School Planning and Prayer

I've always prayed for what I'm going to use for school- prayed about general school plans, prayed about how to solve various learning problems, asked God to help me with each child's curriculum.

But last year I became very discontented with the direction school was taking. I spent a lot of time thinking and praying about the whole school thing. I wanted it to be even more of a lifestyle than it is. I wanted to stop doing things just to be doing them and I wanted school time to be more satisfying for all of us. I stole time wherever I could for a few weeks and thought and prayed about what my dreams for each child were. What was my vision for my time with each child? What did I want to be sure we didn't miss doing? What was truly important? What priorities should I have? What was in God's mind about each little person who He's given to us? I prayed and waited for the Holy Spirit to speak to me and I really listened.

The Lord was faithful to speak! I wrote down a short list of dreams for each child and as I look back over them at the end of the year, I see that we did, in fact, enjoy and accomplish almost each thing on the lists. Here's Abby's list from the past year: Plenty of hands-0n learning, read character building stories, have plenty of snuggle time and nature study, appreciate art and music and learn to do more things around the house. Thomas: Continue to work on character, appreciate art and music. Carrie: Sew more and work on her cooking.

While we were on vacation last week, I was able to spend part of each morning praying about a variety of things, among them my goals and dreams for the upcoming year. The Lord spoke several things to me about each child and I'm still thinking about those things, but for each child, I have words of wisdom and ideas from the Lord especially fitted for him or her.

I keep a section in my planner where I make a page for each child and list each subject and what we're going to be using for each. I make little notes to myself to help me remember all those great ideas I come up with over the summer and notes about what I want to remember to do with that child in the future. And I write down my dreams and goals to encourage myself to stay on the path that I feel the Lord has laid out for us.

Praying for our children is so important and there's much, much more to it than simply praying about school. What I'm talking about is just one tiny part. But I want to encourage you to pray about everything, not just the big stuff. It's hard to hear the voice of the Lord in the every day noise, but it's so worth it.