Cloudy & Sring Rains

Maybe it's just a day for puddle pouncing and perhaps a balloon...

"That, Piglet, is a very good idea.  It is just what Eeyore wants to cheer him up.  Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon." ~ Winnie-the-Pooh, pg. 79

But it's true, right?

Joy in Learning Retreat

Wendy W.'s Trees & theme photo

The Joy in Learning Retreat in upper Wisconsin this past weekend was so encouraging!  We spent time learning and discussing many ideas about the Charlotte Mason Educational Philosophy.  I hope everyone is able to set aside some processing time this week. Read through that 'Short Synopsis' at the beginning of Mason's Volume 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education.  Notice again how the principles are cumulative and that it starts with Truth and ends with Truth.  The implications of that, as well as the the promise of grace that holds, is great.

It was such a lovely retreat! Wendy did a marvelous job bringing it all together didn't she? Thank you all for your presence and efforts toward a joyful weekend of learning. I hope you were all as encouraged and blessed as I was! Remember to keep studying together in your groups. Read those Principles & learn how to utilize those instruments of education: Atmosphere, Discipline & Life. Learning is progressive; we can only apply what we know - so keep going and you will begin to see differences in the Atmosphere of respectful learning, the Discipline of habits of the heart, the Life of meaningful relations & ideas - all underpinned by God's grace!

Monday Medittions

Rebellion to Grace ~ Hosea 11-14

Eyes turned
Toward distractions, fixed upon idols
Away from love unrecognized.

Healer, Provider, Protector
Affection, compassion - long suffering.

'For I am God and not man'

Eyes turned
Toward pride of self, contemptuous
Blind, the cry of guilt unheard.

Return, Strive, Speak
Hear the voices sent - for blessing.

'Judah is unruly against God'

Walk rightly
Return, acknowledge no other God
Discern, fashioned gods are unanswered.

Healing, Providing, Protecting
Grace, blessing and forgiveness - freely giving

'I will answer him and care for him'

It's that day!

It crept in overnight and here it is! Despite the cold wind and mid 40's temp, it's a beautiful spring day now...

I looked up to see the front oak has finally shed the old and put on the new.  You know, those wonderful fall leaves that cling to the branches of oak trees through the long winter regardless of the wind, snow, and ice.  It happened today and it is a beautiful-rainy, windy, is it still winter-full of growth and newness SPRING day!  Now I start watching for the swallows to return.

Unfolding Light and grace

As I read Cowper in The Cloud of Witness readings today (Lyttelton Gell, 163), it reminded me of how educationalist Charlotte Mason says that the child comes to know who God is, his character and nature, by degree through the unfolding of the Scripture itself.  She also believes that it isn’t 'how much the child knows, but how much he cares' that places the scholar in wide spaces of rich living.

This morning, I reflect upon the idea that this is true for us too; though ‘faint and slow’, we grow from what we have learned in the light of the Word as we choose to know him more and are changed to reflect Christ a little more. I’ve been reading through the wisdom literature of the Bible; it continually reminds me that wisdom is to be desired above all things and is chosen by those who would know God. 

Their fortitude and wisdom were a flame

            Celestial, though they knew not whence it came,

Derived from the same source of Light and grace,

That guides the Christian in his swifter race;

Their judge was Conscience, and her rule their law;

That rule, pursued with reverence and with awe,

Led them, however faltering, faint and slow,

From what they knew to what they wished to know.

                        ~ Cowper