Trusting God When You Don't Know How Things Will Turn Out | Our Story Homeschooling By Faith

hi everyone it's Sherry from the blog and YouTube channel our life homeschooling I want to talk to you today about homeschooling by faith trusting God when you don't know how it's going to turn out [Music] for many families the decision to homeschool is a step of faith and I want to take a little bit of time today to just tell you our story our homeschooling story I know there's a lot of new faces here on the channel and so I want to introduce myself if this is your first time here my name is Sherry I'm a homeschooling mom to 10 kids I'm married to my high school sweet art Nelson and I love coming on here and encouraging other moms in homeschooling I'm someone who believes that motherhood is a Ministry that homeschooling is simply an extension of parenting and I want to come alongside you and cheer you on in the great work you're doing at home I'm going to be telling you a little bit of our homeschooling story and even some other times when we've stepped out in faith trusting the Lord for things not knowing how it was going to turn out in the end a lot of what I'm sharing you may be able to relate to but your story is probably going to be a little bit different we're all unique and um God has different paths for each of us but I hope the underlying principles in what I have to share can be a big encouragement to you about 14 years ago so in 2010 our oldest son was turning five turning six so he was getting ready for kindergarten and my husband and I knew we had some decisions to make I had been a public school teacher and so I really really wanted for our kids to have a Christian education and um a lot of people think that because of that background I had an advantage but I quickly learned that it was not an advantage I had to actually undo a lot of things because um the training I had for that really was meant for uh large groups of people it works completely different in School homeschooling is um it's just so opposite kids learn at their own pace um so I had to do a lot of unlearning but my husband and I really liked the appeal of homeschooling uh he had a random schedule at the time so it meant that our kids could be home when he was home they could see him a lot more we wanted the opportunity to share our faith with our children we wanted our kids to grow up as best friends and I think simply the time factor of where they spend the most time that is the biggest influence in their lives all these things made homeschooling really appealing to us now at this time God was really good to us we ran into four other families that were also kind of at this stage in life we were all our oldest kids were all entering kindergarten and we were just thinking about homeschooling it wasn't something we were like dead set on um this was preco this was 2010 things were a lot different it was not nearly as popular as it is today um but we kind of ran into each other a lot and met up a lot and the more we talked it just got really exciting thinking about it and so we kind of all joined hands the five of us and jumped in together and decided to try it we all started homeschooling that first year and to help provide a little bit of community we met in each other's homes every other week so that our kids could see some other homeschoolers and um just do some fun things with some like-minded friends God was so good in providing this at that time because I knew we knew hardly anyone that was homeschooling I knew a couple moms that were a little bit older than I was I just kind of clung on to them I wanted to find out everything about it from them um but this was at a time where homeschooling was not nearly as popular as it is today so it was really intimidating for us at this time I do just want to put out there for some of you that don't have a lot of support maybe you don't have co-ops in your area this group of us just five families we had probably like 15 to 20 kids we met every other week this was a wonderful wonderful setting it was a a great Co-op and although I love where our Co-op is now it's since exploded and it's become really established this group of friends we are still really close friends today and it was just really special it was a great atmosphere so if you don't have a lot of support and you just have two or three families that are getting together to help each other this was a really good Community for us so we started homeschooling um and the Lord provided that little group of friends but there were still a lot of questions when you step out in faith assuming that it's goes along with scripture um it you just you don't always know how it's going to be you don't know what to expect and I had so many questions I wanted my kids to have friends um for us it was only it wasn't like we were just okay now we're homeschoolers that's what we're always going to be it was just we're going to try this this year and see how it turns out my very first year we had three kids I was pregnant with our fourth and I had her at the beginning of the year so um for those of you that are in that situation it can be done um there were just a lot of uncertainties are my kids's going to miss out um you know all the things that a school can provide different performances different um opportunities for band and sports and all those things will there be gaps in their education these were all uncertainties but we just felt for certain that God was calling us to do this at this time one of the Bible stories that I really related to in fact I know I wrote this verse down from Hebrews was the story of Abraham when God called him to leave his country and the Bible says in Hebrews that he obeyed not even knowing where he was going and I just really this resonated with me because that's how we felt at this time we really felt certain this is what the Lord had for us but we didn't know how it was going to turn out and things went smoothly for us um our kids we ended up homeschooling some of our other kids as they entered um grade level and um but then as our kids got older of course there were even more questions well then what about high school what about when they get older what now what are we going to do and we we loved the freedom that we had in homeschooling and the thought of putting them in school and just losing all of that was just was not appealing there were so many things I love how close our kids are there were just so many benefits to homeschooling that I didn't want to lose but I didn't know how things were going to work for high school either um and on top of that I I was not ready to hand over the crowning moment the the icing on the cake that's what I think of high school I didn't want to hand that off to someone else when I had done all the foundational work that hard investment of those early years so as it went for us we decided to keep homeschooling through high school again not really knowing how it was going to turn out not sure what was available to us and um we have our oldest is now 19 so we have a graduate it now we have four teenagers two in high school one graduate one two in Middle School um so although we're we're not on the other side of it necessarily we're still in the thick of it with homeschooling I feel like we have seen um the Lord's hand and how he has provided for us in so many ways things turned out great for high school we continued with our family Co-op every other week and then our high school kids ALS also go to a drop off Co-op which is once a week and that was just that's been a really great fit for our family with having so many we have seven in school this year two preschool with just the number of kids that we have that's been a great fit for us so in some ways we're on the other side of it and can see we just have kids that um I can kind of we have one that's gone all the way through and I can kind of see how things are going to work for the rest of them and I I think um it's it's easy when you're on the other side of it to go back and see with perspective and see God's hand through all of it but I know how hard it is and I'm sure you do as well when you are right in the middle of it and you don't know how it's going to turn out you're just leaning into the Lord and depending on what you feel he's called you to do and just trusting him um and we were in that stage for a long time when you step out in faith it's often lonely and um that can be a good thing because it causes you to lean on the Lord in ways you never have before whether you're trusting him in homeschooling or in other avenues of your life you're probably always going to have critics some of them are well-meaning and um it can be important to sometimes um listen to what people say some people really are trying to give constructive criticism maybe there's something you can take with a grain of salt but there will also be critics that are people that are they're on the sidelines they themselves would never be the one to take the risk to be in the ring doing the hard work but they sure have a lot of advice for you you're always going to probably have critics um or you may have people that just don't get it um we had a neighbor a 90-year-old neighbor she was the sweetest neighbor she would bring our kids all kinds of of treats every holiday and we would go over and visit with her every now and then and our conversations with her were always really sweet but anytime schooling came up or education she just did not get the whole homeschooling thing and one time this was after we known her for several years we were over her house and she got in my face and just said what I don't understand is when are you going to finally put those kids in school and she was 90 years old she was like 4 10 but she really intimidated me I didn't even know what to say but I knew she just didn't get it she came from a completely different era she didn't understand how the world has changed how there are so many options other than just the traditional model um and so I just had to accept that she just didn't get it and you're going to have people like that in your life you may have people that look at you as a homeschooling mom and what you're doing um and respond to you kind of in the same way that they do to Neighborhood kids that are setting up a lemonade stand they you know they just think it's really sweet but they don't see it for what it is they don't respect it and see that this is a huge movement that is happening in a lot of families that's growing and gaining momentum and really changing our culture maybe home schooling isn't the only area that you are stepping out in faith maybe God has some other thing that has been maybe a trial that you're going through or something else that he wants you to hand over to him and just trust him in and again assuming that you're stepping out in ways that are with scripture according to scripture for my husband and me one area that we handed over to the Lord about 15 years ago was the area of having children we had two boys at the time and our third was an unexpected pregnancy and um the Lord used that little girl um to just be a tremendous blessing to our lives and um because of that we had a complete change of heart realized we didn't want to work so hard to control that area of our lives and we just wanted to take whatever he would give us we searched in um the Bible just to see what um the Lord has to say about children everywhere we looked it talks about children in relation to abundance and blessing and uh fruitfulness and um it's always a positive reference to having children and um we just decided to put this in the Lord's hands we didn't know how it was going to turn out I talk a little bit more about this in a video I did when I was pregnant with Benjamin our 10th I'm going to leave the link for you there it tells a little bit more of our story if you want to watch it but although for the most part we had people that were very supportive of us we had people that made comments saying things like ah you're going to end up with like 10 kids well we have 10 kids and I I get a catch in my throat when I think about how incredibly blessed we are and how but by the grace of God um our lives would have looked completely different I am so thankful for each of them none of them are alike and they have more than double tripled multiplied um the Lord has given back to us um it was a sacrifice at times there was a cost it wasn't easy there were times when I'm sure there were times when some friends and family wondered like I think they might be getting in over their heads there were times when my my husband and I wondered are we getting ourselves in over our heads I looked back recently at a picture of us when our seventh was a baby and all the kids look so little and wow just it just brought back a flood of memories how that was just that was a hard season when they were all little and there were so many of them and we're we're not on the other side we're still in the thick of parenting but in some ways we have a lot of older kids and um and I can just see uh God's faithfulness it's been so much easier having more older kids they've developed interests that are so unique and it's really fun to watch them because I mean some of their talents and gifts are completely different from ours and that's been a blessing and in many ways in this certain area of Our Lives we still don't know how this is going to turn out I'm 44 and so I'm getting to the end of the natural time that God gives us to have children my husband and I we feel like our quiver is pretty full um but we just want to continue to have an open hand and to see this through to the end we can look back on how good God's been to us so far um and I just I know that he'll be faithful whatever that means so in whatever place the Lord has you where you're trusted in him by faith maybe it's homeschooling stepping out and doing something that is really a little scary or whether it's some other um trial or um something that the Lord wants you to just put in his hands whatever that is I want to encourage you to be faithful and to remember God's goodness keep yourself in the word when you are in God's word every day it reminds you of the Eternal perspective and um as Christians we're following Jesus who had no place to lay his head Jesus who was obedient to the father's plan for his life even to the point of death and he told us that um in this world you will have trouble if you follow Christ you will have trouble but be of good cheer I have overcome the world if you have a story um of how the Lord has been faithful to you and provided for you when you didn't know how it was going to turn out if you have a story of God's faithfulness to you in homeschooling I would love if you would leave a comment and just share that with others keep it short those things can get kind of long sometimes um but I would love to hear about that thanks for listening I hope this challenged and encouraged you have a great week