In Him

Today I’m going to talk about these two things.

The first I heard about from a friend.

I explored it on Friday while the International Rules Footie was on. I found I couldn’t open it on explorer, only firefox. Poptropica is a game for 6-15yo children. It’s designers have intentionally made it so that you can’t input anything that may be explicit or questionable. The first thing your child (or you) would do is choose a automatically generated character, complete with a cool name like Sleepy Leopard or Hungry Jumper. Then they can customise the look by changing skin colour, hair style and colour and clothes. The character then has to go into the virtual world and explore, find and learn. As you go through you’ll be prompted once to save the game, at this point you choose a screen name and password that is never seen by anyone but you have to remember it to login to your character again. To leave you just close the window and it automatically remembers where you were and you go on from that point. In the “cafes” you get to “interact” with other real people but all the conversation is pregenerated like “What is you favourite colour” and the answers are pregenerated. You can “battle” as well, by playing soduko, paintwar, skidiving, hoops and many more games. TIP: As you go through always click on the people and they’ll tell you helpful stuff.

Australian Girl Doll was created by a frustrated Perth Grandmother who couldn’t find a nice doll for her granddaughter.

They are to be released in a few days. All dolls come with a pair of thongs (for Americans, they’re for your feet! You call them flipflops!) how Australian is that! They aren’t movie stars or catwalk models, they’re girls. They like animals, music and sport and are just like your children. So if you’re sick of the Barbie and Bratz invasion, check them out at Australian Girl Doll.

I found out about it through one of Dave’s Blogging Friends, Wayne.

I was reading an email from Crosswalk Homeschool Encouragement.  It is right in the area God seems to be concentrating in my life at the moment - the mind.  Recently I’ve been slowly reading and making a study of the book “Loving God with All Your Mind” by Elizabeth George.  The main verse she presents is Phillipians 4:8 Whatever things are true… think on these things.  Now from a Christian point of view (and mine!), that is whatever is written in the Bible, what God says is the truth.  It also says Jesus is the truth and the truth shall set you free.  So I have been casting down imaginations and thinking on what is true.  What is true about God, what is true about me, what is true about other people and what they are thinking and what is true about my life now, not the past and not the future.  You have no idea how much mental space that has cleared up.  God is good. 

Here is that email. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Casting down the Imagination

Kym Wright

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians 10:5 One of Adolf Hitler’s more famous sayings is: “If you tell a lie often enough, and loud enough, people will believe it.” And, often, our spiritual enemy tries to use this very trick on us. Imaginations, as defined in the dictionary, is the formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses. It is an unrealistic idea or notion; a fancy. A plan or a scheme. It came on so very slowly, I’m really not sure when it began. I was just disgruntled with being a mom. It wasn’t fun anymore. The joy was gone, replaced by a sense of failure and a desire to succeed at anything outside the home. Put the children in school. Be a career woman. Be a somebody — as if motherhood is for wimps and “nobodies.” I plodded through the homeschooling days. No joy, but doing the work nonetheless, committed to being home. In my mind I knew this was a wonderful calling, that I was doing a great work, that my time investment counted, and my occupation was worthy. But, the accusations and lies persisted. No joy. Do it anyway. You’re not doing well. So, I’ll persist in a poor quality job. You’re doomed to failure. Probably, but I’ve committed to staying home to raise and teach the children. One day, one of our older children came to me and said, “Mom, thank you so much for spending your time teaching us. We’d never have made it so far without you.” I was floored, astonished. My mind whirled with questions. Am I really doing an okay job? Are the children really turning out all right? At that moment, I recognized the enemy’s voice, and realized I had been believing — not just one lie, but many lies. The foundation was an imagination — something in my mind, which wasn’t true — and my mind had allowed a larger plan of the enemy to discourage me. My failure was an unrealistic notion. My heart thrilled with the question, “And just how far could I go if I believed this venture was a success?” So, I followed the biblical example and cast down the imagination. I just tossed out this image which had exalted itself against God’s plan for me. And I replaced it with this new image: me enjoying my calling. The children doing well in life — for indeed they were. Contentment and joy. Success in fulfilling my mission in life. So, I pose the question, What has the enemy stolen from you? What image is he trying to foist upon you, to steal the joy in finding God’s best and success for your life? Let’s reclaim the joy. Challenge the lies in our minds. Declare war on the father of lies. Cast down those wrong images, and let’s raise up the vision God has for us.

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Mark & Kym Wright have homeschooled since the mid-80s. They have 8 children, having graduated 4. Kym pens the “Learn and Do” unit studies. You can visit her website at: www.Learn-and-Do.com. First published in Weekly Wakeup with Kym Wright, a free e-Couragement for moms. Subscribe to The Mother’s Heart magazine, a premium online publication for mothers with hearts in their homes, published by Kym. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= There is a scripture that comes to my mind when I read about that lady losing her joy of homeschooling.  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 3 John 1:3-5 For me homeschooling is not only about reading, writing and maths, it’s about teaching the girls about God and the truth. 

I received this email today.  I’ve seen it before and am glad I got it again so I could post it up here.

This is one of the kindest things I’ve ever experienced.  I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a kind soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim.  I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her

Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven We put our return address on it.  Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at t he post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, “To Meredith” in an unfamiliar hand.  Meredith opened it.  Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, “When a Pet Dies.” Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven.  Having the picture was a big help.  I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn’t sick anymore.  Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart.  Abbey loved being your dog.  Since we don’t need our bodies in heaven, I don’t have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I am wherever there is love.

Love, God

As the temperatures are dropping here in Merredin, the opposite side of the world is enjoying the warmth of summer.  I was just reading some emails and one of them from ‘The Old Schoolhouse’ was titled “Summer Fun”.  It struck me as weird as I’m freezing my hands off here, so I thought I’d read it.  One contributor’s article I found valuable, no matter what time of the year or season it is.  Enjoy the read.

It’s Just Common Sense
Ruth Beechick, Curriculum Specialist

I’m not going to add to the summer fun ideas that is the topic for this week. Instead, I’m going to suggest that you turn off your schooling mindset sometimes this summer. Do things for yourself and let the children do for themselves.Homeschool kids aren’t usually the ones who say “I’m bored. What can I do?” But if one ever does, he needs to learn how to get unbored without somebody planning all his time for him.

Children need “downtime.” They can wander from thought to thought or from activity to activity. Free play in the back yard or wherever develops thinking skills. And thinking on their own develops creativity. That’s not to say that you’ll see something creative come out of a free summer afternoon, but what transpires in the brain develops creativity anyway. This works with solitary play as well as playing with companions.

So take a recess from “teaching.” Don’t try to sneak in some learning through summer fun activities. Enough activities will come along. Let the downtime come along too.

Just one teaching activity: If you can manage it, get to the Creation Museum.  www.AnswersinGenesis.org.

–Ruth

By: Debi PearlHave you ever seen teenage boys slouching with their pants hanging limp, walking down the sidewalk like a loose-jointed snake?

That kind of walk certainly isn’t natural. They had to watch other kids and practice the jives to create body movements like that. One day, after my girls came home from a meeting, I asked them if so-and-so’s cousin, a recent arrival to the community, looked like the other members of the family. “Oh,” they said, “He looked like them, except he had this empty, computer generated look on his face all the time, like he was some kind of an image instead of a real person. Like, knock, knock, who’s there? Nobody; didn’t you notice. I think its in style.” Instead of real people, his parents gave him a TV and a computer to mold him into a digital image instead of a man. The

America male is being eaten by the gigabyte.

I love it!  You can read more from Debi at www.nogreaterjoy.org