Junior Quizzing and "New" Homeschool Mom Devo

I think it is official....Junior Bible Quizzing was a huge success!  I wasn't sure how it was going to go...would others be interested?  would there even be any teams besides my kids?  would the kids be able to handle the amount of material?

The first quiz meet was going to be the big test and I can say with a resounding yes, it was AMAZING!!!  If anyone else could have seen it, they would have been blown out of the water.  These kids were all so little, so timid...it seemed impossible to think that they could hold so much in their little heads, but did they ever.

Four chapters, not 4 verses, of 1 Corinthians were memorized and by memorized, I mean MEMORIZED!  These kids knew the verses backwards and forwards.  The comment I got all day long was, "Have you seen these kids jump?"  In order to get picked to say your verse, you have to jump off your seat and be the first one to set off the sensor.  The senior quizzers can jump on the first syllables of a question and get them right...I don't know how....In the first quiz, we noticed the little guys were also jumping just like the seniors!  It was amazing to watch. They certainly had a spirit of competition and it was clear that they knew their stuff and so did everyone else!  I'm proud to say one of our teams was top quiz team of the new junior teams, but it was very close....it'll be hard to stay on top.  So far we have 6 junior teams, but there are more to come, I'm sure.

That was a huge answer to prayer for me.  As I said before, I just didn't know if it would take off, but it certainly has.  It was super inspiring and it makes me so happy to know that a generation of quizzers are moving up.  It was also really neat to see graduated quizzers there now helping with the younger ones.  My older son, who has now graduated and moved on, said the other day, "Bible quizzing was the best thing we ever did!"

The joke by the end of the day was, "We've got to start toddler quizzing!"  We'll see......!!

I have a new responsibility that I've taken on with our homeschool group.  I'll be writing a weekly (or however often I can do it) devotional that goes out to the whole group.  This will be easy for me because I'm just writing what is already on the blog just making it work for the whole group, making small adjustments here and there.  This came up because I was sharing with the other board members that I've entered into this extremely challenging season where there is more going on than I can handle sometimes.  As I told them how overwhelmed I feel at times, they all just looked at me with this "Join-the-club look", not out of indifference, but out of a sense of understanding....i.e....we're all there.  That's when it occurred to us, maybe there are other moms in our group that are suffering or going through a challenging time.  How could we encourage them without seeing them every single day?  One of them asked if anyone could write a quick devotional that could go out to all the members.  I didn't immediately say yes, but when I got home and thought about it, I was suddenly inspired and easily woke up the next day and started writing.....I had words coming into my head faster than I could get them on paper (or on the screen!).  I will enjoy this role....

This is an example of what I'll be sharing with them this week...

One of my greatest challenges, and has been from birth basically, is one of my younger boys, who shall remain nameless, but is super cute, blond and 7.  Love him to death.  So much life, energy, spunk, but with that comes stubbornness, frustration, and a battle of the wills.  I often wonder is there any hope for him?  Have I done something wrong?  Will I ever see the fruit I long to see?  I think I could handle him if I didn't already have so much going on.  How am I supposed to spend the time with him that he needs when I can barely get dinner on the table let alone the groceries in the fridge?! It can keep me up at night...

One morning last week, I came to my Bible really begging God for a word from Him.  I needed a supernatural encouragement and I truly came expecting to hear.  I've read that we are to do that all the time, but this particular morning I just couldn't wait to see what I would read.  I nearly fell off my chair when I opened my Bible to Jeremiah 31.  I wouldn't have expected that to be a book about parenting, but wow....that morning it was.

I began to read.  Verse 2 said, "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness."  I had to stop there and read it over and over.  Grace in the wilderness.  Isn't that the most amazing phrase?  Those crazy Israelites were taken from the most difficult of situations where they were slaves in Egypt and it seemed like they were saved, only to find themselves in a new difficult situation, stuck in the wilderness.

That seems to be my life from moment to moment.  I handle one hard situation with one child (aka cute blond boy) only to turn and find myself in another difficult situation with another child (often another cute blond boy - or girl!)  From sword to wilderness!  Or I get through one challenging season with one age group, only to find myself in a new challenging season with the next age group!  AHHHHHHH!!!!  The wilderness is a difficult place!!!!  But, when I read that verse and read that expression.....grace in the wilderness, I had to stop.  I do have grace in my wilderness, all the time.  Just like the Israelites had their manna, I have mine.  Simple things like coffee in the morning...that's grace!  Or running water!  (I always think of the pioneer women before me who had NONE of the conveniences I have...how can I possibly complain?!)  I have good health and so does my family.  A roof over our head.  A loving husband who is providing for our family.  I have the freedom to homeschool and worship.  My list went on and on as I thought about it.  I prayed that morning that my eyes would be open to even more "graces" as I went through my day.

It didn't stop there.  Verse 11 said, "For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him."  That's it!  My job as a homeschool mom is "too strong" for me.  My son is literally "too strong" for me (he works out at 7 years old, no joke).  In other words, "It's too hard!"  But that's perfect....that's where God has to step in.  If I could do it on my own, then I wouldn't need God.  I clearly DO need God.  Just like I can't save myself from my sin, I can't redeem myself, I also can't homeschool, or do anything, myself.  I must be saved from my sin, which is "too strong for me" and from my homeschool, which is "too strong for me" ONLY by the Lord who has redeemed me and ransomed me from the hands that are "too strong for me".  I was starting to feel a little more hopeful.

Then, verse 16 was the big kicker, "Thus says the Lord:  'Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work.'"  What homeschool mom hasn't found herself in a pool of tears on those really hard days?  Back to my cute, but spirited 7 year old....he can push my buttons like no one else.  I really have to keep it together when he's in his all-out "bad" moments.  After I read that verse, something changed for me, and I found myself saying the verse in my head over and over throughout that day, "there is a reward for your work, there is a reward for your work, there is a reward for your work...."  So instead of panicking and feeling hopeless about him, I took it as a direct word from God for me that day, to keep on keeping on with him.  There were times throughout that day (and every day for that matter!) when I would feel frustrated or angry or discouraged, but then the thought would pop into my head again, "Don't cry, don't worry...there is a reward for your work...."  Knowing these were words directly from God helped keep the negative feelings at bay and instead filled me with a supernatural patience that day and even helped me come up with new and creative ways to handle the typically difficult situations I have when it comes to him.  When he wouldn't read (he never wants to read) I didn't force him, instead an idea came to me, "Ok, you read one sentence, I'll read another...." and sure enough, he kept reading...no issues!  When he wouldn't do his math ("too hard!" he always says), I said the same thing, "You do one problem, I'll do another...." just to show him it can be done.  Suddenly his math was done, his reading was done, we were both calm, no tears (from either of us!)

The takeaway?  Get into God's Word, every day.  What if I hadn't read Jeremiah that day?  What would my day have been like?  How would I have gotten through those tough, tearful moments?  I'm not sure I would have and I'm quite certain it wouldn't have gone so well.  And the neat thing for me, that I'll share with my kids today, particularly the ones who still get tearful and downright weepy when it comes to school sometimes, they, too, need to know that "there is a reward for their work", too!  All the hard, difficult, challenging lessons are all for a purpose!  They can't possibly see it now, but they will one day when they're out providing for their families or at home taking care of young children.  They'll see it eventually!

So, there is hope, and there's always a new day, a new week....I just have to make sure I start my day on the right track, in God's Word, which He has written just for me, a homeschool mom, with really cute, but stubborn, kids.