S2/E14 - Smile at Your Children and Give Thanks

Transcript:2023 A New YearHi there, I’m sonja wood, thank you for joining me on this season 2 episode 14 of our Oikos family podcast.While pondering over the end of 2022 and what I would like to share with you I was reminded of the moms testimonies which we filmed back in July 2017.Wow, that now seems like a long time ago. Anyway, one of the moms shared with us how she struggled with having a temper and found herself yelling at her children and she didn’t like that and wanted to change it.I found her testimony to be so powerful and helpful so I thought that it would be good to tell you about it, as well as letting you know of the other videos which we produced of mothers sharing their testimonies of their home education journey. Each one is naturally unique to each mom so I feel sure you will find something which you can relate to and therefor I hope that you will find them helpful. I will put the playlist link for these mothers testimonies in the description.With the 2022 behind us, it’s a good time to take what we can from 2022 and leave what we don’t want to take into 2023 behind us.On a personal note I would like to take into 2023 joy and strength and a heart filled with thanksgiving even though 2022 has been a tough year, we have so, so much to be thankful for and who knows what 2023 has in store, so I would rather embrace the new year with a heart full of hope instead of anxiety and fear of the unkown.I feel now to share something personal with you.We had some experiences during 2022 which I definitely do not want to have again in 2023…..one such experience being that we had 5 burglaries in the space of 10 months. So what we going to do is take into 2023 what we have instead of being downhearted about what we don’t have. ‘Things’ were stolen but if we allow peace, joy, hope and strength to be stolen too then that is theft upon theft ….so instead we going to be thankful that we still have joy, peace, strength and hope….so we won’t allow that to be stolen too and so we head into 2023 with SO much and the things we no longer have (the things which were stolen) do not matter because what does matter and what we truly do need, we still have.So I do hope that as you and your family prepare for new beginnings that you will be encouraged to be strong, to keep smiling….to smile at your child and have joy in your home.Remember JOY = STRENGTHSo joy and strength I share with you…..because I have it to share….it was not stolen.Abundant blessings to you…..thank you for lending me your ears …..I appreciate your time and feel very blessed to have had this privileged time to share with you. Thank youBye for now.Playlist of mothers testimonies: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT-aH2GhuIs0RBY0-zv6GXXczgFvKgFHl This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oikosfamily.substack.com