If you need some motivation to journal too, consider the following reasons, shared on Grace Christian Quotes:

1. We more easily discipline our minds to sustain our thoughts without interruption.
2. If interrupted, because we have written our thoughts, we are able to return to them again for further contemplation and development.
3. We can also return to our reflections in the distant future, when otherwise they might have been totally forgotten.
4. Writing demands that we organize our thinking connectedly or cohesively on a subject.
5. We train our minds to express ourselves meaningfully and accurately.
6. We build a reserve of good thoughts for a time when our thinking is more vacuous, or our spirituality is in decline.
7. We teach ourselves the significance of learning by demonstrating to ourselves that cogent, biblical thinking is worth writing down.
8. We find that our developed thoughts sometimes emerge in our public speaking or private conversations, even though we did not prepare to use them.
9. We have a cache of mature thoughts to peruse as seed for public writing or speaking.

10. We leave our thoughts to future generations when normally the preponderance of them, if not every last one of them, would have vaporized upon our death or mental decline.  ~ Jim Elliff (Writing Down Our Thoughts, Christian Communicators Worldwide.  Used by Permission.)

Diligence makes the rough places plain, the difficult easy, and the unsavory tasty.

Richard Greenham

The Works of the Reverend and Faithful Servant Jesus Christ, M. Richard Greenham, Felix Kingston for Robert Dexter, 1599, p. 390.

Needless to say, for a variety of reasons, we homeschoolers love a good bargain.  We are also a tight-knit lot that will step up to bat and strive for a homer when it comes to helping others – most especially those within our community who are in need.  This week we have the perfect opportunity to do all of this and more by hitting Kimberly Eddy’s fire sale.

Best known to many readers as the Joyful Momma, Kimberly is running a Big Blessing Sale that will really knock the socks off the deal hounds.  She and her family are dealing with some financial and housing issues and multiple curriculum publishers have come together with Kimberly to throw this fire sale in the hope of helping her family out a bit.  Every penny is going to a family who could use the encouragement, assistance, and love that runs through the homeschool community; every download is something that will bless parents and teachers to boot.

Don’t let the word “homeschool” scare you off if you’re not educating at home, either; there are useful tools in the Big Blessing Bundle that will encourage and educate any homemaker, parent, or professional teacher as well.  Do stop by and read Kimberly’s story – and enjoy your bundle if you are inclined to purchase.

By Jill Carattini

The four lines of what is commonly known as the Doxology have been sung for more than three hundred years.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

It has been said that the Doxology, which literally means words of glory, has done more to teach the doctrine of the Trinity than all the theological books ever written. To this day, when I sing those powerful lines, I recall the colorful lesson of my first grade Sunday school teacher. With something like cookie dough and bologna magically falling down on the table before us, she read us the story of a God who made the heavens rain bread and quail so that his grumbling people might be satisfied and know that God is God. I was impressed. And when we sung the Doxology at the end of the service, I thought it helpful that I knew a little more of what it means when we sing that God is the God from whom all blessings flow.

Cornelius Plantinga Jr. once made the pointed comment that it must be an odd feeling to be thankful “to nobody in particular.” He was commenting on the odd phenomenon of finding, especially around the American celebration of Thanksgiving, so many people thankful in general. To be thankful “in general” is very strange, he concluded. “It’s a little like being married in general.”(1) Of course, his words are not dismissing the thought that it is good to give thanks in all general circumstances. Rather, Plantinga raises an important philosophical question. Can one be thankful in general, thankful for the blessings and gifts that flow, without acknowledging from where or from whom they might be flowing?

In what remains a revealing look at human nature, Moses describes life after Egypt. A rescued Israel was a grumbling people sick of manna, wailing for meat, even longing to go back to the land God had miraculously delivered them from. Though their daily bread was literally falling from heaven, they wanted more. In the midst of their discontent, Moses revealed God’s promise for meat, but added the wake up call, “You have rejected the Lord, who is among you” (Numbers 11:20).

To our grumbling prone lips, these words are quite revealing. If being thankful is by nature being aware and appreciative of things beyond ourselves, complaining is refusing to see anything but ourselves. It is refusing to see the one who is among us. Moreover, it is an expression that serves only to affirm our own expectations, whether they are based on faulty visions of reality or not. Certainly the Israelites did not want to go back into captivity, but in their grumbling even slavery began to look inviting. Likewise, the falling bread from heaven ceased to be a remarkable sign of provision from the Father, but remarkably, a sign of monotony and their own dreariness.

Our complaints are not only a choice to overlook the good around us, but the choice not to ask where or from whom our blessings come. The attitude of thanksgiving, on the other hand, makes the choice to inquire. Being thankful is therefore always more than a glib note of gratitude or a warm sentiment in general; it requires something far more personal. It not only chooses to recognize the gifts before us, but recognizes that there must also be a giver. There is someone to thank. There is indeed one from whom all blessings flow.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Thank Who?” appeared at http://rzim.org/usa/usfv/tabid/436/articleid/10982/cbmoduleid/1133/default.aspx.  Used by permission of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

(1) Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., “Assurances of the Heart” Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 13.

Much sickness – physical, mental, and emotional – surely must come from disobedience. When the soul is confronted with an alternative of right or wrong and chooses to blur the distinction, making excuses for its bewilderment and frustration, it is exposed to infection. Evil is given the opportunity to invade the mind, the spirit, and the body and the sick person goes off to an expert who will diagnose his trouble. Sometimes the patient knows well what his trouble is and for this very reason has not consulted the Lord, fearing what He will say: Confess. Turn around. Quit that indulgence. Do not pity yourself. Forgive that person. Pay back what you owe. Apologize. Tell the truth. Deny yourself. Consider the other’s well-being. Lay down your life.

Elisabeth Elliot

Discipline – The Glad Surrender, Revell, 1982, p. 74.

We must repudiate our confused loyalties and concerns for the passing world and put aside our misguided efforts to change culture externally. To allow our thoughts, plans, time, money, and energy to be spent trying to make a superficially Christian America, or to put a veneer of morality over the world, is to distort the gospel, misconstrue our divine calling, and squander our God-given resources. We must not weaken our spiritual mission, obscure our priority of proclaiming the gospel of salvation, or become confused about our spiritual citizenship, loyalties and obligations. We are to change society, but by faithfully proclaiming the gospel, which changes lives on the inside.

John MacArthur

Titus, Moody, 1996, p. 138.

The question each of us faces, however, is how much is too much?  Where is the line between consuming technological resources – and allowing them to consume us?  We needn’t become total Luddites, but we do need to know our limits.  As parents, most of us will arrange usage schedules for our children, but we may need to ponder setting them for ourselves as well.  It’s so exciting to download a new app – especially a tool that will serve us as we plan out our days or will speak to the strengths of a child with certain learning needs – but it’s also incredibly easy to get lost in sharing curriculum links with our fellow homeschool parents in the name of support and fellowship.  How many of us have gotten absorbed in our online research to the detriment of the dinner in the oven?  (No, we needn’t really answer that.  Shhhh!  *wink*)

If these are points you’ve been pondering, you might find some inspiration in the “Consuming Technology” post over at Andy Unedited.  It definitely made me think, as I’ve noticed lately I’m one of those folks who no longer stretches at seminars, but instead pulls out a piece of technology.

Wait…. is that dinner I smell?  Uh oh…….

If your family has grown through adoption, what tips would you like to share with those considering it?

A vital element for building a family is instilling a healthy sense of heritage – an appreciation of family roots, both earthly and spiritual.  Yet it is increasingly common in our world for children to have no such sense of continuity or regard for family history.  Too many feel that they have come from nothing and are bound for nothing- and this goes for Christians, too.  Family heritage is a subject of neglect that is in need of rehabilitation.  It is one of the disciplines of a godly family. ~ Kent and Barbara Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway, 2004, p. 21.

How do you, as parents, help instill a healthy sense of heritage?  Does your family journal daily – record stories of elderly family members – travel to sites of your family background – or all of these and more?  If a friend asked you today how they could interest their children more in family history, what would you suggest to them?

A recent post by Robert Rayburn, over on the Ligonier website, ties in well with this issue.  Rayburn addresses the fact that while the Church as a whole may not be perfect – thanks to us imperfect folks in it – there is most definitely nothing like the Church. Hop on over and read “Nothing Like the Church” and share your thoughts about it.

If you aren’t already a subscriber to Home Educating Family Magazine, you can check out the current issue on our site as well.  You can also “meet” our feature family, the Hill family of Oklahoma, via our YouTube channel.  They are an amazing family with some delightful and encouraging thoughts to share on the church and homeschooling.