The summer has flown by and once again I am realizing that I got behind on my blogging.  Thanksgiving is now before us, the leaves are all raked, the garden is winterized, the wood is cut for the winter, and I am once again thankful for God’s goodness to us.  As I am teaching the children about the Pilgrims and the early history of our great country, I am reminded that we have an awesome and mighty God.  God’s power was shown again and again to the early settlers as they depended on Him for their survival.  That power has been seen over and over again in our lives this year as we look back and remember what God has done for us.  I think of all the miles we traveled with our bookstore, God’s Eternal Masterpiece,  to various homeschool, church, and camp conferences.  With all the deer that decided to cross in front of us, the mere misses of other sleepy drivers at the wheel, and the poor weather conditions, God saw fit to protect us in amazing ways.  God has shown his power in allowing this little one growing inside me to develop in a healthy and normal way despite the concerns about a possible tumor (which has since disappeared, thanks to our mighty God).  We can’t help, but also praise the Lord for the shelves of food God allowed us to can and new warm clothes for the children (courtesy of our brothers and sisters in the Lord). God has also seen fit to allow God’s Eternal Masterpiece to triple in inventory size, despite the poor economy.  We’ve had the opportunity to minister to many families who were searching frantically for godly books for their families.  What a blessing it’s been to give them what they were praying and looking for.  Another big note of thanks comes to mind.  God, in his loving kindness, has seen how much we’ve missed my mother (and the kids’ grandmother) who went home to be with the Lord 2 years ago.  We praise the Lord for giving us a new mother come this next spring!  What a joy it has been to see my dad once again revived with that sparkle of joy that comes with love.  His fiance dearly loves the Lord and has already shown her love and encouragement to all of us in amazing ways.  Just as we are reminding our children of God’s greatness and blessings to us, I hope and pray that you are also reminding your children of God’s gifts to them.  We have found several items helpful in doing that as we have our family time each day.  You may want to check out the CD “A Thanksgiving to Remember” by Barbara Rainey (available at http://www.godseternalmasterpiece.com/catalog/audio-history-social-studies-c-22_84.html or at www.godseternalmasterpiece.com. 

The Drive thru History DVDs on America’s early history are also very educational for your visual and auditory learners who need to be reminded of God’s power in the development of our country.  Choosing Gratitude by Nancy DeMoss is another must-read for moms, especially as this time of year tends to be extra stressful at times.  Don’t forget to take time each day to thank the Lord for all His blessings to you.  Have your kids list each and every one as a visual reminder to them.  (Feel free to send me your suggestions for teaching kids about God’s greatness in their lives and in our country.  I’ll try to post the suggestions as time allows.)  May this Thanksgiving be the best one yet as you remember God’s greatness in your life!!!  

 Becky - God’s Eternal Masterpiece

I have had several families ask us how we celebrate Thanksgiving since we have several various nationalities and cultures in our home.  Well - we do have a few differences, but nothing too strange!  Since my husband is not a turkey person, we do chicken instead.  We keep all the other trimmings, but we add rice and occasionally eggrolls to the table for the Asian food lovers.  Occasionally we have other families from the area in to celebrate it with us.  It’s a great way to introduce foreigners in particular to our Lord and Savior as we reminisce on God’s goodness.  Our most favorite part of Thanksgiving is the praise and testimony time.  Many years ago I purchased plain vinyl placemats for each child.  (As God gives us another child at our table, we add another placemat for him/her.) Before we partake of the Thanksgiving meal, we all take our placemats and grab a handful of permanent markers in various colors.  Then we choose a small 3″x3″ area of the placemat to write and illustrate what we are most thankful for that year.  Each year it’s fun to look over every person’s placemat to see how their praises have changed and how they’ve matured physically and spiritually.  We always chuckle over Daddy’s because each year he draws a picture of God with his arms around each family member.  About every two or three years, another family member with his/her unique features is added to the fold.  The toddlers’ placemats have pictures of their blankets, pacifiers, and bears.  Then that special year comes where there is a picture of the cross to signify that they were saved and added to God’s family that year.  Occasionally there is a picture of heaven to remind us that a loved one has gone on to be with the Lord that year.  After we are done praising the Lord for all his blessings, we then enjoy the food God has bountifully given us.

This year we plan to add on another new tradition.  We are going to see how long of a list we can make of ALL the blessings God has given us.  In preparation, we’ve purchased a big roll of paper and we’re going to see if we can make it stretch across the whole house.  No large writing allowed!  Sometimes it’s good for us to remember all the little blessings, not just the big ones!  We also plan to open God’s Word see how many different passages of thanksgiving we can find.  Last, but not least, we plan to discuss how we as a family can reach out in practical ways to other families with the blessings God has bestowed upon us.  To end tomorrow evening, Grandpa plans to come over to spend the evening with us.  He’s bringing a dramatized story of the First Thanksgiving in America so that the children in particular can be reminded of God’s goodness shown to America.  (We now have this audio CD, Thanksgiving, A Time to Remember, available in our bookstore, www.godseternalmasterpiece.com if you would be interested in it for your family.)

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, may you, too, take the time to remember what an awesome God we serve.  May our children see that we have been blessed beyond measure each and every day of the year.  Most of all, may they see for themselves God’s most special gift to mankind - His only Son!  Happy Thanksgiving!

This week has been one of those weeks which have been very busy as we can the produce God has given us, but it has also been an awe-inspiring week as we have taken the time to see God’s creation up close.  Many times we get too busy and we forget to look at all the blessings God gives us.

Several different nights I took the children outside to view God’s creation from a different perspective.  We thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside listening to the locusts sing their song of praise to the Lord.  Also, we tried to check out the cicadas emerging from their homes underground since my dad said they were doing that in full force.  After checking out all the trees in our yard (which are many!) and finding none,  we went back inside and viewed the entire cicada life process via the internet.  It is fascinating to see how God allows that cicada to grow for 17 years before it emerges from the ground.  Some of the girls found the night time insect search to be strange, but our boys were totally enthralled with it.  Even our 1 1/2 year old searched diligently - with his swim goggles on! I should say that we did manage to see some shooting stars and other beautiful nighttime scenes.   

The next day as we were preparing to go out to pick more berries, we had the opportunity to see 2 new baby fawns.  They were just learning to walk and were the cutest things you’ve ever seen.  It was a great opportunity to discuss with the children how good God is in even protecting the baby animals through camaflouge.  When we then came upon a bunch of absolutely gorgeous wildflowers and we saw the beautiful sunset with large billowing clouds allowing bright bursts of red/gold sunlight to shoot out, the following song came to our minds:

I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise, That spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies.

As you finish enjoying these summer months, I hope you too are taking the time to enjoy God’s creation with your children.  Remind them of Gen. 1 which speaks of God’s mighty power in creating all things for his good (and ours!).  During devotions, take them to Psalms and praise God together over his amazing creation.  When we are busy praising God for his goodness, it’s mighty hard to complain about our other concerns in life.  Try it and see for yourself! 

We now have a fairly large inventory of creation science books and curriculum available for all ages at www.godseternalmasterpiece.com.  They are a great asset when teaching your children about God’s creation and the fallacies of evolution.

 Becky - God’s Eternal Masterpiece