What's in a Name?

Through much prayer and seeking, the Lord has put on my family's heart to go "independent" this current school year.  I thank God for the blessings and fellowship I received our first four years of homeschooling through our homeschool group, but I clearly felt the Lord's leading to not enroll or even associate with any group for now. Next year, who knows? What I do know is the strong confidence and supernatural peace that comes from obeying the voice of the Lord.

With this change came an opportunity. When you sign up to homeschool independently, you are able to name your school. I didn't want to go the whole "Sanchez Family Homeschool" route but I also didn't want to arbitrarily pick a biblical sounding name without giving any real thought to it. This gave me an opportunity-No, rather it forced me to reexamine and contemplate the ultimate goals not just for this school year but also for the rest of my children's lives. A chance to refocus, recalibrate and encourage myself with meditation on God's word and will.

After much prayer and during my normal morning devotional time, I came to a passage of scripture that mirrored exactly my feelings and convictions for what I do with my kids and why I do it. So simple, yet so profound and exact. Though I desire my children to obtain the practical knowledge of this world, my bottom line is to train and lead my children into a lifelong relationship with their Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ(Colossians 1:16;Acts 5:31). That their lives would bring praise, glory and honor to Him is the most I could ever ask for (3 John 1:4). 

1 Peter 2:5 says this, "You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ." So as the days go by and the trials come and go, I can stop and remember the purpose of "Living Stones Christian School" and be encouraged and refreshed for the ministry I have been entrusted with and equipped for by a loving, sovereign God.
 (Galatians 6:9;1 Timothy 1:12;Psalm 103:19)

Teach Your Kids How To Pray Thoughtfully

"I've encouraged my kids at different times and in different ways to pray thoughtfully. It's easy for our little ones to just repeat the same prayer that they do everyday or copy what they've heard us pray without any thought. I really want them to understand the power of prayer and to take full advantage of it with earnest, heartfelt communication with the Lord.(Proverbs 15:29)  It's an amazing thing to have complete and total access to the God who created and sustains the whole universe and all within it and yet we tend to take that privilege for granted. We can come boldly with full confidence knowing that God hears us and desires to grant to us our petitions, according to His sovereign will.(Hebrews 4:16; John 14:13; Mark 11:24)
  Recently, I stumbled on a great article in a home school magazine that addressed this very issue. The magazine was Home School Enrichment and the article was "Prayer Basket Devotions" by Wendy Dellinger. In the article, she explains a great resource that I immediately applied for our prayer time at home. It is amazingly simply yet incredibly effective and my kids just love it. They now approach prayer time enthusiastically!

What the author implemented as a prayer basket, I have turned into our prayer jar. All you need is 5 different colors of contruction paper and a jar. Each color of paper represents a different prayer category: Countries, Ministries and Missionaries, Family and Friends, Prayer Requests, and Godly Characteristics. Discuss with your children each of the categories and come up with ideas of what to include as you write them down on little scraps of colored paper designated for that category. (For example, we write all ministry and missionary prayers on red, prayer requests on orange, godly characteristics on purple, friends and family on green, and countries on blue.) Fold up all the little pieces of paper and put them in your jar. Then, during your prayer times, each person gets one folded paper of each color and prays for those specific things. It has been a true blessing to our family and I have seen God's hand in it from day one! For example, one of our good friends was going on a trip so we wrote her prayer request for a safe trip on orange paper. Every day following that, one of us "heppened" to get her prayer request! This system has helped us is many ways. First, it has helped us to be diligent with our prayer time. Second, it helps us to remember specific requests that we have promised others to pray about. Lastly, it encourages us to pray for people and places that we ordinarily wouldn't think to pray on behalf of. I pray that you and your family will find this helpful and encourage you and your children to develop a prayerful heart!