Challenged

I had such a wonderful weekend. I spent the first part of my weekend with one of my mentors from my home church and the last half was spent with my parents. I loved having Beka over to catch up on things and to talk. She is such an encouragment to me and I learn so much from her. I am so blessed by her. We went to a homeschool curriculum fair on Friday and Saturday morning. Most of you know that we are planning on homeschooling unless God changes our hearts and minds. Many of you know why we have chosen to do this. I'm excited about it and am learning all I can before I get started. One of the sessions we went to yesterday was a Charlotte Mason session on "Habits." I felt that session was definitely for me and it was challenging and in some ways, convicting. She talked about how habits are formed constantly. It just depends on whether it's a good habit or a bad habit forming. I never really thought about it that way. Then she talked about all of the character traits that Mrs. Mason used to teach her students. Incredible. Overwhelming. Taking small steps towards them. Some of them I had never thought of before. Some of them weren't very important to me at all. I'm excited for Raun and I to make three lists of the ones that we definitely want to teach, the foundational ones, and the ones that would be great if he had, but it's not going to ruin them if they don't have them. I have been completely challenged to teach myself some of these good habits that I wish to enstill in our children. After all, I know I lack in so many areas. But how great would it be that he had a habit of neatness, prayer, praise, thanksgiving, health, music, honesty, and so many more. I can't wait to go through the Bible and put Bible verses with all of the ones that I feel are important and to help our children learn the habit of memorizing verses and applying them. And not doing things just because mom and dad told him, but because our children love it. I know it will be so hard, but well worth it in the end. Will I fail in some of these? Probably. Am I overzealous? Some may say "yes." Do I feel as though some of things things are lacking in society today? Yes. Am I weird for doing and teaching these things? Some would think so. Am I willing to be different and go against what's acceptable and normal these days? Yes, despite the fact I will in fact fail in so many ways. But I will keep trying.

Since I'm speaking of challenging and God has spoken so much to me on this, I found the perfect song for my kiddos tomorrow. I can't wait to share it with them and to have our lyric discussion and to see their drawings and their descriptions. I am praying that God changes lives in some teens tomorrow. I posted the video so you can see what it is. Wonderful message. And by the way, in the end, it turns out good.