Covid-19

Virtual Learning: Embrace the Season…

BlairCreekmore

Virtual school, Zoom school, Blackboard, Google Classroom, Seesaw, internet, wifi, bandwidth are now part of your everyday vocabulary. Take your child to work day is suddenly every day!

Unlike families who chose to homeschool their children, who had time to pray, plan, and prepare, this new adventure has been thrust upon many families. Suddenly your season has changed,  your routine is turned upside down,  you have added another plate to the many you are already spinning in your life. You may be feeling the weight of the responsibility and questioning your self as a mom. I want to encourage every one of you in this new season. Your children will soon be grown. The picture below was taken years ago. In amidst the chaos, cherish the moments you have with your childern.

Embrace this season as an opportunity to embrace your children. Be purposeful. Be proactive. Involve your children in your life more and you in theirs. They will learn as much from helping you with what God has called you to do as they will from a book. Pray, plan, and then prepare to act. God is actively working in this new season of your life. The Holy Spirit will guide you, give you wisdom, give you discernment, give you strength, give you patience. When I was homeschooling my children, God used that time to teach me things about myself and my children. Lessons learned then have carried over into other areas of my life.

While homeschooling I learned to:

1) Pray for insight. Pray that my heart and eyes would be open to seeing the strengths, gifts, talents that Jesus has given my children. “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:14, NASB)

2) Pray that God knew what He was doing when He God gave me this child. He knew my strengths and He knew the child needed them. He knew my weaknesses. It is not by accident they are in my family. “For this child, I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.” ( 1 Samuel 1: 27-28, KJV)

3) Pray to know God’s plan. Pray that God does have a plan and He will reveal His plan to you if you seek to know it. The situation is no surprise to God. You may not see how you are going to make this work. How can you juggle work, kids’ school, family, and friend responsibilities? But God knows how to make it work. There will be adjustments along the way. The Bible says that God will light your path and guide you step by step. The adjustments may seem too big, too hard, but as you go through them and get on the other side of them you will see God’s plan and purpose was there all along. ” Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119: 105, KJV)

4) Pray for wisdom. Pray that God will give me, as the parent, supernatural wisdom, and insight into my child’s needs and abilities. He will show you how your child learns and give you ways to instill knowledge into them. Pray for wisdom. “For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2: 6, NASB)

5) Pray for understanding. I prayed for understanding regarding not just the academics, but understanding regarding my child’s temperament. I prayed that I and my children would have an understanding of things of God; an understanding of the word of God. “Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart.”

6) Pray for peace. Peace in the home. Peace in your heart. Peace in their heart. Pray for strength to get rid of the areas and obligations in my life that don’t bring peace. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” (John 14: 27, NASB)

7) Pray for unity. Lock arms with your child to tackle this new method of education. This is new to them as well as you. Let them know you are on their side.  “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1- 3, (NASB)

8) Pray for anointing. Even you don’t have an education degree, God will anoint you for the task at hand. He is not unaware of or surprised by your knowledge and abilities. As you pray you may find that God has been preparing you all along. The lessons you have learned are for such a time as this. “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” (1 John 2: 27, NASB)

9) Pray for favor. Favor with your children. Yes, I know this may sound odd. but favor opens the doors for dialogue and understanding. Don’t be afraid to say I don’t know, but let’s find out together. Pray for favor with your children, family, friends, teachers, and coworkers. “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.” (Psalm 90: 17, NIV)

10) Pray for grace. This may be hard to comprehend, but yes you may have days that ‘you blow it’. I had many days like this. It is times like this that I needed grace for my self and for my children. Grace that was beyond my ability to bestow. God would take times like that to remind me of the big picture, that He was not done loving and guiding my children or myself. Grace can only come from God. “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Corinthians 1:3, NIV)

11) Pray for strength. Pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen you for the task at hand. I quickly realized that I could not forsake the time I spend praying and reading God’s word. No matter how busy the day. I knew that I needed to take the time each day to pray, read the word, and be still and know that He is God. Allow your children to do the same. Just as the Holy Spirit will comfort and quiet your heart and soul, He will do the same for your child. “He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10, NIV)

12) Pray for teachable moments. These are times when God shows you something ‘outside the box’. These are times when He shows you His heart. It may not be in front of the computer, it may be in a walk with your child or a moment at the kitchen table. Look for them, embrace them. These are things that build character and relationships. “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.” (Psalm 1: 1-2, NIV)

13) Pray for positive relationships. I realyzed that we are in this together. Pray that God will bring people in your life who will support and encourage you on this journey. Pray that He will bring people to say just the right word or offer a suggestion that brings a solution to a problem. “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:4, NIV)

14) Pray for joy. This was difficult on days when computers aren’t working, your child is in tears because they don’t understand something, and you can ‘fix’ the situation you are faced with. It was days like this that I realyzed that I needed joy that can only come from my relationship with God. I would take a deep breath and pray, show me where I can find joy. Why did I need joy so much? Because the joy of the Lord was my strength to be patient, to persevere, to find peace, to find love. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15: 13, NIV)

15) Pray scripture over yourself, and your children. I learned to personalize the word of God. See examples below.

Are my children perfect? Am I perfect? Is my family perfect? Did they learn everything and still able to recite pages of education? The answer to all of these is ‘No‘.

Did my children see me model how to handle stressful situations? Did my children see where my strength comes from? Did my children see the love of God walked out before them every day? Maybe.

Did God see my heart? Did I learn that God is patient? Did I learn that Jesus loves me? Did I learn that Jesus is always there guiding, loving, forgiving, strengthening, healing? Did I learn to humble myself before God and seek HIs wisdom? Did I receive healing, peace, love, joy, patience that is not dependent on circumstances but because God is a loving God? YES!

Will God love, forgive, strengthen, teach, heal, anoint, guide, protect, embrace my children as He did me? YES

Prayer Scriptures

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you__(insert name)_____________ with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you ___________(insert name)____may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: _________ (insert name )_____bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you_______(insert name)______ may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you ____(insert name)_____ to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ” (Colossians 1:12, NIV)

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you ____________(insert name)______will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phillippians 1: 6, NASB)

Is your jello sticking to the wall yet? Psalm 32:8 Part 1: Instruct

BlairCreekmore
Are you adding your own nails to make i
stick? How is that working for you?

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. ” — Psalm 32:8 (NASB)

Do you feel like you are trying everything and nothing is working right? Are you like me and you want to know where to go next, what to do? Am I on the right path? These days we have Google Maps to talk to us and to say turn right or left in 1.1 miles. But what about our life? Are you throwing jello against the wall to see what sticks? Are you adding your own nails to make it stick? How is that working for you? Are you are going in all directions, picking up everything you can, to see what works. Is the stress relieved, has peace and joy returned? Don’t you wish you had someone to tell you in 1.1 miles decide to do this or not to do it? Psalm 32 tells us that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will do just that.

Psalm 32 reminds that God will instruct, teach, and counsel us.

Instruct means to provide understanding, insight, show what to pay attention to, show what you need to focus your mind on. The instructor is passing on his wisdom, knowledge, expertise, skill in order for the person to be successful in what they are doing. The concept of the expert instructing the apprentice is illustrated here. The expert imparts not only knowledge, but skill and wisdom. It denotes the concept of the instructor being circumspect or seeing everything in all directions and being able to tell you what you need to highlight and/or give attention to. The one instructed will become wise, prudent, skillful, have incite regarding the situations, and be able to discern what to do and when to do it, This wisdom and knowledge is not from the person but is a result of the instruction.

Do you feel like you are flying blind? Have you gotten somewhere and don’t know how to land?

Have you ever put something together and ended up with ‘spare’ parts(scary!)? Or tried to skip some of the instruction steps in a Lego build only to have take it a part and backtrack to where you went off on your own? Do you feel like you are flying blind? Have gotten somewhere and don’t know how to land? Now I know sometimes we try to ‘shortcut’ the directions. But what usually happens is we have parts left over or we reach a point where we need to redo to make the parts fit properly. Either way, we have wasted time and energy. The finished product may not work the best or worse yet, not work at all. I usually end up with frustration, stress, disappointment, anger (lot of negative thoughts!). When someone instructs us it is like reading the directions. If only I had followed the directions. If only I had humbled myself to receive instruction.

“But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.” — Proverbs 21:11 (NASB)

The word ‘wise’ is the same word for ‘instruct’ used in Psalm 32. It is a verb, “sakal”, which means there is ‘action’ required. There is also a link to the person doing the instruction and the one receiving instruction. There has to be a relationship. God knows just how to instruct us, but we need to be willing to be instructed. God is the only one with complete circumspection of our life. Without His instruction we are throwing the jello against the wall. Without God’s instructions we tend to focus in all directions, with no purpose. We lack understanding and knowledge of what is going on in our life and why things are happening to us. All our efforts are in vain. We may feel like our thoughts are overwhelming us to the point we cannot “think clearly’. Without clear instruction, energy is spent to keep the ‘plates spinning’ in our life with no victory in sight. We tend have the same dramas repeated over and over in our life.

“When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.”– Psalm 32:3 (NASB)

The result was forgiveness, preservation and
deliverance. God’s living waters of forgiveness
could flow in his life.

David wrote Psalm 32. It is described as a ‘contemplative happy’ song. However, in the beginning David is not happy. David describes how sin was ‘heavy upon me’. The weight of the sin was draining his ‘vitality’. He describes his body as ‘wasting away’ . It wasn’t just because of sin, but because he ‘kept silent’ (Psalm 32:3) If you keep sin silent and hidden, it will devour you physically, mentally, and emotionally. David describes how blessed and fortunate he was when he did not keep his sin hidden, but acknowledged it to God. (Psalm 32: 5). The result was forgiveness, preservation, and deliverance. God’s living waters of forgiveness could flow in his life. This forgiveness opened the doorway of David’s heart and soul to be instructed by God and the Holy Spirit.

Sin made it so that David could not hear, understand, and obey God’s clear instructions. The relationship was blocked. The same is true of us today. When we have sin that we have not confessed we cannot hear God’s voice clearly. We are numb to the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit leading and guiding us to Jesus Christ. We cannot hear instructions clearly. We read the Bible and lack understanding.

God sees what we are facing in all directions in our life and He knows what is ahead of us. God created us and knows our talents, strengths and weaknesses. He knows how to instruct us. The Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us to Jesus and His forgiveness. When we confess our sins and ask for the forgiveness that Jesus Christ provided for us through His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, the relationship is fully restored. The sin that was blocking the flow of God’s instructions in our hearts and minds is removed. The relationship between the instructor and the apprentice is restored. Jesus becomes not just our savior, but the Lord of our life. The word of God, the Bible, becomes our blue print, our instructions, that we can understand and receive in our hearts and mind.

Where are you looking for instructions regarding your life? Who is instructing you? Do you have ‘hidden’ sin that is blocking your relationship with Jesus?

Prayer:

Dear Jesus

I acknowledge my sin (___________________) to you. I acknowledge my immoral thoughts and actions. I confess my transgressions. I confess that my heart has rebelled against you and your Word. I ask for forgiveness of my sins. I ask for you to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9). I accept the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross to cleanse me from sin. I desire Lord Jesus to have my relationship with you restored. Holy Spirit please guide me in the instructions of God’s word. Bring to my remembrance all that God’ has instructed. (John 14:26) I pray that my heart and spirit will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit guidance and conviction of anything that is hindering my relationship with Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:5) Amen