he said, she said, we said

"Dear Jesus, help me to be brave, help me to be not afraid, and send an angel to me.  Amen."

 ~Ava

"Jesus is a big giant and he takes care of people and doesn't step on them.

He's the only giant that doesn't do that."

~Benji

One of the reasons we started home schooling was to make sure that teaching our kids about Jesus was our top priority.  I do my best to start each day with our Bible lesson.  If I forget to do it, I definitely notice a difference in the flow of our lessons and the attitudes of the kids.

We also are trying to focus on heart issues as priority over academics.  If our kids don't have a soft heart and a teachable spirit, they are not going to learn anything from anyone.  If someone is being sassy or disobedient, I will stop all school for them until the issue is resolved.

I realize, as I re-read this that this may come across as "holier-than-thou" or that we're perfect Christian parents.  We're NOT.

We make tons of mistakes, I struggle with consistency and Marvin struggles with losing his temper.  But...we have Jesus in our corner.  As our children's Heavenly Father, He takes care of all the deficiencies that us as earthly parents have.  As long as we are following the parenting instructions in the Bible, and our hearts are willing to be changed and obedient to OUR Heavenly Father, we aren't worried.

The Bible says that, "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45).  When my kids say things like the quotes above, it blesses me so much and I can see the fruit of our hard work.