In Our Own Backyard
As I have said many times, I love meeting homeschooling families. I enjoyed meeting Jenn in Pigeon Forge last week.
I walked into our booth on Thursday and found our team member Donna talking with Jenn. Though I had not met Jenn before, I had enjoyed this wonderful picture of her children . . .
. . . which she had sent in for our 2020 photo contest. Isn’t it beautiful?
Jenn was telling Donna the story behind the picture. She told it to me, too.
During the strange days of COVID lockdowns, Jenn learned about our 2020 photo contest and decided to enter. She had her children dress in coordinated clothes and took them on a hike with plans to get a perfect shot. When her well-planned effort was finished, she was disappointed. None of the photos was exactly right.
The next morning, Jenn had an idea. She told her children to put the clothes they had worn before back on and to go to the backyard. There she snapped this wonderful picture.
“There’s a sermon illustration in there,” Jenn mused. There’s a blog post illustration, too. Sometimes the greatest blessings are “in our own backyard” or in our kitchen or living room or basement or even in our car because one of the most important things you are doing when you homeschool your children is simply being with them. When you are with them, you can teach the way God told the Israelite parents to teach. He told those parents to teach their children:
. . . when you sit in your house
and when you walk along the road
and when you lie down and
when you rise up.
Deuteronomy 11:19
I was delighted later in the conference when Jenn’s daughter and one of her sons saw Ray and me in the exhibit hall and stopped to meet us and say hello. My, how they have grown since 2020!
When we shared the photo of Jenn and me on Instagram last week, her husband posted this comment: “Awww!!! And she’s my beautiful wife! We love @notgrasshistory !!” I am grateful that Jenn is blessed and that these children are blessed with a husband and dad who is grateful for who is in his own house and in his own backyard. She is their own beautiful wife and mother Jenn.
Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
“Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all.”
Proverbs 31:28-29