Posted by Posted in Bible, character, music

Measure by Measure

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I like to think of myself as a musician. I mean, if taking piano lessons for years as a kid and knowing some music theory makes you a musician, I guess it’s true. Knowing how to play a musical instrument is a special gift. Now, years from when I sat down at our little keyboard and plunked out “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, I can sit down and let out my emotion on a piano, pick a random song I like and learn to play it fairly easily, or even write my own music. It takes a while to get there though. read more

Posted by Posted in adventures, character, Heroism, history, homeschool

Two Amazing Young People and One Unsung Hero of the American Revolution

As you may note, I blog about my life. Projects I am doing, things I am learning and places I have gone. As we study the American Revolution and Early American history in our school you can expect a few posts about some of heroes in that time. This blog post is one of those, highlighting three amazing people. Susannah Boone Hays, Caeser Rodney and Paul Revere Jr.

Let’s start with Susannah Boone Hays.

Susannah Boone was the daughter of Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman. She was newly married to William Hays and probably only about 18 or 19.

Both her father and her husband were working on a project, building a wilderness road, opening Kentucky to settlers. Susannah and her servant were the only women in the group and what a life they had! Susannah would wake up, cook breakfast and when the men were clearing a road, she and her servant would pack up camp and go to the new camp and set up, cook dinner, etc.

Along the way, there was an Indian attack and bad weather. However, Susannah Boone and her servant, had the privilege of being the first, non-Indian women to be in Kentucky. Susannah must have been very brave!

Now, let me tell you about a brave young boy, named Paul Revere Jr.

We all know about “the” Paul Revere. Paul Revere had a son also named Paul that did something pretty brave when he was only 13 or 14.

The British had taken Boston, where the Reveres lived and when the Revolutionary War “officially” started the Revere family escaped to another town that was not taken by the British. But Mr. Reveres shop was still in Boston and if you left a building, shop or home, the British would vandalize and desecrate it. So young Paul stayed in Boston to take care of his family’s home until it was safe to come back.

This might not seem like much but think about it. The British had taken the city and things were not very stable there. Young Paul was alone in his house, with the British right outside. In those times of unrest Paul was being very brave as he protected his family’s home.

Those are the stories of the two amazing young people, as it says in my title. Now for the unsung hero of the American Revolution. Caeser Rodney.

You probably have not heard of him but he was so important in the making of our country. The Declaration of Independence was written and all it needed was to be unanimously passed. All the colonies had to agree. The vote was taken and here were the results: Nine of the thirteen colonies voted yes, two voted no, one abstained and one was split, one delegate to one. The Congress decided to have another debate the next morning and then a final vote.

Delaware, the colony that was split might very well decide the outcome, so they sent a courier to fetch the third delegate, Ceaser Rodney.

The messenger arrived at Rodney’s farm to tell him that he had seven hours to get back to Congress and vote. Rodney took his best horse and galloped into the night. He had eighty nine miles to go. They were difficult conditions with streams turned torrents, quagmires, and bad weather. Caeser had no change of horse but finally right before the vote was taken he was carried into the assembly room where he said these words:

“As I believe the voice of my constituents and of all sensible and honest men is in favor of independence, my own judgement concurs with them. I vote for independence.”

After the final vote it was twelve to none (New York had abstained). The colonies had become a country, with much thanks to Caeser Rodney.

I hope you enjoyed learning about these three heroes! Do you have a story of an unsung hero that you would like to share? Comment below!

Priscilla Joy

Posted by Posted in Bible, character, God, history, holidays, Living for God, words

Character, Not Color

Martin Luther King Jr. famously said in his “I have a dream” speech that he wanted his children to grow up in a nation where they would be judged not by the color of thier skin but by the quality of their character.

This poses a good question for us. How do we judge people?

Let us not be hindered by what a person looks like but who God made them to be.

My mom gave my sister and I African-American baby dolls when we were little. We loved on them and never thought anything of thier skin color. My parents raised us to look and learn about other cultures, not judge and sneer on them.

You see this is what the Bible says after God created man…

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27

All men were created in the image of God and we all were created for the same reason, to glorify our maker.

We also all sinned. Romans 3 says that “none are righteous, no not one.” And later, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Just as we all bear the image of God, we also all bear the sin nature. But it doesn’t end here.

We are also all saved. Romans 5 says “God shows his love for us in this, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

You see the gospel is for everyone.
Americans.
African Americans.
Hispanics.
Asians.
Europeans.
The disabled.
The fatherless.
The rich.
The poor.
The list goes on.

Just like Martin Luther King Jr. I long for the day (we have made progress, but we are not perfect.) when people judge each other, not by their skin and outward appearance but by their character, love for Christ and thier heart.

“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7b

“For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people.”
1 Timothy 4:10a

Priscilla Joy

Posted by Posted in character, Family, myth of adolescence, teens, teens doing big things

On Teenagers and One in Particular

Me and my beautiful thirteen year old sister, Celia.

Me and my beautiful thirteen year old sister, Celia.

Last Saturday was my sisters birthday. She turned 13. Wow! My lil’ sister just turned thirteen! This post will be half about how great God made my sister and half about teenagers.

First off, I made a C-E-L-I-A acrostic for Celia.

C- Creative: You are such a talented young lady and even though you don’t think that you are very artsy or musical I do think you have a creative side to you.
E- Eclectic: You define this word, Celia. I don’t think of this word in any way but with you in mind. I love your stars, stripes and polkadots and who but you would put red and pink together. Although it makes choosing a color for our room difficult I love this crazy quality of you.
L- Loving: On the toughest days you are there with a kind word of encouragement or a thoughtful note. You give great gifts and the people you love know that you love them, which is great knowledge.
I- Interesting: If a stranger started talking to you, they would come away amazed. You are such a cool person. With your cupcake business, love for kids and special needs kids and other things you make a very interesting young lady.
A- Always smiling: Or in other words very cheerful. Your disposition is always sunny and you brighten peoples days.

Second, I want to say 13 quick things I love about Celia.

1. your laugh
2. your hugs
3. your gifts
4. your initiative
5. your verse 4 the day
6. your loyalty
7. your cuteness
8. your ease around people
9. your love for others
10. your thoughtfulness
11. your joy
12. your faith
13. your love for Jesus

So there you have it. And a big hearty HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER CELIA!!!

Now on a different note I want to tell a quick story and move on to the topic of teenagers.

When someone was talking to our family and found out it was Celia’s 13th birthday the next day, this was her remark. “A teenager! Now I can’t talk to you until you are 20!” She quickly recovered with a quick…”Not ALL teenagers are bad, but…”

This story saddens me. She could have been joking but the main truth remains. Our culture doesn’t look too fondly on teenagers. Why?

First, let us start with the common perception of teenagers. (Fun fact: the word teenager was originated rather recently… in the past 65-75 years)

When people think of teenagers what do they think of? Some popular answers may include: lazy, rebellious, sleeps in, adolescence, punk, drugs and many others. Why does our culture think this?

Lets look at some history…. Think of some of the great people in the Bible and world history. Lots of them were young. Here are some examples: Daniel, David, Esther, Mary, Josiah, (moving into history) Joan of Arc, George Washington, Clara Barton and Alexander the Great.

Your average young person say on the frontier could manage a household, protect thier family, go on long hunting trips and more in thier early teen years. They were mature and responsible. Hard working and not wimpy.

I am not saying that all teenagers were perfect then and horrible now. What I am hinting at is that the culture back then (frontier as my example) expected more of their teens. Nowadays as we learned from the above conversation the teen years are expected to be bad.

Lets take a final look at how the Bible talks about teens (young people).

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
1 Timothy 4:12

Teenagers are supposed to set an example!

What about this one?

“The glory of young men is thier strength.”
Proverbs 20:29

The teenage years are special years to serve the Lord. You are young and strong and God wants you to use your teen years for something special!

the teen,
Priscilla

P.S. A lot of the ideas about teenagers I got was from the book “Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris. If you are intersted feel free to read that book to learn more. Or go on their blog: therebelution.com