other good thoughts

Carol from her newer blog, A Living Pencil:  Song of Joy and Strength

Do you remember the flash mob videos in a shopping mall? It is always a delight to see a bystander perk up her ears, look around in wonderment and then settle in with a smile to see what happens. People stop talking, they stop walking, they stop shopping and they watch and listen. This is what your marriage will do when you are singing in tune, making a harmonious sound.  Your song will invite others to the Music.

Also her previous post: Given a New Life

So we have three boys and two parents that love this baby before she is born. Before we have held her, before we have looked into her big eyes, before we have seen her smile, before she can walk, before she can talk, before she can do anything that would earn our love—she has been loved.

A letter from Adoniram Judson to his children posted at The Andrew Fuller Center called: Determine to Stand by Christ found via Ray Van Neste's blog, The Children's Hour

Go on, my dear boys, and not rest until you have made your calling and election sure. I believe that you both and Abby Ann will become true Christians, and meet me in heaven; for I never pray without praying for your conversion, and I think I pray in faith. Go to school, attend to your studies, be good scholars, try to get a good education; but, O, heaven is all. Life, life, eternal life! Without this, without an interest in the Lord of life, you are lost, lost forever.

Lindsay from My Child, I Love You on being with her children: Time

I want to have raised my own children. I want to have been the one that was there day after day answering all of life's questions big and small. I want to be the one they see each day and hope they find security that mom is at her post waiting to help them, laugh with them, pray for them.

Brandy from Afterthoughts called: On Inconveniences in Homeschooling: Meltdowns and Other Messes

And all this sounds so great until someone turns on the water works and starts howling about math. Here's the deal: if education is about filling young minds full of facts, then a meltdown really is getting in the way. But if education is about formation--about becoming something other than we are--then meltdowns are an opportunity.