The Christmas tree stands aside me, unlit, like a monument of some ancient culture long since passed into memory. Not that the tree or Christmas itself wasn’t memorable, but we all feel that sense of the holiday spirit draining away in the view of the normal work week and school schedule returning. The holiday hangover is almost over, but it was in full force today. I couldn’t figure out why I was so tired the last few days. As I in vain tried to pull myself out of bed after a wonderful but draining first church service of the year, I realized that I no longer can recover quickly from late nights of New Year celebrations and bowling with friends and family til midnite. I’ll have to shake off this holiday malaise quickly though. With Christopher returning to school tomorrow, and the subsequent return of the homeschooled kids to tutoring, I have to begin our second semester planning, which I’m sure will have to have some changes in terms of direction and intensity. My original plan to focus on the three R’s (reading, ‘ritin’, ‘rithmatic) seemed to lose steam after a few weeks, and while I know our unit studies often may lacked some detail, they gave our family learning experiences purpose and an overall sense of application for the information we were learning. Possible subjects for the next unit abound, from the inauguration of President Obama to the discussions of world problems such as the Middle East conflict and the economic news – all designed to give my kids a handle on real word issues. Although I’m sometimes depressed by their seeming preoccupation with video games and the latest movie releases, I remind myself that they are still well able to become capable and prepared adults, as long as I give them the spiritual and educational tools to be able to seperate hype from history.
Fasting Update
The Twitterfast continues strong into it’s fourth day, with me only having received one direct message from a follower via e-mail – which I felt OK in responding to since it was a link to a blog. As for my other fasting items, I’ve not been tempted seriously to drink coffee (I’ve replaced with tea) and no fast food cravings have hit me yet. Skipping the lunch meal hasn’t been too bad yet, either, although while spending New Year’s Day at our friends house, it was awful hard to watch my wife chow down on Ray’s super seasoned ribs while my stomach growled. Spiritually I have felt God’s prompting to remain faithful to our original commitments – starting with first fruiting our first checks to God. By faith we’re starting the week with no income save what was present before Dec. 31th. Although I have the normal feelings of wondering how we will make it through the week, I have more excitement than worry. I like the idea of wondering how God will meet our needs – will it be an unexpected check? will we be more disciplined and careful, and as a result better able to manage our funds when our income comes through again? Will needed repairs and contacts come to fruition this week? It’s a reminder that our unknown is already known by God, and we just have to wait for him to pull back the covers so we can see what was already there in the beginning. Not for our physical needs alone, but for the spiritual confirmation of Romans 8:28 – that all things work together for our good, whether we see it our not. So I continue to pray for specific needs, but more so that God’s will for my family and I be revealed. After all, He knows way better than I what we really need.
With that, until tomorrow, another John Mayer quote for the parents out there…
“Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too”
John Mayer, “Daughters”
Looking unto the hills,
HsD
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