HS #206 - Asheritah Ciuciu - How to Make Lent Part of Your Homeschool Curriculum
Links and Resources:
Show Notes:
Episode #206 — Asheritah Ciuciu — How to make Lent part of your homeschool “curriculum”
February 25, 2020
DESCRIPTION:
Lead your children through Lent with creative activities and Bible readings! Today’s episode is the most gracious conversation about inviting our children to spend time with us in the word during the lenten season. Asheritah Ciuciu, author of Uncovering the Love of Jesus: a lent devotional, tells us both the history and the purpose of Lent, and gives us resources to make this more than just another “unit study.”
TODAY’S GUEST:
ASHERITAH CIUCIU is a bestselling writer and speaker, wife to her high school sweetheart Flaviu and mama to three spunky kiddos. She grew up in Romania as a missionary kid and studied English and Women's Ministry at Cedarville University. Her passion is helping overwhelmed women find joy in Jesus through creative and consistent time in God's Word.
RESOURCES:
Uncoverthelove.com
Text LOVE to 33777 to receive Asheritah’s free resources for lent via email
Uncovering the Love of Jesus: a lent devotional.
Unwrapping the Names of Jesus: an advent devotional
Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction
Bible and Breakfast
The 40 Day Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake
Amon’s Adventure: A Family Story for Easter by Arnold Ytreeide
SCRIPTURE:
“He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” (Isaiah 40:11, ESV)
QUOTES:
- We don’t have to hustle to get our children into the Kingdom. (Asheritah Ciuciu)
- Ask the Lord to reveal just the things that He wants you to do as a family this Lent. (Asheritah Ciuciu)
- The Lord will lead you and teach you how to lead (and teach) your family. (Asheritah Ciuciu)
- Fasting is identifying with Christ in His suffering. (Asheritah Ciuciu)
- The question of Lent is “Why did Jesus have to die?” (Asheritah Ciuciu)
CONNECT WITH ASHERITAH:
Website: https://onethingalone.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asheritah/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asheritah/
Show Transcript:
HS EP 206 Asheritah Ciuciu
WENDY – Welcome to the Homeschool Solutions podcast brought to you by Sonlight Curriculum and Homeschooling.mom. I’m your host Wendy Speake. Here on the show every week you’ll get to listen in on some great conversations with wonderful guests all designed to equip us as homeschooling moms. And then once a month, we’ll be opening up the Bible together, applying God’s Word to our long, blessed, but often challenging days. It is my hope as we gather together in this space, we will encourage one another with some practical, Biblical solutions. I’m so glad you’re here.
Before we start the show, I’d like to thank our sponsor, Sonlight Curriculum. Complete homeschool curriculum you’re guaranteed to love. And now, enjoy the show.
Welcome back friends. Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to my dear friend, Asheritah Ciuciu. Before we invite her into our conversation, I’d love to tell you how we met. A little about her books, and then we’re gonna dive into our time with our guest.
So, how did I come to know this dear woman. Well, Asheritah and I met about five years ago online in a community of Christian authors. I say authors, but we were merely bloggers. Neither of us had yet published a book at that time, but God was already laying a groundwork, not only for the books that would come, but also for our friendship. And how He was going to tie those together.
As I’ve mentioned before, five years ago, I was just beginning to lead an annual online sugar fast for women and little did I know that God was calling Asheritah to fast from sugar herself. Before she found the 40-day sugar fast, she was attempting to fast from sugar on her own. As the story goes, she had prayed that God would bring her some direction and accountability, and low and behold the sugar fast crossed her feed on Facebook and she joined our community.
And because she’s such a wonderful communicator, with a deep faith, I asked her if she would help me to lead our fast throughout the year, and she has been a treasure of a friend and a companion to me. And the Lord has done such an incredible work in this area of her life, that Asheritah actually published a book entitled Full. The subtitle is, Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction. And it has been a game changer for so many women who struggle with food fixation and addiction.
So that’s some of our back story. Sense then, Asheritah published an incredible advent devotional entitled, Unwrapping the Names of Jesus. And it has been a best seller for the past few holidays. And it offers not only adults but families a wonderful roadmap of sorts through the advent season, and I’m so excited to have her with us today to talk about her follow up devotional, Uncovering the Love of Jesus. And how we might lead our children through this upcoming season of lent intentionally helping them to prepare their hearts to further understand the love of God as demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And so, without further ado, I was to welcome my friend, Asheritah Ciuciu. Welcome, friend.
ASHERITAH – Wendy, I couldn’t be more excited to be here. Thank you.
W – Yeah, it is special, and this is our first time doing something like this. But the last time I saw Asheritah, we actually went to a coffee shop together. And we talked about our dreams for our families and our dreams for our writing ministries. And then I went back to your house, Asheritah, and I love it so much, I sat there at the kitchen table with your three kids, and you were getting dinner ready. And her oldest daughter had run up to get ready… her pj’s on cause it was kind of a late-night dinner. And she came back and she had this little bag of treats that she was eating. Gummy bears or something. And I said how’d you get those. And she said, my chore chart. I said let me see your chore chart. And she brought it over to me and it was last month’s chore chart. Not like the one that had just started. And I said, well, where’s this month’s chore chart? She said I don’t know, and I said, bring me a piece of paper. And so together, we made a whole new grid, a new calendar, and I asked her where her little ??? was and she said she didn’t have one. I said well you’re the big sister. I think you should go teach your sister how to do some chores and I’ll make her a chart too.
So, it was so fun, and I think that’s a lot of what we do in the homeschool community is we find friends that’ll reinforce what it is we wanna teach our kids. So, that’s why I’m having Asheritah here. It’s pay back time. She gets to help me now, bring my kids into the Lenten season. So, will you tell us a little bit about where you are in your family life, like, who are your kids, your husband. How they are. And all?
A – Yeah, and I will say, Wendy, I milked that for all it was worth. Like, that whole month, that was like, I’m gonna tell Ms. Wendy. As soon as you do your chores, like, she’ll be so excited to hear that you finished your chores.
W – Awesome.
A – Yes, yes! So, I am married to Flaviue. We met in camp in fifth grade and back over in Romania, that’s where I grew up, and he has just been the most darling husband and the greatest support that a girl could ask for. And we have three children, Carissa is six, Amelia is almost four, and Theo is one and a half. And, man, they are my greatest joy and at the same time, one of my greatest challenges has been motherhood. It’s been the most humbling thing I’ve ever done.
W – Yeah
A – Yeah, I’m glad to be here. I don’t know how much wisdom I can share but I can definitely share from my lent experiences and what has worked and what hasn’t worked for us.
W – Yes. You know, one of the things that I’ve been… as I was getting ready for this I was considering this. Never realized it before. You and I have talked about how we felt called by God to encourage women, point them to the Word, share Christ as a means to see them come to salvation, and work out their salvation. But we’ve never talked about you ever receiving a clear vision to encourage families. Or teach children. And one of the things that I’ve really loved about your last two books is that while they were written for women, you have shared within the pages, how to bring families, children, along for the journey. And really, I mentioned the Unwrapping the Names of Jesus Christmas devotional as well as this recent one, Discovering the Love of Jesus, this lent devotional. The one I didn’t mention was the book that you wrote called Bible and Breakfast, which is all about nourishing our bodies but also nourishing our spirits and making time for the Word. You bring sharing that with your kids into that as well. That just naturally happened because this is the light season you’re in.
A – Yeah, yeah. I think I never set out to write a parenting books or books on, like, how to teach our kids about Jesus, because… I mean, let’s face it, my oldest is six. Do they really know that much about this? I probably don’t. But I have… I’m blessed, I’ve grown up in a Christian home. I’ve known Jesus ever since I was a little girl, and I’ve loved Him my entire life. So I felt very strongly the Lord’s call to invite overwhelmed women to find joy in Jesus through creative and consistent time in His Word. And I started writing six years ago when I was on maternity leave with Carissa. And my original intention was to encourage women in that way. But then as my own daughter grew older, I got pregnant with my second, she was born, like, a second child just introduced a whole new dynamic to the family. I found myself struggling for quote unquote quiet time. I don’t have time by myself to read the Bible in quiet, to pray in quiet. To be totally honest, I kind of resented my kids for that. And that might not an okay thing to admit here on this podcast, but
W – No, I think that’s a good thing to admit. Now we all get to be honest. Thank you for breaking the ice.
A – I was used to having my time.
W – Yeah.
A – And now, my time wasn’t my own anymore. And I had to... I took it to the Lord in prayer. I said Lord, what… what do you want this to look like, with obviously this formula approach of what my Bible study and prayer time looked like before children isn’t gonna work anymore. And I feel like I’m trying to force this cookie cutter approach to my life in this season and it’s just causing frustration and guilt and overwhelm. And just show me, if You’ve come to bring the fullness of life to those who follow You, what does that look like right now. And just in His gentle way that He does, just kinda leading us, there’s that place in Isaiah that He gently leads those who have young. And I found that to be true in my own life. He led me to invite my children into the time in His Word.
And so instead of trying to fight for a time away from my kids when I could be alone, I started looking for creative and simple ways to invite them into it with me. And I think the thing that kind of sealed it for me, a few years ago, I read a study, I think it was from LifeWay that looked at… it was a longitudinal study that looked at Christian adults in their 30’s that had grown up in Christian homes. And they wanted to see which factors did these adults have in common that were committed to their local church, that were steadfast in their faith, that were practicing the spiritual disciplines on a regular basis. What kind of factors were found in their childhood homes. And they looked at things like homeschooling versus private school, versus public school. Secular versus Christian music. Mission trips, church attendance, like you name it. They looked at, I think, over 30 factors and the number one factor that outperformed all the other ones was, did the child read the Bible at home.
And Wendy, I remember reading that and just kind of sitting with it, thinking, I can tell my children all day long that reading the Bible is important. But if they never see me do it, will they really believe me? And that
W – And getting invited into it. And so that, though you were writing devotionals for… as we always do first, ourselves… and then for others, for women, it just became so natural to write it in such a way that these have become… I mean, the last three books really are family devotionals. Now you don’t have to have a family to do them, but the way that you’ve laid them out, they are resources for moms to not only seek the Lord in their busy lives, but then to, just very naturally, invite their children to come along. Can you tell our listeners how you have done that in the pages? Just unpacking your formula, like the layout of Unwrapping the Names of Jesus, the Advent devotional, and then also, Uncovering the Love of Jesus in the Lent devotional. And after you tell us that, I’d love to come in to a… maybe a little bit more about what’s Lent? Why should we practice it, celebrate it? And then go from there. So, how do you do that? How do you… how did ya do that?
A – Yeah, so one of the things that I’m just a big, big fan of is freedom and creativity, and the way that we approach God’s Word. And so I encourage listeners today, I’ll share some ideas, but if that doesn’t work for you in this season, ask the Lord to show you what will work for you and your family. Like it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Listen maybe for the one thing that you can take it and apply it in your family today.
So, the format that I have in these two devotionals, they’re very similar. And I’ll say they’re written primarily for the adult reader. For the mom. But there are five devotionals each week, Unwrapping the Names of Jesus is focused on Jesus’ Names. So, Lion of Judah, Great High Priest, the Alpha and Omega. What does it mean? Like how can we grow in our worship of Jesus? To recapture that awe and wonder of Christmas Day. Then, Uncovering the Love of Jesus is looking at personal interactions of Jesus with people, and how did He love them personally? So, you have Jesus’ interaction with the groom at the wedding in Cana, Galilee, where He protects His friends from public embarrassment and shame by providing wine for the feast. All the way to the Garden of Gethsemane when He heals the High Priest’s servant’s ear that had been cut off by Peter. Wendy, did you know that was the last recorded healing of Jesus? He healed…
W – He healed an enemy, that’s really a powerful visual. Because that’s what He… those who are opposed to Him is why He went to the cross. I mean for all of us but forgive them for they know not what they do. Not so much that whose faith has healed them, but His boundless love reaches beyond that.
A – Exactly, yeah. So, there are five devotionals each week and I intentionally kept it at five because I hate feeling like I’ve fallen behind in the devotional. I mean, I’m right there with you, so, you have two days to catch up if you want to, or if you’re on plan, you can go deeper a particular passage. And then the way I framed this for families is, at the beginning of each week, we have ?? devotionals, family celebrations… and so it’s an invitation for our other children to come alongside, and for us to celebrate the season together. So, for the season of Lent, it’s a very simple format, and I have everything kind of outlined and scripted. So, you start with a simple prayer. If you use a Lenten wreath, which I think is such a fun visual for children to count down to Easter, I walk you through lighting the candles for that. And then I have one for each week that you read out loud. So, for week six, I just wanna read this. 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit”. And then we talk about that. So, the question, every week of Lent, is why did Jesus have to die? And each week I offer a different reason, just again to kind of close the depths of Jesus’ love and His death and Resurrection. So, week six, Jesus died to bring us into a right relationship with God. And then I walk through reading a short little passage. There are a few discussion questions. Just three questions to kind of spark a conversation. And then each week I suggest a hidden. So, this week would be man of sorrows. And that’s it. You can do the whole thing under 10 minutes with your family. And I just suggest one family celebration each week, to keep things simple and manageable. Now with older children, maybe teenagers, you might be able to read the devotions with them, or you could read the devotion and then adapt it for younger children as well. And then my other… it’s just such a fun part of this, is at the end of each week, I suggest activities, because one of the things I’ve heard from my own readers is, I want to raise my children with a deep understanding and reverence for Jesus during this Easter season. The season leading up to Easter, which is Lent, that they know that it’s not about the Easter Bunny, it’s not about the candy, it’s not about the egg hunt. I want them to know, why is this such a big deal. So, each week I suggest activities that you can do that can help teach your children in a very hands on way, what this season is all about. And some of them are crafts. Some of them are creative ways to practice these disciplines that are typically associated with Lent, which are fasting and prayer and giving. So, for example, baking a homemade pretzels, soft pretzels. Because pretzels are… the story goes that they were invented by a monk, and it’s supposed to signify hands crossed across the chest in devotion. And so, you can make this together and talk about the prayer. Maybe read Jesus’ great high priestly prayer as they bake. So, there are ideas like that that can be a lot of fun but that provide learning opportunities for us to just train our children during this season in a very intentional way.
W – Oh, that’s wonderful. One of the things that we make every year, well we made it more so when they were young, were those resurrection buns. You know what I’m talking about? You get the grands and you roll em out so they’re a little bit thinner, and you go through the… you take a marshmallow and you dip it into the “anointing oils” of butter, and you sprinkle it with the cinnamon and sugar and you wrap it up and put it in a … we would always put them in a little pan, like a muffin tin, and while they cook, they open up and then, of course, the marshmallow melts, and where’s Jesus? Jesus has risen. And so, it is fun to bring to life these lessons in hands on ways. And I remember, when I went through your Unwrapping the Names of Jesus, that you actually had a website where people could print up some craft ideas. Do you have that for this? I mean, if we wanna use this a little bit as, you know, homeschoolers really love unit studies. So, if we could have six weeks of going through Lent and having some fun things, do you have a website where we could print some things up to help us with these activities?
A - Absolutely. I’ve got you covered. So, the website is uncoveringthelove.com, but to make things really simple for your listeners, if they text the word “love” to the number 33777, I’ll actually send you that Lenten family activity guide to your phone.
W – Oh, say it again! Text “love” to
A – 33777
W – Okay
A – And it has
W – And we’ll put that in the show notes too. I know that we tend to make things easy for me.
A – You’re speaking my love language, yeah. That family activity guide will have all seven weeks of Lent. There will be five activities each week that you can follow through, and I explain how to do it, and offer links where you need them. It’s just, like you said, a really fun unit study on Jesus’ life the way He was, and how we can then be the love of Jesus to other people as well.
I’d like to take just a moment to thank another one of today’s sponsors, Medi-Share, an affordable and Biblical healthcare alternative. Find out more at mychristiancare.org for their on-going support of homeschooling families just like ours. And now, back to the show.
W – So, I was gonna say here, that’s fun and then I thought that Lent is sad. And then I remembered this one quote from your book, and I just opened up. It’s right here in the introduction. And it says, “Quite frankly, Lent is not a fun season. It’s heavy. But it’s beautiful too. Precisely in its permission to recognize that the Christian life is not all smiles and sunshine. In this world we will have trouble. Jesus promises. And the season of Lent permits us to be honest about those troubles, even as we press on towards Easter Sunday and the hope that Jesus has overcome the world.” And so, I love that. I’ve become more comfortable with being sad. And modeling repentance, not only over my own sins, but just over the fall of humanity and the need for Christ. And not having to make all the Bible stories happy. They aren’t! And allowing the children to know, especially in that Holy week leading up to Good Friday, and East Sunday. This is a time for sadness. And then, the greater… to the greater degree that we get in touch with the heartache of sin, the greater the joy in the forgiveness and in the victory, and I don’t just want the experience that … to invite my children into it. And so, I love what you’ve said about, that He gently leads those with children. That you have been one of the gently lead Him with His help, into the Word and into these seasons on the Christian calendar. The Lenten season. So, can you tell us, what’s the history of Lent? How did this start? And, yeah. Give us just a little brief history lesson if you would.
A – Yeah, yeah, well, I didn’t grow observing Lent. So, it was totally new to me as I am an adult. And I always thought it was something that only certain church denominations did, and others didn’t, and I had all these misconceptions about it. So, I was so surprised when I started researching the history of Lent, that it actually goes all the way back to the early church. We have records believers in the 100’s, so these would have been the disciples of the Apostles. One degree removed from Jesus, that they are observing a period of fasting and spiritual preparation before celebrating Easter. And kind of, a little bit of a context, is this big word called “catechism” that some listeners might be similar with, but people in ancient Rome, the ancient world, were immersed in cultures that were so far removed from a monotheistic view of the world. So when people came to believe in Jesus, there was a process of teaching them and discipling them and then rejecting their former lifestyle and their former gods and these behaviors that now no longer aligned with what it means to be a follower of Jesus. So, the early church introduced this period, anywhere from six months to two years, of catechism. A period of preparing people to identify with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection through Baptism. And in the 40 days leading up to their day of Baptism, this new believer, with the person who was discipling them, they’d fast for these 40 days to identify with Jesus in his suffering and His death, by putting their own flesh to death in a way. Not to earn salvation, not to impress God, but to say, this much, God, I love you, and I want you, and I want to identify with you. It’s entering that wilderness experience that the Israelites when through these 40 years, of hardship and testing, that Deuteronomy tells us, so that they would learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That was their testing, and their teaching experience. And Jesus perfectly fulfilled that in His wilderness, 40-day testing. So there’s beautiful symbolism to this in, again, historically, Baptisms would be performed on the day that the church would observe Jesus’ resurrection, on resurrection Sunday, because of that symbolism of being buried with Him, to death, and risen with Him to life, in Baptism. And that’s why the season of 40 days of fasting and prayer came to be, kind of set in the liturgical year right before Easter. Actually, different denominations do it differently. Sometimes the Eastern Orthodox Church would do these Baptisms a few days after the new year on the time that they would observe Jesus’ baptism. So, there’s so much variety when it comes to Lent, but there’s not like, one right way to do it. What we do know historically is that there came a period when believers said, you know, we feel like there’s all these ritual and routines and they become empty of meaning, and people are just going through it because they think that’s how they earn God’s approval, and so the reformation came and kind of did away with all of that. And kind, in some ways they kind of threw the baby out with the bathwater too, so that expression, right? We only want to stick to Scripture, it’s only Scripture. So the last few hundred years, there has been, I think, a lack of rhythm in the evangelical church, and people today, the millennials, I’m just sensing their desire for grounding and a liturgical year, to have seasons where we can lament, we can mourn. Not just the sin in our own life, but the brokenness of the world. To have a season when we purposefully set aside good gifts, whether that’s food or entertainment, or whatever it is, and we set it aside to say, God search me, are there any idols in my heart, is there any way that there are things competing for my affection or my attention for you? And would you draw me close to your heart in this season leading up to Easter. So for me, with college, when I kind of stumbled on Lent, and I didn’t really get it at first, and it was kind of weird the way I jumped into it kind of thinking, I don’t know, everyone else is doing it so I’ll do it too, that over the past few years as I’ve learned more about it, I’ve read more about it, I’ve sought the Lord’s guidance on it, it has become such a beautiful seasonal opportunity to ask the Lord to do a new work in my heart and to cleanse me of sins that maybe have accumulated that I haven’t been paying attention to. And to again, like Paul said, I’ve been crucified with Christ and it’s no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me. So, to come to Holy Week, to Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday with that identity with Him, has been such a beautiful thing. Not just for me, but to invite my children into that as well.
W – Absolutely. Aw, thank you so much, I love that you said fasting is identifying with Christ and His suffering, and ironically, or providentially, you and I are both in the middle of a 40-day sugar fast right now, as we record this, but as it is released for listeners, we will be… have just wrapped it up and we’ll be getting ready for Lent. Just, I’m hoping that this will be shared just a week before Lent, with people coming to maybe purchase this Lenten devotional Uncovering the Love of Jesus, and maybe grabbing a few other resources. There’s a book that I read with my boys last year, that ended up being one of the best read-alouds we’ve ever done as a family. It’s called Amon’s Adventure, and it was actually a whole series of books like this. It’s like they’re historical fiction, they’re broken into chapters, short chapters, that you would read one chapter a day. And then at the very tail end of it, there’s a short devotional Scripture. And Amon’s Adventure carries us through the Holy Week leading up to Christ’s death, and burial and all the way through His resurrection. But through the perspective, through the experience, of a young boy and his family. And we just read a book from the same author, and I’ll link to it here in the show notes as well, called, oh goodness, Jotham’s Journey, and it actually is a Christmas one that we just finished up at Christmas time, and Jotham is Amon’s dad. And he’s a shepherd boy, and it’s his journey when he comes face to face with the Messiah. And it’s just… they’re so so good. So that’s another wonderful resource. Another thing that we’ve done as a family is, oftentimes we’ll read the Christmas story in Matthew, in Luke, and then that was Christmas, right? And then we wait for Easter, and then we pick up where, you know, at that point in the story. One of the things we’ve started doing as a family is between Christmas and Easter, we make sure that we’ve read through one of the Gospels, so that we know that the story carries us through. But I do love these rhythms as you mentioned, in our Christian calendar, in our Christian lives, that there’s a time to mourn, there’s a time to celebrate, there’s a time to prepare our hearts for the Messiah. Is my heart really ready to receive Him? At Christmas time, okay, where am I off? A time of fasting and identifying with the suffering, celebrating that the Messiah not only was born, but came to chase me down in my sin, died for my sins, overcome all the struggles of this life, put death and sin under His feet, and rising… victoriously and bringing our kids in creative ways. One of the things that I’ve loved to do during Lent, because we have read through a Gospel at that time, is you remember the movie, I think it’s simply called Matthew? And it’s only the Word of God. It’s only… that’s the only Word you’ll hear is the reading of it, but it’s done in such a way that you’re watching a mini-series. And the man who plays Jesus, oh my goodness, he is… I mean I know he’s not Jesus, he just so embodies the joy, the love, the suffering of Jesus. And so, we watch that as a family and it’s hours of watching, so in the weeks leading up to Christmas, that’s another…I’m sorry, not Christmas. Easter. That’s another thing that we’ve done together. And it really does bring a rhythm into our year, that this is what we do. So again, yes, Jesus gently leads those with young. But He also gives us what we need to gently lead our kids and to lead them intentionally during these times of the year where we can really focus on who is Christ? How does He love us? And not just how has He loved us, but then, how do we love others. And there are so many of these themes in your new book, Uncovering the Love Jesus.
Asheritah, it’s time to wrap up our conversation, but I wanna know, is there anything else you wanna leave us with in terms of bringing out families into this time of … this really special time in our year that we refer to as Lent?
A – Yeah, well as you were sharing, there was this one thing that came to mind. And I think what you do is so beautifully Lenty. I mean I’ve seen you do it and I’ve heard you do it. And that is to ask the Holy Spirit to lead you as a mom for what your children specifically need. Like, what does each of your children… what do they need in this season? Because I think, for me at least, the temptation is to find these great Lent or Easter ideas on Pinterest or on Instagram and see what everyone else is doing. Maybe even the family activities guide, I mean, it’s over 30 different ideas of what you can do with your family. And the temptation is, I think, to try to cram in as much as we can, to try to do as much as we can, or at least to plan it, and then we don’t get to it, and then we feel overwhelmed and guilty and ashamed, and like, we’re failing our kids. And I just want to speak peace over the listener. And just encourage you, as you’re listening, ask the Lord to reveal, what does your family need this year? It might just be one practice. Just one idea that you heard on the episode… the podcast episode today. And you’re like there’s just that one thing that I’m gonna take and I’m gonna do it this year. And then next year I’m gonna ask the Lord, Lord what do you have for our family this year? And it could be the same thing. And it could become an annual thing. Or it could be something different. But just trust that the Lord will lead you and He will teach you how to lead your children and you don’t have to just copy what everyone else is doing or feel like you need to impress people on Instagram with your posts on what you’re doing. I just want you to have the peace of Christ ruling over your thoughts and then reigning over your family. And what a sweet place it is when we feel like we’re partnering with what the Holy Spirit is doing in our children’s lives.
W – Oh yes, yes. Thank you so much, Asheritah. Would you sign us off by just praying a blessing for us? I mean I just feel like you just gave us one, but just pray for us. And I think that you’ll come back, perhaps, as we get ready for Advent, and we can talk again about how to simply do that. And let me tell you, maybe my favorite post from you during the Advent season, was after Advent actually. You had, I think posted it to Instagram or something, saying, Well, we didn’t finish our Advent devotional, but we’re gonna get some time together and wrap things up today. It was like a week after Christmas. And I love the grace in that. Because we can feel like, oh I said I was going to and then we didn’t. I said we were reading through the book of Matthew and we made it through Matthew. It’s just another thing that I’m not completely… So, we’re just gonna pray some more. So, thank you for encouraging us. Ask the Lord who gently leads us what He wants us to do as we gently lead our kids. So, thank you for all of this, Asheritah, thank you so much for being here. And thank you for closing us in prayer.
A – Yeah, let’s do it. Oh Lord, we bless you and we bless Your Name. You’re the One who created us and You’re the one who called us by name. We are Yours. You’re the One who calls our children and their eternity is secure in Your Hands. And You give us the privilege of stewarding them for a season. So, Lord I pray a special blessing over each listener today. You know her name. You know her family and her children. You know her heart and her hurts and her burdens and her hopes. And Lord I pray even now, as she listens to my voice, that You would just fill her with Your peace. And that Your perfect peace, which passes all understanding, would guard her heart and her mind in Christ Jesus. As she looks at this Lenten season to come, Lord I pray that You would lead her in one specific thing that she can do for her family. Lord thank you, that You are the One that keeps us, You are the One who can keep us from falling, You’re the One who will keep us standing, You’re the One who will energize us with all of Your energy as we mother our children, as we love them. You are the One who draws our children to Yourself. And so, thank You that the pressure is off. That we don’t have to perform. That we don’t have to impress. That we don’t have to hustle to get our children into Your Kingdom. But that we can simply rest and love our children well. And as we love them, Lord would you help them to see Your love in us. Thank you for this time, thank you for Wendy, thank you for Homeschool Solutions, and for the ways of their encouraging and equipping families. And Lord we just pray and ask that Jesus Christ would be lifted up and magnified above all else in our families and in our lives until the day we come to see you face to face. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
W – Amen. I wanna just agree with an amen. We don’t have to hustle to get our children into the Kingdom. I’m gonna frame that one. There is rest. There is rest. Thank you, I hope that everyone whose listening has enjoyed this as much as I have. And I will look forward to being with you again next week.
What a privilege it is to have these conversations with you each week. You are so busy; I don’t take it lightly that you turn in with me here for a weekly shot of encouragement. As a reminder, you can subscribe to the Homeschool Solutions podcast through Apple or Google Play, and your positive reviews always help other homeschooling families find us online.
As we say goodbye, I’d like to say thank you to Great Homeschool Conventions. Every year they host multiple conventions in various regions throughout the US. You can find a location near you at greathomeschoolconvenitons.com. With dozens of incredible speakers, hundreds of curriculum exhibits, you will be blessed, refreshed, helped, and encouraged. I’ll be in Texas, South Carolina, Ohio, and of course my home state, California, this year. I hope to see some of you there.
Until next week, visit homeschooling.mom for blog posts to encourage and support you along the way. And remember, Galatians 6 verse 9, let’s not grown weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up. It’s a promise that I’m taking to the bank every day. Again, this is Wendy Speake, and I’ll see you next week.
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