Educating at Home, Life with Preschoolers, Mighty Joe's Story, Resources, Training Little OnesKendraNovember 4, 2011 Comments

Mighty Joe Skates

Mighty Joe's StoryKendraSeptember 13, 2011 Comments

{pretty, happy, funny, real} Mighty Joe Edition

Mighty Joe's StoryKendraMay 5, 2011 Comments

Update on Our Mighty Joe

If you are somewhat new to Preschoolers and Peace, you may not know the story of our Mighty Joe. In a nutshell, he contracted a nasty virus when he was 7 weeks old that caused liver failure, kidney failure, heart damage, and brain damage. I have the best readers in the world, and when Joe was fighting for his life, Preschoolers and Peace readers were praying and spreading his story around the internet. If you'd like to read from the beginning, you can find it here. But today I want to share with you an email I recently sent to friends and family, so you'll know how our little man is doing: ♥ When Joe was fighting for his life after he contracted Enterovirus, we were told we could expect anything from a vegetative state to complete blindness to deafness to constant seizures to diabetes to a whole host of other issues. So far, he is not a vegetable, his sight is perfect, he hears everything, he's had one seizure, and he hasn't developed diabetes. Praise God! We have, however, been concerned about what we thought were some developmental and speech delays. Today we had him assessed by a team of 4 therapists at a local early intervention clinic. Here's where he stands, and note that he is currently 33 months old, so these stages denote his development in months: Social Development: 33 months (on target, but given his crazy social household, we're not terribly surprised!) Communication: 22 months (expressive), 26 months (receptive) Self-Help: 31 months (amazing, since his sisters wait on him hand and foot) Gross Motor: 33 months Fine Motor: 20 months Cognitive: 21 months What all this means is that he'll be getting some therapy in the next few months, and we'll likely need to watch him as he develops. It also means his willing siblings need to back off and let the little guy fend for himself every once in awhile! Thanks for loving Joe- Kendra

Mighty Joe's StoryKendraFebruary 25, 2011 Comments

Trials and the Fear of God

Do not let your peace depend on what people say of you, for whether they speak good or ill of you makes no difference to what you are. True peace and joy is to be found in Me [Jesus] alone. He who is neither anxious to please nor afraid to displease men enjoys true peace.

~Thomas a Kempis

♥ I pierced my nose last fall. When asked why, I say, Do you want the short answer or the not-so-short answer? The short answer is, I've always thought tiny shimmering studs in a woman's nose are beautiful. Feminine. Graceful. The not-so-short answer is that I have finally learned to fear God more than I fear man. 39 years of living in grave fear of what others might say about me or my choices, and I know this goes way back because in high school a friend had the courage to say to me, "You know, everyone isn't talking about you all the time". Ouch. Guess I thought so. When you experience for yourself that it is Almighty God who can snuff out our time on earth in one heartbeat, you tend to see Him for who He is: Omnipotent, All-Knowing, Sovereign. My fear of His power rose exponentially, but my fear of man fell into the garbage heap where it belongs. We're not talking about a Biblical issue or sin here. I'm open and receptive to hearing about what ails me, and the Holy Spirit does a very steady job of revealing my short comings while at the same time breathing life-giving truths into my soul. You might not like nose rings, you might associate them with something negative, and you might never, ever do that to your nose. That's ok. What's not ok is when we take the role of cosmic policeman either by imposing our own extra-Biblical choices onto others, when we measure our spirituality by outward marks of insignificant details (think nose piercing, highlighted hair, or a trendy hat... or homeschooling, dresses only, exclusively Christian music), or when we assign a role to God that He Himself doesn't own (that cosmic policeman...) Why, after being unshackled by the freeing grace of God, do we want to put ourselves back into bondage? Fear God and God alone.

If the fear of man is a form of bondage for you, you might gain great insight from Edward T. Welch's When People Are Big and God is Small. I found it very helpful.

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