"Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." Psalm 105:4
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This summer has been both a busy and a blessed time for me. I have been working on several new products, all of which, Lord willing, I plan on having available sometime in September or October. At the end of the update, I’ve shared a few of the materials I am working on completing so that you will know better how to pray for me.
Over the summer, I have also been prayerfully pursuing opportunities to speak to homeschool moms/groups and share in person both God’s hand in math and the many ways He supported and taught our family throughout our homeschooling. Please let me know if you think any groups in your area might be interested. I have these workshops on CDs along with references, and I’d be happy to share them with any interested groups.
Recently, I have also been gearing up for the Christmas season again (I know it’s only August, but time flies so quickly!). I am trying to find ways to let homeschoolers know about the Promised One. Please begin to let your friends and fellow homeschoolers know about the devotional and please let me know if you have any marketing ideas or suggestions. I currently have several hundred kits ready to send for the upcoming year.
Resources coming soon are:
1. Beyond Numbers: A Practical Guide to Teaching Math Biblically—This handbook to help parents understand and teach math biblically has been in the workings for a long time, and, praise the Lord, I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It is currently being illustrated, after which it’s off to the printers at last!
2. The Greatest Treasure—I have started work on a new devotional for families exploring the great treasure God has given all of us in Christ Jesus. Children will decorate their own treasure chest with gold stickers that remind them of the spiritual treasure they learned about that day. The devotional will not be tied to a specific month; however, it would work great as a November devotional in preparation for Thanksgiving, or it could also be used for the month of December for those who have already done the Promised One.
3. Homeschooling: God is Sufficient Booklet—This short booklet shares my personal reflections as I look back on my homeschooling years. It is designed to encourage parents that God is sufficient for everything they might encounter and to relieve some of the worries and fears we tend to develop in homeschooling. I have just finished writing this booklet and plan to take it to the printer shortly.
4. Homeschooling: God is Sufficient CD—A CD sharing the same general content as the booklet. This CD was taped during a session given to a few homeschool moms in the northern Virginia area.
5. Commonsense Teaching of the Bible—I am planning on reformatting and printing this devotional written by Hannah Withall Smith back in the 1800s. It has been one of those books that has blessed me tremendously over the years but is sadly unavailable now. I have currently scanned the document into the computer and am now working on formatting and editing it for publication. This project is last on the priority list, however, and may not be finished for a few months depending on how the other projects progress.
Thank you all for your prayers. They mean more to me than I can express! Also, please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever any other way in which I can encourage you to, “Look the Lord and His strength.” May the God who formed the galaxies encourage and strengthen your hearts today in His incredible love.
By His grace alone,
Katherine Loop
There are two things in life we should never underestimate: the depths of evil in our own heart and the depths of God’s greatness, power, and righteousness.
Last week, my brother and I had the opportunity to gaze up at the stars through a high-powered telescope for the first time. While at the observatory, I was reminded of how often man has underestimated the number of the stars. For centuries, men thought they had counted all the stars. Then the telescope arrived and revealed thousands more stars than the naked eye could see. Just when man had begun to count these new stars, a higher-powered telescope displayed yet more stars. To this very day, each new improvement in technology only shows us more of the vastness of God’s incredible universe.
Much like man underestimated the number of the stars for centuries, we tend to underestimate God’s character. He is so much greater than we could ever imagine! No matter how much we learn of Him, a careful study will always reveal infinitely more.
Let’s not underestimate God today. May we look to Him and His strength in all we do, remembering that our own hearts are hopeless without Him. May we dwell on the unfathomable greatness of our God—a God incomprehensible in His infinite greatness.
“Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” Jeremiah 32:17
Jordan bid his friends goodbye and headed toward his small aircraft. He had a long flight before him and had no time to loose.
Soon the runway dwindled to a speck on the ground as Jordan climbed his little craft to his cruising altitude. For the first several hours, Jordan cruised smoothly along. Eventually, however, he found himself engulfed in a dark blanket of unexpected rain clouds.
Jordan could no longer see anything out of his windshield except rain mixed with occasional ice particles. With sweaty hands and a pounding heart, he gripped his controls. This would be the first time he would have to navigate home using instruments alone. He just hoped it wouldn’t be the last.
For the next hour and a half, Jordan battled the temptation to trust his own senses. His senses said to bank left, while his instruments insisted he needed to head the opposite direction. Had his instruments been damaged by the intense winds? Jordan shook the thought from his head. He remembered what his flight instructor had told him when training him in instrument flying, “Never trust your senses. They will mislead you. Always follow your instruments.”
By the help of his instruments, Jordan eventually landed safely at the nearest airport. There he heard a story that horrified and sobered him.
Another aircraft like himself had been caught in the unexpected storm. When the storm blinded his visibility, this aircraft’s pilot had followed his senses over the instrument panel and headed the direction he thought was north. His plane soon began to spin. Yet instead of using the instruments to guide him out of the spin, he merely complicated matters by turning the plane the way his instincts, not the controls, dictated. Those personnel at the control tower who had been trying to help the pilot heard a loud scream, a crash, and then a deadly silence.
Jordan shuddered as the airport personnel finished his gruesome tale. He knew now what his fate would have been had he trusted his senses and abilities as a pilot over the instrument panel. How dangerous misguided trust could be!
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
--By Cris Loop
As I approach my last year of official homeschooling (my baby is now a senior), I am finding myself contemplating what really matters in homeschooling. What about homeschooling will count for eternity? Good grades and academic knowledge? Or a complete trust in God and dependence on Him?
My homeschooling years have sped by quicker than I have thought possible. Looking back, I see how many times I got off course and placed my focus on things that don't really count for eternity, such as academics and activities. I often tried to live up the standards of the school system instead of to God's high calling—that I would know and depend on Him in everything.
I want to encourage you to invest each precious day you have at home with your children into things that matter. When all is said and done, it will not matter how high or low your children's test scores are, nor how successful or unsuccessful they are by the world's standards. Have your children learned to see God in all they do? Have they seen you depending on Him? May we each ask God to help us make today count for eternity.
Child of the King, take heart,
Your Lord will never from you part.
In Him place all your trust,
Remember on your own you are but dust.
Place your confidence daily in God,
Trust Him, even if He use a rod.
Lay aside every care and worry,
For Heaven, my friend, is just the beginning of the story.