Encouraging Moms Who Homeschool

I don't know about you, but I will fall flat on my face and end in total failure and disappointment any day which I have not bathed in prayer. I just can't do this thing called life, this monumental task of home education, without the Lord's steady hand upon me. And I can only walk hand-in-hand with Him to the degree that I seek Him first in prayer. If the hand the rocks the cradle truly is the hand that rules the world, then our world is in utter danger if those cradle-rocking hands are not folded in prayer to our Lord each day. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the actual truth for all mothers everywhere is this: we shape the future by the manner in which we raise our children today. Here is a quote from E.M. Bounds on prayer and thanksgiving that inspires and challenges me:           "God does much for us in answer to prayer, but we need from Him many gifts, and for them we are to make special prayer. According to our special n...

So, I have not been much about blogging lately. Correction: I have not been much about blogging annually, since I haven't posted here in over 6 months and prior to that my posts had been sporadic at best. Honestly, I pretty much reckoned my blog as "dead", for lack of a better word. I figured no one was reading it, I knew I had not been keeping up with it, and as the end of my years as a homeschooling mother are drawing to a close, I figured it may have served it's purpose. Reached it's expiration date. Surely no one even knows it exists anymore. I was, to say the least, surprised, when I checked my stats only to discover that not only is this blog not dead; rather, the stats over the last 30 days have been the highest EVER . Wait, wait? Huh? Is this for real? It seems some of my more obscure posts are being read, and not just here and there, but read a lot. So maybe the purpose of my blog has not yet been fulfilled. Maybe the time I have spent focused on fi...

Are you one who prays about everything? Few do, you know. It's difficult to train oneself to pray often and over every situation, and people as a whole are lazy about training ourselves to do the things that benefit us - and others! - the most. Praying over everything can also seem, well, weird. And we don't usually like to be seen as weird, strange, odd by our peers or even by strangers. While we live in a society that is eliminating social mores at a staggering pace, in a culture that tells us nothing is weird and everything is acceptable, we still do not want to be seen as weird. Would you like to become a person who prays all the time, over things both large and small? Then spend time in prayer and ask the Lord to make you a constant and consistent pray-er, one who listens to His voice and responds when He calls you to prayer. It's not complicated, but it does take a willing and obedient heart. If you seek Him and expect Him to grow you in prayer, He most certainly ...

The funny thing about prayer is that you actually have to do it in order to gain any results. So many Christians talk about prayer and read about prayer and say they want to be better at praying...but fail to actually pray. If we do not do the thing we need to do, how on earth will we ever improve in the doing of it? In other words, if you want to have more success when you pray then you absolutely must pray more. Take a look at this quote from E.M. Bounds, and see if it sums up the attitude of most Christians in this day and age ~      "Yet men, in general, have quit praying. They are too busy to pray. Time and strength and every faculty are given over to money, to business, to the affairs of the world. Few men expend themselves in great praying. The great business of praying is a hurried, petty, starved, beggarly business with most men."  (from the book E.M. Bounds on Prayer, the eighth chapter) I would argue that this statement is ...

His sovereignty is His pleasure and His perfect will. It should also be my pleasure, my delight. The Bible teaches that God is Sovereign, and indeed He truly is. He does not waver in His perfect rule over all things at all times. No detail escapes Him. He is never taken by surprise. He actually does have the whole world in His hands - and  those hands are very capable. Maturity in Christ involves understanding His sovereignty in ever-increasing measure. Allowing the Holy Spirit to move that from head-knowledge to heart-knowledge to such deep heart-knowledge that we trust Him implicitly and always....well, that is true maturity. Grasping God's sovereignty is a vital part of doing God's will. Implicit trust in Jesus lends itself to radical and rapid obedience. I trust Him, therefore I obey  Him. Those who love Him will obey Him, so said our Lord. Obedience is evidence of our trust. Obedience glorifies God. Obedience recognizes God's sovereignty. Getting a hold on the ...

This fall I will have three children in college and two at home, finishing their high school education. It will be busy with youth group and church, volleyball and boxing, dual-enrollment classes and used car hunting. My time spent homeschooling will probably be lessened, since my senior will take lots of GenEd classes at a local college campus and my sophomore will do much of her work on her own or in a co-op setting. My life is in an in-between season of change, and perhaps yours is as well. Don't fear the new seasons of life. Don't resist them and pine for days gone by. Embrace the now, enjoy the mixing of two life-stages, and trust God to work His good will through it all. He loves you perfectly, after all, and there is no fear in love. Let Him love you, and show Him to you receive that love by enjoying your life just as it is today. It has been an excellent use of my time, this homeschooling gig. As I look back over the years, I more fully see  just how blessed I hav...

Well, it seems the time has come to revamp, redo, and redecorate my first book ( The Homeschooling Mothers Bible Study ). Things have changed so, so much since I my first self-published work and I have grown up quite a bit, as well. So I am planning to update the Bible study and will *prayerfully* have it finished in July, just in time to roll it out in all it's new prettiness for the start of the brand new homeschool year! In the meantime, however, I decided to have an inventory reduction sale to say bye-bye to all my print copies with the cover that is ... YUCK. I also reduced the price of the eBook (same book, just in Adobe rather than print). The book usually costs $12.95 , and is now on sale for $7.75 (free shipping ). The eBook is discounted by a few bucks as well, but honestly I hope to sell my print books to make room for new copies of the updated version! To buy The Homeschooling Mothers Bible Study (whose basic content will remain exactly the same...the update is...

A HUGE thank you to everyone who purchased my book All Things Homeschool ~ 180 Devotions for Homeschooling Mothers ! Some of you were offered a special promotion: review A ll Things Homeschool on Amazon and receive a print copy of my next book absolutely free! Prayer ~ 101 Devotions for Women is due to release in mid-June of 2015, and print copies will be mailed to all reviewers who participated in this promo at that time. If you are a part of that special offer, please send me an email letting me know your review has posted on Amazon and include your mailing address. Send emails to janburt@cox.net Thanks for all the support and kind words so far. I truly hope the book blesses busy homeschooling mothers and keeps pointing them back to Jesus on the good and not-so-good days. And if you would like to participate in this special, you can purchase All Things Homeschool @ Amazon , leave a review, send me an email and you'll be on the list to get a copy of Prayer th...

I recently self-published my second book, All Things Homeschool ~ 180 Devotions for Homeschooling Mothers. And I would love to have some feedback on the book in the form of reviews. If you would be interested in writing a review on Amazon or on your blog (with a link to the book on Amazon), I would be more than happy to send you a free paperback copy of All Things Homeschool. Provide a way for me to contact you in the comments and I will get a copy in the mail to you right away. And truly, I appreciate the help of my fellow homeschooling mothers more than I can express with words. Thank you in advance. Day 331 done :) Jan L. Burt author of The Homeschooling Mothers Bible Study & All Things Homeschool ~ 180 Devotions for Homeschooling Mothers

Isaiah 12:3 – With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.             It is far too easy to lose our joy in the daily grind of homeschooling. At times we fool ourselves into thinking that we are really only lacking joy due to the season of life we are in. But I promise you, that is simply not true. From the first waves of morning sickness with your first child, to the moment your youngest graduates, there is no end to the seasons that can be joy stealers. Don’t succumb to this tactic of the enemy. Be willing to fight those feelings of heaviness and push into joy, drawn from Jesus at the well of salvation.             If the joy of the Lord truly is your strength, then it only makes sense that the enemy will steal your joy if he aims to steal your strength. Once you recognize this scheme, be sure to take a firm stand against it. Your joy in the Lord is...