This Is My Song and I Sing (And More!)
Posted by: virginiaknowles <virginiaknowles@...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hope Chest with Virginia Knowles
"This Is My Song and I Sing"
May 2009
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Dear friends,
I’m excited about this issue
of the Hope Chest! Some of you have
already read my poem “This Is My Song and I Sing” but there is much more to it
than that. I treasure this opportunity
to share my heart with you. I trust this
will equip and inspire you for the journey, whether you are educating your
children at home or not. This issue is
about 10 pages long, so you might want to print it out in fast draft mode, fix
yourself a tall glass of lemonade, and curl up in your favorite reading chair. And please pass it along to a friend!
Before I get started, I
wanted to draw attention to a prayer request for Jessica Hulcy, the author of
the KONOS home school curriculum.
Jessica was broadsided by a fire truck on Monday morning and is in
critical condition in Dallas,
Texas. As of last night, she was still unconscious
from head trauma, and has lung trauma and broken boys. Now, on Friday evening, she is in surgery for
a torn diaphragm. You can read more at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessicahulcy/mystory. Please keep the Hulcy family in your prayers!
For a quick bit of Knowles
family news, in the next two months:
o
My daughter
Rachel is graduates on June 6 from The Regent Academy home school program. She made the President’s List at Valencia Community College with a 4.0 on her 7
dual enrollment classes, too.
o
We are going to
Thad’s family reunion – both the Knowles and Scerra sides of our clan -- in
south Florida.
o
I am flying to Maryland to attend my
grandparents’ 75th anniversary party.
o
Julia, age 20, is
returning to Bolivia with a Mission:X team from
church for two weeks in July. It will be
her fourth trip there. See http://www.JuliaKnowles.blogspot.com
for some great stories and photos!
o
Right after Julia
returns, Joanna, age 16, is taking her first foreign Mission:X trip to the Dominican Republic.
That’s a lot going on, not
even including all of the usual household stuff with our 9 kids still living at
home! Say a prayer for me that I can
attempt to keep to a halfway reasonable daily schedule amidst all of the
goings-on. I’ve never quite been
successful at that!
In this issue, you will find:
o
“This is My Song
and I Sing”
o
Your Unique Home School
Family
o
Psalms Study
Guide Link
o
My Odyssey from
“Renaissance” to “Reformation”
o
Summer Reading
o
Links to Other
Articles Related to the Themes in “This Is My Song and I Sing”
Blessings,
Virginia Knowles
P.S. My contact information
is easy to remember if you know my name!
http://www.VirginiaKnowles.com
http://www.VirginiaKnowles.blogspot.com
If someone has forwarded this
to you, you can subscribe for yourself by sending any message to [email protected].
~*~*~
THIS IS MY SONG AND I SING
"This
Is My Song
and I Sing"
by Virginia Knowles
This is my song and I sing
Lyric of life, medley of my days
Melody and harmony
Solo, duet, chorale, round
Love song and lullaby
Anthem and protest chant
Rhapsody and dirge
Staccato, legato, crescendo, rest
Measure on measure, mystery on mystery, mercy on mercy
Stories of love, loss, faith, adventure, struggle, hope,
grief, Heaven at last
I sing my own part as only I can
These lines, this life, penned by One who sang me into
being
Who still rejoices over me with singing
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!
This song of my
pilgrimage
A cry of jubilee long coming
Echoing into an eternity of praise
This is my
life and I live it
This is my song and I sing.
~*~*~
Weeks ago, a friend e-mailed
and asked for advice in an area where she knew I had some real life experience. Something serendipitously dawned on me as I
replied to her: Everything we go through in life, whether it is thrilling,
joyful, confusing, distressing, challenging or simultaneously all of the above
– all of it becomes part of our “life song”: the message that we communicate to
those around us, even when we don’t they are listening or watching. The phrase “this is my song and I sing”
started dancing in my head, so the next day I sat down and rough drafted the
poem. I set it aside for several days,
then finally finished it two weeks ago and shared it with a few close friends
and family members. I hope it will be a
blessing to you as well, maybe a comfort on a day of struggle or grief.
There are so many things I
could say in conjunction with the lines of this poem. The one I most want to share with you is that
God did not design you with a cookie cutter, and he didn’t abandon you on his
drawing board either. You are unique and
you are loved! Your story is one-of-a-kind,
even while it is interconnected and overlapping with so many others. You may not conform to the expectations that
others have for you. You may even encounter
plot twists that you never thought you would see written into God’s script for
your life. Yet when viewed through the
clear and far-seeing lens of his providential care for you, whatever you
experience can take you a deeper place, a richer grace. You may find a new song rising in your
heart. You will be equipped to thrive with
more endurance in the future. You could
gain the courage to lay down some baggage that’s been weighing heavily on you
or to stand up for a cause that has now become dear to you. You might empathize more compassionately with
others whom you would have otherwise been tempted to judge harshly – and you
will be able to advise them more wisely as they walk through the same things in
life. And if I can give you some
hard-won advice gained through my own challenging experiences, it is to trust
in the Lord who watches over us, whose abundant grace and mercy are available
to all who enter into his Throne Room.
Don’t evaluate yourself by the performance of others who are on your
Pedestal of Perfection or in your Hall of Fame.
You have your own beautiful song to sing, your own sacred life to live. The world awaits your melody!
~*~*~
There
are several articles on my web site and blog which relate to the thoughts
above. I have linked many of them at the end of this issue, but I wanted to
highlight one in particular, Truth
and Grace in the Stories of Our Lives , as it helps us to think
through our own life journeys and how even the rough and confusing spots can be
redeemed and reinterpreted to glorify God.
~*~*~
YOUR UNIQUE
HOME SCHOOL FAMILIY
What
you see above is my more general comments on “This Is My Song and I
Sing.” Now I would like to share about how these thoughts can apply in
your family and home education.
If
you have been around the home education movement long enough, you’ve probably
noticed that there are so many vastly different opinions floating around out
there. A trip to any large home school convention will certainly
demonstrate this, but you will find it even in a small support group setting!
Many people are so enthusiastic about their own approach that they end up
communicating, perhaps unconsciously, that theirs is the best or only
way of doing things. In many cases, this borders on legalism. Some
of you have been burned by this, not only in the area of academics, but also in
lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, I’ve been on the giving and receiving end of this kind of advice. Please forgive me if I have coming across as
knowing it all! I most certainly
don’t! I’m learning right along with
you.
I’ve
been observing the home school movement for over 20 years -- long enough to see
the tragic fallout that can result when parents become disillusioned with the
results, or worse yet, when children rebel because they are unnaturally forced like
square pegs into round holes. Yes, there is a time to listen to the
opinions of others and learn what you can from them. This kind of humility models a teachable spirit to your children. However, we also need the kind of wisdom that thinks through the issues
carefully and asks God for guidance for our own families. We also need the kind of respect for our own children that takes their individual
personalities, preferences and giftings into account without “accommodating” laziness,
disrespect, or moral laxity.
Another
important consideration is that we should not educate our children only in terms
of what we are trying to AVOID but what we are trying to ENCOURAGE. In other words, we should be nurturing a
wholehearted relationship with their Creator, which will in turn spark their
creativity and change their behavior from the inside out. If we focus only on outward prohibitions, our
kids can get quite proficient at faking it, or they can turn into
self-righteous legalists who look down on everyone else, or they can resist
either passively or aggressively. I can
tell you I’ve made a whole bunch of mistakes along the way, and I’d like to
spare you from hitting some nasty potholes.
As
Josh McDowell has said, “Rules without relationships reap rebellion.” We do need rules, but maybe a word picture
will help. A good common illustration
about setting limits is that it is like a fence around a playground. The kids can play more securely there because
the fence helps prevent them from getting lost, or being snatched by a
predatory stranger, or falling into the path of a car while running after a
ball. This is important! However, the fence is not the focal point of
the playground. The real attractions are the slide, the swings, the climbing
fort, the wide open places to run, the picnic tables, and most of all, the
loving mommies and daddies who brought them there to enjoy family fun and get
their exercise.
The positive life-affirming experience of
learning and loving is what really builds our children! We want them to be able to sing joyful,
passionate, heartfelt songs with their lives – reflecting glory to the very God
who has endowed them with rich gifts and precious uniqueness! As Gary Thomas wrote in Holy
Available: What If Holiness is About More than What We Don’t Do? (formerly
titled The Beautiful Fight):
“God didn’t create you not to do something; if that had been
his goal, he never would have formed you, because if you never existed, you
never would have sinned. God made each of us in his image, and he wants us to
recapture that image, to surrender to his work in our lives, so that we “will be called oaks of righteousness, a
planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor” (Isaiah 61:3).
I
could write more about this whole topic, but I think it’s time to get off my
soap box and just recommend two books that cover it so much better than I could. Both
of these books have been updated since the editions I have. The descriptions of them come from the
Christian Book Distributors web site. If
you click on the titles below, it will take you to the pages there, and you can
actually read samples of the books on-line by clicking on Excerpt. Please
read the samples – especially Monte Swan’s -- even if you don’t plan to buy the
books! You can learn so much even from a
short snippet!
Romancing
Your Child’s Heart by Monte Swan:
Good parenting isn't only about controlling your kids' behavior---it's about
winning their hearts for God! Blending practical advice with real-life
child-rearing scenarios, Swan shows how to move beyond parent-child power
struggles toward genuine "heart teaching." Discover creative ways to
shepherd your kids toward a transforming relationship with Jesus---and watch
good behavior follow! 280 pages, softcover from Loyal.
Reaping
the Harvest: The Bounty of Abundant-Life Home Schooling by Diana Waring: Just as harvesting a garden means
kicking up some dirt, raising teenagers often gets messy. Diana's grace-filled
and experience-based approach to parenting shows you how to build strong
relationships, avoid "typical teen" behavior, lovingly instruct your
children on the path toward maturity, and enjoy one another. 224 pages,
softcover from YWAM. (Virginia’s note: This book is primarily for
parents who are home schooling TEENAGERS, but even if you aren’t “there” yet,
read it anyway – or get her earlier book Beyond
Survival: A Guide to Abundant-Life Homeschooling.)
I also wanted to mention an excellent article by Reb Bradley on "Solving
the Crisis in Homeschooling," which begins: "In the last
couple of years, I have heard from multitudes of troubles homeschool parents
around the country, a good many of whom were leaders. These parents
have graduated their first batch of kids, only to discover that their
children didn't turn out the way they thought they would. Many of these
children were model homeschoolers while growing up, but sometime after their
18th birthday they began to reveal that they didn't hold to their parents'
values." Intrigued? You can find
this "must read" article here: http://www.familyministries.com/HS_Crisis.htm
Before
I close this article, I wanted to mention that my own book The Real Life Home School Mom,
covers a whole gamut of topics related to the emotional, spiritual, and
logistical aspects of the home school lifestyle. I have a few copies in stock, so if you are
interested in ordering one before I reprint for my regular summer book season,
just let me know. They cost $18 each, or
$22.47 including $3 shipping and $1.47 tax. (These copies, due to an error at
the printing company, are printed on one side of each page only, so they are
double thick but with plenty of room
to write your own reflections on them!)
o
The Real Life
Home School Mom: It’s a Life in ReVision by Virginia Knowles
o
Review
of The Real Life Home School Mom on Eclectic Homeschool Online
o
Cherishing Your Marriage (sample chapter)
~*~*~
PSALMS STUDY GUIDE
This next year in our home school co-op, I am again
teaching the 7th-8th grade English class. A six week literature study on the Old
Testament will kick off the fall semester.
I have put my tentative lessons for our week on Psalms on-line. You can find them here: http://www.VirginiaKnowles.com/PsalmsStudyGuide. I think we can all learn to “sing our lives”
better as we immerse ourselves in the Psalms!
I’m thankful that the Bible Bee has included so many verses from
Psalms in their Scripture memorization lists.
(Over 17,000 kids are signed up!
Registration is closed, but you can still download study
materials.) I am learning the
passages right along with my children.
Here are three from Psalms that I like the most:
“Let
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm
19:14
“The Lord is near to the
brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them
all.” Psalm 34:18-19
“Those who sow
in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the
seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with
him.” Psalm 126:5-6
~*~*~
MY ODYSSEY FROM “RENAISSANCE” TO
“REFORMATION”
by Virginia Knowles in August 2005
When I was about seven years old, living
in a suburb of San Francisco,
my parents made a really wise decision: they pulled the plug on our TV! We were
addicted to sit-coms and needed to use our time more productively. For the next
several years, we had the opportunity to develop creatively and intellectually
without as much distraction. Mom and Dad took us to concerts, plays,
Renaissance Fairs, art and history museums, ethnic restaurants, and many other
cultural places. We often went ca
the Sequoia National
Park and Yosemite. (The
picture is our family at Crater Lake in Oregon
in the mid 1970's. I'm on the right. Yes, we looked like hippies and my
brother's hair was much longer than mine.) We grew blackberries, corn and
tangerines in the backyard, and pansies, golden poppies and plums in the front
yard. We could go to a bookstore and buy anything we wanted. We took art, music
and drama classes in the community. I can’t count how many musical instruments
we had in the house. My brother John played the trumpet, trombone, piano,
synthesizer, organ, and other instruments, while Barb specialized in the cello.
They were active in band and orchestra, so there was always a great high school
musical to attend! They were much more self-disciplined than I was, but I did
take piano lessons for several years, and later added the mountain dulcimer and
guitar to my repertoire. We also attended music theory, history and performance
classes at a local conservatory for quite some time. Yes, we were quite a
“Renaissance” family when it came to the arts and book knowledge. However, for
all the blessing this was, I remained deep in the spiritual “Dark Ages” for
these preteen years in the mid 1970s. God was missing from all of our pursuits!
You see, historically speaking, the Renaissance in southern Europe
was largely a rebirth of classical, humanistic knowledge. The Reformation in
northern Europe, on the other hand, was
saturated in Scripture and a total reliance on the finished work of Jesus
Christ on the cross. I already had the Renaissance in my life. It wasn’t enough.
I needed a personal Reformation, a total rebirth and reshaping from the inside
out. Then came July 1976. I had just finished 7th grade and mocked the crazy
Christians who tried to witness to me. Yet in his mercy, the Lord reached down
and saved me when I certainly wasn’t looking for him. Thus started a spiritual
odyssey that not only gave me citizenship into God’s kingdom, but transformed
my approach to creativity, the arts, and learning in general.
In Spring 1977, we moved from San Francisco to Baltimore. In my new
chorus class at school, I sat next to a sweet girl named Anne Rittler, who
invited me to Timonium Presbyterian Church. Her parents were so faithful to
drive me there for Sunday services and youth meetings. It was here that I began
a season of intense Bible study, fell in love with Christian literature,
learned countless hymns and Christian folk songs, sang in the youth choir, went
to a James Ward concert, and was sent on my first overseas summer mission trip.
After a mere year and half, our family moved to northern Virginia. In this new chapter of life, I
blossomed even more creatively in the faith. Inspired by the Saturday Night
Alive praise and worship services sponsored by two local churches, as well as
Keith Green and 2nd Chapter of Acts concerts, I started writing my own
Christian songs and setting psalms to music. My oil painting took on
inspirational themes such as Christ’s sacrifice, prayer, and entering into
God’s presence. I devoured Christian books and magazines, and decided to go to
business school so that someday I could own a Christian bookstore. When I
picked up my pen or sat at the computer to write, it was to encourage my fellow
believers and to witness to those who didn’t yet know the Savior.
As God graciously brought
this Reformation to each facet of my life, learning and the arts became a means
to not only worship my Creator (who made each of us in his creative image) but
to reach out with a redemptive mission and a message. This is what I also try
to do as I home school my children. I don’t want to just expose them to the
best in art, music, literature, and so forth – though these are very good
things. I want to aim for spiritual transformation – to encourage them to seek
God wholeheartedly and to use their gifts for the Kingdom rather than for
themselves. We have a long way to go in this area; I must continually set
myself to fresh resolve. This is also my prayer as I write each Hope Chest
issue or book -- that whatever I say will bring honor and glory to him who gave
me each gift.
Talk About It: How has God
worked to draw forth creativity in your life? How can you use his gifts for his
glory?
~~~
This article originally
appeared in the August 2005 edition of the Hope Chest. You can read that entire
issue here: Making
Melody in Our Hearts.
I put it on my blog recently
as a follow up to another post, Childhood
Memories: Our Kansas City Years which hints about the value of a warm
welcome and of books in a child’s life.
I also wrote it to encourage other parents to share their life stories
with their children, knowing that our experiences have shaped us into who we
are. Looking at photo albums can be a
great way to ease into this. You can see
some of my own childhood photos, including one of me sitting on top of our refrigerator,
at Growing
Up in the Quarrier Family.
I’m trying to make and preserve memories with my own kids, too. You can see pictures of some of them at: Fresh Air: Kids, Flowers, Trees, Bikes, Lizards and Other Fun.
Want to have some fun with your kids? Check out free bowling at http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/index.php
and free Christian/family movies at http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx? (Thanks to my friend Kim Carbia for sending
these links!)
My friend Lisa Stump, after reading
“This Is My Song and I Sing” sent me this link to a beautiful poem called “Music”
by Anne Porter. Lisa wrote her own
poem which you can find on my blog here: “Morning
Glory” & Hope After a Stroke by Lisa Stump.
~*~*~
SUMMER READING
My
kids, bless their hearts, have been writing lists of books they want to read
this summer. My own summer reading goals
include boning up on government and economics, of which I am woefully ignorant.
To ease into it, I’m starting out with a broader foundation of The Consequences of Ideas by R.C. Sproul, a
philosophy/theology book that Mary used in high school. My friend Phyllis handed me a copy of Why
You Can’t Stay Silent: A Biblical Mandate to Shape Our Culture by
Tom Minnery. I am still looking for a
basic Christian book on government. I am also going to reread Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noël
Piper, which profiles five outstanding Christian ladies: Sarah Edwards, Lilias
Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare. I must
confess that I borrowed a copy from my friend Debbie a few years ago and never returned it
(shame on me!), since I intended to read it again. Now I can finally give her
copy back, because all of the moms at church received one as a gift for
Mother’s Day.
I also try to skim
several noteworthy blogs each day. I keep
these nicely organized using Google Reader. From my
Gmail account, I click on the Reader tab at the top of the screen. Once I
enter the web addresses of blogs I want to follow, it will automatically show
me anything new, right in one convenient place. It keeps me from hopping
around or trying to remember what I wanted to read. If you have any
recommendations for me, or if you write your own blog, please send me the
links! Here are several of the blogs I try to at least skim regularly…
(Yes, I do read blogs VERY fast.)
o Tim Challies: Informing the Reforming http://www.challies.com/
o Girl Talk: Conversations on Biblical Womanhood and
Other Fun Stuff http://girltalk.blogs.com/
o Metro Life Moms http://metromomsblog.org/ is a ministry of our church. If you click on May 2009 under the Mom’s
Meetings heading in the right hand side bar, you can listen to veteran home
school mom and pastor’s wife Sheree Phillips sharing on the topic of Titus 2
mentoring. The current series on the blog is summer fun, and the previous one was mentoring. Good stuff here!
o A Wise Woman Builds Her Home by June Fuentes: http://www.proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/
o There’s Always a Story: http://www.CherylBastian.blogspot.com
- Mission Network News: http://mnnonline.org
A link that I found on the
Girl Talk blog is for Rachel Barkey’s web site Death is Not Dying. Rachel is a 37 year old Canadian woman who
has terminal cancer and very little time left to live on earth. You can read, watch, or listen to her
astounding testimony by clicking here: Death
is Not Dying. She says, “Cancer does
not define me. Neither does being a wife or a mother. All these things are part
of who I am but they do not define me. What defines me is my relationship with
Jesus.” If you know someone who is dying
or who has cancer, please forward this link to them!
What are you reading this
summer? Drop me a note and tell me about
it!
~*~*~
LINKS TO POEMS AND OTHER ARTICLES
RELATED TO THE THEMES OF
“THIS IS MY SONG AND I SING”
My Other Poems
A
Mother’s Seeds
Corpus
Christi
Do Cry
Follow You
To
Bolivia with Love
Candlewick
Rhapsody
in M
Psalm
to Sweet Jesus
The
Story Did Not Start with a Stable and a Star
The
Paradox
Seven
Blessings for One Marriage
Over Utah in January
Other poems
Struggle,
Disappointment, Weariness, Dealing with the Past
Truth and Grace in the Stories of Our
Lives
"My Glorious
Dishtowel" Redux and More
Come Weary Moms!
Living
the Vibrant Life
Sawdust and Buttons:
Motherhood and the Vibrant Life
The Dance of Hope (and
a note on journaling)
We Live in Deeds, Not
Years...
Living from the Deep
Places of the Heart
New Songs and Old
~*~*~
OK,
I think that’s more than enough for now!
I would appreciate your feedback on what you liked best!
Blessings,
Virginia
Knowles
--
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