Take Us The Foxes...

“Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines.”
Song of Solomon 2:15
A little thorn may cause much suffering. A little cloud may hide the sun. Little foxes spoil the vines; and little sins do mischief to the tender heart. These little sins burrow in the soul, and make it so full of that which is hateful to Christ, that he will hold no comfortable fellowship and communion with us. A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable. Jesus will not walk with his people unless they drive out every known sin. He says, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Some Christians very seldom enjoy their Saviour’s presence. How is this? Surely it must be an affliction for a tender child to be separated from his father. Art thou a child of God, and yet satisfied to go on without seeing thy Father’s face? What! thou the spouse of Christ, and yet content without his company! Surely, thou hast fallen into a sad state, for the chaste spouse of Christ mourns like a dove without her mate, when he has left her. Ask, then, the question, what has driven Christ from thee? He hides his face behind the wall of thy sins. That wall may be built up of little pebbles, as easily as of great stones. The sea is made of drops; the rocks are made of grains: and the sea which divides thee from Christ may be filled with the drops of thy little sins; and the rock which has well nigh wrecked thy barque, may have been made by the daily working of the coral insects of thy little sins. If thou wouldst live with Christ, and walk with Christ, and see Christ, and have fellowship with Christ, take heed of “the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.” Jesus invites you to go with him and take them. He will surely, like Samson, take the foxes at once and easily. Go with him to the hunting.

The previous was, I believe, a message from Charles Spurgeon.

After reading the above message I started thinking about all the "little" sins in our lives. Our "pet sins" Whether it is something like making something else our god, like our jobs, or coveting our neighbor's new car, or telling 'little white lies'. All of our sins, no matter how small we think they are, are still sins. They still seperate us from a perfect GOD, and we are just so incredibly blessed to have access to HIM, all through the incredible love of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" John 3:17-18
"And this is the condemnation, 'that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil" John 3:19

Commitment

Yesterday I was asked by 3 mothers (two of them homeschoolers) why I had decided to homeschool. Personally, we made this decision for two main reasons, the first being a religous conviction, the second based on the public school environment.
Even though we feel led by God to educate our children at home, there are days when I feel like I have been tapped dry and just cannot get motivated to do one more assignment. So, then why do I continue? Wouldn't it be easier to just put them in the local school and let someone else take over? Those are the questions I ask myself. Then God calms my heart and reminds me that these are my children. They are my gift from my heavenly Father. They are mine, and I am completely and totally commited to them.
As a family, we must have a commitment, to our family members, to our values and beliefs and we must have a commitment to our children’s future. When we began home schooling we made a commitment to our children’s future. We decided that we would take this massive responsibility into our own hands and educate our children in the way we felt we were being led to teach them. We did not enter into this commitment lightly and it shows in the fact that we have been doing this for several years now. Commitment is a pledge to do something. I made a commitment to Jim when I married him. I made a commitment to my children when they were conceived. I made a commitment to follow Christ when I became a Christian. As a family, we are committed to one another. We have made both verbal and silent pledges to each other. We, as parents, are committed to the teaching of our children. Not just school-based teaching, but to teaching them how to live their lives in a godly manner. We are committed to teaching them biblical truths, morals, values, and how to relate with others, just to name a few.
We are commited to providing our children with a Bible-based education. We are commited to teaching them at home, because no other teacher they could have will love them, cherish them, or be more concerned about the adults they will become than the 2 parents that God gave them.
"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" Dueteronomy 6:7