Give What You Have--Not What You Haven't

This time of year most of us are focused on giving. Gifts, time, charitable contributions; the list is endless. For those of us with more family than money, this is an especially difficult season. We try to get creative and shop smart, but the truth is that little kids do not lie awake at night dreaming that they will find a package of socks and underwear underneath the tree on Christmas morning. They want video games and talking Iron Man and Buzz Lightyear toys.

It is easy for parents to feel sad or embarrassed or inadequate. We fear that come Christmas morning we will disappoint the children in our lives to some degree. We recoil at the critical stare of those collecting for all sorts of charities when we are unable to help them meet their goals. It is difficult to explain to various people at church why we do not have the time to volunteer for free gift wrapping in the mall or a Christmas cookie giveaway as an outreach to share Christ with busy shoppers.

We tell ourselves that we are just plain selfish if we do not somehow come up with the money to buy those really special gifts or make that generous contribution. After all, isn’t that why someone invented credit cards? Furthermore, if we refuse to make time to perform all sorts of acts of kindness during this most wonderful time of the year doesn’t that prove that we are sort of a cross between Scrooge and the Grinch?

In times like these we will do well to remember what Paul says to the Corinthians:  “…it isn’t important how much you have to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you haven’t” (2 Corinthians 8:12, The Living Bible). God never expects anyone to give more than he has, and the Bible addresses this point in numerous places.

We have the example of the widow’s pennies (Mark 12:42). Jesus sat watching the crowds dropping their money into the collection boxes in the Temple. Some who were rich deposited large sums. Then the poor widow came and dropped in two pennies. Jesus told his disciples that she had given more than all of the rich men put together because they had given only a small portion of their great wealth while she had given everything she had.

Likewise, Mark 14:3-10 recounts the story of the woman who came to Jesus and poured the flask of expensive perfume over his head. She washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. The Jewish leaders criticized her for her “waste,” but Jesus told them to leave her alone. “She has done what she could….And I tell you this in solemn truth, that wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and praised" (The Living Bible).

These women gave it all. They gave everything they had, but they did not give what they did not have. Their giving was sacrificial but it was kept within the bounds of what they had to give—no more and no less.  Jesus himself proclaimed that these two women had gotten it exactly right.

As we head into the last few days before Christmas, I hope that you will remember these women of faith and follow their example. Give what you have in terms of gifts, charitable contributions and time. Be generous, but remember it’s alright to buy one special toy for your little guy and also include the package of socks and underwear beneath the tree. Make a list of your special offerings and stick to it. Unless you know that God is leading you to give something that you had not anticipated, don’t feel guilty about saying, “I can’t.” Time is the only thing that is always limited; you can never make more than twenty-four hours in one day, no matter how hard you try. Save some of it to spend with your family, and take some to enjoy the wonder of Christmas yourself. Most of all remember to give what you have, not what you haven’t.  Jesus says that is enough.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known speaker and author. Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, tells her own story of homeschooling her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeenth birthdays.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

The Story of Christmas (from A Pig Isle Christmas)

As the children watched, Joy stepped forward and asked in a high clear voice, “What is tomorrow?”

“Christmas!” yelled the children.

“And what is special about Christmas?” Joy asked.

Children began calling out their answers from all over the theater:

“No school!”

“Presents!”

“Santa Claus!”

Finally, one boy shouted, “It’s Jesus’ birthday!”

“That’s right!” Joy exclaimed. “It’s Jesus’ birthday!  And on His birthday we give presents to each other. But on that first Christmas, God gave us His son, and that is the most precious gift the world has ever received. Even though that first Christmas happened a long time ago, the world is still celebrating Jesus’ birthday.”

Joy stopped for a moment, and then she began to speak again, “The story of Christmas began two thousand years ago in the little village of Nazareth in Galilee. God sent the angel Gabriel there to tell a young girl named Mary that she was going to have a baby boy who would be called the Son of God and that she was to name the baby ‘Jesus’.

“Mary asked the angel how she could have a baby since she was not married, but the angel told her not to worry, because she would be visited by the Holy Spirit, and God himself would be the baby’s father.”

As Joy finished speaking, Andy lifted his arm and pointed his little finger at the top of the Christmas tree. Then a miracle happened. Suddenly all of the children heard a voice—not in Pig, but in their own languages. The children from France heard the voice speaking French, the children from Germany heard the voice speaking German, the children from China heard the voice speaking Chinese. Each child, no matter where he was from, heard the voice speaking in the language of his own country. The voice sounded like the voice of an angel, and the voice told the children all the things that Joy had just been speaking about.

When the voice stopped speaking, an ornament bigger than a pumpkin appeared on the tree. It was golden and glowing, and inside the ornament the children could see the angel Gabriel talking to Mary.

When all was quiet, Joy continued speaking. “Everything happened just as the angel had said. Mary was going to have a baby boy, and she married a carpenter named Joseph, who was a man of God. Joseph knew that Mary had been visited by the Holy Spirit and that her baby was the Son of God, so he was very careful to obey God in everything concerning the baby boy.

“About that time the Roman Emperor ordered that all the people go to the city where their ancestors had lived so that they could be counted. Joseph had to go to Bethlehem in Judea to be counted, and he took Mary with him.”

When Joy spoke the last word, the entire stage began to glow, and another enormous ornament appeared on the tree. The children could see Mary riding on a little donkey and Joseph walking along beside her inside the ornament.  And they heard a song about the little town of Bethlehem being sung by a heavenly voice that sounded more like a flute than a Human voice, but it must have been a voice because they clearly heard all the words.

The children felt so happy that they did not even want to move, and when Joy continued the story, they listened carefully to every word she said. “When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, it was time for her baby to be born, but there was no room for them at the inn. The innkeeper allowed them to go into the place where the animals were kept, and when the baby was born, Mary wrapped him in a cloth and laid him in the manger.

“That night some shepherds were guarding their sheep in the fields outside the village when suddenly an angel appeared to them. The angel glowed with the glory of the Lord, and the shepherds were very afraid. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ the angel said. He then told them that he had come to bring them the best news that anyone had ever heard. This is the news that he gave them—the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord has been born tonight in Bethlehem. And then the angel told the shepherds to go to Bethlehem and to find the baby who would be wrapped in a cloth lying in a manger. Suddenly the angel was joined by a huge crowd of angels singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will.’”

No sooner had Joy finished speaking than an ornament appeared on the tree much larger than the first two. The children looked inside the ornament and saw Mary and Joseph with the baby in the manger, and the shepherds in the fields with their sheep, and the angels filling the heavens. As they listened, the children heard the angels singing praises to God, and each child heard the praises sung in the language of his own country. Such joy filled the auditorium that the children began to praise God with the angels, and they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will!” Each child sang in the language of his own country, and the voices of the children sounded like the voices of the angels.

When the singing had ended, Joy said, “The shepherds went to Bethlehem to see the child, and when they had found him, they worshiped him. Then they told everyone what had happened and what the angel had told them about the child.

“At about that same time, some wise men from the East arrived in Jerusalem asking, ‘Where is the newborn King of the Jews?’ They told King Herod that they had seen a great star in the heavens that had led them there so that they could worship the baby, but the star had disappeared. King Herod was an evil king, and he did not know about the baby Jesus who was the Son of God. Herod called in the religious leaders, and they told him that a prophecy had been given by the prophet Micah that the baby would be born in the town of Bethlehem.” 

“The wicked King Herod then called in the wise men from the East and told them to go to Bethlehem and find the child. ‘When you have found him,’ he said, ‘come back to Jerusalem and tell me where he is so that I can worship him too,’ but Herod had lied when he said that he wanted to worship the baby; he was really planning to kill him.

“After the wise men left Herod, they saw the star again and followed it to the house where Mary and Joseph and the baby were living. When they saw the baby Jesus, they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they gave him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Afterwards, they returned to their own land, but they did not return to King Herod because God had warned them in a dream to go home another way.”

At that moment a fourth ornament appeared on the tree, and the children could see the wise men from the East riding their camels inside the ornament. Ahead of the wise men was a star so bright and beautiful that it made the children’s hearts leap with joy just to look at it. And the children could hear the wise men worshiping Jesus and praising God for sending His Son to the people of the earth.

Joy looked at the children for a moment before she spoke. Then she said, “This is the story of Christmas: God sent His son to earth to live among us so that we could know Him and love Him and accept Him as our Savior. If anyone comes to Jesus, He forgives him of his sins and gives him an abundant life here on earth and eternal life with God in Heaven.”

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her personal story of homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is told in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

What Time is it When the Calendar Strikes December 1?

What time is it when the calendar strikes December 1? It’s Party Time! At our house we make the entire month of December a celebration of Christmas, and that takes a lot of the “work” out of all those holiday preparations.

When I was homeschooling my ten children, they looked forward to the holidays with huge expectations. Of course, all children love Christmas, but like so many homeschoolers, we had more children than money. We could not afford to attend costly Christmas performances or take family trips. Our holiday celebrations had to be cheap and close to home. As a result, we learned to make every aspect of our Christmas preparations into a series of little parties. By making the events leading up to the big day as much a part of the celebration as Christmas Day itself, we were able to satisfy the desires of those little hearts for a magical Christmas season.

One of the things I did was to check out the television listings for special programming. We did not have cable so were limited to the three networks, but that limited selection provided everything we needed. I noted when A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlotte’s Web, and other special programs would be televised, and I always made it a point to watch those programs with them.

I designated one Saturday as Fudge Making Day. No one was required to join in, but everyone did. We made a huge amount of chocolate and peanut butter fudge which we stored away for Christmas, but everyone had to taste everything and scrape the pans. By the time we finished, they were all full of fudge.

For these occasions I allowed everyone to be as involved as they wished, but sometimes I had to really think about what some of their contributions could be. One year when Victoria was only two years old, she really wanted to help. I put a line of miniature marshmallows, a line of chocolate chips, and a line of pecan pieces on the counter. I then stood her four year old brother on one chair and her on another and told them to eat the various ingredients so that I could make certain that they were good enough to put into the fudge. I told them that they were “quality control” and that if they found any pieces that were not good, they had to let me know right away. Every few minutes I would ask, “Is everything still okay?” They assured me that everything was okay. By the time they had eaten everything that I had put on the counter for them, I had finished making most of the fudge. They felt very important that year because they had made sure that the fudge was “safe to eat.”

Every year we had a gift wrapping party and a separate tree decorating party—we always put up the tree the closest Saturday to December 10. I turned on Christmas music while we worked and provided “treats” in the form of cheap store brand sodas and a big bowl of M&Ms.

Daily Bible reading was always part of our lives, but at Christmas I put aside our regular reading so that the last couple of days before Christmas we would read the entire Christmas story from the Bible. By reading the accounts from all four Gospels, we were able to cover everything that the Bible records concerning Jesus’ birth.

I have known families who are able take lavish trips to celebrate Christmas; they go to ski resorts, or they take cruises, or they rent a house on the beach in Maui. I am certain that they have some wonderful Christmas memories, but I suspect that the most precious component of those memories is the time they spent together at those various vacation spots.

Love and friendship are free. By taking the ordinary things that have to be done to prepare for Christmas and turning them into special traditions, we can make all that “work” the best part of the holiday. We can stop dreading the various tasks that must be performed and start looking forward to a month-long celebration of Jesus’ Birthday that every family member will cherish for a lifetime.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeen birthday is told in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

                                                                         
                                    

A Gift from the Heart

What is the best gift you ever received? I’ll bet that the one that comes to your mind first was not an expensive item. Perhaps it was a small gift you received on a Christmas morning when you were a child; it may have been a meal that someone prepared for you when you were ill; perhaps, it was words of encouragement that someone offered when you felt that you could not go on. Whatever you consider the best gift you ever received, it was probably one that was given from the heart.

 As we approach this holiday season, many of us are struggling financially, and most of us have gift lists that are bigger than our bank accounts. We would all like to be able to lavish extravagant gifts on those whom we love, but, the truth is, that those costly gifts are often quickly forgotten. This season I want to encourage you to look to your heart to find the solutions to your holiday gift giving.

Forty-five years ago my husband John and I took a trip to Kansas to visit my maternal grandparents. John had not met them before, but the three of them liked one another immediately. One afternoon John and my grandfather went fishing, and while they were gone, my grandmother told me that she wanted to give John a gift but that she did not have anything she thought he would want.

I assured her that John did not want a gift, but she insisted. Finally, she said, “I know! I’m going to polish his shoes for him.” I assured her that John would not want her to polish his shoes, but she would not be deterred. She had noticed how well-groomed he was, and she remarked to me that a man who was that concerned about his appearance would love a shoe shine.

In spite of my protests, Grandma went into the room where we were staying, picked up his dress shoes, and worked with shoe polish and a brush until they gleamed. She looked very happy as she worked on those shoes, and when she was finished, she proudly placed them next to the door so that he would see them as soon as he returned. I had not thought about that incident for years, but yesterday John mentioned it to me; he said that he was so humbled by her act of kindness that he had felt close to her from that moment on.

My grandmother had virtually no money, but she was a compulsive giver. She never wanted anyone to leave her home empty handed, and she was always able to find the perfect gift for any individual. When she was in her nineties, one of her sons signed her up for Meals on Wheels. As soon as she began receiving the meals, she asked the volunteer who delivered hers about his family. She discovered that he had two little girls, and after that she made certain that she always had cookies in the house. Each day when he delivered her lunch she gave him two large cookies which she had carefully secured in plastic wrap—one for each of his girls.

I can never remember receiving a purchased gift from my grandmother, but I remember all of the times that she made tea parties just for the two of us. These were not child’s tea parties with fake tea in toy cups. She made real tea with cream and sugar and served it with crackers and butter in her best cups. The tea parties always occurred when we were alone. Many cold winter afternoons were spent drinking tea and talking. As one of twenty-two grandchildren, I felt very privileged to have her undivided attention as we enjoyed our tea, and I opened my heart to her. After her death I discovered that she had spent the same kind of quality time with each of her other grandchildren. She had tailored those times spent with each of them so that the two of them were engaged in something that was special to that particular grandchild.

In The Vision of Sir Launfal, James Russell Lowell writes, “(It’s) Not what we give, but what we share—For the gift without the giver is bare.”  A gift from the heart always costs the giver more than a purchased item because it requires that the giver share himself with the one receiving the gift. When we perform a task that requires an expenditure of our time and energy, we are saying, “I care enough about you to give up a little part of myself to benefit you.”  Gifts from the heart require a good deal of thought and effort on the part of the giver, but, in the long run, they are the gifts that we always remember.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother tells her own story of educating her ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

Thank God for Fleas

As Thanksgiving approaches many of us are compiling our personal list of things for which we are thankful. I, too, am compiling my list, and in doing so I am putting at the very top, “Thank you, God, for fleas.”

I learned about the importance of fleas from Corrie Ten Boom, the Dutch Christian woman who, along with her other family members, hid Jews from the Nazis when Holland was under occupation. Corrie and her sister Betsie were middle-aged spinsters when they were arrested by the Germans and eventually sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck. Because Ravensbruck was among the worst of the camps, from the time they were first arrested Corrie had prayed diligently that they would not be sent there.Yet, Ravensbruck turned out to be the final destination for these two remarkable women.

The sisters were assigned to Barracks 28, a long gray building with numerous broken windows covered by rags and communal beds consisting of platforms stacked three high covered with filthy, stinking straw.On that first day when Corrie and Betsie were assigned their places on a middle platform, they discovered that the straw was infested with fleas—biting, stinging vermin. It seemed to Corrie that fleas were the one thing that would make their incarceration at Ravensbruck even more torturous.

When Corrie began to complain about their circumstances, Betsie reminded her that the Bible says we are to give thanks in everything, and she began to thank God aloud that there had been no inspection when the women entered the barracks, and they had been able to bring in their Bible. Then she thanked God for the crowding because that meant more women would hear the gospel and be saved. Finally, Betsie thanked God for the fleas! As far as Corrie was concerned, that was the last straw. Corrie refused to join Betsie in thanking God for the fleas until Betsie reminded her that fleas were part of the place where God had put them. Grudgingly, Corrie took Betsie’s hand and joined her in thanking God for the fleas, although she was certain that this time Betsie was wrong.       

The two sisters immediately began a nightly meeting of prayer and Bible study where everyone was welcome to participate. Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Eastern Orthodox women joined in the prayers and singing, and others listened. The sisters’ Bible was written in Dutch, but they translated their reading into German so that more of the women would understand. Those women, in turn, passed the words of scripture along the aisles translating them into French, Polish, Russian, and Czech.

At first, the sisters were very fearful when they called their meetings.  In their previous barracks they had been accustomed to having the guards exercise rigid surveillance with half a dozen guards always present. In Barracks 28, however, there was very little supervision. At first the sisters were puzzled by this lack of supervision, but they later learned that the guards refused to enter the barracks because of the fleas. God had provided the fleas to keep the guards away from the nightly Bible study and worship where many women would come to know Christ.

In these difficult times many of us are fighting battles that seem to involve an inordinate number of fleas. We have experienced loss of income, dwindling home values, and failing businesses. It is almost impossible not to be angry and discouraged when we see everything we have worked so hard to achieve snatched away by circumstances beyond our control. Yet, the Bible tells us that not only are we not to be resentful, we are to actually give thanks for everything that comes into our lives.

If you feel that this Thanksgiving you have little to be thankful for, don’t concentrate on what is missing in your life. Thank God for the fleas, and trust that He is using them—every single annoying one of them—to bring about something beautiful. Trust that one day you will look back and understand how He used the fleas to bring about His perfect plan in your life.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, tells her own story of homeschooling her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.    

When a Slave Becomes a Prince

Can you imagine the horror of having the government order you to murder your baby by throwing it into a crocodile-infested river? That is exactly what happened to the Jewish mothers who were slaves in Egypt. At birth their male children were snatched from them and fed to the Nile.

Then along came a Jewish slave couple named Amram and Jochebed. They already had children, and their son Aaron was old enough not to be subject to Pharaoh’s order. However, Jochebed gave birth to another son during the time that the Pharaoh’s edict was in force, and when she saw that he was an unusually beautiful child, she refused to obey. Hebrews 11:23 tells us that Moses’ parents ‘trusted that God would save him from the death the king commanded, and they hid him for three months, and were not afraid.”

When Moses was three months old, his parents realized that they could no longer hide him, and Jochebed made him a little boat from papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar. She then set the basket on the Nile River—the same river that Pharaoh had commanded that all the male children be thrown into.

What emotions did Jochebed experience when she saw her little son float away into the crocodile infested waters? The Bible does not say, but as a mother, I can imagine the grief and dread that she must have experienced at that moment. I believe that this act required more faith than she had exhibited during the entire previous three months. Prior to placing her son in the water, she had maintained some control over the situation, but in that act she had relinquished any ability to manipulate the situation or impact the outcome.

Apparently, Jochebed had no idea what would happen to her baby boy because she instructed his sister Miriam to watch the little boat and report back to her what happened to it. She put her faith in God, entrusted her son to Him, and walked away.

What Jochebed did not know was that her actions had set into motion forces that would alter the future of the entire Jewish race. The baby Moses entered the Nile as a slave, but, for all practical purposes, the slave child died there because moments later he was drawn out as a prince of Egypt who would one day become the deliverer of the Jewish people.

This story is a wonderful illustration of what happens to the man or woman who accepts Christ as his or her savior and follows that conversion experience with baptism.

Most of us come to Christ because of someone else’s faith. While we are still living under the death sentence that sin imposes upon all mankind, someone comes along who sees someone beautiful in us and tells us about Jesus Christ’s saving power.

After a time, however, we must stop depending on their relationship with God and find what He has for us. When we determine that we want to be baptized, we enter the water as slaves to sin and death, but our old nature dies there, and we are drawn out of the water as children of the King.

We then have the privilege of becoming a deliverer to others who are slaves to sin. Only Christ can forgive them and take away their sin, but we can tell them about Him and share the wonderful things He has done in our lives. We can look into the faces of all those living under the sentence of sin and death and see the beauty that is theirs in Christ. We can have a small part in helping them make the transition from slave to child of the king.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother recounts her own years teaching her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeenth birthdays.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

My House, God's Rules

After they had entered the Promised Land, Joshua called the people of Israel to him at Shechem and gave them instructions concerning their responsibilities to God. He told them that they must revere Jehovah and serve him in “sincerity and truth” and put away forever the idols that their ancestors had worshiped when they had lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt.

Joshua told the people that they must choose whom they would serve—the heathen gods or Jehovah. Then he concluded by saying, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24)

Joshua was the leader of God’s people, but they lived in a world where wickedness abounded. All of the surrounding nations were idol worshipers who indulged in the most horrible practices imaginable, and there was an ongoing spiritual battle to lure God’s people to participate in their ceremonies.

Yet, Joshua presented a very simple plan to the people of Israel: He told them to make a choice about whom they would serve, and then he declared his own choice—that he and his house would serve the Lord.

I believe that today we live in circumstances very similar to those Joshua encountered. We have the world-wide Church with its millions of sincere believers, but we are surrounded by those who hate Christ and who are always lurking about trying to seduce God’s people to join them in their wicked practices. It is, therefore, important to understand Joshua’s declaration concerning his own house.

First, he made it clear that each of the people of Israel had to decide for themselves whether they would respond to God’s laws and live accordingly, and he warned them that if they deserted God they would be destroyed—even though God had cared for them for such a long time.

Second, he took authority over the areas that he could personally control. He alone would decide what would take place within the confines of his own house, and his decision was that his house would be a place to honor God.

I have known a number of Christians who keep lowering the spiritual bar in their own homes because they want to keep their children close. They overlook drinking, pot smoking, and porn because they feel safer “knowing where their children are.” I do feel sympathy for these parents, but I do not support their decision.

Minor children need to understand, “This is my house, and everyone who lives here lives under God’s rules.”  It may sound harsh, but this attitude is entirely necessary.

When our children are grown and have their own homes, we cannot control their behavior. We hope that our teaching and example have been sufficient to lead them into their own relationships with Christ and their own decisions to follow Him, but, when they become adults, children must decide for themselves whom they will follow.

The one thing we can always control is what goes on inside our own houses. Grown children who are not serving the Lord must understand that our houses are dedicated to the service of Jesus Christ and that no conduct that dishonors Him will be tolerated there. No matter what their ages the rule still applies, “My house, God’s rules.”

Joshua 24:31 says, “Israel obeyed the Lord throughout the lifetimes of Joshua and the other old men who had personally witnessed the amazing deeds which the Lord had done for Israel.” Those of us who are now the “old” men and women who have witnessed amazing deeds that God has done in our lives have a responsibility to the younger generation. It is our duty to never let them forget what God has done for us as a country, as families, and as individuals. By reminding our children that we are set apart for His service, we ensure that they will one day be the “old” people who will set the example for future generations and will say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, recounts her experiences homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through master's degrees.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

The Gift of God

On Sunday morning our pastor said that “the gift of God” referred to in Romans is literally “the gift of God.” It is God’s gift of Himself to us. Most of us have heard the scriptures concerning the gift of God so often that we tend to not give them much thought. This week, however, I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about God’s gift of Himself to a lost world.

I do not think that we can ever fully appreciate what a priceless gift He bestowed upon us when He gave Himself to us. In giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, He gave us the gift of eternal life. When we chose to accept His gift, we chose a new master. Sin, our old master that results in death, lost its hold on our lives, and obedience, that results in acquittal, became our new master. (Romans 6:16)

If that were all that God had done for us, it would have been enough. Yet, He chose to do so much more. The Bible is filled with names of God that describe the various aspects of His character, and all of those attributes of God are part of His gift to us. They include:

• Jehovah-Jireh—the Lord who provides
• Jehovah-Rophe—the Lord who heals
• Jehovah-Shammah—the Lord who is there
• Immanuel—the God who is with us
• El Shaddai—the all sufficient one

It is comforting to know that we serve a God who is our provider, our healer, and our friend who never deserts us.  When we understand that He is sufficient to meet every need in every situation, we can face life’s challenges with confidence. Yet, most of us do not experience God on any of these levels until we have a need in our own lives.

Desperate financial need may bring us face to face with Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides.  Through illness, either our own or that of a loved one, we can come to know Jehovah-Rophe, the Lord who heals. When we are deserted by the friends and family that we believed would always stand by us, we may find Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord who is there. Through a lifetime of hardships, disappointments, and sorrow, we meet El Shaddai, the all sufficient one who lightens our burdens, renews our hope, and wipes away our tears.

When God sent His Son to live among us and die for our sins, He sent Him in the fullness of all the facets of His character. Because of that most precious gift, we can experience the joy of knowing Him as the one who is closer than a brother, who not only sees our present circumstances, but looks ahead and makes provision years in advance for the day when those needs will occur.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her personal story of homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

One Degree of Separation

Yesterday a friend of mine shared with me something that her husband had told her concerning the importance of not varying from the course—even by the tiniest bit: He said that if a pilot were to take off in a plane and his heading were off by even one degree, for every sixty miles he traveled he would be one mile off target. Therefore, if he left JFK headed for LAX, at the end of the trip he would find himself forty miles out over the Pacific Ocean. My friend’s husband concluded by saying, “[Depending on how much fuel was in the tanks,] this could mean the difference between a passenger’s making his meeting on time and using his seat cushion for a floatation device.”

In view of the turmoil we are experiencing in our country, I think that this analogy is very timely. We have all been under a lot of pressure as we have watched our financial futures, employment prospects, and basic freedoms evaporate right before our eyes. In times like these, it is natural to try to gain control of some aspect of our lives, and those of us who are Christians nearly always turn to the Church for help. It is important, however, to remember that when we are most vulnerable, Satan is most active. Our fellow Christians are also people under attack, and they, too, are trying to work out their lives during these very precarious times. It is more important than ever, therefore, to make certain that our heading is not off by even one degree, and we must always be mindful that the only way we can ensure a safe passage is to examine everything in the light of scripture.

In many churches we are now witnessing an effort to revamp the church experience in ways that, traditionally, would have never been considered. While I believe that most of the proposed changes are well-intentioned efforts to reach unbelievers and make church more “relevant” to today’s generation, I also believe that we must be more careful than ever to keep our message pure. We need to step back and view all change in the light of scripture. We have the model of the early church as to its goals, and we have a wealth of scripture that defines our roles as Christians. If these goals are allowed to vary by even one degree, we will eventually find ourselves far off course, drowning in a sea of false doctrine.

What my friend’s husband did not say is that when the pilot in the analogy crashed his plane, he would not only very likely have killed himself, he would have been responsible for the loss of the lives of his crew and passengers. That destruction would, in turn, affect the lives of the families and friends of all those who were lost in the crash.

The same is true of a spiritual crash. When we who are mature Christians allow false teaching to come into our churches, we are not only responsible for our own spiritual deaths, we are responsible for misleading new Christians who do not know God’s Word and are depending on us to stay on course. They, in turn, affect their families and friends by spreading unscriptural precepts. It is, therefore, the responsibility of every Christian to examine every policy of his or her local church in light of God’s Word and to stand against anything that does not measure up.

We are constantly being barraged by “politically correct” thinking, and we are often told that as Christians we are narrow minded. The next time someone says that you are “narrow minded” because you are unwilling to compromise the Word of God, consider it a compliment. A narrow mind will keep you on the narrow road that ultimately leads to heaven. (Matthew 7:13)

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her story of teaching her own children from the first grade through master's degrees before their 17th birthdays is retold in Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

When Less is More

I do not believe that when we give to others God always returns the gift to us in equal or greater measure. I do, however, know from experience that when we are certain that God is directing us to give, it is important to be obedient—even when we least want to do so.

In the fall of 2001 my daughter Alexandra needed to take a class to earn the necessary CE credits to have her insurance license renewed. The required class was not currently available in El Paso, but it was available in Lubbock. Since the trip from El Paso to Lubbock entails driving about three hundred miles across long stretches of uninhabited desert, Alexandra asked me if I would go with her so that she would not have to make the drive alone.

The class schedule included one full day and a two-hour wrap-up the following morning. We planned to leave for our return trip to El Paso as soon as the wrap-up ended, so Alexandra and I looked forward to spending our one evening in Lubbock enjoying a mini “vacation.” Our business was new, and we were struggling financially; I had a five-dollar bill in my wallet and nothing else. I had no credit cards and no other money.

Alexandra was also struggling financially, but she was paying for the hotel room (which we shared) and our dinner with her credit card. We went to the coffee shop, ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, and settled in for what we believed would be a pleasant evening talking in the nearly deserted restaurant.

Our waitress was in her early twenties and very smiley. Although only one or two other tables were occupied, she gave extremely poor service. Alexandra and I are both very low-maintenance so that was not a real problem for us, but the waitress decided that we were her new best friends. She insisted on standing by our table smiling and complaining about her bosses, her co-workers, and her customers. I was sure that after she had vented sufficiently, she would leave us alone to enjoy our dinner, but, no, that did not happen. She stood at our table talking the entire time that our meal was being prepared. The other customers had left by that time and I hoped that when she served our food she would leave to clear their tables or do something in the kitchen, but, no, that did not happen. She stood smiling and complaining the entire time that we were eating. She did not refill our glasses or do any of the things that a waitperson ordinarily does to make her customers’ meals enjoyable.

When our meal was almost over, I felt the Lord tell me to give her the five dollars as a tip. I was not happy about that. She had given us the worst service I have ever encountered and then monopolized our time by refusing to leave our table. Neither Alexandra nor I had asked her to do anything for us, and we had forced ourselves to be friendly, but surely this was the last straw: God wanted me to give my last five dollars to this young woman.

I wrestled with myself for a few minutes, but then I reached into my purse and took the five dollars from my wallet. When we rose from our table to leave the restaurant, I smiled and handed her the money. I promised myself that I was not going to think about it again.

The next morning I told Alexandra to leave her keys with me. She checked out of the hotel on her way into the meeting, and I picked up our suitcases and headed for her car to put them in the trunk. When I opened the front door of the hotel, I saw something lying on the sidewalk. I stooped to pick it up and discovered that it was a ten-dollar bill.

I have no doubt that if I had kept my five dollars, I would not have found the ten dollars on the sidewalk. Other people were going in and out of the lobby as I passed through the door, and none of them had even noticed the money lying on the sidewalk.

I believe that God put that ten-dollar bill there to bless me, but I also believe that He wanted to teach me a lesson. He is the one who decides who needs our help, and sometimes it is the person who is annoying us the most.  Sacrificial giving is easy when we are giving to those we love; it is not so easy when we are giving to someone whom we hope will go away and leave us alone. The thing that we need to remember is this: God never makes a mistake, and when He directs us to do something we need to trust Him. He created everything that exists out of nothing. He is well able to intervene our behalf and turn less into more.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her story of teaching her own ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.  For  more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

When Learning to Read is a Challenge--Part III

Dyslexic children tend to be "misunderestimated" by nearly everyone with whom they come in contact. Nevertheless, history provides an impressive list of dyslexic people whose accomplishments have significantly impacted society: Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Hans Christian Andersen, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Winston Churchill, and General George Patton are only a few of the notables who battled dyslexia. The problem is that those who suffer from dyslexia are not appreciated until long after they have found ways to overcome their differences, and many dyslexic children never receive the help they need to compete with their “normal” peers.

When George W. Bush was running for President, someone wrote an article saying that they could tell from observing him that he is dyslexic. When a reporter asked him about this, Bush responded by saying that he was glad that he had “finally been diagnosed.” I, of course, have no way of knowing whether our former president is dyslexic, but I do know that he displays many of the characteristics of a dyslexic person; interestingly, it is those same characteristics that endeared him to his supporters.

Dyslexic people tend to make up their own words, and often those words are so descriptive that they work better than their “correct” counterparts. For instance, when George W. Bush coined the word “misunderestimated,” he became the object of a lot of teasing. However, that word was so descriptive of the way the media perceived him that it became the title of several books written about him, including one authored by Bill Sammon that was published in 2005.

Not being an eloquent speaker is certainly not a reflection of one’s intelligence; yet, in this age of electronic media, anyone who is not able to ramble endlessly when the microphone is on is frequently dismissed as “dumb.” Conversely, some very stupid people who are able to speak easily have been mistakenly labeled as “smart.” Dyslexic people are excellent communicators, but they communicate less through speech than they do in other ways.

When George W. Bush was in the White House, he became known for his common “folksy” approach to people. This is typical behavior of people dealing with dyslexia. My ninth child stands close to anyone with whom he is speaking and almost always puts his arm around their shoulder. He studies a person’s body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. He is at least as interested in how someone says something as he is in what they say. As a result, he is a better judge of whether someone is lying than most of his siblings. When he talks, which he does incessantly, he relies on body language and facial expressions to “tell the story” nearly as much as he does spoken language.

My ninth child will never be able to spell very well (thank goodness for spell check), and he will never excel at standing before a microphone making a dry speech. However, he has the ability to take the most mundane situation and make it outrageously funny. He also communicates a warmth and personal interest in those around them that draws people to him.

Fortunately for my ninth child and for the dyslexic overachievers that I listed at the beginning of this blog, they each had someone who helped them get past the very real problems that are part of living with dyslexia. That is the key; dyslexic children need someone who loves them enough to spend the many hours that are necessary to help them overcome their inability to see the world through the eyes of their “normal’ peers. It is wonderful when the story of a dyslexic child has a happy ending, but those happy endings are always the result of hard work and perseverance on the part of the child and their teacher.

This is the final blog in my three-part series. If you have a child who struggles to learn to read, I hope that these blogs have helped you understand better what your child is experiencing as well as to better understand what you can do to help him. If you have questions or comments, I will respond to them and give you my best advice based on my years of experience dealing with this very sensitive subject.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, recounts her experiences teaching her own ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeenth birthdays.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

Lost

On Sunday evening 20/20 aired an episode about the Kim family who left San Francisco on November 17, 2006, to make a road trip to spend Thanksgiving in Seattle with family and friends. After spending a pleasant holiday weekend with loved ones, the Kims began their trip home. James Kim had his heart set on staying at the Tu Tu Tun Inn at Gold Beach in Oregon. Although it was already late and their two daughters, Penelope, age four years, and Sabine, age seven months, were asleep in the back seat, the Kims decided to make the five-hour drive to Gold Beach. Kati Kim called ahead for reservations.

After a quick meal at Denny’s, the Kims headed down I-5 to Gold Beach, but they soon made a wrong turn. Before long, they realized that they were on the wrong road, but they agreed that they had gone too far to turn back. Kati consulted the map and found what she thought was a short cut to Gold Beach. As a result, the Kims made another wrong turn. Satisfied that they would arrive at Gold Beach in record time, Kati went to sleep, and while she slumbered, James made yet another wrong turn that took them up Bear Camp Road—a road that should have been blocked by a gate to prevent motorists from entering during the fall and winter months.

Kati awoke to find that they were hopelessly lost on a precipitous mountain road that led to nowhere. Snow was falling, and black bear were patrolling the forest. Terrified, James and Kati agreed to spend the night in the clearing where James had parked the car. They tried to call 911 but were unable to find cell phone service in the forest.

When daylight arrived, the Kims decided to stay where they were and wait to be rescued. They remained in their car for three days, huddled together for warmth, with the engine idling and the heater running, until they finally ran out of gas. In a desperate attempt to save his family, James then took the tires off their car and burned them in the hopes that someone would see the smoke and rescue them.

On day seven James left the car to try to find help. He began walking down the road on which they had come, but, once again, left the road to take a “short cut” through the woods.

On day nine, Kati and the two girls were rescued and taken to the hospital where they recovered.

James eventually died of hypothermia, and on day eleven rescuers found his body in Big Windy Creek lying on its back in a foot of icy water.

This horribly tragic story provides a good parallel for how people so often handle their spiritual lives. Our lives progress through a series of choices. Hardly anyone makes one choice that destroys his life; usually, a failed life is due to a series of “wrong turns.” The problem is that each wrong turn takes us further down a dangerous road.

When my children were young, I told them that everyone makes some bad choices, but when we realize that we are on the wrong path we must stop and immediately start making better choices. We may not be able to undo whatever damage is already done, but in most cases, if we stop as soon as we know that we are on the wrong road, the damage will be minimal.

If James Kim had turned around when he and his wife first realized that they had made a wrong turn, they would have, at worst, lost an hour or so of driving time. By returning to the point where they had gone wrong and getting back on the proper highway, the family would have been spared days of trauma, and James would not have lost his life.

As in driving, in spiritual matters it often seems more expedient to continue on a road to nowhere than it is to turn around. Even when we can no longer delude ourselves that our current road will get us where we want to go, we try to compensate by simply taking another wrong turn. If we take enough wrong turns, we will find ourselves so lost that it will be nearly impossible to find our way back to the highway.

There is one straight, narrow road that leads to heaven, and when we find ourselves on any other path, we must stop, turn around, and go back to that safe highway. The Bible assures us that Jesus loves us and died for us while we were yet sinners so that we could be forgiven and reunited with Him, but we must be willing to leave the path of sin and destruction so that He can deliver us from all those wrong turns.

Joyce Swann is the author of Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother which recounts how she taught her ten children at home from the first grade through graduate work. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

When Learning to Read is a Challenge--Part II

In Part I of "When Learning to Read is a Challenge", I discussed some of the differences in the way my ninth child processed images and written language compared to his non-dyslexic siblings. I wish that I had known early on just how differently he perceived the world. What I did realize early on was that he was unable to master reading in that almost effortless way that his siblings did.

Before I began teaching my oldest child, I created my own phonics program to teach her to read. I used this program for all of my children, and it worked beautifully. My method was simple. I took 3 x 5 cards and wrote one letter of the alphabet on each. I then wrote common combinations such as sh, ch, tr, etc. on other cards. First, I taught my students the name of each consonant and the sound it makes. I then taught them the name of each vowel and the long and short sound for each. After that I taught them the various common combinations. When they had mastered all of the cards, I showed them how these various sounds combine to make words.  I then introduced Dr. Seuss’ Hop on Pop as their first reader because it utilized many of the combinations that they had learned. Within six weeks after the day I first sat down and began teaching them using this method, they were reading.

Perhaps I should say that within six weeks after the day I first sat down and began teaching them using this method, nine out of ten of them were reading. For my ninth child, reading did not come easily. He had a great deal more difficulty recognizing the cards than his siblings did. It was not that he was not trying; he exerted enormous effort, and whenever he was able to complete an exercise correctly, I really heaped on the praise. Both of us wanted him succeed, but it was a slow process.

Years later one of my daughters told me that he had confided in her that he wished so much that he could read because “it would make Mom so happy.” When she told me that, I nearly cried because I was always aware of how difficult reading was for him. However, not learning to read was not an option. I knew that we both needed help, and I prayed continually about what I should do. After a while I developed a theory that I put into practice, and eventually it paid off.

I thought that a dyslexic child must lack the pathways to the brain that allow non-dyslexic children to learn to read easily. I reasoned that victims of stroke and brain injuries often have to re-learn to talk, read, and even walk by developing new pathways to allow the proper impulses to travel to the brain. Although my theory was strictly my own non-scientific opinion, I believed that this was the only way that I was going to be able to teach my ninth child to read. I would work with him utilizing hours of repetition until we were able to develop pathways that would allow him to process written language.

Because I began teaching all of my children to read shortly before their fifth birthdays, I continued to go over my phonics flash cards with them once each school day for about six months. For my ninth child, I went through the flash cards with him every school day for several years. He made progress, but reading was slow and laborious.

To make things easier I sat with him during his reading assignments.  I would read one page aloud to him while he followed along in the book and, then, he would read one page aloud to me. This kept the assignments from being too tedious. It also gave him the advantage of reinforcing his reading by hearing himself read.

Today I am more convinced than ever that the only way that he could ever have learned to read was by reading, reading, and more reading. I am reminded of the Olympic athletes who became gold medalists because they had disabilities that they had to work hard to overcome. They did not set out to become outstanding athletes—they were just trying to overcome problems that were not problems for “normal” people.

Scott Hamilton developed a mysterious disease at the age of two that caused him to stop growing. He began to skate as a therapy to help him overcome what was originally thought to be a condition that was terminal. Not only did he get well, he ended up becoming one of the greatest male figure skaters of all time.

Likewise, Michael Phelps was diagnosed as ADHD and got involved in swimming partially to help him burn off some of the energy that kept him from being able to sit still for extended periods of time. Consequently, in the 2008 Summer Olympics he won six gold and two bronze medals.  

As I mentioned in Part I of this blog, my ninth child did learn to read. He made excellent grades and received his master’s degree soon after his seventeenth birthday. The methods that I used to help him overcome his difficulties learning to read were simple, but they were not easy. It took love, patience and hard work on both our parts to overcome a situation that often seemed as if it were insurmountable. 

Next week:  When Learning to Read is a Challenge Part III

For more by Joyce Swann, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

When Life Hands You Lemons...Make a Pie

For the first five years of my life I was what one would call a “model child.” I was obedient, compliant, quiet, and well-mannered. Then, at age six, something snapped, and I made a deliberate decision to take a walk on the wild side and rebel against parental authority. Although six decades have passed since that fateful day, I remember every detail as if it were yesterday.

Although it was early on a Saturday morning, I had already eaten my breakfast and was lying fully clothed on my bed. The small room that served as a bedroom for my brother, sister, and me lay directly next to the kitchen and did not even have a door for privacy. While this arrangement sometimes presented a problem, it also allowed us to hear everything that was going on in the tiny kitchen and living room.

On this particular day I was listening to the sounds of my mother clanking dishes in the kitchen and waiting for the call that I knew was sure to come at any moment, “Joyce, come here.” Whenever that call came, I had always responded quickly and joined my mother at the sink to dry the dishes that she had washed. On this day, however, I had made up my mind ahead of time that when she called, I would refuse to obey.

When I heard her call my name, I responded, “I don’t want to dry the dishes!”

“Joyce, come here.”

“I don’t want to dry the dishes!” I yelled louder.

We continued this way for quite some time with my mother calling for me to join her in the kitchen and me responding in ever louder tones, “I DON’T WANT TO DRY THE DISHES!”

After a while the clanking of dishes ceased, and I felt that it would be safe to enter the kitchen. Since rebellion was new to me, I felt a little guilty, yet oddly exhilarated by my refusal to comply with my mother’s instructions. I smiled sweetly as I turned the corner into the kitchen and said to my mother, “I just didn’t want to dry the dishes.”

She did not smile in return. She just looked at me and said, “I wasn’t calling you to dry the dishes. I made a lemon pie, and I thought that you would want to stir the filling.”

I was crestfallen! My favorite thing to do in the whole world was to stir the lemon filling as it bubbled on the stove, and my mother knew it. She had saved that part of the pie making for me to enjoy, but through my disobedience, I had lost the opportunity.

Then Mother said something to me that I have never forgotten, “When I call you, it doesn’t always mean that I have something unpleasant for you to do.  Sometimes I have something special for you, but you will never know unless you come when I call.”

Whenever I remember my day of rebellion, I think about the times when God calls us to do something that we assume will be unpleasant, or difficult, or unrewarding, and we respond by crying out from a distance, “I don’t want to!”

By refusing to respond to His call, we, no doubt, escape some unpleasant tasks, but we also escape the wonderful rewards that He has reserved for us.  Serving Jesus Christ is not always easy, and we sometimes feel that we are tired of drying the dishes while our siblings are allowed to play. But, if we are willing to respond to His call every time we hear His voice, we will discover that sometimes He has prepared something special for us just because He knew that it would bring us joy. The catch is: You have to respond to every call, because you never know when there is a pot of bubbling lemon pie filling on the stove.

For books by Joyce visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.com