He Knows our Needs

There is an old song that says, “He knows our needs before we pray, and we can rest assured the answer’s on the way.” One could not find a more appropriate explanation of what happened to Petra Anderson on the night of July 20 of this year.

The young woman was attending the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, when an armed gunman burst through the exit door of the theater and opened fire on the theater goers. Five days later we are all too familiar with the events that followed James Holmes’ shooting rampage and with the carnage that followed. We have heard about acts of heroism in which several young men died shielding their girlfriends’ bodies from the bullets; we have heard from theater goers who escaped injury altogether, and we have been told about those who escaped death but remain in critical condition. No one knows why some people lived and others died in this senseless slaughter that shattered so many lives.

Today, however, I want to share Petra’s story about God’s provision for her that He set in motion at her birth twenty-two years earlier.  Petra was born with a small “defect” in her brain that remained undiagnosed until she was shot in that Colorado theatre. Three shotgun pellets hit her arm, but the fourth went through her nose and traveled up the back of her cranium before hitting the back of her skull.

When Petra arrived at the hospital, she was in critical condition. Before she went into surgery the doctors were concerned because such a large portion of Petra’s brain had been traversed by the bullet, and they worried that her speech, motor skills, and cognitive abilities would be permanently impaired. During the five-hour surgery, however, the surgeons discovered that Petra’s brain had sustained almost no damage, and they were able to remove the bullet cleanly.

It seems that God had looked ahead and seen that awful day when Petra would be the victim of a madman bent on ending the lives of complete strangers, and He had prepared a path for that bullet to follow so that Petra’s life would be spared.

The surgeons discovered a tiny channel of fluid running through her brain that could have been detected only through a CAT scan and would have forever remained undetected if Petra had not been shot. According to the surgeon, the bullet entered her brain at the exact point of this small channel and traveled through it like a marble through a tube. The defect guided the bullet from Petra’s nose through her brain, turning slightly several times and stopping at the rear of her brain. As the bullet traveled, it missed every vital area of her brain.

At the time of this writing Petra is still in the hospital, but she is talking and walking, and the doctors expect her to make a full recovery.

Petra’s story is another reminder that God loves us so much that he looks ahead and makes provision for us years in advance. No one would ever imagine that a birth defect in one’s brain could be a blessing, but this particular abnormality was the means that God used to save a young woman’s life in such a way that she would be able to return to full health.

God works in wonderful and mysterious ways to intercede for his children. The next time you find yourself in desperate circumstances I hope that you will remember Petra Anderson and be reminded that even when we are called upon to go through difficult and frightening situations, God is always with us. He is the God who is there, and He has already made provision for us.

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 seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

The Freedom Prayer

The following prayer appears in The Planner, a Christian novel by Alexandra Swann. The Planner is set a couple of years in the future when the United States is living under an oppressive government that has stripped American citizens of virtually all of their rights and reduced the populace to poverty and dependence on the government dole.

One evening Kris, the central character, finds herself sitting in on an illegal prayer meeting held in her parents’ tiny apartment, and when she hears Todd, the retired pastor who leads the group, pray this prayer, she begins to re-evaluate her own life.

In these trying times, I think that we would all do well to take this prayer to heart and incorporate these sentiments into our own prayers.

Todd’s Prayer

“Lord we come to You tonight to ask for Your forgiveness. The Bible promises that when we seek You, we will find You, if we search with all our hearts.

“Lord, we confess that we have not followed Your commands. We have not loved You with our whole hearts—we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not stood for the truth of Your Gospel. We have sat by and said nothing when Your name was blasphemed and mocked. We did not take a stand when we saw Your laws despised.

“We know that many times we ourselves have been among the worst offenders. We have lived sinful lives that are contrary to the word of God. Like Esau, we have traded away our birthright for a little convenience; we have despised this incredible gift of freedom that You provided for us and allowed all of the liberty that our country offered to be trampled down. We have forgotten the words of King David who said that it is better to fall into the hands of God than to be at the mercy of men, and so we now find ourselves living under the rule of a cruel and despotic government who has stolen everything from us and shows us no mercy.

“We know that everything that is happening to us is a result of our bad choices, both individually and as a nation. You gave us the gift of being born into a free nation—the greatest nation the world has ever seen. You gave us a form of government unlike any other that had ever been known by any other people, and we did not value it enough to defend it.

“For all of these things, Lord, we ask Your forgiveness.  We pray tonight that You will change our hearts so that each of us will begin to love what You love, to hate what You hate and to want what You want. We ask You to save our nation, for we know that the Bible teaches that salvation belongs to our God—no political party, no ideology, no government can save us.  If we don’t find salvation in You, we won’t find it at all. 

“Please turn Your face to us again, and give us back our freedom, and restore our country so that we can truly be one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We ask all these things in the name of Your son, Jesus.  Amen.”

                          The Planner

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 seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

The Freedom to Homeschool

July is the month when Americans celebrate freedom. We observe the anniversary of our independence as a nation, and we talk about the freedoms we hold most dear: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc. I wonder, however, how many people count the freedom to homeschool among our most precious freedoms.

In 1975 when I began homeschooling, my husband and I were able to locate only two states where homeschooling was legal. Fortunately, New Mexico was one of them, and since we lived only a few miles from the New Mexico state line, we sold our house in Texas, bought another one in New Mexico, and made the move that gave us the freedom to homeschool.

The word homeschooling had not yet been coined, and when I tried to explain to people what we were doing, they just shook their heads. In fact, homeschooling was so rare that I homeschooled for eight years before I met another homeschooler.

Since the homeschooling movement was God inspired, however, the number of homeschoolers literally exploded, and it soon became apparent that two states where homeschooling was legal were not enough. Parents began to realize that the right to educate their own children is God given, and they began to demand the freedom to homeschool in every state in the Union.

When I began homeschooling, my plan was to quietly educate my children with as few people as possible knowing what we were doing. Since each of the children was enrolled in Calvert School’s  extension program for the elementary grades, I told them that when anyone asked them about their school, to tell them that they went to a private school. This was true since Calvert School is a private school in Baltimore, Maryland, with an extension program that has existed for more than one hundred years. Each child was assigned an “advisory teacher” at Calvert School, and their tests were sent to the school for grading and record keeping.

Even though we had written permission from the state of New Mexico to homeschool, I feared that we might somehow become targets of the state department of education.  I wanted to keep a low profile and did everything I could to make sure that we were off the radar. Nevertheless, word began to get out that we were homeschooling. It seemed that the more I tried to remain anonymous the more people found out about our homeschool.

As a result, I was asked to testify in Leeper vs. Arlington, the case that legalized homeschooling in Texas. I also spoke twice to the legislators in North Dakota when they were debating whether to legalize homeschooling in their state; soon after North Dakota did legalize homeschooling. Ironically, more than fifteen years after I had begun my homeschooling journey, I was asked to speak to legislators in New Mexico as they reconsidered their homeschooling law; they kept homeschooling legal in my state.

That I was repeatedly asked to speak on behalf of homeschoolers in an effort to legalize homeschooling, is a testament to how few homeschoolers existed in the years between 1975 and 1995. That our numbers have grown to the point that homeschooling is no longer an oddity, is a testament to God’s special provision for His children. We now have homeschool sports teams, homeschool proms, homeschool support groups, and all sorts of homeschool curricula. Literally everyone has heard of homeschooling, and almost everyone knows at least one homeschooling family. What began as a longing in the hearts of a few parents across this land to educate their children in a way that would provide a solid, traditional education while protecting them from the negative forces that were moving into the public school system, has grown into a huge movement that has resulted in laws that allow homeschooling in every state of our United States.

This month as we talk to our children about the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, we should not fail to tell them that their freedom to be homeschooled is among the most precious that we enjoy. Let them know that many Americans worked hard to pass the laws that allow homeschooling, and that homeschoolers in every state were willing to go the distance to make certain that their state made homeschooling a legal option for all parents.  

Freedom is never simply bestowed without effort on the recipients. The freedom to homeschool was won through the efforts of many homeschooling pioneers. It will be up to future generations to hold onto that freedom. So when we count our blessings and thank God for the freedoms we enjoy, let’s not forget to include the freedom to homeschool.

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 seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book,Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.   Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

Why Would Anybody Want to be an American?

I originally posted this blog in July of 2011. As we approach the Fourth of July this year, I chose to repost it to remind us why nearly everyone wants to be an American.  Have a wonderful Fourth and remember to count your blessings.

A few months ago I heard about an East Indian man who was asked why he had chosen to live in America. He replied, “I wanted to live in a country where the poor people are fat.” I cannot imagine any American-born citizen ever giving this response because it is so removed from our way of thinking. However, I believe that we can gain some very good insights about the advantages of American citizenship by listening to those who have just been awarded the privilege.

Over the last couple of years we have heard some of our best-known politicians and religious leaders apologize for America. They have proclaimed that we are to blame for most of the world’s ills. Whether it is AIDS in Africa or the consumption of too many natural resources, America is to blame. We are told that we are a greedy, selfish, spoiled, pampered and altogether bad people who owe the world an apology; they then add insult to injury by offering an apology on our behalf. I, for one, am tired of being vilified by these men who have received so much from what is undeniably the greatest country on earth.

I was very interested, therefore, this past Monday on July 4 when I saw that CNN was interviewing some of America’s newest citizens who had only that day been sworn in at ceremonies held in cities all over the United States.  I was surprised to discover that an inordinate number of them held doctorate degrees and could have made a good living almost anywhere in the world. They had not chosen America because they were “poor immigrants” who hoped for an opportunity to leave poverty and squalor behind. They had chosen America for reasons far beyond the dream of becoming rich.

One man from Iraq said that after he had been in this country for only a few weeks he saw someone walking his dog. The dog was wearing socks, and the Iraqi asked the dog’s owner why he had put socks on his dog. The owner replied that the sidewalk was hot and the socks would keep the dog’s feet from being uncomfortable.

The Iraqi was astonished. He said that he could not imagine living in a country where people wanted even their animals to be comfortable. He finished by saying, “People would rather be a dog in America than a human in Iraq.”

A Nigerian man who has his PhD said that he had wanted to become an American citizen because in his country people do not even have clean water. He said that he wished Americans would travel to other countries and see the way the rest of the world lives so that “we would appreciate what God has given to this country.”

Yes, God has blessed America far beyond anything that anyone could have dreamed of 235 years ago.  As a result, we owe Him a great deal. Because we have been given much, much is required of us, and most of the time we have done pretty well as a nation in responding to problems in the rest of the world. We are, by far, the leader in sending missionaries to other parts of the world. We have given trillions of dollars in foreign aid, and we are the first to send relief in times of natural disasters. We are a giving, generous people.

God has blessed us, and we, in turn, have blessed others. I hope that anyone who has ever felt guilty because America has so much will remember from whence those blessings came. We must always acknowledge that God is the author of our story, and we must always live our lives to honor Him and to show others the same kindness and generosity that He continues to show us.

People who have lived without clean water, sufficient food and a just system of government know exactly why they chose to come to America. You never have to ask the guy who would rather be a dog in this country than a human in the country from which he came, “Why would anyone want to be an American?

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 seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book,Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.   Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

Waiting for an Answer

Sometimes we believe that our prayers have gone unanswered when all we really need to do is wait for God to move.

When I was a child and a teenager, I attended the Protestant Chapel on the Air Force base where my step-father was stationed. A number of chaplains served the congregation, so we never knew ahead of time who would be conducting the service on any given Sunday.  Some of the chaplains were fairly good preachers, but others made me wonder why they had ever chosen to go into the ministry.

Over the years I encountered a wide spectrum of chaplains representing every major Protestant denomination, but my favorite, by far, was an African American Baptist who absolutely believed what he preached. In fact, every Sunday morning I found myself hoping that he would be the one leading the service. One Sunday he told a story that has stayed with me for fifty-three years because it taught me the importance of waiting for God’s answer to my prayers.

When Chaplain Price was a little boy, he had wanted a bicycle more than anything, but his family was poor and could not afford to buy him one. He knew that the only way he was ever going to get a bicycle was for God to provide one for him, and he began to pray for a bicycle. He prayed fervently, but the years passed, and the bicycle never materialized.

Years later, when he was serving as a military chaplain, he arrived at an Air Force base where he was to begin serving. Since he needed transportation on base and did not yet have his car, he commented to one of the sergeants that he wished he had a bicycle. The sergeant then told Chaplain Price to come with him. He took him to a large warehouse and opened the door. To the chaplain’s amazement, he saw that the warehouse was filled with bicycles of every kind---beautiful shiny bicycles outfitted with all the bells and whistles.

“Take any one you want,” the sergeant said.

The chaplain was stunned. In relating this story he said that he knew at that moment that his prayers had been answered—not for one bicycle, but for a fleet of beautiful bicycles that fulfilled every bicycle fantasy that he had ever entertained.

The sergeant went on to tell him that the bicycles were his to use whenever he wished. All he needed to do was sign one out and keep it as long as he wished.

From that day forward Chaplain Price rode various bicycles around the military base daily, and they became his preferred method of transportation. He added that he never knew of anyone else who ever signed out a bicycle. But he did know that God had answered his prayers in a way much grander than he could ever have imagined.

I wonder how many of us pray fervently for something, and when we do not immediately see the answer to our prayers, we believe that God did not answer. I also wonder how many times, when we finally receive what we prayed for, we fail to recognize it as the answer to our prayers because we believe that too much time has passed. Part of living a successful Christian life is knowing that God always hears our prayers, but He answers those prayers in His time and in His way.

Men and women of faith have always had to wait for God to fulfill His promises: Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for the son that God had promised them. Likewise, the nation of Israel waited for more than 400 years for the deliverer to lead them out of bondage in Egypt.  Hebrews 11 tells of the countless men and women of faith who believed God and eventually saw the answers to their prayers—although none of them received all that God had for them because He wanted them to look forward to the even better things that he had waiting for them in heaven.

If you have been praying for something for a long time but have not seen the answer to your prayers, do not become discouraged. Know that God hears and that He will answer at the perfect time and in the perfect way. And, in the meantime, keep praying.

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 seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.   Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

Praying for the Saved

We have all heard countless sermons on praying for the unsaved, praying for our country when it is on the wrong track, praying for dishonest politicians, praying for wrongs to be righted, praying for almost everything that impacts us in a negative manner. But, how many sermons have we heard on praying for the saved; praying for the godly who are living normal lives going quietly about their work and doing the right things? I, for one, have never heard a single sermon on this topic.

We tend to pray for unsaved family members and acquaintances while ignoring those who are faithful Christians. It is a little like giving all of the attention to the bad child while the other obedient children are ignored. We do, of course, pray for the saved when they are in danger—missionaries serving in dangerous areas, for instance. We also pray for the saved when they become ill or have a terrible accident that threatens their lives. Yet, we rarely pray for them with the same level of concern and the same fervor that we pray for the unsaved. Likewise, we may spend years praying for someone to accept Christ as his/her savior and then stop praying when they do.


Why is it important to pray for the saved? It is important because those who have a relationship with Jesus Christ are the backbone of this nation. The Bible says, “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-15) This is an interesting scripture because the Bible does not say that if there are enough people who are called by his name; it says that God’s healing of our land depends on the prayers and actions of the saved and their willingness to turn from their sins and seek God. 

We should, of course, always pray for the unsaved, but after they accept Jesus we need to continue to pray for them. We should pray daily that every Christian in this world will be strengthened and filled with faith. We should pray that they will be bold in their witness and bold in their prayer lives. We should be pray that our fellow Christians will be wise and unshakable in their resolve to follow Jesus.

God has always accomplished great things using a few faithful people. When you pray for the unsaved, remember to pray for those who are fighting the greatest battles of our time on their knees. And remember, as long as God’s people are willing to seek Him and turn away from sin, He will hear us and heal our land.  

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 seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

Privilege or Penance?

In the newly released movie For Greater Glory that deals with the Cristeros War that was waged in Mexico from 1926 until 1929, a boy of about twelve is taken to the local priest by his godfather because the boy has thrown fruit at the elderly priest to taunt him. The boy’s godfather tells the priest that he has delivered the boy to him for punishment because “prayer is a penance”.

As an evangelical Christian, I was very surprised to hear prayer used in this context, so I googled “penance” to make certain that I understood the definition as it relates to Catholicism. Penance, as it is used in Catholicism, I discovered, is punishment for sin; self-abasement; mortification to show sorrow for sin or a wrongdoing.

As I continued to ponder the theatrical exchange between the godfather and the priest, I could not help but wonder whether the reason why so many people resist prayer is because they consider time spent in prayer a form of punishment—a humiliating action meant to rehabilitate a woeful sinner. Thus, I have posed the question: Is prayer a privilege or a penance?

Certainly, an important component of prayer is confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness, but that is only a small part of a believer’s prayer life.  I believe that prayer is the greatest privilege that we exercise as Christians. When Jesus declared us to be his “friends”, (John 15:14) He brought us into a new relationship with God that had not previously existed. It was a gift, and part of that gift was the privilege of being able to come to Him anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances. We can, and should, come to Him to ask forgiveness, but we also come to him in thankfulness for His blessings in our lives. We come to Him to praise Him, to honor Him and to worship Him. We come to him in our deepest sorrow to find comfort, and we come to Him in our times of greatest joy to share with Him the contents of our hearts overflowing with happiness.

It has been said that prayer is the “most powerful force on earth”, and I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. Prayers have stopped armies, parted seas, healed the sick, and brought sinners to repentance—many people have turned to Christ as the result of the faithful prayers of another person on their behalf. We can never overstate the power of prayer.

For me, personally, however, one of the most satisfying aspects of prayer is the intimacy it allows us to enter into with Jesus Christ. To awaken for a few fleeting moments in the middle of the night to whisper, “I love you, Jesus” before drifting back into sleep is a privilege. To talk to Him while driving my car, or cleaning the house, or preparing a meal is a privilege. To know that He is always as close as the prayer in my heart, is a privilege.

I believe that prayer is both a penance and a privilege, but even the ability to come before the God of the universe to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness is a privilege.

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 seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.   Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback.  
For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup