A Setting or a Rising Sun?

During the Constitutional Convention, George Washington sat on a chair that had a sun engraved onto its back.  Benjamin Franklin would often look at that sun and wonder if it was setting or rising. When all the delegates finally agreed on a constitution, he happily declared it to be a rising sun!

Today we Americans are met with the same question.  It appears to be twilight time in America. Many believe deep darkness is just around the bend.  Many would say that the sun has already set and any light we still enjoy will soon disappear. But are there any reasons to believe that the twilight which we are wandering and wondering through is merely that of early morning, right before the sun rises? Will it get darker, or brighter?  Even now we squint through this time, trying to better see the way ahead.

In my previous post I shared the story behind the name of our home school.  I shared my belief that this twilight we are in as a country may very well be that before the dawn of a new day in America!  We need not lay down our swords in surrender to the reports of doom.  Indeed, we must not lay our weapons down!

Listen mothers:  the stakes are high.  You must take your place and play your part.  This is something the Lord clearly spoke to me a while ago when I poured out my heart to Him in desperation to know His will for my life. I cried out to Him and He clearly spoke to my heart that I was to stir up His daughters.  He told me that the stakes are high and we must take our places and play our parts.  I wrote down what He spoke to my heart and that very day just happened to read the following sentence in a book I was reading:  "What would happen if we took our places and played our parts?" Rest assured this was no mere coincidence!

The stakes are high.  Moms must take their place in HISstory and we mothers must play our parts in this epic tale God is weaving.  What is our place?  What is our part?  To be sure, it gets personal and only the mirror of God's revelations can guide you on your individualized journey.  I promise you that I will do what I can to help you understand that journey and to discover your unique place.  That is partly the purpose of this blog.

While unearthing the treasure that is unique to each one of us, there are yet general ideas and methods that mothers of tomorrow's leaders would do well to explore and implement in their homes today.  Most of this blog will be devoted to such consideration.

The one very important point which I must stress before all else, the foundation of all other ideas we discuss, is this:

You must not accept defeat.

You must open your heart to a possibility, one which many among today's Christians would almost claim to be heresy: Jesus may not be coming back for many generations.

We keep hearing of His imminent return, but...how do you know when that is?  The problem with not being open to the possibility of His delayed coming is that it influences how you live your life and how you prepare for the future.

Listen to what Marshall Foster warned in this article, "How dare we play God and proclaim the death of our culture...This may or may not be the generation of our Lord's return, but don't you want to leave your children an inheritance of liberty if our King chooses to tarry?  Our children's future may rest on how we answer this question. "

Listen again to Kirk Cameron's profound insights expressed at the beginning of his movie "Monumental":  "I have friends in church that tell me that the worse things get, the better it really is...because it means that the end is near and that Jesus is returning...it's part of the plan, it's meant to be...Really?  Because I have kids in this world...and I want a great future for them and are we supposed to just let it go?  But if we just take our hands off the wheel and let it fall off a cliff, aren't we creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?  If anyone knew what it was like to be in a tough spot as a nation, it was them.  I mean, our forefathers came out of an era where they were surrounded by darkness on all sides.  This was a time when you could be hung, burned at the stake, beheaded...for disagreeing with the king or the queen.  The culture was terrible, the nation was bankrupt, the king had tripled the debt and the people were slaves and in their church they had their Antichrists and a king who would set himself up as God on earth in the church. So if anyone knew what it was like to live in difficult times where it looked like the end was near, it was them.  But what was their attitude?  It wasn't put your head down and get ready for the end of the world.  It was, we're getting off the defense, getting on the offense and we see victory in the future.  They went and built a new nation."

Do you understand what is at stake here?  Indeed it is not our job to play God and proclaim the end of the world.  It is not our job to take our hands off the wheel.  Your beliefs guide your actions. Kirk is correct when he calls such attitudes self-fulfilling prophecies.  Our job is to continue to be salt in America.  Salt slows down the process of decay.  Salt preserves.  That's what Jesus was telling us to do.  Jesus admonished us to "occupy" until He returns in Luke 9:13.  We are to carry on the business (which is what occupy means) of being salt until Jesus comes back.  We are to carry on the business of preserving America and slowing down the decay until the end.

That means we are to carry on the business of raising children to preserve America.

This blog will primarily be about how to do that.  I don't have all the answers, but I promise to share with you what I'm learning, and together, we can do this, moms.

No one sprinkles a single grain of salt on their food.

Yes, God can use one person to make history.

But He usually works through us when we work together.  It's called a reformation.  Or an awakening.

And it's time America had another one.

We are the collective salt.  Matthew Arnold, a British poet, once wrote, "If ever there comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known".

This is the time.

  The Story Behind the Name   


                                     

                        *Logo from Homemakers for America


Greetings to all my readers!  My name is Esther and I'm a homeschooling mama to four rewards from God! After attending a private Christian school for the past year, the Lord clearly led me to return my children to our previous educational path of homeschooling. We desired to name our home school, and it was my oldest daughter who suggested Twilight Academy.   The concept of twilight had actually been one floating around in my head days prior to her suggestion, and so I gave serious consideration and prayer to her idea. It was a dream which I had one night that confirmed and sealed my decision to adopt my daughter's suggestion.  I awoke to a brilliant image before me: that of a shining star.  Words alone would not do any justice to describe just how bright it was, and how powerful an impression it left upon me.  All I could recall from my dream was that star, and it was enough.  I just knew that it was from God, and I just knew the message He was putting on my heart:  the star was a symbol of America and the future of this exceptional country is not hopeless.   What my children learn in our little home school is vital to securing the future blessings upon America.   You see, twilight has several meanings.  When most people refer to twilight, they think of that time in the evening before it is fully dark. Many people, especially Christians, believe that the twilight of America has arrived.  That the darkness will just increase. Yet there remains another definition of twilight: that time of diffused light in the early morning right before sunrise.  Which twilight are we in?  Has the sun set?  Or is it about to rise?  I have not given up on the later being the case, and will be sharing more of my thoughts in my next post.  

Since my name is Esther, which by the way means star, I felt to add a little to my daughter's suggestion, thereby making the name Esther's Twilight Academy.  I also felt that a foundational scripture for our school's name should be Philippians 2:15 which speaks of how the children of God will shine like stars among a depraved generation.  Just a few minutes after this idea entered my mind, I picked up a book to read while cooking dinner (we don't want to waste those precious moments just standing there as we stir food, do we?).  As I read these words, I could not hold back the tears: "Our kids can and will play a major role in turning this country back to God...Our children have the opportunity to be salt and light, to shine as stars in the midst of our crooked and perverse generation, and effect permanent changes!  I have great hopes for America because of home schooled children.  We must teach our children that it is their duty to...pick up the torch our Founders left to us." (Marilyn Boyer in Parenting From the Heart)

Please watch:

Those words not only confirmed the scripture which the Lord had just given to me a few moments before, but also the message given to me that our home school is vital to securing America's exceptional future.  (I do want to make it clear that I am not claiming that only home schooled children are America's hope for the future. I do believe the atmosphere and freedom which homeschooling affords provides the ideal situation for sharpening our arrows (Psalm 127:4) and I unashamedly and enthusiastically recommend all Christian parents to consider the benefits, but ultimately we must seek the Lord's guidance and obey how He leads our own family.  He knows what He is doing! That said, if your child is in a traditional school setting -whether public or private - it is especially important to remember that you are still responsible for your child's education, including their training in the faith, their knowledge of America's Christian heritage, our constitution, government, etc.)

Another non coincidence happened that night.  As I was putting my twin daughters to bed, I told them that next year I would be their teacher at home. One of the twins asked me, "what's your name?"  Huh?  My name?  They know that I am "mama".  Yet, the response to me telling them that I would be their teacher was to ask me what my name was.  Another coincidence?  Nope, none of those were!  It was God confirming to me that my name was to play a part in naming our school.  God knows how much I appreciate confirmation of what He speaks!  The fine tuning of our home school's name came when my husband suggested that, instead of Esther's Twilight Academy, I use a little play on words and call it Estar's Twilight Academy (remember, my name means star).  Yup, that was the right name.   

So, there it is.  That is how God named our home school.  I also wanted to remember that, just as Esther in the Bible was made queen "for such as time as this", my children - and all children - were put on earth at this time, in America, "for such a time as this".  The country needs our children, and our children need us to teach and train them!  Are you ready?

This blog is for all of you who desire to prepare your children to make history. 

                                           

If you have felt discouraged about our country's future, please come back as I am confident such discouragement will be quenched!

If God has already placed seeds of hope in your heart, let's rejoice and ponder together how to turn this country around!  

Though this blog will hopefully prove inspiring and empowering to all who read, my heart is to reach all the moms out there more than anyone, as in a future post of mine you will come to the knowledge of just how powerfully the Bible speaks about your purpose on earth!