Prayers for wisdom in dealing with BG and her father. It looks like she will be repeating the 11th grade. She doesn’t care. He doesn’t want me to upset her because “when you do that she just shuts down”.
Of course this latest wrinkle just makes me feel more guilty. What did I or didn’t I do in the past that would have changed this course?
I have laughed in the past that I was born guilty. This Mommy Guilt is the worst.
But you know, maybe having to repeat this grade will give her an extra year to mature. If there are any friends in her current grade who are bad influences, being a year behind could mean she would see less of them, perhaps.
We’ll keep praying for God to get a hold of Miss BG, change her heart, & mature her, as well as praying for real reconciliation between the two of you.
As for Mommy Guilt, I have kept in mind something I read from James Dobson many years ago. He was referring to advice he gave to a couple who got saved after their children were grown, & they were deeply regretting having not raised them to know the Lord. His advice (& I have done this more than once myself) was to ask the Lord for forgiveness of whatever we know we did wrong, to heal any hurts the children may have, & to fill in the gaps left by anything we neglected. Then leave your child in God’s hands, & trust & rest in Him.
I don’t mean for it to sound so formulaic. It really takes trusting in God, in His forgiveness & goodness, & letting go, which is so very difficult.
It seems so terrible now, Kim. Years from now it will seem less so. I pray it will be a wake-up call for her and her dad. She may be full of bravado, but deep down…. She has a lot of people praying for her. I know lots of worse cases, that are now turned around. Like the end of Psalm 27 says: “Be strong and take heart.” “Wait for the Lord.”
Why not just take the GED to graduate early and be done with it. Perhaps rude awakening into having to get a job will help? I know, I know. But I’ll be praying.
One of the hardest things we have to learn to do as parents is let our children fail. The time to learn there are consequences for you actions is best learned while you still have parents to help you pick up the pieces and point you in the right direction.
…Because in my world a GED isn’t a diploma… I really had a different vision when she was a baby. I don’t know what to do. So I am doing nothing right now. I can’t fight her father and her Nana combined. I never could.
Lord, we lift up Chloe to you. We ask you to move in a mighty way in her heart & life, to draw her into a deep, close relationship with you, & to help her take responsibility for her mistakes & for her life. Turn her around, dear Lord. Mature her & put her on the path that You have for her.
And please also work in her dad’s & Nana’s lives, Lord. Please give all the adults in Chloe’s life the wisdom & insight they need to properly guide her. Please give Kim the peace that passes understanding as she releases her daughter unto You.
The first question an employer, especially in the early years is going to be “Why?”.
You don’t want the answer to be, “I failed the 11th grade”.
Get the diploma, it’s important.
I used to think the same way about the GED. We have tried very hard to get all of ours through but some will not be making it. At least two. One is getting an ACE diploma which is not adequate in our eyes either. But the GED has been strengthened and the military is now accepting some GED’s. A high school diploma really does not mean all that much and people are starting to figure that out. It is kind of like giving a trophy to every child on the soccer field. We have never found a problem with getting our homeschool diplomas accepted, which is very strange to me.
Kim, is she interested in college? If she is, then how she finished high school probably won’t matter (as long as she isn’t interested in elite college that won’t accept the GED). One of my family’s most humorous statistics is that more of us graduated college than graduated high school. Of the seven of us, three graduated high school, but five graduated college (one who didn’t graduate high school ended up getting a master’s, though I don’t know whether his grad school was actually accredited). The two who didn’t graduate college still got some college credit (one took a year, one a few courses). If she takes even a year of college, how she finished high school won’t be relevant on any application, since they will ask the highest grade she completed and she can say a year of college. At any rate, the GED is the equivalent of a high school diploma, and one’s diligence at a job is ultimately more important than any of it. One of my kids has been a valued, coveted worker since before she graduated high school, and is now working a job that was reluctant to hire anyone younger than 40, but hired her when she was barely 20 because she got such glowing references–and they absolutely adore her.
If she chooses to get her GED, have her take a couple of years off to work and earn money, and then go to college for a year or two. How she got her high school diploma won’t matter at all, and she will have some money saved for college (and be able to avoid debt). Win-win.
My family members who dropped out of high school are virtually all considered very productive members of society (one iffy one, but he seems to have done well for the last 15 years).
I have a friend who was homeschooling her boys. They happened to live on a ranch. The older had graduated and was married. The younger decided he didn’t want to do school any more. He wouldn’t cooperate with his mom. She got tired of fighting with him. So he went with Dad. Up and at it at 5 and working till after dark. After 2 months he asked mom to go back to homeschool. She said no. He got to work the same schedule for another 6 weeks and then let him start back on the books. She never had any more trouble with him. Lesson learned.
Kim, praying for you. I might add some to the discussion later, but, in the meanwhile, please know I’m lifting you and BG up.
Could I request some quick prayers? I’ve had a headache most of the day, and it is getting worse now, to the point where I’m getting some twinges of nausea. My piano student is due here in just under a half hour, then after her 30-minute lesson, I planned on playing my concert piece for her (only five minutes in length).
Prayers that I get through this coming hour without getting sick. Thanks.
I’ve got a prayer request. Just spent about an hour with a young mom/wife I love, often in tears. Husband has worked hard for seven years to become a firefighter. He passed the final probationary exam 10 days ago but in the process did something to his back.
I’m not going into details but he’s in a lot of pain and they’re worried he may have just lost the chance to become a firefighter plus they need his pay from his part time job.
I had to give her the buck it up and be the wife he needs pep talk, but she’s having a hard time and is very scared. He’s not a believer, she is. We prayed together and I sent her on her way.
Meanwhile, over in the Angels bible study, the LCMS synodically trained member of the study (a former LCMS school principal) is agreeing with me that this study has problems. I’ve got an additional LCMS Bible study which makes far more sense to me than this IVP study and we’re supplementing the next two weeks with two basic studies about demons:
What are they?
What do they do?
take straight from Scripture. I’m much happier with this.
I’ll be continuing to work the IVP (InterVarsity Press) study to see if we can then return to their chapter 4: Dealing with Demons.
I’m not understanding how this author thinks you can deal with demons if you don’t know what they are or where they came from. I don’t like demons, so this is hard for me.
I think we’ll finish with spiritual warfare, which may be a new concept for these wonderful ladies.
Who would have guessed angels would be so challenging? I should have . . .
Thanks for prayers. The sick feeling went away, and I hardly noticed my headache while I was teaching and then playing my little concert for my student and her family members that came along. Things went well.
Wandering Views 
Prayers for wisdom in dealing with BG and her father. It looks like she will be repeating the 11th grade. She doesn’t care. He doesn’t want me to upset her because “when you do that she just shuts down”.
Of course this latest wrinkle just makes me feel more guilty. What did I or didn’t I do in the past that would have changed this course?
I have laughed in the past that I was born guilty. This Mommy Guilt is the worst.
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Oh, don’t I know it, Kim.
But you know, maybe having to repeat this grade will give her an extra year to mature. If there are any friends in her current grade who are bad influences, being a year behind could mean she would see less of them, perhaps.
We’ll keep praying for God to get a hold of Miss BG, change her heart, & mature her, as well as praying for real reconciliation between the two of you.
As for Mommy Guilt, I have kept in mind something I read from James Dobson many years ago. He was referring to advice he gave to a couple who got saved after their children were grown, & they were deeply regretting having not raised them to know the Lord. His advice (& I have done this more than once myself) was to ask the Lord for forgiveness of whatever we know we did wrong, to heal any hurts the children may have, & to fill in the gaps left by anything we neglected. Then leave your child in God’s hands, & trust & rest in Him.
I don’t mean for it to sound so formulaic. It really takes trusting in God, in His forgiveness & goodness, & letting go, which is so very difficult.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It seems so terrible now, Kim. Years from now it will seem less so. I pray it will be a wake-up call for her and her dad. She may be full of bravado, but deep down…. She has a lot of people praying for her. I know lots of worse cases, that are now turned around. Like the end of Psalm 27 says: “Be strong and take heart.” “Wait for the Lord.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
Why not just take the GED to graduate early and be done with it. Perhaps rude awakening into having to get a job will help? I know, I know. But I’ll be praying.
LikeLiked by 2 people
One of the hardest things we have to learn to do as parents is let our children fail. The time to learn there are consequences for you actions is best learned while you still have parents to help you pick up the pieces and point you in the right direction.
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…Because in my world a GED isn’t a diploma… I really had a different vision when she was a baby. I don’t know what to do. So I am doing nothing right now. I can’t fight her father and her Nana combined. I never could.
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But God can.
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Lord, we lift up Chloe to you. We ask you to move in a mighty way in her heart & life, to draw her into a deep, close relationship with you, & to help her take responsibility for her mistakes & for her life. Turn her around, dear Lord. Mature her & put her on the path that You have for her.
And please also work in her dad’s & Nana’s lives, Lord. Please give all the adults in Chloe’s life the wisdom & insight they need to properly guide her. Please give Kim the peace that passes understanding as she releases her daughter unto You.
In the strong name of Jesus, Amen.
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As Kim said at 1:11, A GED is not a diploma. 😦
The first question an employer, especially in the early years is going to be “Why?”.
You don’t want the answer to be, “I failed the 11th grade”.
Get the diploma, it’s important.
Especially when you apply to college.
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I used to think the same way about the GED. We have tried very hard to get all of ours through but some will not be making it. At least two. One is getting an ACE diploma which is not adequate in our eyes either. But the GED has been strengthened and the military is now accepting some GED’s. A high school diploma really does not mean all that much and people are starting to figure that out. It is kind of like giving a trophy to every child on the soccer field. We have never found a problem with getting our homeschool diplomas accepted, which is very strange to me.
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YOU are not the failure. She is CHOOSING to fail. As it happens, I think I’m going to write about true and false guilt this week . . .
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Kim, is she interested in college? If she is, then how she finished high school probably won’t matter (as long as she isn’t interested in elite college that won’t accept the GED). One of my family’s most humorous statistics is that more of us graduated college than graduated high school. Of the seven of us, three graduated high school, but five graduated college (one who didn’t graduate high school ended up getting a master’s, though I don’t know whether his grad school was actually accredited). The two who didn’t graduate college still got some college credit (one took a year, one a few courses). If she takes even a year of college, how she finished high school won’t be relevant on any application, since they will ask the highest grade she completed and she can say a year of college. At any rate, the GED is the equivalent of a high school diploma, and one’s diligence at a job is ultimately more important than any of it. One of my kids has been a valued, coveted worker since before she graduated high school, and is now working a job that was reluctant to hire anyone younger than 40, but hired her when she was barely 20 because she got such glowing references–and they absolutely adore her.
If she chooses to get her GED, have her take a couple of years off to work and earn money, and then go to college for a year or two. How she got her high school diploma won’t matter at all, and she will have some money saved for college (and be able to avoid debt). Win-win.
My family members who dropped out of high school are virtually all considered very productive members of society (one iffy one, but he seems to have done well for the last 15 years).
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I have a friend who was homeschooling her boys. They happened to live on a ranch. The older had graduated and was married. The younger decided he didn’t want to do school any more. He wouldn’t cooperate with his mom. She got tired of fighting with him. So he went with Dad. Up and at it at 5 and working till after dark. After 2 months he asked mom to go back to homeschool. She said no. He got to work the same schedule for another 6 weeks and then let him start back on the books. She never had any more trouble with him. Lesson learned.
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Kim, praying for you. I might add some to the discussion later, but, in the meanwhile, please know I’m lifting you and BG up.
Could I request some quick prayers? I’ve had a headache most of the day, and it is getting worse now, to the point where I’m getting some twinges of nausea. My piano student is due here in just under a half hour, then after her 30-minute lesson, I planned on playing my concert piece for her (only five minutes in length).
Prayers that I get through this coming hour without getting sick. Thanks.
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Emily got high honors on her GED, which earned her a state high school diploma.
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I’ve got a prayer request. Just spent about an hour with a young mom/wife I love, often in tears. Husband has worked hard for seven years to become a firefighter. He passed the final probationary exam 10 days ago but in the process did something to his back.
I’m not going into details but he’s in a lot of pain and they’re worried he may have just lost the chance to become a firefighter plus they need his pay from his part time job.
I had to give her the buck it up and be the wife he needs pep talk, but she’s having a hard time and is very scared. He’s not a believer, she is. We prayed together and I sent her on her way.
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Meanwhile, over in the Angels bible study, the LCMS synodically trained member of the study (a former LCMS school principal) is agreeing with me that this study has problems. I’ve got an additional LCMS Bible study which makes far more sense to me than this IVP study and we’re supplementing the next two weeks with two basic studies about demons:
What are they?
What do they do?
take straight from Scripture. I’m much happier with this.
I’ll be continuing to work the IVP (InterVarsity Press) study to see if we can then return to their chapter 4: Dealing with Demons.
I’m not understanding how this author thinks you can deal with demons if you don’t know what they are or where they came from. I don’t like demons, so this is hard for me.
I think we’ll finish with spiritual warfare, which may be a new concept for these wonderful ladies.
Who would have guessed angels would be so challenging? I should have . . .
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Thanks for prayers. The sick feeling went away, and I hardly noticed my headache while I was teaching and then playing my little concert for my student and her family members that came along. Things went well.
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