There are days where you have a hundred things to get done and are equally sure you have a hundred more you can’t remember right off. The day started early around here. I’m trying to make a commitment to teach SJ to cook a little each day. After telling her she could help bake breakfast, she was up at 6 raring to go! We did our morning chores in the misty rain. Feeding the chickens and cats. We gathered the eggs and fed the horses some shriveled apples. The big girls left for school by 6:15 with Dad, Katherine left for our homeschool co-op, and I started school with the two littlest ones.
I love homeschooling, although I don’t always ‘like’ it. I love the opportunity to spend time with my children. I love the chance to choose what they are learning and set the pace. I love the deep talks we have and the fun things we learn together. I enjoy the books we read, the learning videos we watch, and seeing them as they accomplish a new skill. What I don’t like is the bad attitudes that come when I say it is time to work. I do not enjoy their frustration level when they don’t know how to do something, and they refuse to learn it. I don’t enjoy when they argue, although sometimes it can be quite humorous.
Today I could hear the fight starting to escalate from the school area. I had left them to work on math for a few minutes. As I came to see what they were fighting over, I found two very mad children each insisting the other was wrong. Little Man was sure Eve was created as a baby because she ‘came from Adam’. SJ was hotly replying “no, you are wrong. Eve was created as a lady”. Obviously, she knows her bible history, but often forgets to apply the fruits of the spirits…. “Love, Joy, and peace, patience and kindness, goodness and faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Isn’t that just like us adult Christians? We know the ‘rules’ for religion, but we often forget the heart behind why we follow the bible. We think (or do not even put a thought about it) that following the rules, or the standards of a Christian life will save us. People often tell me, “I’m a pretty good person” in hopes that will qualify them for salvation. It does NOT! They are good morally, but morality will not save them.
Matthew 19:17 “And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
In this passage, Jesus was speaking telling the man that there is no good people, only God. Jesus was basically asking the man to consider who was really good. He goes on to tell him to follow the commandments. The man replies he has since childhood. Jesus calls him out, telling him to sell all he has and give to the poor.
Vs 18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
20The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
In verse 22, the young man left sorrowful. He did not want to give up his possessions. Jesus is not telling us we have to be poor to serve him. He is saying that you have to give up the things that keep your mind and heart from following GOD. This young man was so attached to his belongings that he would rather have forfeited heaven than to give it all away and gain salvation.
Christ knew that many people would choose the world over a life with him when he said in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
The reality to that scripture is that I can complete every task before me. I can live a good life. I can raise decent, morally conscious children. We can obtain the ‘American Dream”, and yet I can still be a failure. Those things are not equivalent with success. A life lived well in fellowship with Jesus will be carried over to a life lived together eternally in heaven. That is true success!
***Little Man and Millie always fast friends. This was taken June 15, 2017 when she was 8 months old. Her little "Popeye' grin.***
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