Family Vision

When my first son was just a year old I became very ill. I even had a 40% chance of dying. That illness changed my life. It forced me to look at my life and the future of my son. I realized how far I had strayed from the Lord. It really hit me then that I was responsible for another life besides my own. I decided then that I would not return to teaching in a public setting. I realized more than ever I needed to be home for my son and any future children. Most importantly I gave my heart and soul to the Lord fully. I wanted to live for Him. I wanted to glorify Him with my life. That month of severe illness back in 1998 laid the foundation of the vision for my family and I have been building on it ever since.

Vision #1- As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This is the most important goal I have for my children. I want them to wholeheartedly serve their Lord and Savior. We home school and the curriculum we choose to use has a Christian world view. My boys learn about many different countries and their beliefs. We study missionaries. We pray for those who don't know God. We learn about what it really means to serve the Lord.

We also save our loose change in our missions jar. When we get about $100 we send it to a mission of our choosing. We take in meals to the sick and elderly in our church. These are just a few ways we serve the Lord in our house. I am always improving or altering this vision. There are so many ways in which we can serve the Lord. I want my children to learn that there isn't just one standard way, but many ways to give to the Lord.

Vision #2- Learning and Apply Godly Character Traits. We study character traits year round. Right now we are working on Kindness, with a focus on our words. We all memorize verses that deal with the tongue and then we quote them. Here is an example of just one of the verses we have learned lately-

"Pleasant Words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24.

Often all I have to do is start quoting one of our verses and the unkind words fall short on the lips of the guilty party. This tactic has worked quite well in our family and I even encourage my children to sing to me when they catch me losing control of my tongue.

These are just a couple of the visions I have for my family for more Family Visions from other blogger's visit Natalie for other At the Well posts on Family Vision.