I think it is a healthy thing to go digging for physical evidence of the reason for your faith.

Faith is a beautiful thing, but it should not be blind. Our faith should be built on evidence. For me, the very first evidence of a holy God was creation and sensing his presence.

As a small, four-year-old child, I had never been to church. Yet, there was something about the name and mention of God that always rang true for me. I immediately knew to look up at the sky when my neighbors said His name. Belief was instinctual for me. (You can read more about my story of faith here.)

I feel like it was a privilege to discover faith in God basically on my own. Many people struggle thinking, “Do I only believe this because it’s how I was raised?”

I don’t think how you are raised is the only reason why you believe whatever you believe. There’s so much more to it than most people realize.

From the time I was eleven years old and up, I took to reading the Bible for myself to learn what God’s word says. I needed to examine it for myself.

Then somewhere in adulthood, I wanted to know even more about the past of the Bible.

What evidence is there to go along with these stories? Are there other historical accounts that agree with the Bible? What else do we know? Are there artifacts?

Oh boy, are there ever artifacts!

The more I read about it and see it for myself, the more I enjoy Biblical Archaeology. It pains me so much that there is a war going on in Israel. I worry about Israel remaining a country, and I am concerned for all of the preserved places. War always destroys historical keepsakes, if you will. Plus, I hate that we are all too scared to go tour Israel now.

One of the easiest ways to read about archaeological evidence for the Bible is to order a few books on the topic.

Not all Bible history books are created equal, obviously. There are some I’ve learned much from but didn’t enjoy, and I gave those to Goodwill.

Today I’m going to share only five of my favorites with you.

These five are both informative and interesting. Each of these books has earned its spot on my bookshelves, and I guarantee you could learn a lot from them too. I cannot keep too many books in our home because we move so much, and books are heavy.

Let’s start with my number one pick.

#1. The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible by Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler

This book is the ultimate resource for learning about how the Bible was translated, preserved, documented, and evidenced. It is an exhaustive source for going into details on archaeological discoveries relating to the Bible.

I confess I have not read the entire book yet. It is so in depth and lengthy, and my attention span is like a butterfly. Instead, I use this one to look up any antiquity or event I’d like to learn more about. To me, it never seems like there’s enough information available on the topic of Biblical history online.

The Popular Handbook was published in 2013, over ten years ago. Therefore, it is missing all of the things discovered in that time gap, and you would not believe how many discoveries have been made just since 2013. For more recent discoveries, check out books number two and three on this list.

If you would like a book that will answer many of your questions about the Bible and what artifacts have been found, this is the one for you.

Here are a few topics covered well in this book:

• Reliability of Old Testament manuscripts
• The Dead Sea Scrolls
• How the New Testament came to be
• Reliability of the New Testament
• Archaeological Evidence of Old Testament Events such as the Flood, the Exodus from Egypt, and King David
• Old Testament People who were confirmed by archaeology, in graphs
• Non-Christian accounts of Jesus
• Archaeological evidence for Jesus
• The Temple Mount
• Finds relating to the New Testament

This is such an excellent resource to have on hand. If you teach any kind of Bible class or have any interest in learning more about the ancient past or how the Bible was written, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. You can buy it here from Amazon, or any book store with a solid religion section. When you purchase through affiliate links on my website, I do collect advertising fees from Amazon.

I am not a Walmart affiliate, but I believe you may be able to get it cheaper at Walmart.

#2. Where God Came Down by Joel Kramer

This book is newer, published in 2020, and I cannot say enough positive things about my experience reading this book.

First of all, Kramer is an archaeologist as well as a Christian preacher. He spent many years living and working in Israel.

Furthermore, Kramer routinely takes people on tours of the Holy Land. Those tours are probably on pause during the current war with Hamas. Don’t despair that you cannot take a trip to Israel though. Kramer has a YouTube channel where he uploads his tours of many historical places in Israel. There are enough videos on there to keep you busy for a while!

Here’s a sample of his YouTube channel/videos:

What makes this book so great:

-easy to read, conversational tone

-engaging, full color photos to go with each archaeological site discussed

-in depth look at important discoveries

Joel Kramer takes ten places, five from the Old Testament and five from the New Testament, and goes into deep details to what is relevant about each place.

A few topics covered in Where God Came Down:

• Abraham
• the Mountain of God
• Jacob’s altar
• Abraham’s burial site
• David’s palace
• Nazareth
• the nativity
• where Jesus was crucified and buried

Kramer focuses on the evidence and the story in each famous individual place and walks you through exactly how this site was preserved over time. He explains why each discovery and fact about the place and the people is significant.

If you are looking for a book where you can read in depth about Christianity’s most famous heroes and places and how we know they are true, this is the book for you.

You can find this book on Amazon. I was dismayed to find that Barnes and Noble does not sell it.

#3. Biblical Archaeology Review magazine

You can get this magazine in the mail or online. Even if you don’t subscribe to the magazine, many of their articles are free on their website.

I have been reading this magazine for years. My favorite article they ever ran was on why the dates for Christmas were chosen. As it turns out, those are not random dates or pagan holidays. You can find the article here.

The tone of this magazine is academic. Some of these articles will be immediately interesting to me, and some will not. However, it is a good way to stay up to date on recent findings. You can also learn about many opportunities to visit dig sites and listen to lectures on the topic of Biblical archaeology.

The magazine always runs articles on interesting artifacts and discoveries. It is a welcome surprise in my mailbox when it arrives.

Specific topics vary with each issue of the magazine. You can visit their website to learn more.

#4. Tried by Fire by William J. Bennett

This book was fascinating. It feels extremely rare to have the opportunity to learn about church history of those first one thousand years of Christianity.

I wrote a whole article about things I learned from this book a few years ago.

This book is thoroughly entertaining because so much of it I had never heard before at all.

Here are a few topics included in Tried by Fire:

• Persecution of the disciples
• before the church was under the authority of Rome
• Influence of early Christian women
• the Codex
• Egypt and the Great Persecution
• Constantine
• Council of Nicaea
• Monasticism
• Pope Leo I
• spread of Christianity
• East/West schism of the church

I highlighted and underlines so many pages of Tried by Fire.

There are so many stories in here that were completely new to me about early church customs and people. It filled so many gaps in my historical knowledge. In fact, I feel like I need to go back and read it again because it’s been a few years since I read it the first time.

You can find Tried by Fire on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

#5. Israel Then & Now by Thomas and M. Cartier

Paintings by S. Rotem, Photographs by z. Radovan, S. Rotem, and Y. Hirshfeld

If you would like a chance to see Israel, how it looks now, as well as how it looked in the past, this is the book for you.

Israel Then & Now is full of present day photos, with an overlay drawing of how each place looked in ancient times.

This is one example of how the book shows you each place and takes you back in time to that same place:

Each photo goes along with a summary of what is important about the places you see in the photos.

Here are few places you will learn about in this book:

• Temple-Mount in Jerusalem
• The Cardo
• Masada
• King Herod’s palace
• Tiberias
• the Galilee boat
• the synagogue of Capernaum
• the Roman Temple in Caesarea
• Meggido

My favorite section of this book is the story of the fishing boat discovered in the Sea of Galilee. It dates back to the exact time of Jesus.

Plus, I love how this book is full of full-color photos and illustrations. If this is the kind of book you enjoy, also be sure to check out the book I wrote about our trip to Israel, as it is also full of full color photos and stories about each place. However, my book does not have the benefit of the overlays of how the places looked in ancient times. That’s what makes Israel Then & Now so unique.

Israel Then & Now is a quick read. You could read it in one sitting and learn so much. You can buy it on Amazon.

I hope you’ve found at least one book in this list that sounds exciting to you.

If you’ve never read any books in this genre before, I would start with Joel Kramer’s Where God Came Down. The book is well written and easy to understand. Plus, the photos are so good, and it covers the ten places that it focuses on in great depth. In fact, it looks like he might make this into a series of books.

With God being taught in less and less places, many people are left not knowing what to believe in. So much doubt has been cast on the things of God. Most people do not realize how much of our beliefs is pure history, and not a matter of faith at all. It is a fact Jesus was a real person who lived two thousand years ago. What you believe about Jesus is where the faith comes in. I don’t think most people realize that.

Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:16:

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

2 Peter 1:16 KJV

I want to challenge you to look up some of these people and places, and you will be amazed at how much evidence there is to support the events reported in the Holy Bible.

These five books are all a solid start to learning about archaeological evidence to support the Bible.

Have you read a book about Bible Archaeology that was so good you’d like to share it with others?

Leave us the title and author of it in the comments section, so we can read it too! I’d be happy to answer any questions you have in the comments as well.

The post Best Biblical Archaeology Books for Exploring Evidence of the Past appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The Dead Sea scrolls we have all heard of. They were discovered in the caves of Qumran, by the Dead Sea, in the 1940s. But have you ever heard of the Silver Scrolls? Sounds a little more posh, don’t you think? They’re silver, so it sounds like jewelry. Well, the funny thing is they were jewelry, amulets actually.

And what better to engrave on an amulet than God’s Word?

Amulets are small pieces of jewelry that ancient people believed would protect them against evil. The silver scrolls are two small amulets made of real silver. The major importance of these scrolls is that they are the oldest copies of scripture that we have. Obviously, you cannot fit an entire Old Testament book on two amulets, but it does contain the priestly blessing, just as it appears in Numbers 6:24-26. They pre-date the Dead Sea scrolls by approximately four centuries. Wow!

The silver scrolls date back to the 7th century B.C.

That is during the First Temple time period, around the time that Jeremiah the prophet lived and King Josiah reigned in Jerusalem. This was a time period when some skeptics previously doubted that the book of Numbers had even been written yet, but this find indicates that it had.

The silver scrolls are tiny and fragile. It took the power of technology to read the writing on the scrolls. From what I understand, they were never able to read every single word with certainty, but this is what they do know is written on them:

“… the great … [who keeps] the covenant and graciousness toward those who love [him] and those who keep [his commandments …].
The Eternal … blessing more than any … and more than evil. For redemption is in him. For Yahweh is our restorer [and] rock.
May Yahweh bless you and keep you. [May] Yahweh make [his face] shine ….

amulet 1

May [he/she] be blessed by Yahweh; The warrior/helper and the rebuker of evil:
May Yahweh bless you and keep you; May Yahweh cause his face to shine upon you and grant you peace.

amulet 2

Both amulets match Numbers 6: 24-26: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace,” and the first one also matches Deuteronomy 7:9 where it reads “who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments… “

I put together a basic 411 on the silver scrolls and why they are worth mentioning in this snazzy little info graph. You can pin it if you like:

.

Finding excerpts of Numbers and Deuteronomy worn around people’s necks for protection is further proof of just how far back this goes. These accounts were recorded somewhere close to when the events actually happened, just how close we do not know. This particular find goes back to before the events of the later books of the Old Testament had even happened yet.

This was before Nebuchadnezzar defeated Jerusalem. It was before even the stories you know so well of Daniel and his friends. The 6th and 7th centuries B.C. were 6-700 years before the birth of Jesus.

The Bible also testifies that some scripture was already written by 700 BC.

For instance, the Bible records King Josiah having the “book of the law” brought out and read to him in his castle. That is found in 2 Kings 22:

Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. ⁹ Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.”¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. ¹² He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: ¹³ “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book;

2 Kings 22: 8-13

The book of Second Kings also indicates that these writings far outdate King Josiah, as they found the old book of the law in the temple, and lamented that it had not been followed for years.

Archaeology is such a powerful science in discovering the truth of the past. As I find things like this that are well documented and proven out by technology, but not heard about much in the mainstream media or schools, I like to share these artifacts with my friends and readers. I find it very faith-affirming, and I hope it encourages you too.

Want to learn more? Check out my sources below:

Pictures:

You cannot use someone else’s photo without permission, which is why I don’t have the photos posted here, but you can click on these links to see what the silver scrolls look like:

Silver Scroll as displayed in the Israel Museum

Close-up picture of the writing on the scrolls

Articles:

The Blessing of the Silver Scrolls at biblearchaeology.org

Solving a Riddle Written in Silver at The New York Times, nytimes.com

Ketef Hinnom Scrolls on watchJerusalem.co.il

Books:

The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible: Discoveries That Confirm the Reliability of Scripture  by Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler, 2013, Harvest House Publishers.

Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Timelines , Rose Publishing, 2005.

The post The Silver Scrolls: Even Older than the Dead Sea Scrolls appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Is anyone else feeling nervous about their kids beginning virtual school? I feel like this is an issue that parents across the entire world are dealing with.

We have been out of school for the sheltering-in-place or quarantine or social distancing, whatever you want to call it, for a month now. Seriously. An entire month has passed.

During that month, we here in Maryland were given home-school packets of suggested work. Thankfully, they gave us all the benefit of the doubt and gave the children all 100s on daily grades for the work done on the packets. So far it has all had a very laid back feel. Yes, we are home schooling, but the oldest boys don’t even really have math. The younger boys haven’t had much science.

We recently added in BrainPOP.com videos when I found out that their service is currently free. Plus, we read and write and do a few other things. School at our house has been fun, really. I mean, it has been fun for the kids and sometimes even for me, but all of the monkeys have been on my back. It has definitely been a lot of work. We have four kids, and they all have different assignments. I spend each day doing school with them, feeding them, and then planning out what we will do the next day.

I have had less time to do house work and writing. That’s for sure, but it has been doable.

Next week everything changes.

Wednesday we will start virtual school. The kids will watch videos of their teachers teaching them on our computers, and they will have to actually complete the assignments the teachers give them.

Everything reminds me of a song. Sometimes my kids take it as a challenge and try to throw out random phrases to see if I can find a song that relates, and I assure you, I always can.

Today I am Elsa, of Frozen II, and we are all on a collision course straight “Into the Unknown.”

Virtual school is the unknown, and we are headed there fast, and I don’t know whether to be terrified or happy! Up to this point, if I thought the packet-suggested science questions were ridiculous, I just tossed them out and used a different science lesson that I chose for them myself.

I won’t get to do that anymore. Yet, it won’t be like sending them to school all day long either. I may not choose the activities, but I WILL be the one who has to make sure they do said activity, and if they cannot figure out how to do it, their project becomes my project in many ways. You know?

And then there’s the computer sharing in this house…

When this all started, we had a family of six, with three iPhones and two computers to use. Once the home-schooling began, I ordered a new Kindle Fire tablet to replace our old one, and that has been a life-saver. When they announced that school was about to go to virtual classes, we decided to go ahead and order a new computer. So now we have a 3:5 computer ratio, which is a huge improvement, but I’m still nervous about everyone trying to share them.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LoRD forever. “

Psalm 23

So many unknowns

Our county school system has not given us any information about what to expect next week. Thankfully, ONE teacher did send us what he plans to do. That’s for 8th grade math, so he is planning to do live classes for his students, there days per week. He’s already given times and instructions.

We love this teacher. I am thankful he is doing these live classes, and my oldest son will actually have math again. It was easy to dig up math for my elementary boys. I didn’t even bother to try with the 8th grader. Inventing functions and such is not really in my wheelhouse anymore. I will happily wash my hands of it.

But what if they all need the computer at the same time?

And exactly how many videos will each boy have to watch each day? The first grader, I’m hoping, will only have 2 videos each day. Our third grader has three different teachers for his subjects, not including music and such. Both middle school boys have seven classes each. That could mean making time for as many as 20 or more video classes per day! And then there are assignments!

See, I think about this stuff, and my heart beats faster, and my hair gets grayer, and my jaws clench. My teeth grind. It’s all a messy stress and worry reaction.

Then I remind myself.

It is going to be okay. They, as a public school, must know that these students are all sharing electronic devices with siblings. Surely, they will continue to be more laid back than usual.

My sixth grader’s French teacher who let them take a test over the phone to final out their grades, and before he gave the test, he went over it all first. He basically told him all the answers before he asked the questions, and I was SO grateful.

What we are facing is not unique to our family. It’s the whole world going through this together.

Sure, each area handles it a little differently, but it’s all similar. What about the families who only have ONE computer and several children? Or the families who cannot afford to buy a new device to get through this? How about all the people who have lost their jobs and aren’t even sure how they will pay for next week’s food or electric bill?

Those are bigger problems than I am dealing with. We are very fortunate that Alan has been able to work at home, and I always am at home.

When I face uncertainty, which is a constant in my life, I always go back to faith in God.

As a military wife, we’ve been waiting for the Army, going where they send us, never knowing where we’ll be next year, for the past 18 years. Uncertainty is what we do.

I trust in the Lord. He knows. I am just a pawn, along for the ride. That’s how I often see my life. The roller coaster is taking off again, but I have my seatbelt on. I trust the one who is in charge. God is still in heaven, and he will always take care of those who call in his name. Getting upset or griping about it is not going to make coronavirus go away or your neighbor’s response any different.

“The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.”

Psalm 9:9-10

I will not spend too much time worrying about this because focusing in on a problem only seems to make the problem grow. Once we have all the information, we will build a schedule then. Until then, we will enjoy the weekend. Maryland’s “spring break” is Friday through Tuesday. Isn’t that odd? This state does not get a week-long spring break.

We are going to take that time off from school. The boys will spend way too much time on video games. I will work on writing my next book, and I’m sure we will play some Ticket to Ride and do a good deal of baking and eating.

The Lord will take care of us. He will take care of you too, if you trust in him. In the meantime, we should all enjoy the spring as much as we can.

********************

Funny Quarantine Quotes from the Week:

“Ohhh, you say it like bunt pan?? All this time I thought you were saying butt pan!” (John David)

“Do y’all know the story of Rapunzel at all?”

“Ohhh yeah, was she the girl who couldn’t eat her soup??” (Daniel)

The post Into the Unknown: Virtual School Nerves and Anxiety appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

A couple of weeks ago I found out that the ladies’ ministry at my church is going to have a cookie contest. It is really more than just a contest, it is a luncheon, but at the luncheon there will be a cookie contest. Then the cookies are delivered to teachers at a local school. We are giving back to our community with something pleasant like Valentine cookies.

Now I am a regular attending member of our church, and also I like to go to ladies’ fellowships. No, I actually straight up NEED to go to them because I have not put forth much effort into getting myself connected here. I need to do more, but I admit I groaned at the cookie part.

Why did I groan at the cookie part?

Well, it is simple. I just do not have a pretty valentine go-to cookie recipe. I do love baking, but making things pretty is a skill I do not possess. It does not come naturally to me, for sure. So I set out on a mission.

Mission: Find cookie recipes, try a few out, and let my family choose one that will not be a total embarrassment to take to the ladies’ fellowship.

I had the best of intentions. Winning is not the goal. That is ridiculous. Simply not embarrassing myself, that’s the goal. I went to Pinterest, and I built the most beautiful of Valentine’s Day cookie boards. You see, pinning things, that I am very good at. In fact, if you would like to see my idea board, just click here. You’ll love it.

Then a week ago, I finally got around to trying out one of the recipes. I tried this one:

That looks delicious, right? They are too, but you wouldn’t believe how much trouble making these was, due to life circumstances, and then in the end, only around 7 of the 24 even got eaten.

Let me tell you what happened.

First, I ground the Oreos and mixed them with the cream cheese, per the instructions. I was ever-so-careful to have all of the ingredients that I needed. Then I flattened them out into a baking pan, all nice and neat and placed them in the freezer to set.

That’s when I realized my heart-shaped cookie cutters were a casualty of this past summer’s move. I searched everywhere: inside, outside, downstairs, upstairs, every single cabinet, every single box, every single drawer. There was no rock unturned, no crevice unchecked, but there were absolutely zero heart cookie cutters. I found Christmas ones and ghost ones, but no hearts. Disappointedly, I moved the pan of chocolate dough from the freezer to the refrigerator.

The next day, I went by the grocery store. I figured I would just buy some cutters there. Valentine’s day is near. Surely they will have them. They did not.

Finally, Alan said, “Just order some on Amazon!” So I did. I ordered these. They were a very good deal. Here is an Amazon ad for them:

They came in the mail two days later, and I ever-so-excitedly cut out my hearts, melted down about 3 bags of chocolate chips, and dipped to my heart’s content. Some of them fell apart, but some didn’t. I actually had a fairly successful looking batch. The kids came home and were pleased.

I took a ton of pictures throughout the process because I expected the whole thing to flop, and then I would write a Nailed it/Failed It Valentine edition, so you could all laugh with me, but then they turned out pretty good.

As for flavor, they were insanely sweet, especially with the white chocolate. The boys and I all agreed they were actually too sweet, so even if what was about to happen had not happened, this would not be the recipe to use for the church cookie competition. (The semi-sweet chocolate did taste much better.) We decided this is more of a candy than a cookie, and also it is a lot of work.

The Problem

No, it was not a chocolate problem, per se. It was more of a health in food services type issue. You see, as the day wore on, it became increasingly apparent that I had a scratchy throat and a runny nose. I was extra careful to wash my hands while working on these. I had no idea what was coming.

The boys came home from school, except for Caleb, as he was home sick. They all tasted the desserts, but we did not have much appetite, and these were so sweet. No one ate many. Then somewhere around six o’clock, I began to figure out that I was getting sick. Meanwhile, John David was whiny, whiny, whiny, about every little thing, which is not like him.

Finally, Alan arrived home and infused some even-keeled sanity to the situation, as only a healthy person surrounded by the flu can do. He took everyone’s temperature. John David had a high, actual fever. Mine was barely there, but I had the chills terribly. We went to bed and didn’t really get up until three days later.

And the hearts? Everyone was afraid to eat the flu-ridden hearts. They were thrown into the trashcan.

All that work, wasted. So much money I spent on Oreos, cookie cutters, cream cheese, and chocolate to melt, for nought. All that time and energy, and for what? For nothing.

As my fever broke a few days ago, and I started to emerge from the flu stupor of last week, I thought about those hearts and it reminded me of life in general. We all have work we pour ourselves into, and we all have good reasons for the work that we do. But in the end, only the eternal work survives. Only some of our work matters to other souls and to God himself. How much of our work will all be for nothing, will simply end up at the bottom of a trash can, rotting at the dump, or burning in a fire?

If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.

1 Corinthians 3: 12-15

I am not saying we shouldn’t do the kind of work that won’t last. Things like cooking and cleaning have their own kind of reward in this present life, but there are also bigger things, more important work that we should be doing.

Eternal Work

Last week, Daniel and John David, our youngest two sons, asked to be baptized. They have always believed in Jesus, and a couple of months ago they prayed asking Jesus to be their Savior. It is just a simple prayer, telling God, “I do believe in Jesus, and I know that I am a sinner, and I want Jesus to forgive me and save me and be the Lord of my life.” Daniel has actually prayed the prayer a few times, as many children do as they figure out their faith.

Getting baptized loomed bigger to them though because they were afraid to go forward and talk to a pastor, who they do not even know, and ask him to baptize them. But they did it, and we are so proud of them.

Teaching our children feels like work that lasts. That is work that survives. influencing the life of a child, there is nothing better than that.

Of course, leading your children is just one example. There are so many kinds of work with eternal significance, work that brings glory to God, leads people to Jesus, and helps people in a lasting way.

I do not have some amazing call to action here. I just have a trash can of beautiful, disease-ridden cookies, serving as a reminder that not all work will survive. Do not neglect or look down on the most important work.

P.S. I still need a good Valentine cookie recipe…

The post The Cookie Fiasco: All That Work for Nothing appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

There are many pros and cons of home schooling, just as there are pros and cons to public and private schools. If you find yourself weighing the differences of which method of school you should do for your children, this list will help.

I have revised my pros and cons lists to reflect my views now that I have 2 years of home-school under my belt as well, and our children have also attended 2 years at a private Christian school and many years of public school. The reason for so many changes in schooling is actually that we are a military family.

Only YOU can decide which is best for your kids.

What I am going to provide you with is a pros and cons list of home schooling versus private or public schools.

***Disclaimer: When you purchase through links on this website, I do collect advertising fees. Clicking does not obligate you to buy. All opinions are my own.***

First, we did try public school.

We were fortunate to belong to an amazing community with a high performing school.  Our neighborhood elementary school in Northern Virginia tested well above the national averages.  While that was great, and my boys were pretty happy at school, no school is perfect.

See, my boys had trouble paying attention to things that they are not interested in, especially in large group settings. I don’t mean they day dreamed a little.  They day dreamed so much that their teachers tried to interject my boys’ names into every few sentences to encourage them to listen.

Now that they are older I think this has actually improved, but back then I was all throwing my hands up and feeling discouraged.

That’s my biggest hang-up with public schools and my boys: Large groups.  

Joshua’s second grade classroom had 28 students and 1 teacher.  The 1st grade class had 26 students and 1 teacher.  Has anyone stopped to realize what we’re asking our teachers to do here???

I attempted teaching public school 1 year, 10 years ago, in a low income area of Texas. That was a class of 19 students, in a combined 3rd/4th grade classroom, and it was a HUGE job.  I was fresh out of college and had little experience with children, so it was too much for me.

Think about it.  26 1st graders–in 1 room–with 1 teacher.  Do you really think that teacher has any time whatsoever to give any individualized instruction?  I doubt it.

So I confess, I thought I could do better myself. The boys and I took on home-schooling for  two years.

First, here’s a disclaimer: I was trying to teach 4 boys on 4 different levels all at one time. The youngest was in diapers, the second-youngest was 3, one was struggling with reading, and the oldest was a behavior issue for me, even though he was very well behaved in public school. There are ways to make your experience easier than all of those 4 rings of circus I was trying to manage at once.

It was painful for me. I was mostly stressed and miserable. The boys grew to like it because 1.) no home work 2.) shorter school days and 3.) so many pajama days.

But for me home schooling four boys was more stress than I could handle.

I was not one of those ‘fun’ teacher types, doing cool experiments and building forts and playing games. I was more like, “Hey, look, I don’t care if you think it’s hard. The book says we have to do it, so please just do it now so we can be done with this already.”

Yeah…..teaching was so not my thing. Good things did come out of it, mostly personal growth for myself: I learned that it’s important to accept help from others. I prayed more.

Also, good things came out of it for my boys. They grew even closer together. My oldest was in need of an attitude adjustment before we started home schooling, but over the past two years he matured in character in manifold more ways than I expected, and I am incredibly proud of him.

But I said that I will never home school again. The stress and unhappiness made me physically ill. Literally, I am now on heart medication.

But some people love it, so don’t take that to mean I’m anti-home schooling. You may be an AMAZING teacher-mom. But if you do go for it, I hope you find some things to delegate. You aren’t supposed to have to be everyone and everything to your family. People need other people.

Also, I think it’s important to mention that some of us are a better fit for public schools, private schools, or home schooling than others. One kid may thrive in one environment, while another thrives in the opposite. We all have to choose what works best for our particular situation.

We all did that whole virtual school thing during covid. Home schooling is a little different because you do get to be in charge, and you will not have teachers emailing you to tell you that your kid did not turn in their video of themselves throwing a ball in the backyard. For us, virtual school was the absolute worst.

So let’s get on with the list!

Public School Pros Vs. Cons

Pros:

1. It frees up time for you to spend with your pre-schoolers during the day.
2. It gives you breathing room and less stress in some ways.
3. The kids get to make friends at school.
4. They must learn how to function in a highly ordered environment.
5. Children must learn responsibility of turning in assignments on someone else’s timeline.
6. The kids learn skills of dealing with people of diverse backgrounds.
7. They learn to eat new foods in the lunch room, and you don’t have to even get involved. (And that’s coming from a mom of a severe nut-allergy kid. I make them all buy a lunch.)
8. The burden of your children’s education does not lie squarely on your shoulders alone.

Cons:

1.  having to trust whatever random teacher your kids are placed with
2. not knowing what they are doing all day and whether they are paying attention at all
3. having to re-teach many things they learned at school when they get home…..because they weren’t listening
4. dealing with them occasionally not bringing home their homework assignment or not turning it in
5. your kids being taught things at school that you don’t actually agree with
6. your kids not learning what success feels like because their attention problems are getting in the way
7. no one-on-one instruction
8. They dislike school.
9. summer not beginning until practically July
10. Sometimes I feel like I don’t see them at all between school, homework, and extracurricular activities.
11. lots of negative outside influences on their attitudes
12. learning lots of trash talk from friends  (Think back.  You remember this from your school days, right???)

PRIVATE SCHOOL (Christian school) Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Same as above, but also:

1. They learn Christian principles and morals that I actually DO agree with. (Be sure to thoroughly vet what your school of choice teaches. Know what denomination it is and what that means.)
2. Their environment is like-minded.
3. They learn Bible verses that will help them for the rest of their life.
4. So important: Smaller class sizes!!

Cons:

Same as for public school, but also:

1. It costs a lot of money.
2. They would have to be “car riders.”
3. If it is a prestigious school, there may be homework and stress overload. Be sure to check on that. Thankfully, the one I’m choosing assigns very little homework, or so they tell me. Here’s hoping!
4. Did I mention it’s expensive?

first week of kindergarten at the Christian private school

When we could afford it, I loved the private school option.

The boys were being well educated, I was sane, and they had an amazingly positive atmosphere to learn in. I loved that! The smaller class sizes meant the world to my boys with attention problems. Daniel used to say his favorite subject was “learning about God,” which you just can’t do in a public school.

Budget constraints are a true issue. Here’s an article on money-saving ideas we used to help pay for private school, to include moving to a smaller house.

HOME SCHOOL Pros and Cons:

Pros:

1. Life would run more on your own time table.
2. You can choose a curriculum that fits the needs of each child.
3. 1:4 teacher/student ration allows for more individualized instruction
4. better for their attention problems
5. more time with your children
6. less outside influence on their attitudes and language (if only I can also control MY mouth)
7. You might enjoy planning their lessons.
8. Fun field trips.  Home school day at the aquarium!
9. Home school co-ops often offer 1 or 2 day/ week of all the arts or P.E.
10. Your kids will probably enjoy it.
    

    Cons:

1. You have to learn to be more structured.
2. They may not learn the same coping skills they’d learn at school for dealing with difficult people and focusing in large groups.
3. a LOT of work for Mom
4. no freedom for Mom whatsoever–ever
5. Will you be able to have patience with them?
6. Wearing so many hats is stressful.
7. You may feel isolated from being home teaching everyday. (I felt extremely isolated.)
8. You will either like it, love it, or hate it. If it makes you want to poke out your own eyeballs, just stop.

OK.  Your turn to chime in!  What have you chosen for your children?  What do you love about it?

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.”     Proverbs 12:15

Of course, in the end, we will choose what we think is best for our particular children, based on lots of research, thoughtful consideration, and prayer, and of course, our budget at the time.

I just started a Facebook page for the blog. Please follow me on Facebook to read more articles like this one.

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Digging in to Biblical Archaeology…

One of my favorite things to read about is archaeological finds that have something to do with the Bible–anything to do with the Bible! These historical artifacts are not the reason that I believe, but they do substantiate and reinforce and inform my beliefs. They spur me on in my awe and wonder of this book we call The Holy Bible.

For me, the biggest reason for my faith is that God has been there for me. He always has. He has provided for my needs, and you can’t doubt someone who has answered your prayers time and time again. It makes anyone’s denial of a supernatural God laughable to me. I’ve seen God’s work too much to be faithless.

The Bible itself is the greatest testament to a living, breathing, loving God because the writings of the Bible are ancient, well-preserved, and there are 100s of these ancient texts, all in agreement with one another. It’s incredible in and of itself, and you can read more about that in this article that I wrote last year about why the Bible is reliable.

There are 100s of archaeological finds that are in agreement with the Bible, but today let’s focus on one: the Nuzi Tablets.

The Nuzi Tablets

These tablets were discovered in modern-day northern Iraq, or as you know it in ancient history, Mesopotamia. Nuzi was an administrative center. The tablets contain family archives from families in Nuzi in the years 1450-1350 BC. The information on the tablets spans 6 generations and describe social and economic customs as well as religious and legal institutions for people called the Hurrians. The Hurrians were also known as the Horites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Family records were clearly highly valued by these people, a rare thing for that time period, outside of the Hebrew people. There are tons of similiarities between the way these ancient people did things and the way that the patriarchs of Israel did them.

Why would the people of Israel have anything in common with the people in Nuzi?

Well, Abraham was from Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), and Nuzi was in Mesopotamia as well. This was not that far away from where Abraham grew up. Naturally, the customs of the people of Nuzi would be highly similar to the customs of Abraham’s family.

The Nuzis even had the word “Habiru,” referring to a group of landless people who wandered. Scholars suggest that this could be the origin of the word “Hebrew.”

Here’s the basic quick facts about the Nuzi Tablets. I made a little infograph:

The tablets offer a surprising explanation of the term “sister.”

A woman could be adopted by a man as his sister, giving her more rights than if she were only his wife. That sounds so WEIRD today. But it gets even weirder. A man could adopt his wife as his sister, and he’d be giving her that status so that she would have more rights.

Remember, this is over 3,000 years ago. Also, in Genesis, Abraham and Isaac both asked their wives to tell different kings that they were afraid of that they were their “sister.” To the kings in the area of Egypt, that meant what it means to us. But to people further into the East, where Abraham was born and raised, perhaps it meant something else entirely, as the tablets of Nuzi describe.

The tablets also describe the process of surrogate mothers, which is what Abraham’s wife Sarah did with her maid servant Hagar in Genesis 16.

Household idols are also discussed on these tablets, which explains the story of Rachel stealing her father’s household god and Laban being so upset about it. See, according to the tablets of Nuzi, if a father-in-law gave his son-in-law his household god, that meant that he was appointing him as his heir. Laban certainly did not intend to appoint Jacob as his heir, so Rachel was potentially doing more than grabbing a souvenir from her father’s house. She could have actually been trying to make herself and Jacob the principal heirs of her father’s estate, rather than her actual brothers, Laban’s own sons. Obviously, Laban was having no part of this.

The Nuzi tablets give us a whole other picture and context by which to understand the Old Testament. These stories took place over 3,000 years ago, and are therefore often very hard to comprehend.

I don’t know about you, but this is a topic I’d love to learn more about. If you’re interested, I’ve listed my sources below, so you can read up. This makes me want to go back to the Bible Museum to check for displays of the Nuzi tablets.

Sources:

Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, & Timelines  100 Proofs of the Bible Chart

Nuzi by Mark Chavalas on oxfordbibliographies.com

Great Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology: The Nuzi Tablets by Bryant G. Wood, PhD. Feb., 2006, on biblearchaeology.org

Clay Tablet and Envelope, image description, by Jennie Myers at teachingmiddleeast.lib.uchicago.edu

Nuzi at jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Nuzi at biblicaltraining.org

The Holy Bible, book of Genesis

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If you enjoy reading about antiquities and the Middle East, you will love my book. It was released in March, 2020, Tour Israel in Pictures and Stories.  It’s now for sale on Amazon. Click here to check it out.

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Everyone goes through hard or hectic, confusing times. It seems like we’re constantly wading knee-deep in and out of huge changes for as long as I can remember, really.

2018 does not wish to be upstaged. As peaceful and incredible as 2017 was, 2018 decided to leave more of …an impression. Personally, I liked the humdrum and happiness of 2017 much, much better.

I won’t go into all that is going on, but we’ll just say the hurricane is still swirling for our family, and I do mean my whole extended family in several different ways.

3 generations of amazing strong, brave women. We all came from Beth and Max. In that photo we were gathered for Madison’s Sweet 16 party.

Do you ever feel like your life has a soundtrack?

Raising children has been the adventure of my life, and there have been many anthems over the years, like I Feel Better When I’m Dancin’ and Day by Day (the hymn) and Mama Loves the Baby. I sang “Mama Loves the Baby” to John David so many times to get him to go to sleep. When I’m an old senile woman in a nursing home, don’t be surprised if I’m sitting there rocking and singing “Mama loves the baby, Mama loves the baby. Mama loves the baby, oh yes she does..”

Have you ever had an MRI? Two weeks ago I was in the MRI tunnel. Normally that never bothers me, claustrophobic-wise during a hip/lower back MRI, and I’ve had several of those, thanks to my sciatic problem. But when I do the cardiac one with all the breath holding, I go a little bonkers in there. Literally I feel like I’m trapped and hyperventilating in some kind of hole I cannot get out of.

Thankfully, they give you music during an MRI. She asked me to name an artist I like because their music comes from Pandora. It randomly selects songs in that same genre as the artist you name.

Now you know I have a whole playlist of songs/artists that I love, but when put on the spot I could not thing of the name of a single person who sings songs on the radio. Not one.

I thought long and hard and managed to come up with Rachel Platt. Only it turns out there is no Rachel Platt. It’s Rachel Platten. Thankfully, Pandora understood what I meant anyway. It did give me Rachel Platten songs. I was hoping for Fight Song, but that didn’t happen.

However, Pandora did play Brave by Sara Bareilles, which came on right when I needed it. My right arm, which had the IV in it had fallen asleep, but I couldn’t move it. There was that tight space, and there was just no where to run, but this song came on. This song is one I listen to at home, but not so much that I’m sick of it yet.

And it has been truly my anthem. Having “I wanna see you be brave” sang to me over and over again, was perfect.

Brave.

I don’t always want to be brave. Do you? Doesn’t it feel better to cuddle up on the couch and hide?

But we weren’t meant to be scared little mice or to hide away. We were made to live and to love even when life is making us cry. Life does that sometimes, and it comes at you from all corners at once. Or you just see your family dealing with something hard, and it gets you down, you know?

I think it’s important for us to fill up our tanks with God’s love, so we have that love and light to give because He is the light, and He is the love.

“‘Together’ is a really good word. Together is what we need when we hit tough patches in life. Making decisions when life is making you cry shouldn’t be done alone.” –Lysa Terkeurst, in The Best Yes

How do you fill your tank with God’s love and light? We need God’s word for that, God’s word, other believers who lift us up to the light, and time and space to think on it and pray.

I’ve personally been reading in Isaiah, of late. Isaiah has a surprising amount to say about Jesus, considering he was born centuries before Jesus. Isaiah was a prophet, and he was writing about what was coming.

“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”                     Isaiah 58: 9-11

God wants to “see you be brave” too.

I hope you can pump your fist through your trials and sing, “Let the words fall out honestly. I wanna see you be brave,” too.

Alan brightened my morning by showing up after the MRI to take me to lunch. Is there any feeling like when people care?

This has been a highly frustrating week here, but I know all problems are eventually resolved or transformed into memories. It’s always a reminder to me to rely on God and lean on those who love me, and to be there for them too. Having faith and having each other is what makes it all worth doing.

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