From Physics to Box Turtles

"LORD, it is nothing for YOU to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our GOD, for we rest on YOU..."!! Chronicles 14:11



Dear Friends,

My heart is full this morning as I began to write and reflect on GOD's outpouring of blessings in my life and family just in recent days. Those blessings include you so very much. You who receive this email are "GOD's love way of showing HIS love to me and my family" as my dear friend Betty Eudy taught me a long time ago. GOD sure has been pouring forth HIS love out on us a whole, whole bunch, "exceeding abundantly beyond all that I ask or think."(To be able to think, ahhh...another one of GOD's dear blessings to me...HE is teaching me to cherish that blessing, nurture it, and use it for HIS honor and glory). Thank you once again so very much for all the dear prayers and expressions of love you have shown me and my family this week as I have been on some medicine that made me really sick a month ago. It's been so much better this time, I've had some rough patches, (along with my family-when Momma isn't happy no one is happy:), but GOD has been so gracious to allow me not to suffer so this time around. In fact, I've been awake most of the week, not sleeping it away as I did last time. I even cooked a full meal Wednesday night, joined a dear friend for lunch yesterday, thanks so much for your sweet fellowship, Gena, and went grocery shopping - to GOD be the glory! Now that's really neat when you get excited about being able to cook and go grocery shopping:)...life's common pleasures:).
Along the line of thinking... what a blessing it is to be able to think, to focus on GOD's blessings. It's getting that time again to be thinking about preparing for Hannah Beth's school work this year. She will be in the 11th grade-WOW! GOD has blessed us with the wonderful privilege and calling of homeschooling both of our children and I will be honest, there have certainly been times along the way, that this seemed to be an impossible task. GOD in HIS sovereignty and HIS provision, has enabled us, through so many of your help and encouragement to continue on this journey that we've been on now for many years-John Mac graduated last year. As I reflect on an email I shared with you recently, I can see how GOD did call this weak Mom and Dad to do an impossible task, and then HE allowed it to be difficult and then done! I don't think you ever really finish "homeschooling" when you learn to see all of life as "GOD's classroom", but the graduation day sure does feel good when you look back and see how truly "Great is Thy Faithfulness-" GOD's faithfulness to do what we cannot do.
Many years ago, when we began this journey, the LORD brought a book into my life called A Charlotte Mason Companion Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Homeschooling by Karen Andreola. I'm not sure which one of you recommended it, probably Ashlie Clay, you've recommended so many good homeschooling resources to me over the years, but this book truly helped me to learn to relax and "stop and smell the roses" with my children as we traveled this journey together in homeschooling. Instead of "cracking the whip" everyday,(which I did that too:), it suggested doing fun things together like reading books together (and what a treasured memory that is to this mom who wasn't able to get out and go like a lot of other Mom's I knew-my kids put together a ton of puzzles while I read to them, and we have such treasured "memorials" of those framed puzzles adorning our walls of those special times of reading together), going on nature walks together (when Mom felt like it), having a day with structure, yet flexible, and honestly letting the kid's learn to teach themselves instead of relying on Mom to teach them. Mom so often was not feeling well or doing morning work that had to be done, or after the 7th grade, Mom didn't understand the Math (yes, I took college Algebra, I just forgot a lot:). Every time through the years that I get "uptight" about homeschooling, the LORD takes me back to that purple book and it's principles that have so served to help me "stop and smell the roses" and enjoy this journey that our great GOD has led our family on, as HE has led in each of our individual lives.
I was reminded of a quote earlier this week from William Butler Keats that says, "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." That quote, along with the verse I have claimed since I saw it on my dear friend and mentor Susan Pugh's bulletin board so many years ago..."And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD" Isaiah 54:13, have anchored our homeschooling through the years. GOD has been so faithful to teach my children, as they will so aptly share with you, that Mom didn't do a whole lot of teaching the higher Math and Sciences, or Language for that matter...and GOD has so blessed my children through being able to learn from the wonderful resources that are out there these days to help homeschooling Mom's who like me, can't do it all...and maybe just hang on for dear life sometimes:).
Earlier this week, our family went out to Applebee's together as part of our "family night" together, a practice the Ezzo's (www.gfi.org) encouraged us to incorporate so many years ago. My son was in a very talkative mood, very talkative, and we heard a ton of math and physics conversation from him. I say heard, because the rest of us weren't able to interject very much input- he was talking in a language that we didn't understand very well. I had physics in high school, but don't remember very much at all about it. As we sat and listened to John Mac, I realized wow, I am amazed at what GOD has put in his heart and mind to learn. It sure didn't come from his Ma and Pa, as my kids will so aptly share with you. GOD has wired him to be able to understand Math and Physics in a way that I will never comprehend. For all of my emphasis on the Bible and History in their homeschooling, subjects I enjoyed, I didn't teach John Mac one iota of physics. He would stretch himself out on the floor upstairs and read his "Apologia" physics book and never asked me any questions. The same way with Chemistry... John Mac struggled some in his high school Math, and we juggled curriculum's a bit as homeschool Mom's do. We were so very honored that GOD prospered John Mac and he was named the Most Outstanding Math and Physics student at his junior college this year...truly GREAT has been GOD's faithfulness...especially when you consider my level of thinking:). The whole trip home from Applebee's was how amazed my kids are when they hear about other Mom's teaching their kids Math and English, and they know they were "thrown to the wolves" and had to teach themselves.
My idea of homeschooling is more along these lines...have a good time of reading and studying the WORD together in the morning, after our individual time with the LORD, sing a hymn together, as Elisabeth Elliot taught me so many years ago. It's a great way of teaching CHRISTian doctrine to our children and us without them even realizing it, and praying together...then off to do your book work while Mom gets her morning work done. Then come together and read history , or a book, real books, while they work on educational puzzles (www.WhiteMountainPuzzles.com)...and then the afternoon is free to rest in their rooms, and pursue their own interests.
That's the way it used to be...before John Mac started college and working, and Hannah Beth started driving...yeah, things have changed, homeschool has changed, and Mom is going back to her days when time used to go slower... like the Box Turtle the LORD brought to our home last week, by way of Dixie, our Golden Retriever. She brought it home from the woods recently...that dog does love Box Turtles, (Laying My "Turtles" at HIS Feet, Aug. 2007), and as usual, I made her leave it outside the fence so she wouldn't eat it. The turtle didn't go very far, taking up residency under our unused propane gas tank outside. After a few days, and it was still there ( the dogs always happily visited it when they were out of the fence), I thought the poor thing must have died of fright from Dixie taking it around in her mouth, or of heat. So, me being the compassionate person I am, took the turtle and put it in the dog's fence. I thought it was dead, they might as well enjoy it now. Come to find out, the turtle wasn't dead...I went out there later, and that turtle was very much alive, eating away at a dead bird Midnight had confiscated and brought into the backyard. I thought, wow, that turtle made it through and hasn't been eaten yet, by the dogs, must be a special turtle. For the next few days, I left it in the fence,(much against the kid's protest) thinking if Dixie hasn't killed it by now she isn't going to...that turtle was the friendliest turtle I have ever seen. It would walk across the back yard to the puddle beside the water hose and cool itself until Dixie would discover it and pick it up and bring it back to her side. She didn't want to let that turtle out of her sight. It wasn't long before that turtle would pop it's head out, and started easing back across the yard to the puddle. Dixie wouldn't stand for it, and would go and get "her turtle" and bring it back to her side. Finally, last Saturday night, Hannah Beth and I were enjoying a rare treat these days of jumping on the trampoline together, and we heard a "crunching" sound. Dixie had gotten "her turtle," turned it up on it's side, and was "snacking" on the turtle's shell, or trying too...I decided this was enough, and fear for the turtle's life drove me to take Dixie's "friend" away and put it outside the fence once again. I thought I'd return it to the woods the next time I went.
The next time I walked the dogs, Dixie, came bounding out of the fence and made a beeline for the compost pile. There was "her turtle" nestled up in the corner of the bottom of the compost bin, finding refuge from the heat, and the dogs. Hannah Beth and I did take time to look up Turtles as any good homeschooling family would do:), and learned it was an Eastern Box Turtle, I think, one of the most "common" turtles around our area...how appropriate for GOD to bring us a "common" turtle:). Their diet consists of meat, ( I doubt the hotdogs I fed it), veggies, and turtle pellets...where do you find those in the wild? I carried that turtle a feast out to the compost bin of carrots, apples, oranges, cucumbers, macaroni, and... hotdogs. Later, I couldn't help but think of the verse, "If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children (turtle in this case), how much more will your heavenly FATHER give good gifts to those who ask HIM?" Matthew 7:11 Here I was lavishing a turtle with a feast...how much more does my heavenly FATHER love me whom HE created, and planned for me, and sent HIS Son to die for me? That brought a lot of comfort to my heart...how very much GOD loves me. I didn't love this turtle...but I did care for it. Hannah Beth did too, as she thought the turtle might be thirsty so we brought it some water out on a paper plate. John Mac cared for the turtle too, and very much didn't want me to leave it in the dog's fence, the previous few days, fearing for it's life, with good reason...That turtle came out of it's shell in the corner of the compost bin and showed it's gratitude by eating some of the orange, peel and all, while we sat there and watched it. It didn't eat much of anything else, the dogs were glad to oblige with that the next time they were let out of their pen, woofing down the hot dogs and macaroni, as fast as they could. The turtle in the meantime moved on...sometime during the night, it packed it's "shell" and eased on down the road somewhere, hopefully somewhere safe from the danger of dogs that like to "snack" on turtles. Now to me...this is homeschooling at it's finest:). I share this with you so that you will marvel at GOD's goodness and favor, when you see anything worthy of praise in our family and through my children's lives...HE is the one who does it all, "From Physics to Box Turtles." I am just watching in awe at what HE continues to do in our family through all the twists and turns HE takes our family....just as HE does in your life and your family.

In Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotion for July 9th, I was reminded once again of GOD's goodness and favor in our lives when he shared this devotion from Psalm 103:2 that says, "Forget not all HIS benefits." Charles Spurgeon makes the observation that "it is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of GOD in the lives of ancient saints and to observe HIS goodness in delivering them, HIS mercy in pardoning them, and HIS faithfulness in keeping HIS covenant with them. But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to notice the hand of GOD in our own lives? Should we not look on our own history as being at least as full of GOD, as full of HIS goodness and of HIS truth, as much a proof of HIS faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? ...Have you no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through fires unharmed? ...Have you had no choice favors? The GOD who gave Solomon the desire of his, has HE never listened to you and answered your requests? The GOD of lavish bounty of whom David sang, "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things" (Psalm 103:5), has HE never satiated you with fatness?....Surely the goodness of GOD has been the same to us at to the saints of old. Let us, then weave, HIS mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness and the jewels of praise and make them another crown for the head of JESUS. Let our souls give forth music as sweet and exhilarating as came from David's harp while we praise the LORD whose mercy endures forever."
Dear friends and family, if you never get anything else out of these emails, it is my heart's desire that you, along with me, would be inspired to remember GOD's goodness, His favor, His deliverances, HIS faithfulness in each our lives and thank HIM and praise JESUS who deserves so much of our praise, and share HIS goodness in our life with those around us. I am so inspired when I hear about what GOD is doing in your life. It gives me courage in my journey, strengthens my faith, and causes me to rejoice in HIS goodness..."I will extol the LORD at all times; HIS praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt HIS name together." Psalm 34:1-3.

For the Fourth of July, my dear friend and prayer warrior, Sherry Moss, sent me a video email of Anne Murray singing "How Great Thou Art." I was amazed at the timing of this..."How Great Thou Art," is not the usual song you think of for the 4th, nowadays...but as I shared in last week's email, John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers said our nations independence should be celebrated as a "Day of Deliverance." If you go back and study the Revolutionary War, you will truly see how GOD did deliver America in our weakness from a powerful British Army that far outnumbered the untrained colonists and by all human standards should have crushed the American rag tag army. "How Great Thou Art," is amazingly appropriate to be sung on the Fourth of July, and everyday of our lives as we "Forget not all HIS benefits." The amazing thing to me was just a few days before Sherry sent me this song, I had taken a late evening walk and the sky was just brilliant with the starts bursting forth ...so many millions or billions or light years away (I need to ask my kids:). The thoughts that came to my mind that night were the words to "How Great Thou Art," as I felt the wonder and awe of GOD's marvelous creation. Sherry, thank you for sharing this with song with me, and blessing my life so much with your walk with CHRIST, your prayers, and your dear friendship. I pray it will be such a blessing to you too, as you take time to ponder "How Great Thou Art," and remember all the wonderful blessings GOD has poured forth to your dear life and mine...you are so dear to HIM and you are so dear to me. Thank you so much for honoring me time and time again by reading these emails...I truly am honored.
To hear Anne Murray sing "How Great Thou Art," click on http://www.greatdanepro.com/Dear%20Jesus/index.htm.

With all HIS love,
mitzi


"The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."-Henry Miller