Issue 22 - July 30, 2002
by Diana Waring
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Dear Friends, Yes, it's been a long time. Actually, it's been a horrendously long time! Why no newsletter, you ask? Well, I would beg you to please extend grace this way - I have been writing the sequel to Beyond Survival, traveling around the U.S. and up into Canada for homeschool conventions, and trying to keep up with my three children. You've been on my heart, and it is with great excitement that I send out this edition of my Highly Irregular Newsletter. If you would care to join me, I would love to share with you an excerpt from my newest book, Reaping the Harvest, which has just arrived from the printer! I pray that it would be a chuckle and an encouragement for you today... Tacoblivion One of the most embarrassing memories of my childhood was the night my parents invited a neighboring couple over for tacos. Now, I have to tell you that my mom made a mean taco - she was from Texas, after all - and they were fairly famous around the neighborhood. It was incredibly easy to eat oneself into oblivion on Mom's tacos, and that is basically what happened that night. Though I was only about eleven at the time, I ate six huge tacos with great abandon. Evidently, our visiting neighbors ALSO ate a significant portion of the delectable entrŽe. Later that night, in the manner of days gone by, we walked our neighbors back to their home, visiting as we ambled. The gracious lady, our visiting neighbor, made this remark: "Oh, Joyce, I can not tell you how good those tacos were! You know, I just made a PIG of myself!!" In my eleven-year-old brain, I completely agreed with the sentiment of having made a pig of myself. Unfortunately, my brain was not quite conversant with HOW one expressed what one thought. What came out of my mouth was: "Boy, you can say THAT again!!" Stunned silence. Then gasps of outrage on the part of my parents and stuttering apologies, while I tried to figure out what had just happened. Hmmm. A definite doghouse experience. This incident came back to me vividly when Isaac was eleven. We were spending a weekend on the coast of Washington, and a fine, convivial family time it was - swimming, beach walking, sandcastle building, and more. We made sure to also celebrate this mini-vacation by eating fabulous food fixed in fascinating fashions. One evening, during dinner, I made a remark that, if I ate much more of this kind of rich food, I would have to waddle back home. Isaac chimed in with: "Man, Mom, I was just thinking the same thing!" Yeow!! Instantly I turned into a fire-breathing, mad-as-a-hatter, tiger-by-the-tail mother, especially because I had a continuous struggle with weight gain. "Isaac, come with me! We are going to have a SERIOUS talk!!" I was so offended and so hurt by his comment that I could hardly sit down and have a calm discussion with him. Doing my best, I asked him why on earth he would try to hurt his mother with such a spiteful comment. He looked at me in tearful amazement and said: "But, Mom, I wasn't talking about you . . . I was talking about ME!" Ah. Well, ahem . . . light bulb flash in the old memory banks. Slowly, with increasing moment-by-moment understanding, I began to tell Isaac of my own childhood inexperience with communicating and how the words which made sense in my brain morphed as they came out of my mouth into something totally surprising and unsuspectingly offensive. As we considered one another with the mutual admiration shared only by survivors, we began to get the giggles over the whole thing. Tee . . . Hee . . . Tee, Hee . . . Haw! . . . Haw, Haw!! Upstairs, the rest of the family - who had been waiting in great suspense - breathed a sigh of relief over joy restored, happy resolution of conflict, and let's-get-on-with-the-vacation smiles all around. Grace was needed in this situation. God's grace was extended and received. It is so amazing how His grace in our lives changes one's perspective. In the book of Colossians, it says this: "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do." You know, parenting provides us with NUMEROUS opportunities to live out this particular scripture. Whether bloopers, misunderstandings, or larger infractions, this scripture teaches us how to respond. Here it is. Giving honor and respect - applying the "do-unto-others-as-you-would-have-them-do-unto-you" to real-life parenting - requires an expenditure on our part, a giving of something of ourselves, an attitude of service, and an attitude of mutual grace. It's a far cry from using our position to demean, belittle, and indenture our children. Blessings, Diana A harvest takes time . . . and effort and patience and sun and rain and diligence and love. So does raising children! Join Diana Waring in her follow-up to the best-selling homeschool classic, Beyond Survival. Not meant to be a how-to-fix-what's-wrong-with-my-teenager book, Reaping the Harvest is a grace-filled approach to child rearing, using timely principles from real-life experiences that may help you avoid typical "teenage" behavior. Diana will gently guide you through some of the hardest parts of raising your kids and assist you in: building lasting relationships with your children lovingly mentoring your kids as they mature into young adults reaping the harvest, finally realizing the dream of the future Order now and get $3.00 OFF plus FREE SHIPPING! Return to the List of Newsletter Issues

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