Worship & Art

Recently, God has been burdening my heart with a desire to have more specific prayer times throughout the school day.  God’s appointed prayer times occur every day in the morning and afternoon (corresponding to the morning and evening sacrifices in the Temple), but I had never consistently made them a part of our routine.  Then I realized that if I can offer some of our school time to God, I’m making a first fruits sacrifice of sorts, and can expect to see Him working in our lives because of it.  As it is, having prayer time at about 9 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon works well as bookends to the school day.  We’ve been doing it for a little while now and I can attest to how much it gets us in the right frame of mind for the day.  No, not every day is going to be filled with awesome revelation and warm fuzzies, but God is seeking for faithfulness above all that.  We are actively learning how to pray, worship, intercede, and sit in Abba’s presence without an “agenda” but just an “appointed time.”  I know the fruit from this time is going to really bless our lives.  After all, why am I homeschooling my children if I can’t help foster in them a deep love for the Lord?

We looked at some of Michelangelo’s artwork this week as well – namely, the Sistine Chapel.  In our Geography Through Art book, we were given a fun project to complete.  Since Michelangelo spent much of his time painting a ceiling, we thought it would be interesting to try to recreate that effect.  The girls laid on pillows under our school table, which was taped with poster board.  They had to come up with a favorite Bible story and complete it while lying on their backs.  It was hysterical and we have some great memories from this assignment.  Jaelah tried to re-create God’s finger touching Adam’s with life – the result was two chubby, hotdog-fingered giants with fantastic hair.  Chavah joined us in this endeavor as well with her traditional long stick figures with serious eyes.  An interesting observation I’ve had is that the girls incorporate whatever we’re learning in other subjects into their art.  We go through reams and reams of paper every year, and they are comfortable with taking anything and turning it into artwork.  This past week we studied carnivorous plants in Exploring Creation with Botany.  I shouldn’t laugh, but naturally, the first art opportunity that came up for the girls this week was to make birthday cards for me.  And they are covered with accurately-portrayed venus fly traps and pitcher plants as well as hearts, princesses, and loving poems.

Happy Birthday to me!