I can remember back when I was in my early twenties, spending New Year’s Eve with other young Christians, ringing in the New Year with our apple juice toasts, singing with guitars strumming praise songs, and sharing our resolutions.  I remember playing a game where we would write down our predictions for the coming year about some topics someone would choose, questions about what might happen to us personally, and about the national and international scene.  (Like a good question for this year would be “Who do you think will be elected President in 2008?”)  Of course, most of my guessing was off.  After all, only God knows what will happen, as James 4:14-15 says:

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Now that I am a married homeschooling mom with six little ones, I still make resolutions and wonder what will happen in the next year, yet I know that while I can chart a course for my ship, God can steer my boat wherever He deems. 

One of my big resolutions for this year is that, if it is the Lord’s will, I would be able to spend even more time with every child God has given us and to grow with each of them in a relationship deeper in love and respect.  

Even though as homeschoolers we are home with our children, we have to be careful that we are really home – I mean not distracted in thought or deed.  Are we looking each of our precious children in the eye when they come to us, really listening to what they have to say even if it seems to unimportant to us, really watching them to see what they need spiritually, emotionally, etc.?  Have we structured our lives the best we can, so that we can minister to them fully?

I have come to the place where I realize a parent can spend all day with their child and not really reach their child’s heart, which is the purpose of making the sacrifice of homeschooling if you are a Believer. More on that in later blogs.  Happy New Year.