Chapter 3 - My Bible says.....

Boredom kills me.  I sat in my living room looking out the window, wishing for something to do.  The house was clean, laundry done, dinner in the crock pot, even the closets were clean…. I was bored!

In September I had left my job of four years.  It had been a hard decision, one I had struggled with for about 6 months, but it was clear, God wanted me out of there.  Everyday I worked there I had been asked to compromise my morals, to try to find some common ground with continual sin, and I just could not do it anymore.  So I had quit.  I had no job prospects, no real reference, and nothing to do with my days but clean closets and watch the cars drive passed the house. 

After I had finally quit my job, I started reading my Bible more and more. It was amazing the things that started popping out at me.  How had I never realized that before?  When did that get in there?  With so much time on my hands I started praying more too.  “God help me with this” became a deeper need to understand and seek His will through His word.  It was at this time that one of the leaders in our church approached me about going on a mission trip and encouraged me to read my Bible everyday and journal what God had to say to me. 

So I did, and I even went a step further than that, I joined a ladies Bible study, hey, it might give me something to do, right?

That winter, Tuesday mornings became a time of peace and refuge.  As I sat in my very first ladies Bible study ever and listened to some of the other ladies I realized that quite a few of them were homeschooling their children.  In fact, almost ALL of them were homeschooling.  How was it that I had wound up in the only ladies Bible study and was surrounded by homeschooers?

All three of my previously mentioned homeschooling friends were there, along with several other ladies whom I had never met.  As they shared about their lives I heard the Lord coaxing me towards homeschooling.  Maybe I would home school next year. 

Winter became spring and I committed to go on the mission trip.  The mission leader pulled Drason and I aside and encouraged us to pray daily and seek God to give us instruction on the issues in our lives.  How cool, that was the same topic of the ladies Bible study. 

I began to pray about the things in our lives that really mattered and ask God to show me in His word what He would have us do.  

Then one day I opened up the Bible study.  Before hand, just as I had been instructed, I began praying.  Macguines had been having such a hard time at school.  He was so upset that a bully had been mocking him.  Yet, it was only when another mother had called me, that I had found out the true extent of his tormenter’s cruelty and the complete lack of consequences for the bully.  I prayed that God would clearly show me what to do in this situation.  We had met with the school, talked to the teacher, the principal, and even the child’s mother with no avail.  Eventually, they had moved Macguines to another classroom, yet here he was treated like he had done something wrong, not been the victim of a bully.  I earnestly prayed, “God, reveal to me what you would have me do.”

I began the chapter in the Bible study and it challenged me to make my personal motto ‘Whatever God says, I’ll do it’,   “Of course I would obey God!” I thought to myself as I hastily scratched the answers.  Then it said to look up some verses and write what they were instructing the people to do. 

 As I looked up the accompanying verses I came to Deut 31:12-13 ^“Call them all together—men, women, children, and the foreigners living in your towns—so they may hear this Book of Instruction and learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the terms of these instructions. ¹³ Do this so that your children who have not known these instructions will hear them and will learn to fear the Lord your God. Do this as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.”

I wrote down the answer to teach your children God’s ways.  As I got ready to move on to the next verse, I looked down. 

On the page adjacent, in my study Bible, was an insert which read “Homeschooling; the Biblical Alternative” It struck me so clearly I felt like my ears were ringing.  It explained how homeschooling had come to be the only way many believers felt they could obey God’s commands, as given by Moses, in Deuteronomy and sited the same verses from my study.  I sat on my couch weeping.  I was so thankful God had clearly spoken to me.  My Bible had clearly told me to home school.  Thank you Jesus!