Beautiful lessons from my children....... Grace

In the last blog entry I gave you a list of "nevers" that I had laid out for God.... (he laughed by the way).  One of the "nevers" was being a homeschooling momma.  NEVER!!!!

After moving to the 405 I had the opportunity to sit and have coffee with the pastors wife of the church that we had fallen in love with.  While sitting at our kitchen table we talked about our kids and how I had to homeschool during our move but was so grateful to have the kids back in school.  I told her I just didn't want to have that role in my little's lives and how I didn't feel like I had a clue how effectively homeschool kids!!!  2 weeks later- I am submitting an official letter of "intent to homeschool" to Edmond public schools with Brasen's name on it.  MERCY!!!!!

I have to say that the first few days my spirit was in a panic... but, after allowing His spirit to take control I look back at the past 2.5 weeks and it is just incredible.  I have become passionate about it, Brasen is thriving, Alex is thriving in school because it is all hers- her friends, her school bus, her morning routine and she isn't living in the "transplant shadow" that she has experienced more than Elijah or Arden ever will.  It's become a beautiful thing that God has absolutely orchestrated.  I am blessed each morning when I see her getting on the bus holding the hand of her best friend.  I am blessed when I sit at the table with Brasen and we are able to talk about things and to see him really get it- is just incredible!  Got turned my never into something pretty amazing- how closed minded we can be and sadly- we miss out on so many blessings!

This month is Black History month so I chose to incorporate that into our history and reading lessons.  We first learned a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Beautiful words from a pretty incredible human being.  While preparing for that lesson God really impressed on my spirit to biblically explain to Brasen what this means- the whole concept of darkness and light.  Oh how I learned so much from this little creature that sat in front of me.  We looked at 1 John 4:8:

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love"

We then looked into John 8:12:

" When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

After talking with Brasen about the reason Dr. King felt the need to even talk about light and darkness Brasen was so surprised that people who treat each other in such a terrible way.  He just couldn't understand why another human would be so mean.  We talked about how this is still happening in other countries and, sadly, is still happening in America.  We watched the film about Ruby Bridges and all she endured when she entered that school day in and day out with people spitting on her and yelling at her.  We came to the scene where Ruby stopped, turned around and silently prayed for the people who were so mean to her.  Her counselor asked her what she was doing and she said she was praying the same prayer that Jesus prayed when the people where hurting him....... His face said it all....

Our conversation turned to the modern day church.  Now, I know that Brasen is only 9.  I know that kids don't totally get the nastiness that can go along with "religion" but I also know that they see, hear and their little spirits feel what we (as adults) can become numb to.  We started talking about grace and how it goes along with love and it was what Ruby was showing the people who hated her. 

I explained that mommies and daddies need grace every day when we react in ways that aren't very nice.  I explained that grace is part of God's love for us and how he gives it so freely.  Little did I know that the lesson I taught Brasen that day would be something that would be rolling through my mind over the next several days. 

I don't totally understand why God gives his grace so freely to us.  I just don't get it.  I am so thankful for it and so un worthy of it but he gives it and I freely accept it every day!  Our lessons on Sunday morning at our precious new church has been about grace.  Our pastor, Pete Hatton, and our associate pastor, Clay Wooten, has been speaking so passionately about God's love and grace for us so Brasen has been getting a double dose of it and I- well, I have been getting nailed over the head again and again.  Today, I read John 1:1-18 as part of a bible study I am doing.  This is a passage I have read countless times but today, it came to life.  I got to verse 16 and tears immediately started to sting my eyes.  It says:

16 & 17 "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"

As if his grace isn't enough- it is through that grace that we receive ONE BLESSING AFTER ANOTHER.  Not just the blessing of grace but countless blessings- one after another.  Moses gave us the law in the 10 commandments when he presented them after his encounter with God.  Here is the kicker- God gave the commandment, the "laws" to Moses so that he could give them to us and then God turned around, provided his sinless son for us so that we can live in grace as we strive to follow these laws.  God knew we would screw up.  He knew we would fail miserably and he provided a beautiful sacrifice so that we could experience grace and countless blessings despite out humanness.  

I know that it seems that I am talking in circles here but I feel like I am still processing it.  While walking through the neighborhood tonight I clicked on my next podcast to listen to and it was Furtick preaching about how we throw rules and spiritual laws onto people and scare them away from our churches- and ultimately from a relationship with Christ followers and Christ himself.  We throw the rules and judgments on our children and scare them away from relationships with us.  HOW TRAGIC!!!!!!!  Just as this happened in our American (and world) History it is still happening in our spiritual lives and our religious lives as well.  They are very separate from each other so that's why I mentioned both- spiritual and religious.

I am not saying that we should run a muck and just live sinful expecting to be covered by grace- He certainly warns against that.  But, what if we lived with love and grace abounding from our own lives every day?  How different would our lives and our world look?.......

This was a very messy entry but bear with me as I am still processing this.  And to think- all of this happened just because I sat down to "teach" my 9 year old son a lesson in history........... He has no idea how much I learn from him every day- beautiful lessons of Grace from my beautiful gift in the form of a child- countless blessings after blessings........