“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
There was a time before now, when my burdens were much heavier. It’s funny how I’m doing more now- yet it’s as if it’s less because the burden is light.
Before we started homesteading, or homeschooling for that matter, I wasn’t following Jesus. I did the next right-hard thing most often, and kept my nose clean for the most part, but the weariness of the world is consuming. When we found out we would be parents, I went back to school. I was waitressing at the time, and my husband just moved here from Southern California and has started an apprenticeship with a local construction company. I thought working a 9-5 while my then embryotic baby would be in school in years to come made the most sense.
Time is a funny thing… it felt like forever until he was born. Next thing I knew the years were rushing past. Day in and day out, I cried out in my heart for God to make a way. Around the same time, my mom became ill, and the slow fade took place and in two years’ time ALS had claimed her once vivacious nature and she had passed. But something wild happened as I watched her fight her battles, she didn’t struggle, she wasn’t angry. Humbly, she barred the burden- she was yoked Jesus. No matter what we go through, when we’re his- he carries the load. As we trust him, as we rely on him- this is the essence of humility. Watching her remain in faith until the very end, it changed my heart, and through the loss, we were transplanted. We moved in with my dad, to love on him, to serve him, to feed him while he mourned the loss of the love of his life.
It’s funny how God works, in all of it I felt my life was being ripped apart, when truly we were being uprooted- from where we had made life on our own terms to this new place where we didn’t know what to do or where to go. I had to learn to follow, I still am.
We bought the homestead from my Dad, which was blessing unspeakable. Him and my mom had planted an orchard, its simply one of my favorite parts of our land. They had started bush gardens and a perennial garden, and stubborn willow tree (more on that later.)
2020 had come and everything came to a halt, and I felt the Lord instructing me to homeschool. The opportunity was upon us to take back our time. That first year, we got a few chickens, planted a garden and we’ve been learning to slow down since.
I don’t have it all figured out, nor do I want to pretend as if I do. More than anything I want you to see the failures- so often I think we think success is the absence of failure, when truly it’s radically embracing failure as a part of the process. We’ve learned a few things along the way, and I want to share that with you too.
Come as you are; stay as long as you’d like.
with love,
Kira Lynn
