I am so excited! We had 21 boxes of books delivered to our door a few days ago! That's a lot of books! Now we wait upon our God to give us opportunity to sell them! What a mighty God we serve! I originally responded to God's prompt to write a book about 8 years ago. We lived in a state where we felt it was best to school under a private school. By doing so, we were required to offer the courses that they deemed necessary, although we had the right to choose the curriculum. They required a class in "Life Management" and recommended the only curriculum on the market at that time. We were very disappointed when we previewed this curriculum. It threw in a few Bible verses but was not grounded in the Word of God. It taught the names of the street drugs. Not what I think of when I think of life management! So, we tore into Proverbs. My oldest was 16. We had posters on the wall comparing and contrasting the characteristics and results of wisdom and foolishness, posters with Bible memory verses, daily readings and discussions, matching cards to match the first part of verses with the second, and we also took current events and held them up to Scripture.
I remember one time we were reading Proberbs 8:36: "But he who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death." In the newspaper that morning there was an article about a well- known basketball player who opened a restaurant and showed up for the grand opening in a coffin. His lifestyle was one of rebellion. We began to look around at the culture of death that we live in. We compared life and light and the joy we have in Jesus to what we saw around us. We have choice!!! I choose life!
I began to write down the curriculum. There were days, weeks, months, where I layed it down because life was happening. Usually, God had lessons that I needed to learn before I could keep writing. Sometimes it was a matter of choosing to be obedient even when I felt inadequate or lazy! Seven years later, Practical Proverbs rolled off the presses! We went to homeschool conventions all across the nation this last year (20,000 miles!) and were well recieved, but many requested a book for younger students. We are glad to announce that our Practical Proverbs for Younger Students is now available! This book is geared to 5th -8th graders. Both books are also now available in NAS and KJV. That was truly a work of the Lord!
We are looking at attending 20 conferences this year, starting in a couple of weeks. We are so excited! God has opened up many speaking opportunities and we are launching a mentoring service. Someone can call and set up a session on phone or skype. I can't wait to see what wonderful things God does this spring and summer! I look forward, most of all, to the chance to meet great people, pray with them, and to share God's love and grace with them.
Hint for the Day: Younger children don't really understand time, especially longer lengths of time. If a parent is going to be away from the house for a couple of days, it is helpful for the child to have some way to count down the days until the parent returns. A calendar where they can mark off days is good. You can make it part of your morning or bedtime prayer time and pray for the parent that is away. A friend of ours in VA was going to be away from his kids for several weeks. The kids got to mark the calendar days off with marker, and each Saturday they got to open a gift from dad! They kept these small tokens wrapped and in a basket in the kitchen. As the kids saw the pile dwindle, they knew it was getting closer for dad's return!
My husband used to travel quite a bit. If he left in the morning before the boys woke up, he would decorate paper plates with funny faces for their breakfast. If it was going to be a long trip, he would often put together a scavenger hunt for us to figure out. We had fun, called Dad for clues, and enjoyed the prize at the end - sometimes a token, sometimes a promise of a fun outing when dad got home!
No comments:
Post a Comment