I’m on vacation this week. We’re at Hilton Head Island (HHI). I stood at the beach entrance Saturday afternoon looking out through the sea oats at the sand, beach umbrellas and the ocean and said, “Lord, You are so good to me. Thank you for allowing me to be here at my favorite place again.” I’ve sighed so many times since Saturday. It’s a sigh of contentment, rest, and pure happiness. Here I am for nearly a week at the most beautiful beach with my family and our daughter’s friend who is also celebrating her graduation. Our condo is perfect, we’re next to the pool, school’s over and a summer of special events is before me. God is so good and I acknowledge Him for His grace gifts that He pours out on His undeserving child.

Today marks the end. After homeschooling my girls for the last twenty years, today is the last day. Allison has completed high school and will head to college this fall. I am melancholy as I reflect on the years behind me. So often it seemed I wouldn’t see the end of that particular school day, much less the end of high school! But here I am with piles of school curriculum, grade books, test banks, ACT scores, dulled pencils and nubby erasers reminding me of busy years now in the past, and a huge change for both Allison and myself that is just around the corner.

• I learned that I desperately needed the Lord every single day if I was to impact my girls for Christ. Sadly, I didn’t do that every day.
• I learned that the Lord is merciful when we depend on ourselves.
• I learned that a child’s heart is so impressionable. What I did my girls imitated.
• I learned that God’s provision for His children is always on time and always enough. Each year when it came time to buy books and curriculum the Lord provided.
• The more I taught, the more I realized how much I didn’t know. I saw that I need to continue to learn.
• I learned that sometimes the best lessons came from unplanned events. Allison was saved as a result of an English lesson. Discipline problems brought opportunities to open God’s Word together.
• I learned that it’s okay to take a break and just have fun. During Allison’s high school years we watched The Andy Griffith Show at lunch. It gave a need relief from the stress of studying!
• I learned that twenty years fly by much faster than a person could ever imagine.
• I learned the truth in III John 4 – “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” If my girls aren’t successful as that world defines it, but love the Lord and walk with Him, I will be happy. I couldn’t ask for more.

As I box up my books and fill out the last grade report my heart is full of gratefulness to the Lord…not for what Allison has learned, but for what He has taught me. I still have so much to learn – I guess perhaps the homeschooling will continue after all.

Have you ever watched as someone you knew slipped away from the Lord? It’s usually a gradual thing. People don’t generally wake up one morning and decide they’re going to backslide. It happens over a period of time and through a series of events. Perhaps a person has a trial that comes into their life and they have a question as to why this would happen, but then they try to bring themselves back to the Truth of God’s Word and His love for them. However, their thoughts keep leading them to question the Lord, and the comments from others don’t help either. Christians and non-Christians alike wonder why God would allow this to happen to a “good person.”

Someone steps in – maybe it was you – and tries to give godly counsel. The person in the trial is guided to the promises in God’s Word that the Lord is trying to conform them to the likeness of His Son through this difficulty. By now, though, they are becoming cynical and they shake their head as as loving friend tries to lead them to right biblical thinking. They continue on a downward spiral, avoiding church and anyone who points them to God. The tendency for the one that has tried to lead them back to the right way is to say, “Fine, go your way. I hope you reap from what you’re sowing! I’m washing my hands of this.”

As I read I Samuel 15 today I was struck at how Samuel responded to hearing that Saul had not obeyed the Lord. It says in verse11 – “And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.” His heart was broken for Saul. Samuel had given Saul much instruction, but spite that Saul chose to go his own way and disobey the Lord’s commands. In verse 35 we read, “Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul…” Samuel wasn’t afraid to share the truth with Saul; a reminder, I believe, that we don’t just sit and watch someone sin and be afraid to tell them the truth in love. But we must remain broken over their sin. I believe that Samuel continued to pray for Saul, and even though he watched Saul slipping farther and farther, he loved him and desired that Saul make things right with the Lord.

If there’s someone you know that has drifted – perhaps even in a drastic way, ask the Lord to keep your heart soft towards them, as modeled by godly Samuel. May our hearts be as such as would mourn and cry to the Lord all night for a brother or sister that has wandered. Keep praying, keep lovingly sharing the truth when you have the opportunity. God desires that they return to Him, and it might be due to a Christian friend like you that they will do just that. Let’s be like Samuel.

I’m not sure what it is about spring that inspires many to clean up and clear out the house and clutter, but it’s a good thing, isn’t it? I feel good about straightening up a closet or getting rid of unused items. The hard thing is that I have a husband who is a confessed pack rat! He keeps things because he has a sentimental heart and because he thinks he may need it again some day. Of course this runs cross-grain to a de-clutterer! The solution? Here are a few tips that I’ve found helpful:

• If the item in question was a gift but you don’t like it or use it consider passing it along to someone who would use it. Don’t re wrap it and disguise it as a new gift (tacky in my opinion) – just give it.
• If someone special gave you or made something for you that isn’t usable any more take a picture of it as a keepsake then throw it away.
• If you’re saving items your children made find just a couple of special things and put them into a special box for safekeeping.
• What about all the birthday cards and anniversary cards you’ve collected? I save just the special ones in a hatbox because I like to look back over them. You can also use many of the pictures and sentiment on cards as scrapbooking embellishments.
• Clothes that haven’t been worn in a year go out! You can send them to the consignment, Goodwill, or some store like that. I’ve found that adult clothing really doesn’t sell too well at yard sales. Children’s clothes sell – if you don’t mind getting rid of each item for a quarter after all the trouble of the yard sale. I’d personally rather pass things along to someone that can use them.
• Books can be donated to the library’s annual book sale. (The Gray Library is collecting books now.)
• Here’s a great way to get rid of sentimental notes and pictures: several years ago my mom gave me and each of my sisters a beautiful little box filled with cards, notes, and photos of things that each of our families had sent to her and my dad. It’s fun to read notes that my girls sent to their Nana and Papa after receiving birthday gifts, or cards that I wrote to them as a new bride. It cleared out her closet, and gave me a journal of sorts all in a pretty little box.
  

If you have tips on clearing out clutter please share them here.

Happy cleaning!

Is there anything so sentimental, sweet or moving as a wedding? I always get choked up when the doors open and the bride, with a beaming face, eyes on her groom, enters the sanctuary. Last night I had the privilege of attending a wedding at our church. As I sat and listened to the ceremony I did what probably most married women do – I thought back to my own wedding all those years ago. How can a couple so young and in love have any idea of what they are to face in the years to come? I surely didn’t! Though this couple has had good counsel about the reality of married life, they still really don’t have a clue about the twists in the road that lie ahead. That doesn’t make marriage frightening; it brings us to the greater understanding of how much we need the Lord at work in our individual lives every day. It’s also a blessing to think that God gave us someone with whom we can share those difficulties.

As I observe couples that have been married longer than our 28 years, I see that married life doesn’t ever just get easy. I guess I had the thought that after living with and loving someone for years and years, it would almost come naturally. But loving others really cuts cross-grain to our selfish natures. The longer you’re with someone the more relaxed you become, and because of that, sometimes it’s easy to also let our own flesh rule in the marriage instead of loving our spouse as Christ does. Just as this newly married couple are guarding their manners, the way the listen to each other, the attention they pay to the other…so each of us that are married must continue to make our spouse our priority. Kindness, thoughtfulness, loving gestures, gracious speech, unselfishness, and having a magnanimous heart should be worked on, through the power of the Holy Spirit for all of our married lives.

Twists and turns in our lives are going to happen, but how much sweeter those things are when we can face them hand in hand with the mate God has given. Are you still working on your marriage? What have you done today to make your mate’s life sweeter? Remember the day you vowed before God to love that man all your life, then do something to demonstrate that today.