The money is going out faster than it is coming in now, but we are not supposed to worry, right? I heard a great message from David Jeremiah this week on worry. Quite frankly, he said, you are behaving like an unbeliever when you worry. The Bible says it. In Matthew 6 when Jesus is speaking on worry, he says, "31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them." If the pagans run after these things and we are worrying then we are acting just like them. He said, really, it is sin to worry. We know it is wrong to worry, but do we really consider it sin? On the same realm as murder? Not usually.
Another great comparison was to the sparrows. We have them all over our place, in every nook and cranny of the barn....virtually every building we have is covered in them. How did they make it through the winter? They didn't have to insulate. They didn't seem to worry about their heating bills or where their next meal would come from. In fact, there seem to be more of them as a result of the winter! The Bible speaks even to this. "26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" David Jeremiah commented on how Jesus paints a kind of ridiculous picture of a sparrow trying to sow or reap or store away in barns. As if! They cannot drive a tractor, plant a seed or build a barn - Jesus does this on purpose to show how crazy it is to worry - as crazy as a bird sowing, reaping or storing away. We are clearly not meant to worry! It was a good wake up call again.
Meanwhile, I hear my daughter practising piano in the background. It is my dream come true. Homeschooling has offered her certain advantages in the area of pursuing piano more seriously and this summer, we decided to kick it up a notch. First, some background.... I once met a homeschooling mom of 10 who had one of her daughters in dance. She had an opportunity to go around the US in a Christain dance troupe, but the only problem was that she was only 16 and in order to do this she needed to stop school or at least put it on pause, so her mom went up to her dad one day and explained her daughter's opportunity. This was his answer, "Let's graduate her now!" And so they did. WHAT???!!! Technically, she was not "done" school! But wasn't she? Wasn't she pursuing exactly what she loved to do? Wasn't she pursuing her area of giftedness? What about physics and chemistry, you might ask, or advanced math and French, for that matter? Does she need it in order to dance? Could she learn it at a later date if she needs to? Is it possible that she learned what she really needed to learn which which was "the ability to learn"?! I think so.
With that in mind, I went up to Renaissance Man a few weeks ago and said, "I wish that we could just graduate S now. I wish that she could pursue her piano more seriously and continue teaching and at the same time do her photography, but perhaps on the side more, as a blessing to others." "Ok, let's do it." "What?!" It was that simple a discussion. I went on to try and convince him how I had come to these conclusions, but he was already there and didn't need any pursuasion. With that, he and I approached our daughter, S, and said, "Guess what we've been talking about....." We explained to her that we thought it would be really great if she pursued finishing all the levels of piano that exist in the Royal Conservatory which includes gr. 8, gr. 9, gr. 10 piano and then the final level which is called the ARTC or the Associate level which is as high as you can go. All the while taking pedagogy courses as well as theory, harmony, history and of course, practical. We told her this would not exempt her from the family reading time of history or even all the readers I plan on still purchasing. But, she'll be mainly focusing on piano. She looked at us stunned. Then thrilled. She was over the moon excited. To top it off, her dad then told her he was turning one of our rooms that he had just renovated from a garage into her own personal piano studio. She was nearly jumping up and down. That was when I knew we had made the right decision. She is doing what God has created her to do. To make her pursue another road would not be right. She is passionate about the piano and plays for hours already without me ever forcing her. She is quite bright and is very good in math and science, but she has no passion for it. So I use her to help tutor the kids coming up, but to make her pursue it as a career would take all the passion out of her.
The only problem was the teacher and the costs - how do we do this on a budget when we really never planned on this extra expense? The teacher we have hired was from our other town and costs a fairly pretty penny, but alas, she is the best teacher out there and she gets serious results, plus a relationship existed there and she loves our daughter, so I knew she would do a great job. Then it occurred to us, this is just like college except she's just younger, but both RM and I paid for all our post secondary education, so we approached S and suggested that she help pay for her piano education. She agreed. So, she'll be teaching piano the whole time or doing her photography while she is getting her music education. We'll be contributing, by faith, somehow as well, but that relieved us a lot, to know she'd be taking some ownership, too.
That is definitely why I love homeschooling - the freedom to take another path that is definitely less travelled, but is so entirely, perfectly suited to each individual child. I have such a wonderful peace about me as I think about her future. If she ever marries, she can teach. If she has children, she can teach. Teaching piano, which is the ultimate goal, at a higher level, is so flexible and will help her contribute to her family's income. It is really an exciting career opportunity for her. I joked with a friend, one down, seven to go! I hope it comes together that clearly for each child following her. It is so wonderful when each one can do what they are created to do.
Wow! That's amazing!!!!!!!!!!
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