Tag: education

On the One Hand: A Back to School Reflection

I am a walking contradiction.  Depending upon which minute of the day you talk to me, you might hear a different version of this story.  

On one hand, I feel relief.  Joy.  Release.  Freedom.  I am not the one in charge of two kid’s education.  I don’t have to be the one to manage everything all the time.  I am not juggling reading lessons with math lessons with diaper changes with meal prep, cleaning the sinks, and getting the laundry into the dyer before it starts to smell.  I am not the one convincing someone to write three sentences instead of one or to read a book they didn’t pick.  There’s quiet when the toddler naps.  I can take a breath.

On the other hand, I am not the one in charge of two kid’s education.  I don’t get to create an atmosphere of learning and joy around the table every day.  I am not choosing curriculum, ordering books or supplies, nor am I witnessing with delight the incremental progress as they grow in their understanding of this world we live in.  I am not planning field trips that ignite our imaginations or stretch our ideas of how God might use us in this life.

We won’t have Friday adventure days (though we can have them on the weekends!) and won’t start our days around the table with steaming mugs of hot chocolate.  Instead, you will gain other adults who want to see you grow, spend three days a week in the garden, and get to go to music class twice a week and art class. You’ll learn skills I don’t know to teach you, practice being independent in a safe space, and have opportunities to make friends you will see every day.      

I take my toddler on a walk. Even at 10 a.m., it’s so hot we are dripping in no time. We prep dinner, eat too many snacks in too short a time, pull out a puzzle that never gets done, keep her out of the big kid’s room, reassure her that they will come home soon, give her a middle-of-the-day bath, and put her down for a nap. It’s quiet now. And I love it, and I hate it.  

But I mostly love it. And then I wonder if I should love it a little bit less.  

God, I heard you those many months ago when you asked me to open my hands and trust you with my big kids.  It was your voice that put all of this into motion.  I’m reminded that obedience doesn’t always make sense but produces a harvest of righteousness.  I can’t quite see what you are doing in my life right now.  I’m still home with a toddler, but it does feel as though a new season might be just around the corner.  Breathe your Holy Spirit into our days.  

May we delight in learning more about ourselves, you, and the world you created, whether we are gathered around our kitchen table or at a school desk.

The Whole Earth is Full of His Glory

The content expresses the author’s experiences of witnessing God’s work around the world, from Nepal to Kolkata, and the decision to move to Sydney. They reflect on moments where they felt God’s clear guidance and the beauty of experiencing God’s glory in different places. The author cherishes the opportunity to show their children the vastness of God’s world.

Isaiah 6:3
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Psalm 24:1-2
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it;
for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.

There have been hundreds of moments that have led us to where we are today.  So many little moments and experiences and opportunities that lead us to step confidently through the door that God was opening.  And it didn’t feel forced, but it also felt as though God had so clearly swung wide the door that to not go would have felt disobedient.  

That time during worship at a conference where the Lord whispered to me, “The entire earth is mine. It’s more than what you’ve seen with your eyes.  I am going to show you more of my earth”.  

The time I backpacked into the foothills of the Himalayas and gave out radios so the Nosu people could hear stories about Jesus come across the radio waves.  In the days before our trip, God gave me a  picture of people from every nation bowing down and worshiping God – including the faces of the Nosu people.  And I clearly heard, “If you don’t go, who will”?

When my parents decided to take their 7 and 13-year-olds to the U.K. for the first time. Even as a 13-year-old, I remember stepping out of the train station in Bath, staring in wonder at how small everything seemed compared to the United States, and feeling as though I might be seeing the world as it truly was for the first time.

I remember volunteering at one of Mother Teresa’s homes for the sick and dying in Kolkata, singing the same worship song over the ladies there that nearly 10 years later I would sing over my own children at bedtime.  I saw true poverty in Kolkata for the first time and heard the Lord whisper, “Even this is mine”. 

That time God gave me a prophetic word for our guide in Germany. I nervously prayed with her and was suddenly filled with a tangible sense of God’s joy and pleasure as a woman I didn’t really know, heard that she was known and loved and had not been forgotten by God. I marveled that God was at work halfway across the world and I got to be a part of it. 

From across the United States to Jamaica to Mexico, from Nicaragua to Uganda, to China, from Great Britain and Ireland to Germany, Australia, Switzerland, from Spain to India and Costa Rica, I have learned that God is at work all over the earth.  As the Psalmist says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it”.  We don’t go to bring God to these places, but we do get the joy of bearing witness to what God is doing in these corners of the world.  

It might sound different, it might smell different, it might even feel different.  But the beauty of our Father is that he is Lord over all, always at work, redeeming, creating, and breathing life into unexpected places.  And we get to witness it.

And so, when the opportunity came for us to move to Sydney, Australia for a season, it felt as though for many years, God had been laying the foundation for the decision to be “yes!”.

It felt like God was breathing life into our family’s value of travel and adventure and that we were about to be able to show our kids that God’s world is bigger than we can see as never before.  And when we saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time at the famous Bondi Beach, the kids danced with joyful abandon and Psalmist’s words came to mind, “The whole earth is full of your glory, Lord”.