It just so happened that we were celebrating Caleb’s 9th birthday this weekend with family, so we decided to surprise them by asking them all to take part in Mahayla’s baptism while they were here.  It was so neat to see their faces when we told them!

Mahayla wanted to be baptized on the farm, and she chose one of her favorite spots – the barn!  I was rolling my eyes about this choice, but my wonderful preacher’s wife (all of her family also came for the baptism) said, “If Jesus could be born in a barn, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for Mahayla to be baptized in one.”

Her daddy had the pleasure of immersing her in the watering trough!

Afterwards, we all gathered in a circle to sing Amazing Grace and everyone took turns praying for Mahayla. It was truly beautiful to hear each and every family member praying for her!

Later, Eli said, “Sissy got in the water with Daddy and God.”  How true!

He also said, “I get in the water, too?”  I replied, “Yes, you’ll get in the water, too, when you get bigger.”  He answered matter of factly, “When I get bigger boy, I get in the water with God.” 

I can’t forget a picture of the birthday boy, we did hi-jack his day after all!  What a good little brother – he didn’t mind a bit!

However, this potential new law raises red flags for me.  Anytime we as homeschoolers allow the public school system to take “control” of any aspect of our children – whether in sports, special classes, special funding, etc., we are opening the door – if only a small crack – for the public school system to slowly (or quickly) start taking our homeschooling rights away from us.

In Kentucky, we are very lucky to have fair homeschooling laws.  There are those who would very much like to take those rights away from us, though. Giving those people even the smallest opportunity, will allow them the ammunition they need to start chipping away at the freedom we have.  In fact, I was just made aware of a quote from Representative Palmer where he states he would like to “look into the oversight of KY homeschool students.”

I haven’t heard an official stance from HSLDA, CHEK or KHEA yet on the topic of sports teams, but I would be greatly surprised if they find this law positive for homeschoolers in the overall picture.

Sadly, I don’t say all this just because I don’t have any athletically talented children.  In fact, I think Caleb will probably be a pretty good baseball player in his high school years.  Lord willing, probably good enough to make a high school team.  For me, though, it’s more important to protect our rights as homeschoolers than it is to be sure my son gets to play high school ball.

Besides that, there’s just too much at stake for our family personally – or maybe I should say for Caleb – when allowing him to take part in a high school sport.  He’s only eight and we already struggle with the influence of bitter coaches and worldly children in the dugout of coach pitch teams.  Twenty years ago, I was a statistician for my HS baseball team and realize now that those hours spent with the team were probably some of the worst by way of language, se*ual suggestiveness and other opportunities to stray from the Lord than any other part of being in school.  And what a difference in our world 20 years later!

Maybe I’m being overprotective or painting the picture of high school sports teams with too broad a brush.  Maybe I’m even worried about a law that will not harm us as homeschoolers in any way.  What are your thoughts?  I’d be glad to hear them even if you don’t live in KY.

**UPDATE:  After an update from the CHEK Leadership Convention this weekend, I have learned that CHEK is NOT in support of the new law that will allow homeschoolers to play on public school sports teams.

Listen for yourself.

I was particularly moved by “As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children…”

Fast forward to today.  I was browsing blog posts from my Homeschool Buzz widget and ran across Redbud Lane’s blog.  In her side bar I saw this:

Add the abortion ticker to your blog or site.

Did you read that number?  Did you really think about what that number represents?  Seven and a half MILLION babies.  People.  God’s people.  His babies have been murdered.

Think about this…

We had raccoons infesting our barn when we first moved to our farm.  They were creating a mess and destroying hay, feed and structures.  We had to secretly catch and kill these destructive creatures because it was illegal to kill raccoons at the time.  They weren’t “in season”.  We could have gotten in big trouble.  I guess we still could now that I’m mentioning it.

Deer are all over the place on our farm (and the roads that we travel daily.)  Did you know you can get in BIG trouble – fines, removal of personal property, and possible jail time – for killing a deer out of season?

Did you know you can face the same consequences for fishing without a paid license?

Did you know you can go to federal prison for killing an eagle or taking one of its eggs?

I’m almost done, but there’s one more real example I have to give.  I used to work with a Teen MOPS group.  It’s purpose was not to support teenage pregnancy, but to teach teenage moms how to raise a child, to teach them how to *not* get pregnant again, to encourage them to see God’s will for themselves and their child and to hopefully lead them to Him through our teaching and example.

We fed these girls and their children before each meeting.  Many of them weren’t getting very wholesome meals because, like most teenagers, they thought McDonalds offered all the food groups in a healthy way.  The local churches would each sponsor one meal a year for our meetings.  I went to my very own church one month asking the ladies to come up with something really great for these families to enjoy for the next meeting.  All I recieved were rolled eyes and accusations that I was supporting teenage pregnancy.

Hear that.  In my own church (and I venture to say many others that were approached) the main thought wasn’t turned toward uplifting these teens for taking the high road and not aborting their babies.  It wasn’t on loving these girls who made mistakes and are now trying to be better moms.  It wasn’t on asking, “What else can I do to help these girls learn to follow my Jesus and raise their children to follow Him, too?”

The main thought was something that a Pharisee might have had.  “You want ME to support THEM?  Cindy, what kind of so-called ministry are you part of?”

I don’t mention that story for any other reason than to point out more of the obvious.  Our priorities in this world, in our country, and even in our churches are not in the right place.  Casting Crowns’ song asks, “America, will we go down in history as a nation with no room for its King?”  I ask, “Christians, are we doing all we can to make room for Him – in our own hearts and in our nation?”

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”  Psalm 139:13-16

“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateway of the cities she gives her speech: ‘How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?  How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?  If you would have responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.  But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you -  when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.  Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.  Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.  For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”‘ Proverbs 1:20-33

Luckily - or so I thought – one of the ladies at our church is the Family and Life Sciences teacher (aka – Home Ec).  She told me the board of education had decided to do away with the in-school nursery and they were willing to donate to the church whatever we’d like.  Score!  All we had to do was visit after school one day this week, pick out what we’d like and cart it away.

Back up three or four months for a moment.  As I was deciding what to buy for this year’s homeschooling curriculum, the God’s Design for S*x Series kept calling to me.  Mahayla is soon to be 12, so that sort of talk needs to happen *sometime*.  So, I bought the first two books in the series.  When I got them, the first one was no biggie, but the second one was TOO. MUCH. INFORMATION.  I decided to place it on the shelf for a conversation way down the road.  Way down the road.

Fast forward again to visiting the high school.  After loading up a wonderful haul of toddler toys and buckling ourselves in for a happy little ride to church – the conversation started.  The conversation.

It all started so innocently, I just don’t know how it ended up so….so….deep.  “Mom, why was there a nursery at the high school?”

Now, I know I could’ve said, “Oh, it was for the teacher’s children.”  That would’ve been the end of it, surely.  But I didn’t want to lie.  You can imagine where the conversation led – teenagers having children, how that could happen when you aren’t married……And then one of my sweet children kept pushing.  I tried really hard to give the normal “surface” answers.  I tried really hard to divert the conversation.  But this child wanted to know.  The. Whole. Story.

After a few deep breaths and some quick prayers, I told the whole story.  The. Whole. Story.  Among many giggles, wide eyes, “No ways”, and “Grosses” we made it through.

The next day, I decided the book that was way too much information before was now a perfect addition to our “learning” time.  Many more giggles (from kids and mom) later, I hope we are finished talking about this topic for a while.  I thanked the Lord that He led me to buy this book a few months ago, but next time, Dad gets to read it!

In the midst of sadness, the Lord sent some little friends to lift my spirits today.  This is a day old tomato that was bumped out of the bucket on its way to the compost pile.  Butterflies and moths made it their home all morning.

The leader of our homeschool co-op spoke in the Mom’s Room this week on the topic of courtship.  It was a wonderful presentation as her oldest daughter met and married her husband the through process.  The daughter gave her testimony, too.  It was precious.

So many people think the idea of courtship is very weird and unnatural, but she dispelled those myths by showing us that - in their case anyway – it was more a matter of supervised dating.  In other words, the couple never put themselves in a situation to be alone and thus tempted to take the relationship “further”.   Their story held much more information and “testimony” than this, but it’s not my story to tell – yet anyway. 

UPDATE:  Cathy has started her own blog and shared the story here! 

I would like to share some resources on courtship and/or purity, though.  I’m sure this list is not exhaustive and I would LOVE for you to add to the list through your comments.  Some of these relate specifically to remaining pure for a husband or wife, while some speak more to generally keeping your heart, mind and soul pure.

Purity for kids as young as eight

The Princess and the Kiss by Jennie Bishop  (Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss)

The Squire and the Scroll by Jennie Bishop  (Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll)

The Garden Wall by Jennie Bishop

The Glass Heart by Sally Gardner  (This one is not written necessarily from a Biblical perspective, which means I added more discussion after we read it, but there is merit in the overall storyline.)

A Parable About the King by Beth Moore

The Way Home: A Princess Story by Max Lucado

For Teens (thanks to Cathy – our co-op leader for introducing me to these.)

Seven Royal Laws of Courtship by Jerry Ross

Stay in the Castle by Jerry Ross

Waiting for Her Isaac by Mr. & Mrs. Stephen B. Castleberry

The Mysterious Alabaster Bottle by Elizabeth Rice Handford

Jason and the Windsurf Ordeal by E. R. Handford

You might also find The Courtship Connection helpful.  I have heard Kathie Morrisey speak a few times and have always been blessed.

The Blessings Book

Several weeks before your child’s 13^th birthday, ask them to name 13 people whom they consider to be godly men or women. Girls would name ladies, boys would name men.

Then, contact each of those people and ask if they would write a letter to your child. The letter should include their salvation story, a short description of how being a Christian has changed them or made their life better, and advice for your child as they go into their teen and young adult years.

After all the letters come in, you put them together into a beautiful keepsake book to present to your child on their 13^th birthday. Hopefully, Mom and Dad will include letters, too. Brothers & sisters, grandparents and aunts & uncles could be asked to write letters, as well.

What a treasure for your child as they enter “the growing up” years! What a tradition to start in your family!

I hope your children receive many blessings!!

Related Tags: blessings, memories, teenagers

Thank you Heidi for teaching me how to do links!!

Eli was sick Sunday with his first little bubbles-blowing-from-his-nose cold.  Poor guy.  Anyway, I decided to keep him home from church.  I’m always bummed when I don’t get to go to church, but that certainly didn’t stop me from worshiping God!  As I sat on the porch swing and looked out upon this, I was in amazement at the beauty He has created.  For Him.  For us.  Peaceful and quiet, yet  echoing His praises.  Thank you, God!