Today I am thrilled to share with you a guest post from Debi, from the Peapod Family Homeschool

Preposterous! That old-fashioned word sums up the responses I received from my gallery of naysayers when I announced, as a single mom of two small boys, that I wanted to homeschool my children.
The naysayers were comprised mostly of family and friends. Strangers were more likely to affirm my desire. One friend rejoiced and affirmed my announcement. One.
Does that surprise you? It surprised me. Until I realized that strangers don’t have a deeply held desire to see me succeed. Strangers can afford to be encouraging of a not-so-typical dream. Family and friends want me to be safe.
Why is it that tradition seems so safe?
The word safe reminds me of a line from the C.S. Lewis classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
I once told my dear, worried mom just before she died, and now often tell my children, that the safest place we can be is where God wants us to be. Even if we die doing His bidding, we are safe.
God planted the seeds of faith for foster care, adoption, and homeschooling when I was quite young. Even my typical childhood and not-so-typical rebellious, tumultuous, young-adult years didn’t squash the seedlings. At His appointed time, my hardened heart softened. To me, it seemed the journey to my destiny had commenced, but truthfully, it had already begun before I was born. Praise HIM!
Allow me to boast in the Lord by sharing the status of those seeds of faith, held in God’s sovereign hands:
Foster care: 15 years and 25 children
Adoption: 6 children (ranging in age today from 14 down to 1-year-old twins)
Homeschooling: 9 years and still counting
Marital status: still single
Career: Stay-at-home mom, teaching university-level courses online for 8 years
Today, I still have naysayers. Their comments reflect their desire for me to adhere to safe, typical paths. They also say things like “I don’t know how you do it! HOW do you do it?!”
The short answer is: I don’t do it. GOD does!
To me, the journey has been an unpredictable adventure with joy, peril, sorrow, pain, uncertainty, poop, gain, loss, laughter, tears, delight, pleasure, fear, barf, spontaneity, abundance, noise, contentment, imperfection, loneliness, poverty, provision, rejoicing, hellos, good-byes, respite, exhaustion, and peace.
By the world’s standards, there’s nothing safe at all about this journey. But what a glorious adventure with Jesus it is!
Before I ever asked God to give me the desires of my heart, before I even knew what I needed and wanted, God planted the seeds of faith that gave birth to the desires now being fulfilled and lived out through the touch of His good and loving hands. This truth overwhelms my heart with joy!
If you’ve read the following passage of Scripture before, don’t let your eyes glaze over the words today. Please pause, ask God for fresh eyes, and read it again slowly and prayerfully:
“Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.” (Psalm 37:3-9)
To God be all the glory forever!
~ Debi
Debi is a still-single, homeschooling momma of 6 children given to her by God through the amazing journey of foster care and adoption. She has been homeschooling for 9 years and is looking forward to many more years of home education. She spends her days walking by faith and living out the command to teach her children when they lie down, rise up, and walk by the way.