She slips her little feet into her new rainboots with my help. We head outside to our unofficial therapy, our reset, the surreptitious cure for bad attitudes and restlessness.
I watch her watching a bug, a bird, a truck, her siblings. She sniffs the mums and shrieks at the katydid.
Taking her in more than I take in the news…it’s good for me. My delightful counterbalance to all things crazy.
Her blissful simplicity in place of my hyper-awareness; Her eagerness to be captivated by beauty when it can’t seem to get my attention; Her easy arrival at a smile, when mine is more hard won. Her relentless pursuit of fun when my own energy is depleted.
This year with her – her tiny hand in mine, through her eyes, at her pace – is exactly the reminder I need. Don’t forget to look up…look around. There is still mercy and grace and beauty to be found. Childlike wonder does a heart good.
(New rainboots don’t hurt either.)
**This post originally appeared on my instagram @shanna.leigh
Well apparently we’re a homeschool fam now…for sure did not see that one coming (on par, #2020).
I believed all of the myths about homeschooling until I was sort of backed into a corner and had to re-evaluate why I had been against it in the first place. Homeschooling isn’t a choice between two extremes…in reality, educating your child is more of a spectrum of varying approaches, methods, & styles. The freedom to choose the how is perhaps the most appealing thing about homeschooling.
The more I researched, the more I uncovered my deepest desires for my children’s education. Things like: making savoring beauty a daily discipline as important as any other a reclamation of childhood cultivating a deep love of learning utilizing nature, projects, and great literature to learn concepts seeking growth instead of a checklist becoming a student of my own child full freedom for our faith to be integrated with education in a holistic way and maybe most importantly, the decidedly undervalued gift of time.
I won’t begin to claim that we have everything figured out (not even close — as in not at all), or that any one decision is better than another (no decision comes easy these days), or that we won’t ever send our kids back into a school building (because I’ve changed my mind before and might again). But I will say that the clarity, peace, and assurance our family has felt about this direction for this season has been supernatural and surprising.
The Father even kindly made a way for us to put together a small local homeschool co-op, between just us and two other families. Having each other’s support as we wade into unfamiliar waters has been the biggest relief and grace.
Now don’t mind me while I nerd out over our Little House on the Prairie books that amazon just delivered. (YES!!) I may not be the smartest or the most patient teacher, but surely being a bookworm at heart & caring too much about spelling and grammar () will serve me well in this new calling. I have yet to meet a homeschool parent who feels “equipped” to handle it, so the good news is I’m in good company!
WHATEVER you’re doing for school this fall: let’s do it WELL friends.
(*If you are even mildly curious about homeschool, I highly recommend starting with reading the book Wild + Free. I am still very much a newbie but happy to try and answer any questions you may have).
Thanks to all of my HS friends who have patiently answered my questions and helped guide us as we get started I’ll be sharing more about our approach and curriculum in a later post.
What are your family’s plans for school this fall?
Hi, friend. How’s your soul? Does it feel heavy? I know mine does. I am so deeply burdened for my city and nation right now. Does it all feel like too much to you, too?
I have spent so much time looking around at what’s happening, assaulted on all sides from the groaning of our broken world. Constantly looking left, right, left again. Pandemic, loss, death. Instability. Uncertainty. Racial division, protests, riots. And repeat.
A news ticker streams relentlessly in my mind, regurgitating bits and pieces of headlines, distracting me throughout my day (and night…anyone else?) So much time spent looking around that I realize I’ve almost entirely forgotten how to look UP.
Yes, UP.
In the midst of this dark time, we are desperately searching for hope at ground-level, feeling around for it blindly and coming up completely empty-handed. But this should not surprise us. Why? It’s simple. Real hope isn’t found here. It doesn’t originate here.
Hope is a heavenly entity.
Listen closely: This is not some weak Christian platitude. No, this hope I’m talking about is living Hope. It’s real and it’s powerful. That’s because Hope is a Person. Jesus.
Earthly hope is crossed fingers at best, but heavenly Hope is guaranteed to not let you down.
So if you find yourself on your hands and knees, fumbling around in the dark, feeling for answers and remaining continually discouraged, I’d tell you you’re actually closer to hope than you might think. Stay on your knees – keep that posture – but lift your chin and direct your gaze heavenward.
It’s time to quit searching horizontally for what can only be found vertically.
Here is some balm for your soul. Read these next paragraphs with purpose (maybe slowly or aloud or multiple times) so they don’t just pass through your lips but they also infiltrate your heart.
I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2). Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:1-5)
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor (1 Peter 1:3-7)
*emphasis mine
Because “he turns his ear to listen, I will call on him as long as I live” (Psalm 116:2). Kneel in humble prayer and agree with the Spirit. Don’t know what to pray? Ask him to direct your paths and use you as a vessel of Light. Clenched, anxious fists? Open them in surrender. Open the pages of your Bible and seek him. Find the scriptures written above, highlight them, ask God to help you believe them. When we look to him, (can you believe we even get to look to him?), he will not look away.
When we remove our gaze from this world and place it on Jesus, and an exchange takes place. Sorrow for joy. Mourning to dancing. Trials to triumph. Darkness for light. Burdens for relief. Chaos for calm. When your burden is being carried by Jesus instead of you, you’re freed up to move toward taking back ground for the kingdom of God.
Can you see it now? The more we behold him, the more we are made into His likeness, and the more his Light permeates the heavy darkness we find ourselves in. And the best part? His Light, his glory, is transformative. Meaning, it has the power to bring about actual change in people.
He transforms. He restores. He makes all things right and beautiful again.
He is able. And in turn, he enables us.
So, like the song says, look up, child. Lock eyes with the Savior. Let your life be a holy broadcast of Living Hope. Our world needs it.
a reclamation of childhood 
) will serve me well in this new calling. I have yet to meet a homeschool parent who feels “equipped” to handle it, so the good news is I’m in good company!
I’ll be sharing more about our approach and curriculum in a later post.
shannaleighwrites.com 