As a new month rolls in, we were going to send out a topical newsletter with an informational article (we had yet to choose from a number of possible topics). We also wanted to let you know that we are preparing for winter cold season and have some discount immune products available from Beeyoutiful: Bee Strong, Bee Immune, and Berry Well—all at 15% off of Beeyoutiful prices.

Also, we are excited to have our first “Values-Driven Kids” product available—a 54-page character training coloring book called, Growing to be Like Jesus. This will be regularly priced at $4.95 but is available for a limited time for only $2.95!

However, these things pale in comparison to what we feel we must share with you this month, after all. While not our intended agenda, there are matters far more important.

You may have noticed that there haven’t been any posts to our blog for several weeks. At first, we were regrouping from our vacation and settling in right away to a new homeschooling year. Now, this week, we have made a somewhat monumental decision for the Carrier household—Lord willing, we’re going to sell our homesteading parcel here in Indiana and look for something smaller that we can purchase debt-free. As well, we would like to purchase a travel trailer and take our family, and our ministry, on the road.

We are excited about the potential changes, but also busy getting our house in order. These plans, however, are made with Proverbs 16:9 in mind: “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” It is important to seek God’s wisdom and make plans for the future, but equally important to be led by the Spirit and remember that God is in control of the future—not us.

We have been constantly reminding ourselves of this lesson as we see economic events unfolding here in the US, which have global implications. Whether we are in the “last days” or whether we are just going through the ups and downs that every empire has historically experienced, we cannot say. However, we do know that either way, there may be hard days ahead for many of us.

There’s a lot of information available out there on making preparations for your family in the event of an emergency, and preparedness is wise for any eventuality (recent economic events notwithstanding). For more on that, we’ve put together a brief outline of some of the practical things you can be thinking about as you plan for your own families. You can view it online. While we don’t want to be alarmist, we feel we would be remiss if we did not encourage you to put some thought into these important matters.

Practical preparations aside, it is of utmost importance that your family is emotionally and spiritually ready for whatever may unfold—whether temporary sacrifices due to job loss, emotional and financial upheaval because of home repossession, or even the spiritual battles of persecution because of our faith in Christ. How prepared are you in this area? Even if nothing “major” happens in the future, think about where your children are spiritually, and where you want them to be. Are you doing the things that you need to in order to help them mature with a strong, personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

We recently got an email from a lovely soon-to-be Grandma, which was so heartfelt and so on-target with what we felt compelled to share with you, that we wanted to let you read it, too. Don’t let this woman’s regrets be yours!:

The more I read about your ministry and your family, the more I realize we missed the boat with our family. Although our 3 children have grown into great people who love God, we settled for “good” and not God’s best. It amazes me to think we never really sat down and discussed what and how we wanted to teach our children about the Lord. Even more amazing is how He blessed our misguided efforts to create such terrific people in spite of us. Now as I await the birth of our first grandie, I want to grab the child’s parents and plead with them not to make the mistakes we made. Unfortunately, the parents are only nominal believers–they go to church occasionally but we never really talk about God. Please pray with me that God will open up an opportunity to share with my son and his wife how desperately important it is to have Christ the center of their marriage and parenting. I would love to have them read your Values Driven Family book.
Thank you for your daily walk and faithfulness to meet each challenge head-on and your willingness to share your learning with all of us “out here” on the net. May God continue to use and bless you all.

Please pray with me for the next generation in this family, and now let’s take a realistic look at our own families, and talk about some things we can do to strengthen our families spiritually. We want to be ready for the future and ensure that our faith is strong enough to withstand potentially tough times ahead. Click here to read more online about spiritual readiness.