Why am I doing Bible lessons at home?

Before I had kids, I was a high school math teacher.  When I was teaching, I tutored a lot of my own students after school, but I also occasionally tutored students in other classes.  The difference in teaching your own student and teaching someone else's student is like night and day.  With your own student, you know all the history with the student, you know what they should've learned, how they should've learned it, what his weaknesses are, and how to help him.  With someone else's student, I didn't have all that background.  I would do my best to line up my tutoring with their past history in math, and meet them where they were at, but it certainly wasn't as natural.  What I've realized about my kids and Bible lessons, is that if I am relying on outside people to teach them about God (at church, preschool, etc.) then when it comes to teaching them about life from a Biblical world view, it will feel like tutoring someone else's student.  If my husband and I are trying to train Jenna to share with her little sister, we need to know that she's been taught why it's important to share, why God wants her to share, who God is, and why we follow Him.

Through my college Educational Philosophy class, I came to the conclusion that the responsibility for the education of a child lies with the parents.  Not the school.  As parents, we should view school or church as a tool in educating our children, not the only source of their education.  So, when it comes to her spiritual training, my hope is that the lessons my daughter learns in Sunday School or at preschool would be reinforcing what she is already learning at home. 

There are, of course, spiritual reasons to do Bible lessons at home.  You can never go wrong if you fill your home with scripture, prayer, and talk about God.  This is what God longs for in our families.  I know this is what he longs for in my family.  If I am actively planning lessons for my daughter, then Scripture and God are on my thoughts and lips when I handle her.  Then when we tell daddy about it later, He fills our dinner table.  And when we finish the day with prayer before bed, we're talking to someone that who has been a part of our day.

So, friends, these are a couple of the reasons that God has used to put this on my heart.  But, please know that I am not an expert in this!!  My kids are 3 and 1, not adults who beautifully walk with Jesus or anything close to that!  This blog will be a humble, day-by-day journey, not a proven recipe for success.  I will be blogging about these lessons as I do them.  I will be praying over the lessons and praying over the blog and just trusting that God will use the blog however He chooses. 

My New Hobby

Hi friends!
This is the first post of my new blog and I'm happy to tell you that God has put it on my heart to make this blog my new hobby.  Ever since I became a stay-at-home mom, over three years ago, my hobby and my dream was sewing.  I spent a lot of time sewing and dreaming about making it big with an Etsy and craft fair business.  I also spent a lot of time stressing about how I didn't have enough time to sew, wishing I had more time to sew, telling myself I should be able to figure out a way to sew more often, etc.  I think that it hit me last December, when I set up a booth with a friend at a local craft fair.  For the two months beforehand I drove my family crazy just trying to get ready for it.  My husband's quote was, "I can't wait til this craft fair's over!" and I agreed with him!!  My friend (also a mom of little ones) and I had a great time the day of the fair, but we didn't sell that much and both agreed that it probably wasn't worth the work or the stress we put ourselves and our families through!  So, I started to sense God telling me to put my sewing "business" on the back burner.

Then, it hit me again in January when I took my three-year-old, Jenna, and signed her up for part-time preschool for the following year.  I thought to myself, "Whaaat??? My time home with her is almost over??  One year left??"  (We plan to send her to public school kindergarten.) And I asked myself, "How am I going to spend this last year with her?  Am I going to look back and say, I spent most of my time wishing I had more time to sew and trying to fit taking care of her around trying to sew?"  No.  I want this last year with her to be a purposeful, cherished time.  You can see where I'm going with this...

God is calling me now to put my dream of a sewing business aside (which is actually very freeing!) and focus on things of eternal value and really focus on my family.  Specifically, I've felt God's calling to use this last year with my daughter home to plan lessons and teach about God and His Word.  Many months ago, God put it in my mind to share this in a blog.  My first reaction was, "I don't have time for that!" and then I realized, if I cut back on sewing and made it my new hobby, I would have time.  Not only that, but if God calls you to something, you do it in His power, not your own. 

So, my prayer is that this blog would be God's and not my own.  About Him and not about me.  I almost named the blog "A Humble Journey," but I thought that was a little too somber for a name.  :)  But, that's what I feel this is a...a humble journey of teaching my preschooler biblical truths and sharing it only as God leads for His purposes.