Gather - My thoughts at BSF Sharing Day, 5/11/23

This year I attended Bible Study Fellowship and studied 15 books of the Old Testament. It was fascinating. The study was called "People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided," and it followed the people of Israel and Judah starting after the reign of King Solomon.

Each week we read Bible passages on our own and answered lesson questions, then we met together for a large-group lecture and small-group discussion of the same the material .  This method of Bible study is totally free, has an amazing children's program, and is available all over the world.  If you're curious about God at all - you should check out a local class! (https://www.bsfinternational.org/ They also have online options.)

At the end of every year, the participants are invited to share something they've learned through the study.  It's slightly intimidating because it includes speaking into a microphone to a couple hundred people, but this year I did it.  And this is what I said...

One thing I’ve learned about Bible study is to look for the repeated words.  Repeated words are never an accident.  This year, one word particularly emerged to me - GATHER.  This word was repeated as we studied the books of Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, and Jeremiah.  

In each of these verses - God is the one speaking to his people through his prophets.

And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, 

and they shall appoint for themselves one head. Hosea 1:11 

Fear not, for I am with you;

    I will bring your offspring from the east,

    and from the west I will gather you. Isaiah 43:5

For a brief moment I deserted you,

 but with great compassion I will gather you. Isaiah 54:7

I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;

    I will gather the remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

    like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture,

    a noisy multitude of men. Micah 2:12

I will be found by you, declares the Lord, 

and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Jeremiah 29:14

AND one of our lesson questions brought us to the New Testament where Jesus himself talks about gathering. Matthew 23:37-39

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! 

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 

These verses were clear to me.  Even though this year we studied a Kingdom DIVIDED, and we came to a deeper understanding of God’s wrath as his people went into exile…  God’s heart is to GATHER -  his kingdom, and us.  

To me, this means my heart should grow to reflect God’s.  I am challenged to ask the Holy Spirit to show me how to reflect his heart to GATHER in a world divided by sin and self-focus. The work of gathering is not always easy, but if God’s word says it’s good - then it is worth it.  Praise the Lord - he is a God who gathered us!  And one day, he will ultimately gather us to himself!

Homeschool Reflections, After Year 1

 As a mom who never wanted to homeschool, I am thrilled to say we survived our first year, and plan to do it again next year!  Hooray!

Our daily homeschool set up included:

• a math session with Dad (Singapore curriculum) usually in the morning before his work meetings, and then math homework to be completed independently  

• a ‘morning meeting’ including a Bible verse, hymn, and poem, which actually happened about 50% of our ‘school days.’  Seeing the kids’ excitement at picking out a poem and then taking turns reading it out loud was an unexpected highlight

• a review of memory work from our Classical Conversations curriculum, sometimes just me reviewing material, sometimes watching a youtube review guy, sometimes googling random stuff from the timeline song… you never know.

• a time of reading and writing and grammar concepts - which looked different for each kid because of grade levels.  For Simon: we were focusing on handwriting goals and chapter books.  For Gwen: she was learning to write paragraphs and essays and diagramming sentences. Both kids had weekly spelling lists and quizzes.

Every Wednesday we gathered, 9am-3pm, with our Bloomington homeschool community, called Classical Conversations, where the kids each attended class taught by a parent tutor and 6-7 classmates.  I attended their classes too, switching back and forth, helping with art projects, science projects and (Lord help me) tin whistle practicing.  We all looked forward to “Community Day” each week to see our friends (Mom friends too!), get out of the house, and remember how thankful we were that we didn’t have to do this everyday like our before-lives at a private school!  The memory work for the week was introduced by the tutors, so we always had new things to learn about Math, Latin, English, History, Timeline, Science, Art and Geography.  The BEST thing was the curriculum is already set and given to me - so I don’t have to figure out what to teach during the week for all these subjects!  The other BEST thing is that our curriculum only lasted 24 weeks and finished on April 19! So with standardized testing and tying up loose ends, our summer break started the first week of MAY!  Yay!

Classical Conversations and Singapore Math were great curricula, but it didn’t take all day every day. Each week we had extra time - lots of it.  What did we do with it, you ask?  Here are some of the highlights:

• Discovering our world and history through arm-fulls from the library- especially nonfiction picture books. We had lots of good times reading books on the couch together.

• Sewing, baking and building 

• Laundry skills

• Cleaning and household help

• Museums and plays and the MN zoo!

• Sports with dad, soccer and baseball

• Music with mom- basic ukulele, singing harmony, rhythm, lots of listening

• Church - Wednesday night programming and Christmas Play for Gwen

• Travel (California, Florida, and lots of Kettle River)

• Kettle work and play - chopping wood and starting fires and building forts

• Book club (Gwen hosted her own) and bike rides (Simon takes about 3 a day in nice weather)

• Cross country skiing at Wood Lake and 4 downhill ski days at Hyland

• Volunteering at CAPI food shelf and FMSC

• Piano lessons for Simon and a serious puzzle habit for Gwen

The hardest part of homeschooling is being all the things all the time: parent, teacher, decider of the plans, referee of the fights, accountability holder, coach, and nurse.  Decision fatigue and planning fatigue and being an INTROVERT were regular struggles for me.  Shout out to my incredible husband who LIKES to cook dinner, reinforces respect for my role, and doesn’t get mad when he finds me exhausted and emergency-napping.  My weekly Bible study group and fitness classes at Lifetime were also game-changers for me. They gave me a place to go and be myself apart from my kids.  I am happy to report that my kids and I have both grown in maintaining peaceful household routines and relationships.  

The second hardest part about homeschooling was the kids being at different grade levels.  Enough said.

I can say with confidence that the pros outweigh the cons, and that homeschooling is our healthiest school option in this season.  Praise be to God for this gift!  We fall short, but we are loved, and his grace is sufficient!