My Controversial Word for 2015

This may very well not be a popular post. I'm choosing a word for 2015 that, to most of our society, is...well...taboo. 

Don't we feel that it is our right to do what we want? I mean after all that is what our country is founded on. The right of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! It is my right to be happy no matter how I choose to do so. And my rights matter more than yours. 

That is the message that is everywhere. It is plastered across our televisions, on our radio stations, on billboards, in magazines, in books, in movies, in choices of religion. It is a parenting style and an entire homeschooling movement. It is a culture.

Sometimes it is called walking to the beat of your own drum, standing your ground, doing what is best for you, taking time for you...you know what I'm talking about, you've heard it before, you may have even said it before. {you may be living it} 

But here's the thing, there is always an underlying air of defensiveness, sometimes desperate, sometimes pleading, sometimes boldly declaring. I'm doing this for the sake of me, my happiness. {By the way, if you feel angry or uncomfortable, I could very well be talking about you. Does that make you want to defend your choices? Ahem...} 

Maybe if that was all, I would still be plunging wildly along without reflecting. Fortunately, there is more...

One day, I overheard a conversation. "Of course, the child rebels...the parents live in a state of rebellion." Now, I know the child. I know the parents. Though I must confess, it had never crossed my mind to think about their family dynamics in that way before.

The more I thought about that simple statement the more I realized that, yes, the parents do certainly rebel. They rebel against their own parents, they rebel against common laws, they rebel against just about anything that feels like less choice, more responsibility, more submitting to authority.

And more than that, I know the family's history. The parents weren't the only ones to rebel. The grandparents rebelled, too. In many ways. A multi-generational rebellion.  

That is a painful declaration to make. But one that I probably could have ignored. I mean who wants to even consider the implications of 3 generations with deep-seated rebellion planted in their lives?

Then I read an article. Not sure where now or even if it was in a magazine or online. It was a third piece to the puzzle. It was about rebellion and more specifically disobedience. Yes, this seeking self, seeking your own happiness, is disobedience. {Now you may think I'm crazy at this point and wondering why you are still reading, I know why you are reading. It is the annoying feeling that you can't shake that I'm on to something with a great truth in it.}

There are lots of ways to rebel, to seek disobedience: boldly choosing to thumb authority, partially being obedient, complaining, delaying, angrily yielding, and questioning are just some of the ways to choose rebellion.

Now here is a confession, I have done every single one. Yep. Probably, most certainly today. 

And that friends is the last piece locked in place. You may think I've been pointing my finger at you, but no ma'm {or sir}, I've been pointing it at me.

And I can't say that even last year at this time, I would have wanted to choose the word. I mean really, who wants to admit that they are disobedient? 

What's more I become more sure each day that my children are a reflection of me. Their disobedience, is my disobedience. My struggle with rebellion, is their struggle with rebellion. So it is time. 

It is time that I made a year to take this word by the hand. To submit in obedience to my creator. To stop boldly walking in disobedience, to stop giving part of my life to submission, to stop complaining, delaying, and questioning, to stop moving in anger. Oh yes. This is going to be a difficult journey. But here it is...

I'm boldly announcing that Obedience is my word for 2015. Obedience to my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Friend, the creator of all the heavens and the earth. Yes, the one I'm not worthy to belong to, the one merciful and holy. The one that deserves all of my obedience. Obedience for 2015.

Wishing you homeschool blessings,


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