June 12, 2024 – Divine Interruptions: the Best Teaching Moments

Christine Hage
Aggravating or Awesome? (When Things Don’t Go as Planned)

Kerry Tittle
“As Soon As” vs. Divine Interruption

Heidi Mosher
The Lord is Never Surprised

Roger Smith
Better or Worse

Christine Weller
Divine Interruptions: The Best Teachable Moments

Christine Hage

Aggravating or Awesome? (When Things Don’t Go as Planned)

Recently, my family and I were getting ready to leave to work on a ministry project. Not surprisingly, we were running behind that morning. It seemed so many “little things” had come up to make us late. Finally, we loaded up and drove away. We weren’t but a few miles from home when we approached a truck just off the side of the road crashed into a large tree trunk. The force of the truck colliding with that trunk knocked the tree over and severely smashed the front end of the truck. The driver’s door was open and the motor was still running, but the driver was gone. It was a puzzling situation. 

Across the road, we noticed a lady sitting in her car. We asked her if she needed help. She informed us that just before we arrived, she witnessed the accident. Suspiciously, the driver had gotten out and ran away just after the crash. She had called the authorities and was waiting to give her report. 

As we drove away, we soberly discussed how that if we had not been “detained” by those little interruptions, the out-of-control driver could have crashed into us! Those aggravating interruptions had suddenly become awesome reminders that God was looking out for us. We took a moment to thank Him.

More often than not, our school day can be the same way. We make the plans, enact the schedule, and set things in motion. We want to make the progress we feel is necessary to call the day successful. Then something happens that derails our plans—those little interruptions. Could it be God trying to get our attention? Could it be an opportunity to spend time with a child who may be struggling with something? Could it be that we need to be reminded of the brevity of life? Instead of feeling like a failure when things don’t go as planned, remember that God sees the bigger picture. With that perspective, we’ll not only be encouraged, we’ll also learn to view unwelcome events as divine moments of life.

About the author

Christine Hage has been homeschooling in West Virginia for over a decade. She strives to live a simple, eternity-minded life as she raises her family and serves in the ministry with her husband. She and her husband lead a local homeschool support group offering encouragement and fellowship to other families. They also offer homeschool support and a free Homeschool Resource Guide at www.teachingnaturally.net.

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Kerry Tittle

“As Soon As” vs. Divine Interruption

Typically, when I write, my goal is to encourage the reader. However, occasionally I need to be real and raw. Today is one of those days. Here goes . . .

How many times do you say “as soon as”? It seems we live our days saying as soon as we get the garage cleaned out or as soon as we get school done or whatever your “as soon as” is.

I used to be the “as soon as” mother, but living in a family of eleven and doing everything to stretch a penny, there was never an end to the times I said “as soon as.” One day tragedy struck our home. My husband and two of my daughters lost their lives in an F4 spring tornado. My life was figuratively and literally left in ruins.

I don’t need to tell you that the “as soon as” promises never came. As we struggled to rebuild life, I was very aware that being a single mom, more time was being taken away from spending time with my kids. Before long, one by one of my kids left the nest to get married, go to college, or pursue a dream.

“As soon as” became meaningless words that filled a moment of good intention. They now loom in guilt-ridden memories.

And since we are being honest, we are not dealing with only flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). There is nothing the enemy would rather do than tear families apart by keeping them busy. Be mindful of this and remind yourself we are not promised tomorrow. Sometimes you need to shove the laundry aside (let’s be real, it will always be there!) and look into the eyes of your child and say, “Yes!” They will never remember not finishing lesson 32, but they will remember the memories you have made together.

About the author

Kerry Tittle is a mother of nine children and a 20-year homeschool veteran. She was the owner of ReformationKidz with her husband Rob until a tornado destroyed their home and business in 2014, taking the lives of Rob and two of their daughters, Tori and Rebekah. Kerry is the founder of Refined Family, which is created to encourage others to find hope in the gospel in the midst of trials.

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Heidi Mosher

The Lord is Never Surprised

About seven weeks before my first child was due, I had a doctor’s appointment. That day, the office scheduled one appointment per week for the remainder of my pregnancy. Those appointments never happened—my daughter arrived the very next day.

Other events on my calendar were supposed to happen before the baby arrived, like a perm (it was the right thing to do at the time), childbirth classes, and our church baby shower. My little one didn’t care that my hair wasn’t in style on the day we met; she arrived via C-section, and she joined me at that baby shower. And so I started early on the Lord’s curriculum of teaching dependence on Him through motherhood. It’s a never-ending course.

The entire world had a somewhat similar surprising experience in 2020. Our calendars were full of expectations. Then the arrival of an illness took over the globe, and we started erasing our carefully made plans—initially for the weekend and then for a few weeks. We ended up with months of eraser marks on our lovely homeschool planners, remember? A 13-year-old’s birthday party was canceled, and his braces had to stay on much longer than anticipated. A 16-year-old was forced to wait to receive his driver’s license. A little girl’s ballet recital dress never left its hanger. A senior missed all the long-anticipated last things of high school.

God was not surprised by the epoch of our times when everyone changed every plan that spring a few years ago. God was not surprised by the early arrival of every one of my babies. Our times are in His hands. He is over all. He is sovereign.

We plan our days, but the Lord directs our steps—even when our plans seem worthy. Paul, the apostle, discovered that during a missionary journey when the Holy Spirit prevented him from entering an area. God comforts us by providing that astounding example of His sovereignty in Acts 16:6.

When plans change for your family or for your homeschool day, trust that the Lord is not surprised. Take comfort in His sovereignty and look for His greater lessons.

What will you learn from Him today?

About the author

Heidi Mosher is honored to write for The Homeschool Minute, as it was a lifeline of her early homeschooling years. She is thankful to be the mother of four—two recent homeschool graduates and two who are currently homeschooled.

Pillar of Knowledge

Roger Smith

Better or Worse

Tom: “I wish it had been different.”

Huck: “Naw! I remember it better this way. ‘Sides, there ain’t no story in things going perfect!”

Tom: “Well, I still wish it had been different.”

Huck: “Me too. I wish we’d gotten closer to dying, and then pulled through!”

When it comes to home education, Proverbs 16:9 tells it like it is: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.”

Curriculum writers and lesson planners are assuming life in a vacuum without a child vomiting, a flat tire, grass growing, or a friend having surgery. The good news is that lessons have a “pause button,” while life does not.

Life is the real thing; curriculum is just a tool. Life, with all its interruptions is the real curriculum, and the more unpredictable, the more memorable.

C. S. Lewis said, “The truth is that what one regards as interruptions are precisely one’s life.”

Tom and Huck, like us, wanted life to be different, whether better or worse. But it just is. 

Learn to love the memories made by interruptions. It’s what life is made of.

About the author

Dr. Roger Smith is a family doctor in rural Louisiana, where he and his wife, Jan, raised four adventurous children who are all grown, making their own mark in the world. He speaks and writes on parenting issues and produces brief videos that can be found on Facebook @ParentingMattersNow.

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