Resting in Yehovah to do the work He called me To.

Read Philippians 4

Recently, a a homeschool book was mentioned to me about teaching from a place of resting in the Lord.  I loved the sound of this and ordered the book.  It was a quick read and had a lot of great advice, but I was a little discouraged because it had so little scripture in the actual book to support their conviction.

About ten years ago, I felt a strong conviction to make the Bible my children’s primary textbook.  Instead of including Bible in our school day, Bible would be our main teaching tool.  We would learn literature, history, science, writing, reading, and even math from the Bible.  I truly believed that God was calling me to do this, and the thought was a bit overwhelming.  So what did I do, I googled, “using the Bible as the foundation of homeschooling.”  This lead me to a website called, “Foundations Press.”  I ordered a book from foundations press, that looked like it would be a great outline for me to work from in teaching my kids from the Bible only.  I got the book and I got to work making it work for all subjects.  After a couple months, I decided to email the author.  Her name is Anne Elliott.  (If your a close friend or regular reader you know that Anne Elliott and are close friends now.)  Not only did I enjoy teaching my children using her Bible study curriculum, but I was learning in a new way as well.  It was going really well, and I was loving how our school days were going.

But shortly after beginning this new style of homeschooling, we moved to a state that required more reporting as a homeschool family.  I was nervous and anxious about my school days not being enough, I was concerned about the book keeping, I was overwhelmed with a new very needy baby, and the move to a new place, and I took my eyes of what Yehovah had called me to do.  Instead of staying in the place He called me to be, I made my own plans.  My kids hated school, and I hated school that year.

But God in His loving and merciful way kept calling me to a place of peace and trust.  Anne and I continued to develop a relationship through email.  She challenged me to read my Bible through from cover to cover quickly.  At the same time, my children and I had begun to realize that their was beauty in doing God’s Biblical feasts, including Sabbath.  We didn’t truly understand it all, but our heart was softening to His instructions for life.

Life was becoming a whirlwind.  Jeremy, my husband, had decided to resign from his job.  Our youngest still had a lot of special needs.  I didn’t think I could do this schooling the way I told my education consultant at the beginning of the year we would do it.  I was trying to keep “a sabbath day of rest,” and do Sunday church.  I was overwhelmed, I had a very needy newborn with lots of doctors and therapy appointments, a special needs eight year old son that the public school was pressuring me to enroll, a busy, healthy two year old son, three super smart elementary age sons (4,6,and 8), a severely dyslexic 11 year old daughter, a distracted 12 year old son, three talented teenage daughters (13,14,15), and an autistic 16 year old son.  To say life was busy, and a bit overwhelming would be an understatement.

Yet, in spite of it all, Yehovah was teaching me, He was teaching my children.  He was calling us to a place of rest.  We didn’t really know how to keep a weekly Sabbath day of rest, but we believed God was calling us to do it.  Every thing kept pointing us back to it.  I joined a woman’s Bible study that went through the book of Genesis.  Our school lessons took us through the first five books of the Bible.  We memorized the ten commandments.  Every lesson, every where was calling us to “rest in Him.”

Maybe you are seeking His peace (shalom), and rest.  Maybe you think you understand that Sabbath was indeed created for you to bless you.  But instead of finding a place of rest, the more you learn about God and His Word, the more you feel overwhelmed, the more you feel incapable, the more you feel unworthy, the more you feel like a failure.

If that is you, I have good news.  You are on the right path, you just need to slow down, and rest.

Sabbath, is that reset button that is given to us to help us do just that.  Yehovah created us for good works, He created us to work hard, and to be productive.  But, once sin entered the world we began to die.  Every day we die a little more.  Our bodies can not keep going forever, and eventually our physical bodies will indeed die.  Not only that, but our sin nature causes us to strive towards worldly, selfish things that kill our souls.  There is only one cure for this it is resting in Yehovah and His will and calling.

So how do we rest in Yehovah?

We remember.  We remember that He is God, He is Sovereign.  He is our Creator, He loves us and will care for us.  He is our Redeemer, He rescued us from slavery.  When we remember who God is, then we remember who we are as well.

We remember that we were created to do good works.  We were created to worship Him alone.  We were created with a calling and a purpose.  We are His child, joint heirs to the Kingdom.

The beautiful thing about the weekly sabbath is that it is designed for us to stop and remember.  To stop thinking about the school week, to stop thinking about the bills, the menu, the doctors appointments, the therapy sessions, the sports, the music lessons, the laundry, and the groceries.  Sabbath was created for us to STOP!!!! and remember who God is each and every week.

When I began to really understand the purpose of Sabbath I began to rest all week in Him.  Resting in Yehovah means I I know who I am and who He is, and what He has called me to do each day.  It is knowing that He is Sovereign and He is never surprised by those unexpected events in our days.  He knows it all and He is with us in it all.

I realized that I was worrying too much about what the school system required, what others think, and not about what God had called me to do.  I gathered my children into the family room, and I told them we are not going to finish this school year with all the lessons and plans I had made, but that we were going to go back to doing what we had been doing before.  We went back to going through the Word of God slowly and deliberately.  Using the Bible as our main textbook.  I have continued in this path now for ten more years.  My adult children have gone on to be successful members of society.  Smart, leaders, lover’s of God Word, moms, and successful business men.  They are now becoming my closest friends and I see them trusting in God with their future and the future of their families.

Teaching from a place of resting in God begins with understanding and keeping God’s Sabbath day of rest.

Written by Katie

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