Heart Reflections Live

Headmaster Daddy and his beloved youngest son- a man who raises his children in the "Fear and admonition of the Lord".

Labels: everyday life lessons, family fun, family life, homeschooling

Do you Ever feel DRIVEN.. Pushed to hurry... I do a lot, I admit. It's a besetting sin of mine. Pushing mindlessly through the current task, even those involving my loved ones, just to get to the next item on my mental to -do list. I catch myself doing this all to often lately, and I've realised what an idol my mental clutter and to-do lists can be. I'm challenged- In these moments, whose agenda am I following? God's and His richness, or miine and its shallowness?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm more often than not the type to stop and smell the roses, to let the sunsets seep into my soul- my thoughts are at once lifted to behold the Majesty of our Creator, when my eyes meet His wonders. When I'm working alone, I meditate on His precepts, I'm abiding in Him... but once everyone is up, I seem to switch gears, and obsess on my to-do list. How many precious moments must I miss as I get caught in a flurry and try to HURRY???

Every so often I visit Ann Voskamp's beautiful and inspiring blog, Holy Experience. It's like streams of water flowing over one's soul. A place of beauty, inspiration, humility and conviction.Something usually connects and ministers to my spirit.Especially this recent post:"3 Ways To Rest Today (and Stop the Push) The Practice of Rest Pt 1"

LINK http://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/06/why-your-daily-push-practice-of-rest-pt.-html

This has deeply challenged my tendency to "be in a hurry". Slow my thoughts down, Lord, and when our household is at its noisiest, help me not to miss YOUR still small voice saying "This is the Way- walk ye in it" Amen.

PS There is a minor problem with the link. Just click on Holy Experience, and it is currently the second article in.

Labels: everyday life lessons, recommended sites

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The pictured ring is similar to my birthday present. I couldn't find a picture of an exact copy.

Labels: everyday life lessons, family life

Life is made up of moments...

Am I hungrily savouring the simple beauty in each and every one of them? OR are they being lost and WASTED under the stress of the tryanny of the urgent?

There is beauty in EVERY moment! I want my HEART to learn to capture it! I want the heart of a CHILD like my own children who not only see the raindrop on the leaf, but see the extreme , transient beauty of it, and CELEBRATE it, as a gift from the Saviour, The Creator... before discovering the next one!

We don't need manufactured excitement in our lives, what some call drudgery is really service to the KING OF KINGS!!! I want to revel in this more and more...even when I'm scraping poop off a nappy. To live life with the same joy and hunger my children have... not wasting my moments with stress and distraction.... LIVING IN THE MOMENT... not wishing myself out of it!

EVERY moment we are making a memory for our children... are we singing hymns and rejoicing as we work or sighing and grumbling about the work they make, instead of the joy they are in just being? (GULP!!!!) I am over 40 now, and have discovered that the more children you have, the faster childhood and MOMENTS go, even when you homeschool, and create an atmosphere where childhood is cherished and not programmed by the dictates of popular culture.

I often wish I could freeze frame my childrens' faces in my mind's eye, but if they could do the same with me, would they remember a happy rejoicing Mama, or a grumpy one mostly- maybe I'm not game to ask ... yet...

There is to be no division between the secular and sacred in our Christian walk. I pray my children will notice that I seek to glorify the Lord moment by moment, and that they will grow desiring the same... Some days I think I learn more from them, than they do from me!

When my children and others look me in the eyes, I pray they will see a whole person, not fractured by care or worry or stress, sparkling with the joy of the Lord, as I live out the rest of my life savouring and celebrating the moments!

Labels: contentment, everyday life lessons

Zara, aged 5, has been very interested in learning about money lately- how to count our Australian coins, how many you need to buy certain catalogue items like food and clothes... So for her math in homeschool, we've been counting coins and looking at catalogues, while Talitha does her workbook activity.

Both of our girls get a small amount of pocket money, which they have to save in their money boxes, and at the end of the year we give them a designated amount- like $20, that they can spend on something they want, that we approve of. Last year, Zara spent all her $20 at once on the "Andre Reieu Live in Australia" DVD- good taste eh?- She definately went for quality over quantity!

Talitha on the other hand wanted to get as much as she could for her dollars, and bought a vintage Little Golden book, an historic sticker book and a cheap pair of shoes- both girls were commended for they really thought about their purchases.

Of course, leaning about money is a great opportunity to teach that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, and how to save and spend wisely AND how catalogues are designed to make you WANT things... good life lessons.

The girls have been helping hubby clean up downstairs for a garage sale (US- Yard sale!) Wanting to earn a few dollars themselves, the girls started doing some "very intersting" things outside. Inspired by the Amish Rachel Yoder books we're reading, Talitha started painting rocks to sell- unfortunately she used waterpaints, so they weren't exactly Amish masterpieces.

Zara cracked me up big time announcing she was going to sell "her Moss". Having heard Daddy saying how good moss was for the garden, she took it upon herself to start tearing it down and putting it in a box to sell, figuring if it was good for OUR garden, people would spend good money to put it in Theirs!

I was hiding doubled up in the pantry, while she explained that one to her Daddy. I think Poppy will be very proud of her enterprising nature!- That's my laugh for the week!

Labels: everyday life lessons, family fun, funny things, homeschooling

It was the end of a particularly long day. It was a day of many unavoidable interruptions, people dropping in (all important stuff), and the girls had done a pretty good job continuing their homeschool throughout background noise and "Twin Breaks".

We got through the schoolday all pretty exhausted, with a few small things undone, and I let the girls go for a run outside, while I tended the babies.

Finally come night I was preparing dinner ( a couple of hours late), and I was delighted to see Talitha at the table unasked finishing off her colouring page from school, with Zara beside her- not fighting or arguing :-) but copying out of a book, practising her letters for fun, no pressure, no nothing...

And then... they began singing together... tunefully... O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing- our current weekly homeschool hymn- It was beautiful... Music to my Ears and soul... I silently praised the Lord in my heart as I worked... Harmony... Togetherness... Loving the Lord... Loving each other... working diligently... The "bad" days faded from view- This is why we homeschool...

Labels: child's play, everyday life lessons, homeschooling

Little Zara, aged 3, had gone outside to play and since she was being especially quiet, I thought I had better check on her.

I opened our front door, saw her shoes and socks on the steps, and there was Zara sitting very quietly, barefoot, knees to chest, peacefully gazing around.

"What are you doing, Dear-one?," I asked.

• Zara replied, "I'm looking at the ants, flowers, clouds, birds and all the beautiful things God made. And I am having my quiet time."

I left her gazing reverently around, my heart full and thankful.

For those who know us personally, doesn't this sweet print look so much like our Zara Hope.

Labels: everyday life lessons, Faith, family, Zara

About 10 years ago, my Dad wanted to recycle some copper wire, and he asked if I'd give him a hand with some very small offcuts that were coated in PVC. The PVC needed to come off before it was suitable for recycling. So armed with a pair of gloves & a sharp knife, I set to work.

The job was so much harder than I thought! Here is what the Lord showed me...
The PVC is like our flesh, & the copper wire like the spirit man within. God's Word is the 2 edged sword that cuts through our flesh.

The whole thing is a picture of circumcision of the heart! I was struggling to cut through the PVC. Sometimes I was like the coated wire, resisting the cut of the Lord to the flesh. Other times, like other offcuts, I was more yielded to the Spirit of God & the PVC peeled away with less effort.

I was told the job would be quicker if I put the offcuts I wasn't working on, out in the hot sun to sit a while. This made the job so easy! The PVC sliced away without any effort at all! The Lord showed me more. When I give myself totally to the Lord, & bathe in His light & live in His "SON", I become so yielded, that I scarcely feel the flesh coming away.
John 3:30 says, "He must increase, but I must decrease."-KJV

This little parable gave me such a desire to live this way. I pray that more & more I'll seek those things which are above, & not on things on the earth, & bring our children up to live lives yielded to God.

Labels: everyday life lessons, parable