Sisters, We Are Not Perfect

As I read this I felt as if this was speaking to a far broader audience than pastors/teachers; It was speaking to me--an older homeschooling mom who's generation now walks amidst the worldly. (I have older children who have graduated from home schooling).  It is relevant to me whilst I sit among younger ladies whom are just beginning, or those just thinking about it. Our sphere of influence goes farther than we think and as the Lord is using us to advance His kingdom, the things we share have the potential to influence generations.  So mothers, read this with that in mind and you will be blessed.

"The Shepherd, however, calls us to feed His Sheep. We are not to give our wisdom, our insights, the fruits of our scholarship. Rather, like Paul before us, we serve up our weakness, our frailty, our need. That’s how the Word breaks through, where the power comes from.

Brothers, your flock may need some more information. What they need more, however, is someone to lead them, to show them the Way. They need to see you repenting. They need to see you wrestling with your sins. They need to see you preaching the gospel to yourself, not because you like the sound of your voice, but because you hate the sin that yet remains, and you need grace. They need to see you rejoicing in the fullness of His promises, and mourning both sin and its fruit, the last enemy, death.? ~R. C. Sproul, Jr.

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/brothers-we-are-not-professors

Work

When we view our daily duties--cleaning, preparing, organizing, folding--as gifts, our perspective changes.  These tasks are no longer drudgery, but an opportunity to further the kingdom of God.  When we see that, and understand it, we will then be able to model it before our children and they will catch out enthusiasm and JOY in doing so. 

Ahh, but when we get to do them with our children, that is where kingdoms are built and generations are influenced......and they see the hand of God.

"What if there are greater, sometimes hidden, purposes in our most common activities-doing dishes, folding clothes, working in the yard together, making meals? Without returning to the pre-automobile days, we can renew the relational purposes of everyday living and find perspective in seemingly inconsequential activities. By coming together to help in the work of the home, we may find that folding laundry yields far greater results than a stack of clean clothing"

(Modified excerpts from Seeing the Everyday, no. 19, October 2012, p. 4.)
http://blog.seeingtheeveryday.com/

The Family Bible

"What household thoughts around thee, as their shrine, 

Cling reverently!--Of anxious looks beguiled,

My mother's eyes upon thy page divine,

Each day were bent; her accents, gravely mild, 

Breathed out thy love; whilst I, a dreamy child,

Wandered on breeze-like fancies oft away, 

 

.....Yet would the solemn Word,

At times, with kindlings of young wonder heard

Fall on my wakened spirit, there to be

A seed not lost; for which in darker years,

O, book of heaven!  I pour with grateful tears,

Heart-blessings on the holy dead, and thee!"

"Though they are with the silent dead,

Heere are they living still!" 

My father read this holy book

To brothers, sisters dear ;

How calm was my poor mother's look,

Who loved God's word to hear.  

Her angel-face--I see it yet!

What thronging memories come?

Again that little group is met

Within the halls of home!" 

How joyfully they gathered around the cheerful hearth to read this book divine.  How often their hearts drew consolation from its living springs!  Wat a balm it has poured into bleeding and disconsolate hearts.  It has irradiated with the glories of eternal day, the darkest chamber of their home.  what brilliant hopes and promises it has hung around the parental heart!  And here too are the names of our parents,--long since gathered with their fathers.  Here too are our names, and birth, and baptism, written by that parental hand, long since cold in death!

~The Christian Home~

Rev. S. Phillips