{ 6 THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT PURPOSE & GROWTH IN HOMESCHOOL & LIFE ... }
there are SIX things i try and remember about purpose & growth in our lives. six things that help us to stay focused and stay the course. SIX things they can be summed up nicely by quotes that i love so much and that i’ve written on the walls of our hearts.
#1 || PURPOSE CROSSES DISCIPLINES
"purpose crosses disciplines. purpose is an essential element of you. it is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill. remember, the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose. . . if you are willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory then you will not regret it. … legacy is not wrapped up in the money that you will make but the challenges that you choose to confront." ~chadwick boseman
purpose drives our #unschool. it is our mission and our ministry... to seek out and advocate for true education. i have a really difficult time sharing the way that we do things, the way that my brain processes life, how we live and what we learn. but, i’m trying. i've actually been blogging our lives for 11 years now but only published a handful here and there. making time to make films, when a filmmaker is who you are, only enriches my purpose as a wife, as a daughter, as a friend… a homeschool mom. i realize, now, that those unpublished posts lay such a strong foundation for the stories that we hope to tell, the films that we are striving to create, and that at their core they are stories full of purpose and growth.
sidenote: can we take a moment to appreciate brian’s sketching skills and how much they’ve brought life to our storyboarding?!?!
#2 || GROWTH IS OFTEN SILENT
how lovely is the silence of growing things ~unknown
i love this one. i love the silence of growing things, the stillness of patience and the grit of perseverance. as we take steps and get more serious about our growth as a business and the purpose we pray it will fulfill, please understand we are growing here. we are not a business and a brand. but, instead we are building a business and a brand on principles of faith and love.
growing things takes time. and, growing things with roots that run deep and wide takes even more time. it’s a process that isn’t loud and boastful. there isn’t often much to show for it at first. and yet, we are believing to be …
“like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” ~Jeremiah 17:8
the #1 question i get from our friiiennndddsss has something to do with how we’ve gotten our kids to be such incredible readers and the answer to that is TIME!!! a lot of patience, perseverance, a lot of faith… a lot of love! i lay out the way we approach reading in our home in our book year guide where we share about carving out time and making it an exiting adventure.
if you’ve been following along for a while, thank you for walking with us, for growing with us, for encouraging us along the way. thank you for watching our videos, buying our t-shirts, for joining our patreon, for sending that email encouraging our hearts and strengthening our confidence in choosing a more difficult path. thank you for being “insert name here” and not just a number. and heres to more “friends” beyond ‘followers” along the way.
#3 || A GARDEN IS A GRAND TEACHER OF TRUST
‘‘a garden is a grand teacher. it teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.” ~ gertrude jekyll
i’ve always felt that life can’t be categorized and, still, someone is always trying to find a way to stuff our creative souls inside of a box. math must look like math and science must look like science and yet, in life, it so often does not. we believe in growth. we are here to sow, grow and harvest by faith and with love. if there is one project you should set your hearts and minds to take part in, it should be planting a garden. no matter how big or how small, connecting to the miracle of life that we have become so disconnected from over time, will help establish faith in a place where it’s been so lost in a world full of hustle, grind and the hysteria of productivity.
THING #4 || FOCUS ON THE SEEDS YOU’RE PLANTING
‘don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
i can not grow what I do not sow and there is not one good intention that will change that. i remind myself of this one every. single. day. i am reminding myself of this one right now!!! to be wrapped up in the future robs us of the opportunity that is… now, and fixing my focus on the seeds that i am planting each day is a practice that changes my life every time i choose to implement it.
#5 || WATCH WHAT YOU’RE THINKING
“your mind is your garden, your thoughts are the seeds. you can grow flowers. or you can grow weeds.” ~unknown
we grow what we sow. and, while i would love to say that this is one of the things that comes the easiest to me, it simply just isn’t true. thoughts are so underrated. most of them happen to us with no effort of our own. and, that just has to change. i can’t leave my daily thoughts up to chance. i have to have confessions posted around the house, on mirrors, written on dry erase boards, and even pre-recorded audio of pleasant words full of hope that are good for my soul. sowing seeds that grow flowers is the goal.
#6 || THERE’S NO NEED TO RUSH
“nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished’
every time I think of this one it takes my breath away. so, ill just leave it right here. it changes the way I watch the sun rise and set, the way i listen to the birds sing and the squirrels jump from fence to fence. the way I watch the leaves slowly turn from green to shades of orange and bright to burnt red. its a silent reminder THAT, ALTHOUGH TIME SEEMS TO PASS BY MORE QUICKLY THAN EVER… THERE’S NO NEED TO RUSH.
we are looking for growth here. observing as they grow in grace as my years of direct influence become fewer. I'm WILLING TO sacrifice THE WORLD’S WAYS IN PURSUIT OF PURPOSE, PEACE AND GROWTH RIGHT WHERE WE ARE. I pray that they view my sacrifices as the way to life… abundant life, not based on works but on faith & love. there are THE SIX things i try and remember about purpose & growth in our lives. six things that help us to stay focused and stay the course. SIX things they can be summed up nicely by quotes that i love so much and that WE HAVE written on the walls of our hearts.
WITH ALL THE LOVE,
SYREENA