Bethlehem has a few important distinctions. 1.) It is the birthplace of Jesus. 2.) Rachel is buried there. Rachel was the wife of Jacob. Jacob is the ONE who God re-named Israel. “Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have wrestled with God and with men, and you have won. That’s why your name will be Israel.”[ Genesis 32:28 Now if you want to understand that story better, ya just gotta go read Genesis because an awful lot of […]
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Alan and I were so excited to pray at the famous “Wailing Wall.” Truthfully, I was not sure exactly about the history of this wall. I went into our Jerusalem tour thinking the wall was the only remaining wall from the ancient Jewish temple. That’s almost true. That entire temple was completely destroyed. The Western Wall is what remains from the retaining wall that was built around the temple. It is considered holy because it was the outer part of the […]
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After we left Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, located now within the Church of Holy Sepulchre, we headed down the Via Dolorosa. All day I had the song Via Dolorosa, in my head. Okay, sometimes I couldn’t help but sing a little of it out loud. I’m one of those people. I usually have a song in my head that occasionally accidentally comes out for others to hear. The Via Dolorosa means “the way of suffering.” Jesus did not get to […]
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Welcome back to the Jerusalem tour. I cannot wait to take you to Calvary in pictures, also known as Golgotha! Where did we leave off? Ah yes, walking through Old Jerusalem. In Part 1, we saw the Mount of Olives and entered Old Jerusalem. The first thing we saw there was the Upper Room and David’s Tomb. Let’s stroll on over to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre now. This church now sits on top of the site where Jesus […]
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Jerusalem Tour Part 1: The Mount of Olives and Old Jerusalem Day one of our Jerusalem tour took us from the Mount of Olives down into Old Jerusalem. We walked through the Jewish Quarter, saw ancient ruins from Roman roads, and wove around to the Upper Room where Jesus had the Last Supper. I’m going to show you all of it. Psalm 122:3-5 3 Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together,4 to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,as […]
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Our number one priority is that we set our children off on the right track spiritually. We aren’t training them to live to please just their parents, society, or a set of rules. Once you’re an adult, those things all become mushy anyway. We’d rather they have a relationship with God. It’s not about religion; it’s about knowing how to pray, knowing why they believe, having faith, and making these choices on their own. It’s about feeling responsible to a […]
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Sometimes I choose involuntary titles to read to my children. As in, I pick the book, and they have to listen. I have four boys, and with their personalities this is necessary if I ever want them to read a single classic novel. It worked well for the Little House series and Old Yeller, so why not Tom Sawyer? I do have the unabridged version of Tom Sawyer, which is on an 8th grade reading level and is chock full […]
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Failure stings when it’s something that means the world to you. It stings like getting stung by a HIVE OF BEES or 50 fire ants.
I set out to home school those two years with two objectives:
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This week I was reminded of something. I am a big, giant failure. I am a hot mess. Now I know. That’s negative self-talk, and we shouldn’t do that. Yeah. I get it. Thinking positively is how you recover from the things that do happen as a result of when we mess up big time, or when someone else messes up and we have to deal with it. In my case, it was me that messed up. I got a […]
» Read moreThe Christmas presents have all been opened, the grandparents have all been visited, the cousins have been played with, and the tree…..well, the tree is still up. It’s pretty. I’m reluctant to take it down. And today is New Year’s Eve. Time to pick a goal, a resolution, a plan!!! Or as my adorable little boys say, “It’s time for our New Year’s revolution!” That makes me smile every time. So did you set goals? I have goals in mind, […]
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