Proverbs 24:11 says "rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter."

If you are considering homeschooling or already educating your children at home, I want to challenge you to observe the 35th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision this week by trying to save a life of a baby.  Make it a family project – get some literature from the nearest pro-life group or pro-life pregnancy center and hand it out as a family while you stand on the sidewalk outside the local abortion clinic.

Or have your family prayer time there.  And why not practice reading out loud by reading the Word of God as a family on the sidewalk outside the local Planned Parenthood, the largest baby killing machine in the country? 

In fact, why not make it a homeschool "assignment" for your family to try to save the life of at least one unborn child in 2008?  I know that so many mothers of young children have a past – a past that includes one or more abortions.  Now that you are walking with Jesus Christ, now that He has given you a chance to instruct the next generation, why not train your children to be "life savers"?  Homeschooling them does not guarantee they won’t get an abortion; they need to know what God says about hurting the innocent and they need to be part of His life saving work. 

If you really want pro-life children, I mean children who not only will protect your future grandkids from abortion, but also vote pro-life and work to end abortion in the land, get them involved in peacefully praying, saving lives and witnessing on the sidewalk of an abortion clinic.  It was, in fact, the many homeschool families I met in pro-life that convinced me homeschooling was the way to go ( my husband was convinced a long time ago to homeschool by having gone to public school) .

Seeing the homeschooled children fearlessly standing for the least of these really touched my heart in a way I will never forget.  It is so cool to be a homeschool mom now and see my kids being part of that legacy. 

Having been a pro-life sidewalk counselor for 21 years, I can tell you sidewalk counseling is easier to do than most people think.  My husband and I have trained sidewalk counselors in the past and we can tell you that it is not really what you say that counts as much as how much you pray.  Some of the most effective sidewalk counselors quietly pray, and just politely hand out the literature to the women entering the abortion mill.

If you need information on sidewalk counseling, check out the resources at www.sidewalkcounseling.com and if you live in Southern California, they will be having a sidewalk counseling training session on March 1 with the theme "Save a Life in 2008".

With Steve and Teri Maxwell and Family

January 18th, 7-9:30 p.m.
January 19th, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Knott Avenue Christian Church
315 S. Knott Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92804

Do you feel like you are running on a treadmill? Do you want to have sweet relationships with your children as they are growing up and not experience the heartache of rebellion and immorality? Do your children have greater purpose in life than just to have fun? Be challenged and find ways that God can set your family on a journey of spiritual unity, purpose, and direction of which you never dreamed.

For detail, go to:
Exploring Homeschooling

This week when one of our six children was sick in bed, the other kids asked if they could make him up a snack plate.  I watched as they happily cut fruit, piled on goldfish crackers and even drew some pictures for their ill sibling.  After a bit of arguing over who would get to deliver the plate to him, they not only brought him the plate and a drink, but they spoon fed him too.  (He didn't quite need that much assistance, but he did not object, either!)  Then they took turns reading stories to their brother. 

Watching our three year old "read" a picture book to her sick older brother, inventing the words as she went along, just made my husband and I feel so blessed. Of course, children are not born knowing how to minister to one another in such a way, but through parental encouragement they can learn to "...through love serve one another". - Galatians 5:13 

Now what preschool or what nanny would have the eternal motivation or the means to teach such a powerful life lesson?

I couldn't help but think of friends and relatives who send their children off to preschool or outsource their parenting to others when they don't have to.  What they are missing is not only bonding between parent and child, but sibling bonding.  When a person lovingly helps another who is in need, there is a gratefulness that cements a friendship.

I mean, will your child really be able to call up their old preschool friends when they are an adult and in trouble?  No, it is their family you hope they will be able to lean on in dark times.  So, if you are considering homeschooling, don't put your child in day care, preschool or with a nanny while you ponder whether you can handle homeschooling – if you are a loving, safe parent, then care for them yourself, and keep them with the sibling team God gave them. Sure, serving the children in this way and teaching them to serve is the more difficult path, but the more fruitful one.

As I noted before, homeschoolers are helping Huckabee and will be key to his victory.  It is one thing for the winners to say so, it is another for the vanquished to acknowledge.  In the story from Byron York over at National Review, Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom noted:

We're going up against a loose confederation of fair taxers, and homeschoolers, and Bible study members, and so this will be a test to see who can generate the most bodies on caucus day.

According to entrance polling, nearly 60% of Iowa caucus goers identified themselves as "Born-Again or Evangelical Christian".  Huckabee pulled 46% of those Christians.  Huckabee also did well in the majority of all the demographics.

I can remember back when I was in my early twenties, spending New Year’s Eve with other young Christians, ringing in the New Year with our apple juice toasts, singing with guitars strumming praise songs, and sharing our resolutions.  I remember playing a game where we would write down our predictions for the coming year about some topics someone would choose, questions about what might happen to us personally, and about the national and international scene.  (Like a good question for this year would be “Who do you think will be elected President in 2008?”)  Of course, most of my guessing was off.  After all, only God knows what will happen, as James 4:14-15 says:

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Now that I am a married homeschooling mom with six little ones, I still make resolutions and wonder what will happen in the next year, yet I know that while I can chart a course for my ship, God can steer my boat wherever He deems. 

One of my big resolutions for this year is that, if it is the Lord’s will, I would be able to spend even more time with every child God has given us and to grow with each of them in a relationship deeper in love and respect.  

Even though as homeschoolers we are home with our children, we have to be careful that we are really home – I mean not distracted in thought or deed.  Are we looking each of our precious children in the eye when they come to us, really listening to what they have to say even if it seems to unimportant to us, really watching them to see what they need spiritually, emotionally, etc.?  Have we structured our lives the best we can, so that we can minister to them fully?

I have come to the place where I realize a parent can spend all day with their child and not really reach their child’s heart, which is the purpose of making the sacrifice of homeschooling if you are a Believer. More on that in later blogs.  Happy New Year.