My Favorite Hymn

Every time we sing this hymn at church I am in awe as I read the words. This hymn is so beautiful. It is a prayer of St. Patricks's that was made into a hymn. It is long, but I never tire of hearing/singing these powerful words. Today I was especially comforted by vs.5 as I held my sleeping baby in my arms. I have highlighted it.

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Update

I just wanted to give you all a quick update. The birth father has been notified of the hearing and is threatening to contest the adoption. We are trying to lean on the promise of our sovereign God, but I must admit I have to sometimes take one hour at a time. I let my thoughts and anxiety get the best of me. So, you can pray that anxiety does not take over here and that September 4 will bring an end to all of this. Thank you for all of the emails and phone calls. We are very thankful for the support of our Christian family.

The children are doing so well through this. Isaac is a constant source of hugs, Sarah is willing and ready to do any chore thrown her way, Zachary is so quick to say "yes ma'am and is doing such a good job at staying in his bed. Micah is smiling and jumping in his jumper thing and cutting teeth without any symptoms. Jack, on the other hand is reminding us that our children are really not angels. He is a constant source of surprise and laughter(which we really need).Thank you for remembering to pray for them as well.

Blog Break

I am going to take a blog break. We are about to find out if our adoption is going to be contested. My mind is so preoccupied with it that I really can not think of anything to blog about. We would appreciate your prayers. We have a court date in the beginning of September and we will know more then. I will let you know what happens. Please pray for everyone involved the next few weeks has the potential to be quite stressful for a lot of people.

Not Good Timing

Well, we were all geared up to start school today. Wouldn't ya know? Three of us woke up sick and on top of that my back is out. I can not stand for more than a minute or two and can not stand straight for those minutes. Needless to say, school is not starting today.

Getting Ready

What do you do around your home school to get everyone excited about starting up again?
It is funny here. Sarah is ready. She never wanted to stop. All I have to say is, "Next Monday we are starting school." and that is enough to make her do flips. Isaac, needs a little more coaxing. He has had fun flipping through all of the new books and is ready to start some of them. I would not use the word excited, though. Today I took them shopping for school supplies and the box of 100 colored pencils was calling his name. He really gets in to new art supplies so he is a little more excited. This is the first year for Zach. He was so funny to watch. I basically have a list of what they need, but let them pick, within reason, what kind of brands and such they get. HE was so excited over the pencils that I was nervous about letting him know he could get crayons, markers, scissors, etc. as well. He was quite overwhelmed and wants to start NOW. They are also excited to set up their desks. We will do that tomorrow. I realize as they get older shiny new supplies will not do the trick, but it is fun to see the excitement now.

Training Hearts

The focus this year at VP Teacher Training was on the fact that more than anything we should be training the students hearts an how important it is for parents to take this seriously. Whether you are a home school parent or a parent of a child going to school. If you are deciding on a school for your children it is so important to know who will be training and teaching them. Voddie Baucham pointed out that students have approximately 14,000 seat hours of school during their school career. This is true in the home school and the traditional classroom. For home schoolers it is a great wake up call that our schooling is about so much more than book knowledge. As we teach them they are learning more than actual facts. Hopefully, we are teaching them how it all applies to the world around them and how to think of this with a biblical world-view. This is how we spend the majority of the time we have with our children. So, try hard to think of this has you are teaching. It is so easy to get caught up in getting through the lessons. But this is the biggest chunk of time you will have with your children. Be purposeful about how you go about teaching them and remember how you interact with your children during this time may have the biggest influence in molding and shaping who they become. God requires us to not be lazy so this is not an excuse to brush off academics. Training our children to be diligent workers is very important. Just remember that heart training and home schooling can not be separated.

For school teachers, what an awesome responsibility. You are with your students so much more than their parents. Teachers will have the biggest influence in a students life. Positive or negative. This makes it so important to work with the parents. I pointed out my Bible talk that when teaching children the Bible a lot is revealed. I have found it necessary to contact parents about things that come out in teaching Bible lessons simply because the student was not home long enough for the parents to even know there was a struggle going on. Simply put, classroom teachers have a huge responsibility. Remember whether you want to or not you play the largest earthly role in molding and shaping the hearts of your students.