Homeschool Conference Recap (Part 2)

So it's been two months since the Teach Them Diligently convention and my enthusiasm of all I heard has waned.  To pump myself up and make good on finishing up my recap, here's a QUICK overview.

"Preparing Sons... The Mom's Part" -- Shirley Solis

• Proverbs 1:8 "Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching." It is Biblical for us to teach our children.  (Kind of a "duh" comment but a great reminder nonetheless.)
• God knows I can raise a godly man because He gave this child to me.
• Be a strong mom. Find strength from the Holy Spirit. Be able to set limits -- I'm not his friend, but his parent.  Be a tulip stem -- strong yet lovely!

"Understanding a Loving God in a World of Suffering" -- Ken Ham

• Bad things in life give us a tiny taste of life without God.
• We shouldn't blame God for horrible things because they are humankind's fault.  We brought sin into this world, and sin caused God to remove some of His sustaining power from the world.
• After the sixth day of creation (the day when God made humans), God said, "It was very good." If fossil record occurred millions of years before mankind, death would be grouped in with everything that was "very good".  Doesn't equate.
• Without faith, it is impossible to trust God. Compared to what God knows, we know nextdoor to nothing.  How arrogant are humans to tell God that He doesn't know what He's doing?!

"Multi-generational Vision" -- Voddie Baucham
(This one was so good I'm gonna give you all my notes!)

• Multigenerational problems: Strained marriage/divorce; confused gender roles; career-driven children (living with mom & dad until getting a job) vs. family-driven children (live with parents, caring for grandparents then care for parents); delayed / strained marriage (putting if off til late '20's); decreasing fertility rates (partly due to effects of birth control)
• A much loved and often misused verse: Jeremiah 29:11
• the interpretation: God's promise is health, wealth, not bothered with world problems
• the problem: inconsistent with real-life experience, leads to despair and loss of faith.
• Biblical Christianity: Acts 4:21-22, Romans 8:16-17, 2 Timothy 3:10-13; we will have persecution.
• A text can't mean what it never meant. The truth behind Jeremiah 29:11...
• a letter to specific people in a specific time/place
• words were written to people whom God had sent into exile
• promise was made to people who would be dead when it came to pass!
• it is a corporate prayer; not a personal prayer
• If promise is not for us, how do we live?
• Stable - Jer. 29:4-5 "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.""
• Fruitful - Jer. 29:6 "Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease." (What an idea?! Help our children find their spouses!)
• Missional - Jer. 29:7 "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
• In His providence, God uses horrible, awful events to preserve His people through trial.
• Don't think about here and now, but look for God's multi-generational plans!

And I guess there will be a conference recap, part 3, when I can get some more time.  Stay tuned...