Chidren's Bible Class, Family Matters

Family Vision

Joy

I am working on some lessons for a ladies day.  I would like to get your feedback on the following:

These first two questions apply to both males and females:

1.  What goals do you have for your personal spiritual growth, and what are you doing to accomplish those  goals?  Specifics please 🙂

2.  What vision do you have for your family?  What are you doing to help your family accomplish your vision?  Hopefully we all have the vision of our family being in heaven, so please be more specific. 🙂

For females only:
3.  If you had the opportunity to attend a ladies day, what topics would you particularly like to have addressed?

Thanks everyone!

Uncategorized

How’s Your Hearing?

Joy
Have you ever been talking to someone on the phone and while they talk, you wash a few dishes, dust the furniture, and turn to holler at the kids now and then?  How about chatting online?  Have you ever carried on conversations with two or three people simultaneously?  How about four or five people?  In this day and age, multitasking has reached new heights, and ironically, with the many different tools we have at hand to supposedly aid in communication, it seems that many people lack the ability to communicate on a deeper level.  It has been said “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” I think there’s some truth to that statement.

Ralph Nichols once said “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” It seems like some people are people magnets.  Somehow others are drawn to them. Folks always want to bounce ideas off them, discuss various problems, and bare their souls to these individuals.  Perhaps one of the reasons is that they listen.  But I wonder, who listens to them? 

The next time you engage in a conversation, give some thought to how you listen.  Try to focus your attention solely on the person with whom you are conversing at least for a few minutes.  Don’t be so quick to express every thought and opinion.  Don’t formulate your next sentence in your mind, while the other person is still talking.  Instead, take the time to really listen.  You just may learn something.



Family Matters

Six Plus One

Joy

Our new year began in a most wonderful way.  Friday night, January 1, our family traveled to the airport to meet Lee Parish, who has been courting our daughter, Julia.  Lee had only met Julia, up to this point, and so it is probably pretty safe to say that Lee was nervous getting off that airplane, and we were nervous, as we stood there waiting for him.

Lee and Julia

Three days later, he and George had a heart to heart talk for several hours, and less than 30 minutes after they returned to the house, Lee and Julia took a little walk, and ..well, what do you know..they came back engaged. 🙂 Maybe one of these days Lee and Julia will write their courtship story, but until then..I must say they both have shown amazing maturity and faith in God throughout this process.

We are very happy to welcome Lee into our family.  We are confident that he and Julia will be do wonderful things together in service to our Lord.

Homeschooling

A Family Milestone

Joy

In some ways it seems like it was yesterday, and in other ways it seems like such a long time ago. In 1992 we began our homeschool journey with Julia. Now, 17 years later, we are graduating Lindsey. It has been a wonderful time of learning for all of us, and we wouldn’t trade it for anything. But where has the time gone? Preschool papers are no longer strewn here and there, with wobbly attempts at ABC’s. No more dissections of frogs and cow eyeballs at the end of our dining room table. These memories and many more are forever part of our family. We have loved the journey with our children thus far, but our adventures are not over! Our children have been a joy in our lives, and they continue to be a delight to us.

Our special congratulations to Lindsey, who has put her nose to the grindstone, and is now finished with her high school course of studies. She plans to continue her volunteer work at the medical clinic, operated by the Smelsers, and will do some secretarial work for George at ACSOP, as well as continue work with the various mission activities in which we are involved.