What I'd Be Missing Out On

Everyonce in awhile I stop myself in my own tracks and ask myself, "If I weren't homeschooling, what would I be missing out on right now?" Today, I had one of those times where the question answered itself before I realized I'd even asked it.

I love candles and had decided to light not one, not two, but three candles. My son, age 9, who loves candles also, (and loves to light them) asked if he could light a candle. "Yes," was my reply. That was it. That was the instant that I was reminded, "If I weren't homeschooling, I would've missed that moment with Daniel." Is it a big deal? Is lighting a candle a big deal? No, not really. But.....we wouldn't have had that minute together. It would have been a period of time, although brief, that we would've missed out on. I'm not willing to give those moments up. There's waaaay too much conversation, too much precious living and loving that I would miss out on, that WE would miss out on. Homeschooling is the "layered look" of the Christian life, family living, and academics, that when combined, embodies who we are. It creates the setting for memories that seem unimportant, but can become everything! I believe that each moment does indeed count for eternity. The repercussions of our calling and decision to homeschool is designed by God to have a lasting impact for many, many generations, and I take it seriously for that reason.

Hope: What Is It?

What is hope? I am not planning on answering the question right now, but just want to begin the discussion. I found Wikipedia's small synopsis on hope interesting, so I will post that for starters. Read it and let me know what you think. Wikipedia says:

"Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. [1] Hopefulness is somewhat different from optimism in that hope is an emotional state, whereas optimism is a conclusion reached through a deliberate thought pattern that leads to a positive attitude."

"When used in a religious context, hope carries a connotation of being aware of what Christians see as spiritual "truth"; see Hope (virtue). In Christian theology, hope is one of the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), which are spiritual gifts of God. In contrast to the above, it is not a physical emotion but a spiritual grace. Hope is distinct from positive thinking, which refers to a therapeutic or systematic process used in psychology for reversing pessimism. The term false hope refers to a hope based entirely around a fantasy or an extremely unlikely outcome."

Wikipedia continues.....

"In some religious contexts hope changes from being a verb to a noun. For instance, when Christians say they have hope in God they are not saying they hope God will give them good things and make their lives happier but that God is in fact, their hope."


Oh, yes, I do have some very definite thoughts about hope, so this is not a complete quest, if you will. Let's define it, let's see what our life manual, God's word has to say about it. Do we really have hope? Is there a time when the Christian cannot have hope? What makes us feel like we've lost hope as we often hear or perhaps even think?

I will be out of pocket for a couple of days singing on a worship team (something I would find difficult to do without hope) at a conference about an hour away. This allows for a couple of nights at a hotel, but for me more than likely, away from a computer. I'll look forward to your thoughts, scriptures, and challenging each other in the area of hope!