I\u2019m the first one to tell you that I\u2019m not, nor will I ever be a \u201chomeschooling mama\u201d. I don\u2019t think I have the drive to spend hours studying to make a lesson plan or researching the \u201cbest\u201d curriculum for my children.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m too insecure in my ability to prepare them for standardized tests, college admissions, or gainful employment.\u00a0 I don\u2019t love the idea of turning my house into a classroom and honestly, I really, really love missing my kids from 8am to 2pm Monday through Friday.\u00a0 I told my girlfriend, Jenna, the most prolific, yet hip homeschooling mom I\u2019ve ever met this over drinks one night and she slapped the coffee table and said, \u201cOsheta, you plan you\u2019re kids\u2019 summer around themes and activities and games.\u00a0 Then at Christmas you do the whole advent thing with letters to your kids, service projects, and all kinds of fun things to teach them about Jesus.\u00a0 You\u2019re a homeschooler. Own it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sipped my white wine and pondered her encouragement.\u00a0 Own it.\u00a0 Own that I\u2019m a homeschooler, even though I don\u2019t look like my ideal picture of a homeschooling mom.\u00a0 Maybe she\u2019s right.\u00a0 Maybe I do have the capacity to homeschool my children well.\u00a0 Maybe the problem isn\u2019t the prospect of homeschooling as much as maybe my picture of the ideal homeschooling mom needed to be challenged.<\/p>\n
Like Mary, I treasured this truth in my heart.<\/p>\n
We do this don\u2019t we?\u00a0 We create a picture of the \u201cideal\u201d and that picture because the standard.\u00a0 We\u2019re rigid with out pictures, unforgiving with our judgement, and unrealistic with our expectations.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is, I know deep down, I could be an AMAZING homeschooling mom, but I won\u2019t be like any homeschooling mom I know. I\u2019m not organized or well-read or itching to make charts.\u00a0 I\u2019m\u00a0 slightly frantic, completely quirky, totally creative.\u00a0 This would be my authentic self reflected in my mission to teach my children.<\/p>\n
I think we do the same thing to God, too.\u00a0 I think we have our ideal picture of a Savoir God.\u00a0 Strong, powerful, kicking butts and taking names, to overcome the darkness in the world, but no, God comes in the form of a little baby, born surrounded by hay and animals.\u00a0 God chooses to reveal his most authentic self when he took on pierce-able flesh and wound-able heart.\u00a0 And Advent asks us to look deeply into this new picture of God.\u00a0 So that we can help re-frame our picture and own the truth that we are people of the Vulnerable God.<\/p>\n
Advent is a season of challenging our preconceived notions.<\/p>\n
It is embracing stillness when the world tumbles fast and frantically to Dec. 25th and acknowledging darkness when the world is flashing bright lights of consumerism and material comfort right and left.\u00a0 Advent asks us to consider quiet humility when everyone is glittering and gleaming with holiday sparkle and Advent is the time we devote leading up to Christmas to practice re-framing not only our picture of God, but our pictures of success, hope, joy, love, community, and shalom.<\/p>\n
Advent prepares our hearts that have impressions of status seeking and power-over dominance to make room for the Humble King who was born to a young, poor unwed teenage girl and an equally flabbergasted, confused carpenter.\u00a0 A King who would teach with his very own incarnation that we should always lead with vulnerability whether it\u2019s your humble birth in a stable, your humble ministry as an itinerant teacher who no home to lay his head, or your humiliating death of crucifixion.<\/p>\n
So, this Advent, I decided to own that fact that I\u2019m a pretty good homeschooling mama (even though my kids are in public school) and write a twenty-five day family devotional to teach my kids about this humble King, whose radical example was a light in the darkness.<\/p>\n
I want them to understand what Hebrews 1:3 means when it says of Jesus:<\/p>\n
The Son is the radiance of God\u2019s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to own it, write it and teach it\u00a0 because just like my\u00a0 picture of the idea\u2019 \u201chomeschooling mama\u201d\u00a0 has changed,\u00a0 my picture of the \u201cideal Savior\u201d\u00a0 has changed and Advent is the perfect time to celebrate these truths.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m the first one to tell you that I\u2019m not, nor will I ever be a \u201chomeschooling mama\u201d. I don\u2019t think I have the drive to spend hours studying to make a lesson plan or researching the \u201cbest\u201d curriculum for my children.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m too insecure in my ability to prepare them for standardized tests, college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,398],"tags":[312,448],"class_list":["post-3486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-faith","tag-advent","tag-deeper-story"],"yoast_head":"\n