Dear Allie

Dear Allie,

In planning for the upcoming homeschool year, I've been asking God to reveal to me what His priorities are for you. What He wants you to learn and focus on and how He wants you to grow this year. I'm so proud of what you've already accomplished and how far you have already come. I have been wondering, what next?

Regardless of what His plan is for your future, whether you go to college or not, whether you get married or stay single, whether you have children biologically or adopt or don't have children at all, whether you travel or stay near home, I know without a doubt two things: You will face life as a WOMAN, and you will face it as a FOLLOWER OF GOD. God decided before the foundation of the world that you, Allie Grace Greenhaw, would be a woman. And in response to His irresistable grace and sovereign wooing of your heart to His, you chose to follow Jesus. That is a decision that you will carry with you for life. From now on you are HIS.

Since you will undoubtedly face life as a WOMAN, I want you to know what God says about you as a woman straight from the word of God. We have been studying that and will continue to study that. One book we will be going through in our tea times together will be Beautiful Girlhood. Home Ec will be an important subject this year, as you will be learning about healthy foods and how to prepare them through the books Nourishing Traditions, The Vintage Remedies Guide to Real Foods, and The Family Meal Table and Hospitality. We will invest in friendships with girls your age of noble character, and you will invest in the lives of your younger sisters who hang on your every word. Yours is an important position in our family, one that your Heavenly Father designed and providentially placed you in because He knew you could lead them well. I know you will. We will learn the art of conversation by being around older women of godly character and learning from them. You will continue the book you started years ago called "Interesting People that I Love" where you ask lots of questions of someone we are around and use what you learned to write a paper about them and illustrate them. I hope in continuing that practice you will learn that: everyone you meet has something interesting they can teach you; if you ask enough questions and listen well, you can learn a lot from people. I hope it will sharpen your ability to converse with people of all ages and stages. We will also practice the art of the thank you note and keep a gratitude journal as we watch for God's blessings in our everyday lives.

Since you will also undoubtedly face life as a FOLLOWER OF GOD, I want you to continue building the foundation of a biblical worldview. We will be going through a series called Thinking Like a Christian, which will take us through many worldviews and show us through Scripture how we are to think and react and live in our culture. Since "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17), you will be listening to sermons several times a week and taking notes in a Faith Journal I am giving you. In this journal you will also write prayers and petitions to God, daily notes from what you are reading in Scripture. This practice alone has been so helpful in my own growth as a disciple, and I hope it will be in yours. You will be memorizing and meditating on Scripture, the only place you can find real truth all the time. Think of yourself as having started along this Path of Life, where you are following Jesus as He has established me as your trail guide. Along the way I want to encourage you to stay on the path and help bring you back when you stray. That way you will know the way when you leave our home and you will continue to follow in His footsteps. "Train up a child in the way (she) should go, and when (she) is old (she) will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) There was a song I used to love when I was your age sung by Rich Mullins. The words were, "O God, You are my God, and I will ever praise You. O God, You are my God, and I will ever praise You. I will seek You in the morning, and I will learn to walk in Your ways, and step by step You'll lead me, and I will follow You all of my days." I hope that becomes your song, Allie.

Some of the obvious gifts you possess are music and writing. I want to encourage you to fine tune those gifts so you can use them to serve the Lord. So we will continue violin lessons with Ms. Cindy, since she is so talented and gracious and encouraging, and we will continue Music and Art Days with Grandmomma, since she is all those things as well and also your grandmother. :) You asked to use the curriculum How to Write a Story to help fine tune your story writing, so we will be doing that as well.

Your character is of utmost importance. You are doing so amazingly well taking care of the goats! So you will continue to have morning goat milking chores as well as daily household chores.

Your mind is also extremely important. We will continue advancing in Math and Language skills through Saxon Math and Shurley English for at least three purposes: to establish your credibility when you "speak with your enemies in the gates" (Psalm 127:5); for use in every day life; and to prepare you in the case that college is what God has in the future for you. We want you to graduate Rodgers University fully capable of entering whatever vocation He has in store.We want to equip you with the skills that you need when you are shot out of our home as an arrow for God. We will be focusing on U.S. History this year as a family so that you will understand how blessed we are to live in the United States of America and will know well your heritage.

It is such a privilege to be your teacher, Allie Grace. It gives me great delight to watch you learn and grow into the young woman God wants you to be. You are beautiful, you are lovely, you are loved.

With my whole heart,
Momma
July 2013