If you have, you know that when I felt led to stop serving, I had no idea why. I was confused and not exactly happy about leaving the ministry I love, and I couldn't imagine where God could be leading me. I also heard friends talking about their 'one word' for the year. I missed several weeks of church at the beginning of the year (boo to bronchitis!), so I wasn't sure what this 'one word' thing was all about. I caught up on all the messages I missed, and still couldn't figure it out, so I asked a friend, who also couldn't remember what message it was in (yeah, that made me feel better!) but she said that it was a word that sums up what God wants from you in 2013. Another friend had mentioned finding a verse to go along with that word. Well, I know my word! My word for 2013 is MORE. More sacrifice, more giving, more trust in God, more faith...the list could go on and on. My verse is Ephesians 3:20 - Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... With that word and that verse in my heart, I've prayed that God will show me what 'more' he is leading me to. And boy, did he ever show me more!
Monday morning, I woke up with homeschooling on the brain. It's something that Cory and I have discussed many, many times over the last few years, and when Steven Furtick's book Sun Stand Still came out a couple of years ago, one of my Sun Stand Still prayers was for God to show me a way to homeschool KayLynn. My amazing 14-yr-old has severe ADHD, and school has never been easy for us. We fight, we get through tantrums and bad grades and angry teachers and missing work....it's been a never-ending struggle every year. I get frustrated because it's so stressful and seems to be a battle we'll never win, and because I feel like my brilliant child isn't really learning much - I can look at her failing grades and see that every single test grade is an A, yet she's failing because she won't do the assignments. She's so smart, and yet school is so difficult, and I've always known there HAS to be a better way. Homeschooling was something I didn't see as feasible, though - I work full time, Cory works full time, and it's not like we have a lot of wiggle room in our budget to pay for curriculum. So we'd talk, and we'd pray, and we'd toy with different ideas, never really finding a solution.
Monday, though, my brain was flooded with ideas, and I was obsessed with the idea. I just couldn't let it go. I did some research, and God put exactly the right websites and information at my fingertips. My heart raced, my hope was high, and I was giddy with excitement to talk to Cory about everything I found. As we drove to pick up KayLynn & Aaron from their dad's after work, I talked nearly non-stop about it, and after about half an hour, we had decided that we were ready to do this for KayLynn and that we would discuss it with MoMo and Aaron. We felt that Aaron needed to stay in public school for now, and that MoMo could choose what she preferred. When KayLynn and Aaron were in the car, we asked them their opinions on homeschooling without telling them what we'd been discussing. Both immediately told us that they wanted to homeschool and tried to convince us that they should. By the time we got home and brought MoMo into the conversation, I was ready to start immediately! We spent the whole evening in family discussion and family prayer about it, and by 9pm, we had decided that Aaron and KayLynn would start immediately. We wanted MoMo to have the freedom to make her own decision, since she's old enough and mature enough to do so, and since she has succeeded in public school. By 10pm, she had decided she was done with public school, too, so I stayed up late writing a lesson plan for each of them for the next day. Thursday we went to each school and formally withdrew them, and we are now officially a homeschool family. The decision has been a whirlwind, but God has affirmed it so many times already! The stress level in our house immediately dropped dramatically. The kids are getting along better, spurred by the group activities and the lower stress level. School has become fun for them. Aaron was able to spend a couple of nights with Grammy and Grampy. They are already learning things they never would have learned in public school. I'm under no illusions that this will be easy or that there won't be days when the stress level returns, but I know we can succeed. I know that my God can do immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine - and my Sun Stand Still prayer has been answered. We are crazy, and we love it!
