

Chris

I started to write a flowery commentary about the results of this election, but I just didn’t have the heart. The truth is, I am disappointed. Terribly. I am not discouraged, but I just have a hard time trying to understand the people of this nation. Actually, it is not understanding them that is difficult, it is seeing the tragic consequences of their choice that is hard to accept and understand. It is something akin to watching a quarterback try to throw a pass to a receiver who is triple covered – only to have it picked off and returned for a touchdown. You are left with asking the question, “Why did he DO that?” Why did he make that foolish choice? Of course, that is a poor example because that does not demonstrate a pre-meditated choice, but rather a reactionary choice. I guess voting for a person is more of a pre-meditated choice even if it could also be reactionary.

All that aside, the only thing I know to do now is seek the Lord and wait on Him – for everything. This is the charge no matter what happens in life. Always we should seek the Lord and wait on Him. I trust that the Lord heard the prayers of the small minority of people who genuinely sought His heart and will on the matter of this election. Everyone else got what they asked for. So come what may, we are at His mercy, and we humbly implore Him to help us completely seek His face, seek His direction in and for our lives and our calling, and be obedient to Him. What would He have us do now?

As for me, with God’s help, what I determine to do is take the best care of my family I possibly can. I endeavor to create the best tasting, most nourishing meals I can to feed my precious husband and children. I will seek to keep order in my household and homeschool and challenge my children to do the best of their ability at everything they put their hand to. I will make it my ambition to create the sweetest, most pleasant atmosphere in my home I possibly can – full of pleasing aromas, beautiful music and continual praises to the Lord Of Hosts – to Yahweh. I love that Name. I have found recently that when I am in a bad mood or frustrated or having difficulty that just pausing and then praising God helps to change things almost instantaneously. Lift up the Name of Jesus! He is always worthy of praise!

So, let us put our hand to the plow and push on ever harder. Let us continue to pray for this nation and for some of the congressional races not yet decided. Let us look well to the ways of our households and do what we can to further the Kingdom of God from our own homes, in our own families in the place where God has put us.