Tidbit #5: Sunshine!
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>
HOPE CHEST HOME SCHOOL NEWS
with Virginia Knowles
Tidbit #5 on August 31, 2003
Sunshine!
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The Hope Chest Home School News is a free e-mail newsletter with encouragement and practical teaching tips. The editor is Virginia Knowles, wife of Thad, mother of nine children, and author of Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade, and The Real Life Home School Mom.
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I was going to send you an article on educational theory, but sensed this morning that wasn't what I was supposed to send.
Instead, please let me encourage you to ENJOY YOUR CHILDREN! These can be the very best years of your life! As a mom of nine children, ages 6 months to 16 years old, I KNOW how much noise/mess/conflict motherhood entails. It is the work of God's grace in my life that I'm learning to rejoice in his providences and cultivate a sweeter serenity than I have known before. I want to make my home a sunny haven instead of a stinking pit of criticism. Yes, I still have an occasional feisty little meltdown, but the irritations are getting much briefer and easier to bear. I'm REALLY enjoying my time with my children. These last four weeks of school have just flown by. I see the fleeting moments left with my precious blessings (especially my teenagers!), and I do NOT wish that graduation would hurry up! The years are short!
Savor the little joys! Smile, laugh, hug, kiss, serve, forgive, play, praise, gaze fondly, and tell your children (and husband, too!) how much you LIKE to be with them! The years are short!
For those who are wondering about my mother-in-law, Ann Knowles, she is still alive, always cheerful (such a testimony to me!), and getting a little stronger every day. She can eat what she wants and sit in a recliner for hours at a time. She knows HER time left with us is short, and we are ALL savoring each moment. God has been so good to us in making her so newly alive in Christ, even as her body is dying. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
I know that Ann can't concentrate long enough to read whole books, but I wanted a way to encourage her in the faith. I had several key Scripture passages and inspirational poems and hymns already in my computer, so I cut-and-pasted a whole bunch of them (Bible verses on the left column, poems/hymns on the right column) into my word processing program. I printed them out on bright colored cardstock, put them into a three ring notebook, and made a cardstock cover (Ann's Book of Sunshine) to slip into the clear front cover. Just the process of doing this was a real lift to my own spirit.
Here is the poem that I paired up on a page with Ephesians 3:16-21, Philippians 4:6-7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. It was sent to me by Cora Knight, a missionary in Hong Kong. If you would like to get her Manna for Mothers e-mail messages, contact her at [email protected].
It is very well to heed,
In a world where pain and sorrow
Are quite plentiful indeed.
If you would not have them double,
Then keep this well in view,
To never trouble trouble
Until trouble troubles you.
You are certain to be drowned;
The very darkest tempest
May quickly blow around.
And up above the blackness
Shines evermore the blue;
So never trouble trouble
Until trouble troubles you.
Precedes a sunny day;
So, without a word of warning
Our trials slip away.
What pangs we oft have suffered
From ills we never knew!
So never trouble trouble
Until trouble troubles you.
You may never have to cross.
Quit climbing all the ridges
Of future pain and loss.
Trudge on and do your duty,
To God and conscience true,
And never trouble trouble
Until trouble troubles you.