I am still catching up here on the blog. Graduation was over two months ago, but it took me so long to finish my wedding posts . . .
I am probably giving you whiplash with all of this time travel. But my youngest child's graduation is too big a milestone not to record it here in the annals of Thinking About Home!
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At age 40,
after a period of serious illness, I became pregnant. Although we had hoped for
another child for years, this certainly seemed like the “wrong” time. It was a
difficult (scary) pregnancy. I was on several medications. There was a crisis
day when we believed that the baby was not going to make it. My doctor sent us
for an ultrasound which showed the baby alive and well. She was born seven
weeks prematurely, and she had some challenges in the first weeks and months of
her life.
But here she is today at her high school graduation. God had a plan for Rebekah’s life.
There is a
word in the Bible that I love. It is Ebenezer
and it means “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
Let me give
you a little background. After a series of battles with the Philistines, Samuel
had called Israel to repentance and they had responded. They gathered at
Mizpah...they fasted, they confessed their sin, and repented. But as they
were gathered, word came that the Philistines were again coming against them in
battle. They called out to God, and Samuel offered sacrifices. The Lord answered
with a "great thunder" that confused the Philistines, and Israel
soundly defeated them.
Then Samuel
took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer,
saying "Thus far the Lord has helped us."
I see this special day, this ceremony, as an
Ebenezer, for as we mark this occasion, we are looking back and acknowledging
that He has directed. "Thus far the Lord has helped us."
Not only did
the Lord help Rebekah as a baby, but He helped her as she grew. He planned who
she would be and how she would serve Him.
He gave her
a love for beauty. She loves great literature and pretty dresses, home décor
and pretty tables. She went through a phase where she wanted me to make “dear
little lunches,” and she cut out pictures of pretty food from the Pottery Barn
Kids catalog. She loves poetry and old movies and Audrey Hepburn and Grace
Kelly.
He gave her
an ear for music and a song in her heart. Kati taught her to play a Christmas
carol on the piano when she was six, and she has never stopped playing. There
was the one day when we went to the local playground and I heard the chimes in the
playground ringing out Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and I knew our Rebekah was
playing. She learned to play classical music which is beautiful and
soul-stirring. Oh, but the hymns. Many is the time when I have asked her to
play a hymn and then another and then more as we sang along, hearts moved,
tears flowing, souls encouraged.
“Thus far, the Lord has
helped us.”
He made her
heart tender. Toddler Rebekah was a character and her sin nature was strong.
She had temper tantrums and meltdowns and she challenged everything that we
thought we knew about parenting. But then we saw glimpses of tenderness . . .
towards animals, towards babies, towards others . . . and we knew that the Lord
would draw that tender heart to Himself. Now Bekah is for the underdog, she
adores her nieces and nephews, and, most importantly, she loves the Lord and
seeks to please Him.
“Thus far, the Lord has helped us.”
As a
homeschooling mom, I needed the Lord’s help! In some ways, Bekah was the most
challenging of my students . . . perhaps because she is the most like me. The
two of us struggle with procrastination and time management. We’re both slow. We
can dawdle our way through our days. It was not unusual for Ron to come home
from work to find us still reading, or to find Bekah working on her math or
some other project.
But the Lord
did help us. As we sought His help, He guided our steps, helped as we planned
our courses, provided opportunities for Bekah to learn and serve in unique
ways. In spite of ourselves, Bekah is a young woman who is accomplished and
responsible and has deep faith in Jesus.
I really can
hardly believe we are here, at the end of this leg of the journey. At the end
of your homeschooling years, Bekah. At
the end of my homeschooling years.
Oh, how I have treasured these days and all of the time we have spent and
learned and grown together.
Bekah, I
know that the future is still unsure for you and you still have hard choices
and decisions to make. But I am not worried. Our loving Father knows your
future and he will continue to help . . . one step at a time.
“But you
must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing
from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the
Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus.” (II Timothy 3:14, 15)
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The Bible says in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
We began our homeschool in September of 1991, and as of yesterday, we completed our 28th year of training our children in the way they should go. For us, this has been a great experience. Not only have they learned many things, but we have learned many things as well. What does it mean to train up a child? One commentator says that to train up a child refers to the total process of molding a child’s life. The word “train” comes from the root word meaning “to put into the mouth,” which implies the idea of conditioning the palate. Thus, potential training should help children develop a taste for the things of God. “When he is old” simply means “when he is grown up.” The verse stresses the single principle that education in the home forms the person throughout their lifetime. As we stand here today, we truly feel that Bekah has been trained in the academics as well as the ways of God. We have no regrets and feel that we have prepared her for the rest of her life. Though this is the end of her schooling from us, she has the skills to continue to learn for the rest of her life. To us, a child is a wonderful gift. With this gift comes a great responsibility. Who better can teach and train a child than we parents? We thank the Lord for all of His blessings. |
"But God is the God of the waves and the billows, and they are still His when they come over us; and again and again we have proved that the overwhelming thing does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition deliverance came. We were cast down, but not destroyed." ~ Amy Carmichael
