A Month of Natalie - Passions

For anyone who really knows me this won't come as a huge surprise, but alas, here they are:

What are four passions you have?

       Homeschool. (Let me preface this with saying that I understand that not all families can homeschool and it probably isn’t best for all families.) Homeschool is the best thing since sliced bread. The notion that I get to hang out with my children everyday, that I get the responsibility of teaching them about the Father’s great world, that I get to learn alongside them, that I get to love on them 24/7, and let them discover this world in a manner that suits their individual personalities is the most amazing thing ever. Nobody knows my children like I do and I can’t imagine that anyone else would my children’s education above anything else in their life. God uniquely created me to be their mother and their teacher. I also have growing concerns about government controlled school. In the last several decades postmodernism has replaced critical thinking. School has become about creating “citizens”. My goal is simply to encourage them to discover who God has created them be. 

Ezra with his lung model.

Elisha learning math.

Books! I am a nerd, in the best and worst ways. You can hang out with and befriend any person throughout all of history with a book. You can learn anything you want through a book. Want to know what it means to love? Read Redeeming Love. Want to know what it means to lose yourself in pain? Read She’s Come Undone. What to know what it means to find self worth? Read A Lesson Before Dying. Want to know what it means to fight for God’s best? Read Perelandra. Want to know how it feels to have lack? Read The Grapes of Wrath. Want to know what it feels like find yourself? Read Their Eyes Were Watching God. Okay, this is just a random smattering of a few of the books I love, but you get the idea. Words are an art form unto themselves. Sure a movie or a painting can show you what something looks like, but through a book you can experience it. Like I said, nerd, I know it, but I am okay with it.

 Marriage. I am intentionally and purposefully married to my amazing husband. My marriage is one of the greatest gifts God has ever given me but it something that takes work. Brandon and I have a great rhythm now. We have spent the last decade getting to know each other and because of that we could probably coast through the rest of our lives. But I know that God is continually growing our marriage and growing us through our marriage. We set apart time to work on us, we have put in place safeguards so that the devil cannot steal our marriage and we have both set in our hearts that no matter what, we are in this for life. I have heard it said that God intended for marriage to make you holy not happy. I am just one blessed girl then because my marriage is making me holier and happier! I also believe that God has the same desire for every marriage. Whether someone looks at their marriage as act of glorifying God or as a mistake they made, I have never met any couple who said that they were going to give God their all, including their marriage, stick with it no matter, and never get divorced who regretted.

I love him forever. 

 The Church. We live in a society where the value of the Church is lost. While the Church is not infallible, the Church is the bride of Christ. We are His hands and feet. We are here for each other and we are here to reach the world. The notion that you can have a relationship with Jesus without being surrounded, supported, uplifted, kept accountable, and trained by a group of believers is completely unbiblical. The notion that the Church owes you is also not what the word says. Service is a fundamental of Christianity and we have been given the great opportunity (not chore) to serve wholeheartedly our local church and reach a dying world. You cannot have one without the other and both are essential to the work of the Holy Spirit. Someone mops the floors, prepares the children’s church curriculum, plans the mission trips, rocks babies to sleep, prays over people in need, and fulfills every need that the Church has. Don’t just assume that it is someone else’s responsibly or that you have ascended beyond that. There is not one of us in the church that is beyond serving and there is not one of us in the church that is exempt from the call to preach the gospel of Christ wherever we go and wherever God has planted us. If you are in a local church, serve it, and if you are not, find one. 

Our church.