Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Time for a Change: Gifts from God



Before I began homeschooling, I didn’t really understand the meaning of “God-given gifts and talents.” We had children, someone else taught them, and we both worked. But when their needs weren’t being met at school, we prayed about it and brought them home. It wasn’t until those first days of homeschooling that I began to realize I didn’t know much about our children, particularly about their unique gifts.

When we all quickly tired of textbooks and I began looking into unit studies, I asked the children what they wanted to learn about. Our oldest chimed right in, “Sewing!”

Ugh—really? I knew nothing about sewing and couldn’t have cared less about it. However, she was so determined that I finally gave in. I was the encourager and van driver as we explored fabric stores and learned about all kinds of stitching and piecing. She even taught herself how to quilt. She kept quilting and sewing all the way through college and on through veterinary school. She is now a gifted emergency surgeon who sutures up animals in a way that had her professors bragging about her abilities. Just imagine—I tried to talk her out of her fascination with sewing at a very young age. All because it wasn’t one of MY gifts or areas of interest.

We get so tied up in knots about meeting standards and conforming to everyone else’s ideas and goals, but no one else knows what God has carefully put in place in your children. YOU are charged with the task of helping them discover and use their gifts, and there’s no time like NOW to accept the challenge.

It might be sewing lessons or baseball practice, botany experiments or computer programming. Who knows? God knows, and He’s right there, ready to help you make the changes that need to be made to help unwrap the gifts and talents in your kids. Hang on . . . it’s an amazing ride!

Blessings,

Amanda B.

2 comments:

  1. WoW! What a great reminder this morning! Thanks for all you godly, hard work to ensure kids have FUN learning!

    http://www.the-How-to-Guru.com

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome, Shan - that's exactly how learning should be - a FUN and exciting adventure! :) Thanks for stopping by! :)

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