Hello Friends! I am really excited over this week’s episode of the podcast. I had such a great time interviewing Katie LaPierre about her brand new 31 Day Devotional and Journal. This resource is meant to encourage women towards an eternal perspective in their roles as wives and mothers.
Good morning, Ladies! As we start this new week I want to offer you some encouragement from the Word of God. In this episode of the Legacy Homeschool Reflections Podcast I go through the alphabet sharing a little nugget of encouragement for each letter. I hope your heart is strengthened as we remember the heart of the Father towards us and the strength and enablement He provides when we abide in Him. https://legacyhomeschoolreflections.blogspot.com/2019/01/legacy-homeschool-reflections-podcast_21.html
I would be so grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes and share this podcast with your friends. Thank you for listening, and I pray this is a blessing to you! Have a great week!
Thanks for stopping by, and you can click on the resource tab to see other websites where I am linking up this week.
Have you ever had something not quite turn out as you had planned? This is my story of the canned grapes. Months back I read about how you can preserve grapes in a water bath canner. I found both green and red grapes on sale at Kroger’s, purchased a large quantity, and had a canning session. All turned out beautiful; the grapes looked lovely in the Ball Mason jars, but there is just one problem; we didn’t like the taste of them! So for months I have been looking at pretty grapes in jars taking up space in my pantry.
We’ve all heard the expression, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” I ended up applying this sentiment to my canned grapes, and my girls helped me turn all those soggy grapes into grape jam.
It wasn’t the easiest thing to mash all these grapes, but my girls and I took turns standing over the stove and mashing them down so that we could get the juice out of them. There are many tasks in life that are not necessarily fun, but we have to just put our hand to the plow and do the work if we want the desired fruit. Raising children is like that. There are many aspects of the daily grind that are not always fun, but if we want to see good fruit in our children, we must be committed to faithfulness in the tasks the Lord has called us to. Ultimately it is He that bears the good fruit in our childrens’ lives, but we have the privilege of being parents and stewarding these young people the Lord has blessed us with.
“My arms are tired, Mama.” “Mash a little longer and then go get your sister to take a turn.” Canning is an opportunity to learn perseverance! The process is always that much sweeter when we get little people involved! My little three year old came into the kitchen announcing that she wanted to help mama!
I love working with my girls and preparing them to be able to manage their own homes one day. This little mishap with the distasteful grapes just gave us another reason to spend time together in the kitchen. That is the silver lining in this story.
The sheer joy of pouring in ten cups of yummy, white sugar. Look at that smile!
There are so many areas in life where we can take what seems like a failure or disappointment and turn it into something good. We serve a God Who is in the business of redeeming things for His own glory.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28
Awww, the sweet smell of sugar melting down into the fruit.
This little story about turning canned grapes into jam is all to make us think about the bigger areas in our lives where we can trust the Lord to redeem our brokenness and bring beauty out of ashes. What are the broken and distasteful parts of your story? I know we’re all dealing with much bigger issues than distasteful canned grapes, but our Lord cares about the hurt places in our hearts, the disappointments, the struggles, and the disillusionments. He is a God of restoration and redemption and we can trust Him to carry us through and bring hope to our hopelessness.
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” – Corrie Ten Boom
Those soggy grapes are now beautiful jars of grape jam.
May the God of all eternal hope encourage your heart today. He is your Creator and Sustainer. He loves you, and He has a plan to work all things together for good to those who love God. Isn’t it comforting to know that His good plan is to work all things for our good and His glory. We may not always see how suffering is for our good, but one day we will see clearly the things that don’t make sense on this side of eternity. Let’s keep trusting and obeying and delight in His faithfulness.
Thanks for stopping by, and you can click on the resources tab to see other blogs where I am linking up this week.
Welcome to my new website, Legacy Homeschool Reflections! I am so thrilled that you have stopped by, and I want to share with you a little bit of what I desire this little corner of the web to be about. My heart’s prayer for this site is that it will be a place of grace balanced with truth, of love and hope, of practical encouragement and wisdom, and of always pointing our hearts and minds to the truths of God’s inspired Word. Regardless of the topic I write on, I want to come from the angle of, “What does God’s Word say about this particular issue.” I hope that each time you visit this site that you will leave with renewed trust in the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So welcome to Legacy Homeschool Reflections, and I look forward to getting to know you better! Please leave comments so that I can get to know you, my readers.
Thinking About Legacy
Legacy. I think it is a beautiful word when referring to something of eternal value passed down from one generation to another. Gratefully I can say that I am living the legacy of faithful, purposeful, first-generation Christian homeschooling parents. My parents came to know the Lord a few years before my birth and determined by God’s grace to raise me in His ways. With the Lord’s help they did their best to establish a Christian home and to teach me about being a follower of Christ. Neither of my parents entered parenting knowing how to disciple children as neither of them grew up in strong Christian homes. When I was born they were young, new believers setting up a first-generation Christian home without having had an example of how to do so. The Lord was their faithful guide, and by His grace He led them. I reaped the blessing of their efforts to walk in obedience to Him. Now I am raising my children and am privileged to be able to carry this legacy of faith into the next generation through family discipleship and home education.
What Will My Legacy Be?
We all just get one go-around at
this earthly life. There can be so many
pursuits that we might want to run after, but since life is fleeting and we
will never have time to do it all, it is vitally important to choose our
priorities wisely. This world has many
allurements and distractions, but what will matter in light of eternity? What do we want to leave behind us when our
time on earth is over? Will we live for
money, popularity, a platform, entertainment, power, achievement, or will we
live for the kingdom of God and His righteousness? The older I get the more I see clearly what really
matters in life. I want to be remembered
as a lady who loved her Savior, who loved her husband and children, and who
poured herself into kingdom pursuits.
Right now the biggest kingdom pursuit that I have is doing all that I
can to raise my seven children to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus
Christ. Ultimately, I cannot make them
follow Christ, but I can lead them in the way they should go and pray that the
Lord will do what only He can do in their hearts.
Today’s Christian parents are facing monumental challenges due to the rapidly declining culture we live in. We do not live in a primarily Christian nation anymore. Sadly, we live in an increasingly postmodern Christian culture where kids are apostatizing from the faith in droves. Our children are exposed to immorality at every turn: to humanism, feminism, evolution, pluralism, materialism, existentialism, atheism, deism, and views that are overtly opposed to Scripture. The tides of evil in our day are strong, but we can take heart in knowing that, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (I John 4:4).
What a privilege it is to be entrusted by God to help shape and mold the lives of our little children, that they may grow up to be sharp arrows which will pierce the darkness. We need very sharp arrows now more than ever! Let’s pray that by God’s grace we may raise warriors for the Kingdom of God. May our sons and daughters advance the Kingdom of God. May they stand upon our shoulders and go on to do bigger and greater things for the Lord as they carry the light of truth into the next generation.
Purpose of This Site
The essential purpose of this
website will be to bring glory to God.
Specifically, I hope to encourage ladies to be rooted and grounded in
the Word of God and to live with discernment and intentionality. I desire to communicate those things that will
inspire us all to choose not just the good but the best and to “redeem the time,
because the days are evil.” Ephesians 6:16 KJV
Dear reader, when I look around me
at the social, political, spiritual, and cultural mess our world is in my heart
is heavy. My heart is broken over the
breakdown of the nuclear family and by the droves of children not being raised
in stable, God fearing homes and certainly not being raised with the hope of
the gospel. I believe we are living in
perilous times when many do not want to hear truth.
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
II Timothy 4:3 ESV
Even though my heart often gives way within me, when I see the upheaval our world is in, I know my Savior does not want me to live in despondency. We ALWAYS, ALWAYS. ALWAYS have hope when we know the Lord Jesus Christ and keep our eyes focused on eternity. This world, after all, is not our home; we’re just a passing through. I LOVE a quote by Corrie Ten Boom that goes like this:
If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.
Corrie Ten Boom
Conclusion
I pray that at the Legacy Homeschool Reflections website you will find encouragement to look to Christ and to let Him build a godly legacy through your life. I will seek to offer resources, writings, and encouragement that will help us along in this journey. This website will have a lot to do with parenting and homeschooling, but I hope that every visitor will find refreshment here whether a mother or not. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we have much to encourage each other in regardless of our season of life or marital/maternal status. This poem by C.T. Studd so beautifully sums up what this website is about. We each only have one life to live; let’s live it for our Savior and leave a God honoring legacy for those who come behind us.
Two little lines I heard one day, Traveling along life’s busy way; Bringing conviction to my heart, And from my mind would not depart; Only one life, twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last. Only one life, yes only one, Soon will its fleeting hours be done; Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet, And stand before His Judgement seat; Only one life,’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, the still small voice, Gently pleads for a better choice Bidding me selfish aims to leave, And to God’s holy will to cleave; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, a few brief years, Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears; Each with its clays I must fulfill, living for self or in His will; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.
When this bright world would tempt me sore, When Satan would a victory score; When self would seek to have its way, Then help me Lord with joy to say; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Give me Father, a purpose deep, In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep; Faithful and true what e’er the strife, Pleasing Thee in my daily life; Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Oh let my love with fervor burn, And from the world now let me turn; Living for Thee, and Thee alone, Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne; Only one life, “twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Only one life, yes only one, Now let me say, “Thy will be done”; And when at last I’ll hear the call, I know I’ll say, “twas worth it all”; Only one life,’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.
