Before I get into the topic of this blog, I want to take a moment of silence to mourn an organization that I have loved since I was 6 years old. Girl Scouts USA. My aunt was a Girl Scout and I loved her uniform and her books and her chatter about all the fun things her troop did. When I was in 1st grade, my mother took me to a Girl Scout informational meeting. I learned there that I couldn't become a Brownie until I was in the 2nd grade. My mother offered to let me join Campfire Girls. I declined. I was willing to wait a year to become a Girl Scout. Girl Scouts taught me things I would have never learned from my family, like riding a horse. When Dancing Angel left us, it was to the Girl Scouts that I turned to find a girl's only community and refuge for The Grand Duchess. "Be a sister to every Scout..." Some of my Facebook friends are Girl Scouts sisters that I have known for over 35 years. This coming year marks my 10th anniversary of being a Girl Scout leader. I have had a blast watching my girls overcome their fears of water, heights, animals, the outdoors, nighttime, travel, people, you name it, and rejoiced and celebrated with them over every accomplishment. I was ready to leave Girl Scouts a few years ago. I fasted and prayed about it. I read the biography of its founder. I felt led to continue, not because of the organization, but because of the bond I had formed with the girls in my troop. Leaving them would have hurt them and sent them a bad message about adults who are committed to help them grow. I had seen the pain that that had caused in the girls of another troop after their leader suddenly abandoned them. I could never do that to them, so I stayed. I also stayed because I have wonderful co-leaders who stand with me as a wall of defense between GSUSA policies and our girls.
I am so heartbroken over their latest decision to admit confused boys I don't know what to do. I am sure that it's founder Juliette Gordon Low would be turning over in her grave. This hurts so much. I now have a new drive. To help my daughter get her Gold Award within the next school year. By the end of the year, she will bridge to Ambassadors. I think at that point, we will be done. It will be the end of an era.
Which brings me to the end of another era. By the time Princess Butterfly graduates from high school in 3 years' time, I will have been a homeschooling mother for a quarter of a century. I dread the school year following that. So much so, that I am preparing for it now.
Two things over the past month or so have confirmed my decision. One was an arrow, a word that had the power of Yehovah behind it to wound me in the side. I was sitting in an informational meeting about early college high school. This is a pilot program by our community college to have homeschooled high schoolers earn their associate's degree by the time they graduate high school. A question was raised as to whether this would be a help or a hindrance to those going on to universities. The reply was that it would actually help because there are many people who have SOME college credits, but it would show the university that you are a person who finishes what they start. BOOM!!! Did you feel that? Yah has been speaking to me about finishing things. That is the reason I didn't want to pull my son out of Boy Scouts after being in it for a decade before completing his Eagle. That's why I don't want to pull my daughter out of Girl Scouts after being in it for 10 years before completing her Gold Award. The world is full of starters, not finishers.
Second confirmation came this week. I had been fasting and praying on Tuesday. I turned back to the Torah portion this week and read Leviticus 25. In a nutshell, it is talking about the 50-year cycles of Jubilee. It is at that time that all debts and debtors were released. I misread it and was actually thinking that there was a 7-year release. But let's say that a person became indebted at the age of 21, at the age of 71, they would be released. Released to what? If in the time that they had been indentured, if they had not learned to change their thinking about money, debt, wealth, covetousness, time management, diligence...all the wrong thinking that led to their having to their servitude, at some point in the future, they would have to start all over again.
That rabbit trail led me to look up statistics on bancruptcy in our country. According to the data I found, 8% of people who file for bancruptcy once will do it again. [Disclaimer: I am not looking into filing for bancruptcy, I was just on a fact-finding mission.]. So 8% of these people don't learn from their mistakes and end up in the same place they started.
After I found that tidbit of information, I was about to close the page when my eye fell upon another statistic; one that I was not looking for. This one said that the majority of people who file for bancruptcy are not people with college degrees, nor is it people who have never been to college. The vast majority of people who file for bancruptcy are people who have started college but have never finished. BOOM!!! Did you feel that?
When Friend Hubby and I married, I left nursing school and my life as a military wife has been an amazing journey. I remember praying about it once and felt confident that Yah was leading me to put my education in His hands for safe keeping. I feel like now is the time, the open window that He is giving to me to go back and finish.
Financially speaking, it LOOKS LIKE this is a bad time to try to go back to school. Do you not know that we walk by faith and not by sight? On May 8th, I made a decision. Boy Wonder is taking college algebra over the summer as part of his early college start. I'm going to sit myself down and do the homework with him. At the end of the summer, I am going to CLEP it. One down..... I am going to continue to do this with any classes he takes that I am going to need in order to get an associate's degree in general studies. For some classes, I am going to have Princess Butterfly study with me so we can both CLEP. When I have done all the community college classes I can do, I am going to enroll in the HBCU downtown and get a bachelor's degree in history. When Princess Butterfly starts college (sniff, sniff), I will be ready to begin to teach history at our local co-op.
This is how I plan to treat my empty nest syndrome. I hope my blog readers will cheer me on and hold me accountable to FINISH what I start.
Bible verses about finishing ~
Ecclesiastes 9:11 ISR98 - "I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the mighty, nor even bread to the wise, nor even riches to men of understanding, nor even favour to men of knowledge – for time and chance meets with them all."
Mathew 24:13 ISR98 - “But he who shall have endured to the end shall be saved."
1 Corinthians 15:58 ISR98 - "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Master, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Master."
James 1:12 ISR98 - "Blessed is the man who does endure trial, for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which the Master has promised to those who love Him."
Hebrews 10:36 ISR98 - "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the desire of Elohim, you receive the promise:"
2 Timothy 4:7-8 ISR98 - "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have guarded the belief. For the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Master, the righteous Judge, shall give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all those loving His appearing."
Romans 8:28 ISR98 - "And we know that all matters work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Ephesians 6:16 ISR98 - "above all, having taken up the shield of belief with which you shall have power to quench all the burning arrows of the wicked one."
Philippians 1:6 ISR98 - "being persuaded of this, that He who has begun a good work in you shall perfect it until the day of יהושע Messiah."
Proverbs 24:10 ISR98 - "If you falter in the day of distress, Your strength is small!"
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