Teaching a Passion for God

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And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 

I know in the past I have talked about how in 2019, God tugged at my heart to pull my kids from school and homeschool them.  Honestly, there are days that I am at my wits end and don't know if I can go another day with them home.  I wonder if I am doing all the right things, are they actually learning, I didn't get a subject completed how could I go on, and the doubts just crowd my brain.  I know when those doubts creep in that is not God, that is the evil trying to take away what I have built these last three years.  You see, I built boys who LOVE God, respect others, are so kind and generous, and most of all are great problem solvers.  I have built boys who understand the concept of hard work, who value what they earn, and of course they have that desire to have their own businesses.  Don't get me wrong kids attending school can achieve all this as well but can they?  The kids coming for riding are often stressed, overwhelmed with homework after a seven hour school day, they are not taught to treasure that relationship with God, and most of all their struggles are often overlooked/pushed aside.  I saw this trend starting with our own kids after a few years in school and I didn't want them to experience the same things I did.  

Kids were mean to me in school! I remember being the laughing stock of the fifth grade because my family bought llamas! It was terrible and I often have negative feelings about myself because of these experiences.  I didn't want that for my kids, I wanted them to love God, themselves, and farming.  Their mental health was important to me and so I made the hard decision to bring them home, and it has not been an easy journey at all!

There is always something everyday that stops us from getting ALL their work done in one day.  And then there are my self doubts that I am not doing all I could be doing as their mom to teach them.  To top all that off, we as a family are working to grow a farm business and I also work to grow my dream which God called me to do as a place that helps people through animals. The days are filled with a "to do" list and sometimes their list differs from mine, but we are all in this together. Of course there are moments that make me sit back and say look how much they have learned.  The kids love watching YouTube and they don't get alot of time a day to watch TV but I require it to be learning.  They are not allowed to watch mindless videos about how to play a video game, play with toys, etc.  So they watch farmers.  They enjoy these videos and look forward to seeing a new video from their preferred farmers each week.  


With the new lambing season upon us the boys have taken to utilizing some of the things that they have learned from sheep farmers.  They have built their own "lamb taxi" to move lambs and mama to a lambing pen.  They have also learned how to spot when things are not right with a lamb and they hope their efforts were able to save our first premature lamb.  The lamb is five days old and appears to be getting stronger every day, but I don't know too many 11 year old boys who would be up at 6:30 in the morning to go feed a lamb.  The boys have been managing the feeding schedule, checking to make sure he is warm, and how much he is eating.  As I sit and doubt how much they are learning, I look at moments like this and know they are learning so much from these moments because real life lessons are often more memorable than the one you find in text books.  I know that this passion that I am instilling in them to love God will help them draw on him to find their purpose in life.  I pray daily that this experience raises amazing young men who will go on and encourage these same life experiences for their kids.  I know that it is just a chapter that will soon be over because it will move fast, but for now we will keep doing what God calls us to do as farmers, community members, and as a family.  


                                                        Keep Farming with Faith & Family, 

                                                   God Bless, 

                                                    Amanda 







 

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