Family Discipleship

At least once a month if not once a week someone asks me this question: "Why do you homeschool?"   That is not a simple question to answer.   After all, the reason we homeschool today is not the same reason we started homeschooling six years ago.   Each year we reevaluate and pray and make decisions all over again about homeschooling.   So far this is what has been God's will for our family.  

But for right now?   It is all about family discipleship.   I know the days with my boys are getting shorter and shorter.    The urgency I feel to invest in them and plant the seeds that God has for each of them grows every day.

The most precious time of our day is when we come together at night to share about our day, talk and then have our family prayers.   Just counting the time that we have spent since Big Guy was born in family prayer, we have spent about 2,900 hours in prayer.   How do we put a price on that?    There is just no way.    We have prayed days, weeks and even months over things.   We have seen God answer our prayers in miraculous ways.   We have even had God answer our prayers in ways that we didn't understand.   Our faith has been stretched and pulled and grown.   We have held each other up during times of grief and cheered each other during times of victory.  

Memorizing Scripture has always been something we have tried to do, but we haven't been as disciplined as we wanted.    Last year we put up a chalkboard and changed the verse each week to reflect something that was challenging one of us.

For 2014 we have committed to memorize a larger more exact piece of Scripture.   We have decided to memorize the Sermon on the Mount.   Yes.  All 111 verses of Matthew 5, 6 and 7.   *Gulp*  It seems overwhelming when I type it out like that.

However, I came across this idea while reading this blog.   I have printed out her memorization plan and know that memorizing a few verses each week will make this not only manageable, but meaningful.