ISAAC
HE TRUSTED GOD
FOR EVERYTHING

Compared to other Bible characters, Isaac’s life was quiet. His faith was real but t was not full of exciting events like Noah and Abraham. Even though his life was quiet, it still contained many lessons that would be helpful to us.

Just think of what it may have been like to be Abraham’s son. Imagine some of the great stories about God’s providing for and blessing him. Abraham probably shared some of his mistakes as well as adventures and Isaac must have learned much about how faith worked. He shared with him the many promises that God made and how God always kept them. It is important to remember that our faith always rests on God’s keeping His promises. The whole life of Abraham was about how faithful God was. We can be certain that Isaac believed that as well.

Back in those days there were no radios or televisions (or computers) to give us information so the family gathered and talked and shared life stories. It was the main source of education as well. Just think of what it is like to hear our parents talk about how good God is and how He always came through when they were in need. Abraham’s faith influenced Isaac as we will see as our story continues. Think about your parents telling what happened when you were little and growing up. They told you about something interesting that you did. That is what Isaac experienced as a child, hearing his father Abraham telling these wonderful stories that were true.
But hearing stories about someone else’s faith is not the same as seeing God work in your own life. Isaac had to come to the place where he had to have his own experience of faith.
We mentioned that altars were a reminder of God’s faithfulness to Abraham, now Isaac was going to have some altars of his own to remember. The next part of our lesson talks about an important altar that Isaac would later remember as the most important one in his life.

One day Isaac went with Abraham to a top of a mountain to offer to God a sacrifice. He helped his father gather wood and to build a stone altar. As he looked around a question came into his mind. “Father, look we have wood and an altar but where is the animal we are to place on the altar?” Isaac did not know that God had spoken to Abraham before and told him that he was to offer his son as a sacrifice. Abraham knew what was to happen but Isaac didn’t. Imagine his surprise when he saw his father carefully laying him on the stack of wood and tying him there. What do you think Isaac must have thought? Maybe he said “father why are you doing this to me”? Abraham at the same time must have been saying “why do I have to do this.” But Abraham obeyed God once again and remembered that God said that he would bless Abraham through his son Isaac.

How far was Abraham willing to obey God? Abraham comforted Isaac by saying that “God will provide a lamb”. Later the bible tell us that Abraham believed that if his son died, God would raise Isaac from the dead. Just as Abraham was about to kill Isaac, God called out and told Him not to do so, and being true to his promise provided a ram to take Isaac’s place. That was Isaac’s first altar experience and one that he would remember for the rest of his life. He had an experience of a ram taking his place on the altar just like Jesus did for us when He died for our sins on the cross.
This was a test of Isaac’s faith as well as Abraham’s. Isaac was willing to trust God even when he didn’t understand why. Sometimes we need to be like Isaac. God has given our parents to us and sometimes they ask us to do that which seems unreasonable. Remember what we said in our first lesson, that no one cares more about us than our parents and we must learn to obey them even when we don’t understand their instructions. Faith is believing in God when nothing makes sense. Someday they will if we are patient and willing for God to show us why in His time.

We will study about Isaac’s son Jacob in our next story. Isaac was different from Jacob and Abraham in that he had only one wife. Perhaps we can say that he learned from Abraham’s mistake as well as Abraham did.. He made an effort to make certain that Isaac married the right person and we can say he stayed happily married for the rest of his life with Rebekah. Isaac was a quiet person and he showed his faith in practical ways. He did not hastily try to find someone to marry but left the choice of his life’s mate to God. Sometimes we get in a hurry and want something right away and when we do that we make wrong choices. Someday you like Isaac may have to wait for the right time and the right person to come along. It is important to leave our need for marriage in God’s hands. Isaac’s wife was both beautiful and faithful Faithfulness should be a a character quality that everyone should seek.

For many years, Isaac and Rebekah could have no children. It was not easy for older people to be without children. If you didn’t have children in those days, people thought that you were strange. (As if it was your fault.) Once again God had promised that Isaac would have children so they waited for God to act. Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah and they did not have children until twenty years later. I know of married couples who for years could not have children. They decided to adopt and when they did they had three more children of their own. I’m sure that they learned a lesson on how God works. Isaac waited for God’s time and finally the day came when Rebekah gave birth to twin boys.

Isaac had his weaknesses. A similar experience happened to him like that of Abraham. Because there was famine in the land, Isaac headed to a place called Gerar, where there was food and water. Does this story sound familiar? He came before king Abimelech and told him that Rebekah was his sister. You would think that he would have learned from Abraham’s mistake, but we often learn the best lessons from our own mistakes. Once again God stepped in and kept Isaac from harm.

God blessed Isaac with great riches. Sometimes being rich isn’t that great because it often has many temptations that come with it. Isaac’s riches caused him to be generous, and did not leave him selfish. Five times he dug wells of water and each time someone came and took them away from Him. He never fought to get them back or blamed them for being mean. He just let them have it and moved on to dig another one. Isaac became an experienced well digger, but well digging was not the purpose God had in mind for him. Often, God uses our talents to be a blessing to others. Isaac was a good example to us of what it means to be unselfish. Isaac realized that what he had was from God . He had no problem with sharing them with others. When we take the attitude that God owns all that we have and it is His, giving it away becomes no problem.

People took advantage of Isaac’s generosity, like they do to everyone else. Even when he was old and could no longer see, his wife and son took advantage of him to get something for themselves. Isaac was big enough to accept the tricks that they played and forgave them later. Isaac and Rebekah waited 20 years to have their children. Isaac learned how to wait on God and God never failed to provide for His every need.

He will do that for you as well when you place your trust in Him. Proverbs 3: 5,6 is a good verse to memorize.

“Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and He shall direct your paths.”

Many of us, homeschoolers or not, start the New Year with goals for healthier living. Homeschool families have some special challenges – and some special advantages, too. How can you increase your chances of success with your family’s 2009 health goals?

• Get moving. Homeschool families often don’t have organized P.E. or sports. Maybe this is the year to enroll in gymnastics or dance classes, to form a soccer team with other families, or to sign up with a Mommy and Me exercise class. On the up side, we can also make our own decisions about how to structure the day, with nature walks, biking to field trip destinations, or Wii Fit whenever we choose. The key is making a commitment.
• Take on nutrition. Nutrition is a great topic to study, and meal planning and preparation can be part of science, life skills, or even math lessons. This is a plus for the home school family. On the other hand, we can also easily fall into the habit of grazing – if the kitchen is always open, then the kids may be snacking all day, and they may not be making the best choices. Consider limiting snack times, including good snack choices in the nutrition lessons, or even just keeping track of snacks and sodas consumed.
• Be good role models. Is this the year to quit smoking? To really get into the habit of buckling up when you drive? To change the way you handle stress? One of the primary reasons many of us choose to homeschool is in order to shelter our kids from negative influences. This means that we become an even more important role model for our children. They’re learning their health habits from us.

It’s a lot to think about – but this is a great time to think about it!

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of LearningByGrace.org the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

There are some issues which are clear cut. You want your students to have a firm understanding of Biblical principles, math processes, and scientific fact.

There are also some issues that can be viewed in more than one way. Is fall better than spring? Should children always eat healthy foods, or is it okay to have the occasional less-healthy treat? In order to get the most from a study of these interesting issues, try this fun and thought-provoking project!

Use bulletin board paper for this project, or tape together smaller sheets of paper to make a larger piece. Cut a strip of paper ten inches by 48 inches. Fold it into an accordion. You will be able to open the book and turn the pages from either side without seeing the other side of the paper.

Begin at one side and make a title taking one side of the issue: “Children Should Receive Allowances,” perhaps. Write the title on the outside cover and add an illustration. Now gather as much evidence as possible for this side of the argument. Interview people, collect newspaper articles on the subject, find relevant Bible verses, and gather facts that support the claim.

As you collect evidence, you’re bound to find some counter-evidence as well. Turn the book over and make a cover for the other side of the story: “Children Should Not Receive Allowances.” As you find evidence for that point of view, fill the pages of that side of the book with support for that side of the argument.

Once the book is complete, compare the evidence for each side, and have your student decide which side of the argument was more convincing.

This project gives practice in following directions, writing, analyzing and synthesizing information, and critical thinking.

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Mimi Rothschild is the Founder of Learning By Grace, Inc. the nation’s leading provider of online PreK-12 online Christian educational programs for homeschoolers.

The question naturally arises as to whether the child can be permitted to give unbridled expression to all of his feelings. If there are limits as to how far a parent can go in his permissiveness? There certainly is. Just as the child cannot be given complete freedom to express his aggressiveness when it affects others adversely, so he cannot be granted the privilege of seeing exactly what he thinks when he hurts others by doing so.

Often when the child is expressing his negative feelings, asking him why he feels that he does can lead him to examine his attitudes in such a way that it enables him to develop some genuine insights necessary for learning to control his feelings and understand his emotions. Even when the child cannot be a chordate unrestrained liberty in expressing feelings are hurtful to others, we can let him know that we do understand how he feels and why he feels that he does, even though some ways of expressing these emotions are unacceptable.

From what we have been saying, it might sound stupid all the child’s emotions are unhappy and undesirable ones. Of course this is not. He has his joys, his excesses, his moment of the nation, which is just as eager to share with a listening parent. Love that listens at these times is just as necessary is that which listens when a child is frustrated. Whatever the child’s feelings, when they are suppressed because nobody cares enough to listen or because nobody is willing to take the time to listen, the way is being prepared for cutting off those valuable lines of communication between parent and child. Parents will find themselves yearning in later years to reestablish these channels of communication, and the repair work is sometimes hard to a fact, once the damage has been done. Blocking this flow of interchange between parent and child can damn up the sparkling springs of the child’s feelings, which can supply some of the richest joys in life through providing variety and flavor in living.

Children want to help and understanding of parents through sharing with them verbally: they want this kind of help even when they appeared not to want it. They want to talk things over, provided they can do the talking. Most children will discuss their problems with their parents if the parent has a listening ear, if he isn’t understanding friend, not an autocratic boss.

When Tyler, both by his silence and his worried demeanor, it is evidence that something is bothering him inside, it’s a good idea for parents to ask, Son is there something bothering you? Is there anything you’d like to talk about? This can be done in a non threatening way that Tyler knows that his parent is expressing the friendly concern rather than engaging in unpardonable meddling with his private affairs. If he takes advantage of this opening to air his feelings, it is imperative for his parents to listen, accept, and understand. It’s a good time for them to offer assurance that most people feel this way at times and such emotions are not wrong, only when we misdirect them or let them control us instead of our learning to handle them.

Helping our children to know and understand the reality of their feelings, day by day is the only way to give their emotions a chance to grow up along with their bodies and their minds. By talking out with the child aggressive tendencies, a parent can often enable a youngster to perceive and understand more calmly the cause of his own emotions. Parents can help their children understand the motives underlying the frustrating behavior of other people. This understanding can alleviate the child’s strong aggressive feelings or, at least, help them adjust to them.

Let’s permit our children to have their feelings, all of them. The only judgment we can make is whether the angry feeling self as a real or an unreal basis. This we cannot know until we hear the child out, but an angry child cannot be permitted to go around kicking other people on their shins or on the other inappropriate violations of other humans write.

Timmy is angry because he has to be pulled himself away from watching television to have dinner with the rest of the family. There is reason for his anger. His father says, come to dinner Timmy, whether you want to or not. Lots of times people have to do things they don’t want to do. I feel the same way you do now. “When I have to leave a job I’m interested in doing here at home. When it’s time for me to go to the office to work, but I do have to go to work every day.”, the father says. Feeling of not liking to do something is Timmy’s personal privilege. He should not be denied these feelings, even though he must leave television to come to dinner. When a child is battling with an intense emotion, a parent can take the empathizing, “I know just how you feel approach to far sometimes. ” But it is important not o give in to the child’s demands because of his feelings. Acknowledge them as they are real and important to him, but do not let those feelins become demands or control you. At such times, the child feels desperately in need of a powerful and resourceful adult upon whom he can lead and to whom he can look for help may get the impression that the parent is helpless to. This is further upsetting to the child since he is seen to his hoped-for source of help crumble before his very eyes.

“I don’t like you anymore!” shouted an enraged seven-year-old Jamie when her mother disciplined her for playing in the busy street which the child knew was a dangerous and forbidden play area. Lots of children don’t like their mothers when their mothers have to spank them for being disobedient. When I was a little girl about your age, “I felt that way sometimes too.” replied the mother. This kind of approach is usually better than I know just how you feel routine which can give the child a feeling that the mother is helplessly dangling at the end of her emotional rope. Just as much as the child is this intensifies the child’s emotional state.

One grandmother tells of having her grandson come to spend the day with her. When the child’s mother had not come for him by early evening, the grandmother telephone to ask when the mother wanted her to bring the child home. Quick as a flash the mother replied, how about when he 16. Maybe by that time he won’t have so many negative feelings. That mother has some basis for her hope she can accept her child’s negative feelings now and let him talk them out with her. A part of a parent’s job is to learn to be a good shock absorber for the child. When this has been done, the child finds it easier, as he grows older, to absorb his own emotional shocks and to redirect them towards constructive ends.

Responding to another person’s peelings is closely related to friendship and constitutes the basis for real interaction. This is as true in parent child relationships as in any other relationships. A parent who demonstrates daily interest in his child’s feelings by listening with appreciation, understanding, and patience to whatever the child wants to say will win the child’s confidence and trust. This warmth of relationship established over the years is that parents best assurance that his child, as a child or in later years, will not stray too far from the biblical path of living. It’s certainly not always easy to keep calm when a son or daughter is expressing ugly feelings, especially if those feelings are directed against the parent. That parents, however it’s helping the child to gain emotional maturity when he can acknowledge the validity of the child’s emoitions and hear him through to the finish.

Before a child can develop these important qualities, he must have deep within himself the assurance of basic acceptance by those closest to him, usually his parents. The success of adolescent and adult with will be jeopardized if a sense of identity, of belonging, first of all to the family group, has not been firmly established in childhood. Children who are unwanted and rejected, what ever the parental defect or situation. Responsible for it, may suffer serious personality, distortion. Such children tend to be sick clues to, detached, apathetic, and unable to respond to the affection extended to them by others. They may be restless, fearful, and insecure. Sometimes they become aggressive and rebellious, as though they are out to snatch for themselves. The feeling of being wanted, of belonging, of being recognized, which is the basic to the building of a healthy personality.

Closely linked with the need for a sense of belonging is the child’s development of self-confidence and self-reliance. These are important pillars upon which growth toward maturity rests. Self-confidence is the awareness one has that he is in the world for a purpose which he alone can fulfill. That duty requires that he applied himself to the God-given task self-assurance. “I can” are two magic words which are the “open sesame” to life. At the same time, we must remember that, although it is important for a child to be in himself, it is also important for him not to be too easily convinced. We want our children to know that they are not the only people of importance in the world.

Frequently the amount of confidence a child has in itself is not determined so much by his real abilities as by his attitudes towards himself and his abilities. Faith in one’s self begins with the feeling, “I am all right”, “I am a person of worth”. “I do have assets.” “I do have strengths as well as weaknesses.” “I am a person worthy of respect.” Children first learned these attitudes from the parent’s attitudes towards them. The parental attitude is not always expressed in words that may be communicated to the child long before he can understand the meaning of words. A parent smile of approval, the tender way in which he handles the baby, but parents efforts to make the telecom triple, he’s responding to the child needs, his expressions of love for the child, the tone of voice in which he speaks to the child. These are all the ways in which the parent tells his child how he feels about him. These actions, as well as the parent spoken word, provide the primary source from which the child learns his attitudes towards himself.

In a process of growing up, inevitably the small child encounters many failures and mishaps. He spills his drink, he break the glass, he takes his mother’s cherished roses on her most prized Roche rose bush, thinking that he is doing her a favor. In the midst of such happenings, even the most well-meaning child may become discouraged and feel that everything he does is wrong. It’s such accidents as these are minimized, if they are treated as casually as possible by adults who understand that the child has not made these the state to the Britney or with malicious intent, the child will bounce back and will soon recover his self-respect. He will find that his 17-year-old put it, everybody spills his milk sometimes.

No factor is more important in successfully teaching the child’s self-confidence than the example set by parents who have flexibility in self-assurance, who know how to savor the sweet experience success, as well as how to bow to the bitter experience of defeat. Small child who has observed that his parents are not snobbishly dependent upon the favorable opinions of others. And that they know how to admit failure is receiving a first class method in the art of building self-confidence. Children naturally imitate parents ways of dealing with problems. The child who has legitimate reason to believe that his parents attacked their problems enthusiastically and with verve, even though they do not always succeed, has his own self-confidence reinforced. Albert Schweitzer. When asked how he could best pass on to their children the proper attitude toward self-confidence and responsibility, said there are three ways. One example to example and three example.

Some have raised concerns that the founding self-confidence can cause the child to become egotistical and prideful. Experience with children seems to show that this is not usually the case, unless there has been inculcated in the child a false concept of his abilities and of itself. On the other hand, it is the bully, the boastful braggart, was most likely to have feelings of inadequacy. His overbearing manner is simply his way of concealing his belt inapt myths and insecurity. Usually the competent child does not have to wage campaign to convince itself, and others, of his abilities. Of course, all children are given to bragging at times. The times when they’re most likely to post, however, come one errantly self-confident. Listen to your own children. If you hear them say such things as I don’t know whether I can do this or not, but I’m going to try hard: let’s think about it and maybe we can find a way to do it: let’s talk it over with daddy. Maybe he can give us an idea about how we might swing it, you know you are busy growing self-confidence.

em>Mimi Rothschild is the Founder and CEO of Learning By Grace, Inc., the nation’s largest provider of online K-12 Christian homeschooling programs and homeschool Christian curriculum. For more information about how online homeschooling is revolutionizing homeschooling, please go to www.LearningByGrace.org today.

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