Seven...
The number of perfection...
Seven...
The year of Jubilee--the year the land, and the people REST--Sabbath REST
(Leviticus 25:1-4)
Seven...
It's year SEVEN at Academy Tolar.
OK, I'll admit it. This year (2016) has been hard to stay focused. Spring schooling was a beast. EVERYONE was ready to be done...especially me. Our summer looked so different from summers past. We prayerfully, yet enthusiastically decided as a family to visit the DR with Rain Down Ministries (see last post). This meant our summer North American Red Angus Junior Event was on hold. SO we waited to see if we thought we could do both.... NOPE. We had to choose. We went with our decision to follow the Lord's leading to the DR in great expectation (and much preparation). With the trip being in late July followed by a trip to TX in early August for a wedding, I could not get focused OR motivated. I planned an overnight retreat with my cousin/sister/homeschooling guru in Birmingham to try to gain some clarity. All the while praying for wisdom and clarity from the Lord for our year. NEVER have I been at such a loss. (Some things would certainly stay the same and continue as in years prior, but some things needed definite change.) So I suggested postponing Owen's graduation by a year and truly taking the SEVENTH year off as a Jubilee-Sabbath-REST. They weren't buying... RATS!! ;)
As my sweet Father always does, He pointed me on the right path...even when I wasn't aware that's what He was doing. You see, I've been listening to Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth's daily podcast on the Lord's Prayer--and EVERY single other place I looked was on our PRAYER LIVES. One day --Day 3-- she shares that 'praise precedes the petition' when we pray in the way Jesus taught us. She starts reading in 2 Chronicles 20 vs 1. Setting the stage for Jehoshaphat and the battle that is brewing all around him. Panic would certainly drive me to petition first, but not Jehoshaphat. 2 Chronicles 20:5-6 J-man begins a beautiful discourse of praise! Mind you the armies are closing in--PANIC--and he's praising not petitioning God. **light bulb--AHA** I'm doing it all wrong!! So Jehoshaphat continues his prayer to Almighty God and truly petitions that God would save and spare them. (My daily warfare mantra) BUT then in verse 12 he closes that prayer with these words...words that have filled my mind for 15 days... "...We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You." That's IT!!
My eyes were focused on curricula, calendars, ACT, dual college credit, time demands, appointments, extracurricular...not on HIM! What on earth?!?
I was gently reminded in re-reading 'Called Home: Finding Joy in Letting God Lead Your Homeschool' by Karen DeBeus how much simpler and easier our first year seemed in retrospect. I want to dismiss it as 'they were smaller, less daily school work, only two of the three schooling..." when in reality I was TOTALLY dependent on God because I WAS LOST in this new journey. I needed Him for EVERYTHING. Then... I got overconfident thinking, 'I got this. We know the drill, etc'
Do you hear the screeching of breaks? 'Cause boy, I surely do!!!
So here I am, day 2 of 2016-2017 Academy Tolar. My desire is to teach from REST as Sarah Mackenzie so eloquently shares in 'Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace'. We will have chaotic days. We will have lazy days. We will have disobedient days. We are REAL people just walking this path as we seek Him. And as J-man said... We don't have to know WHAT to do, just WHO to watch. And for the record...God showed up and showed out on behalf of Judah when their eyes were on Him. And then in verse 30... 'So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him REST all around.'
I'm not special. God IS...choose where YOU fix your eyes. ♥ Only He gives true REST.
Perfect isn't always Beautiful...sometimes old things made new are more beautiful!
