Discerning God's Will

TzipiDee said:

I need to make a decision - whether to pursue studies full time, or to stay at home and be there for my husband and young adult kids if they need me.
I'm of an age that I feel that this is almost my last chance. If I don't go back to college this year, I think I will have probably left it too late.
I always feel when it comes to these big life decisions that God seems especially silent.

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Could you take courses online from home?

TzipiDee said:

Yes, it's an option, but not for the course I want to do (teacher training).

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Maybe a good comprise is to start off doing as many online courses as you can so you can still be around for your children while they are home and once finished look into the other courses you need. Just a suggestion. Pray about it and ask for God to help you make this decision.

God bless!

Hello @TzipiDee, here are a few things that I hope will be helpful to you.

The first two below are short lectures from a 2-part teaching series by Dr. R. C. Sproul called "The Will of God" (I believe that they were originally meant for his radio broadcast ministry called, Renewing Your Mind, just FYI).

They're both about 20 minutes long, and both address discovering God's will for your life (the first one talks as much about what ~not~ to do when trying to discover His will as it does how to find it, which is very important to know and understand too).

Additionally, here are two short articles (about 5 minutes each, I think) that should be helpful too (the second one is an article ~and~ a video, and since both share the same text, you can choose to read, listen or do both at the same time, whichever you prefer + there are some additional articles on the topic of God's will linked for you at the bottom of the page)

Finally, understanding God's will for our life is easy when what we want to do is forbidden in the Scriptures, but when it's adiaphora, finding His will may not be as easy, but it is most often far more wonderful, since one of the principal ways that we discover His will is found in our ongoing/growing relationship w/Him

May God bless you as you seek to discover His will for your life!!

--David
p.s. - here are a couple of verses that come to mind about this topic. The first one is a wonderful command with a wonderful promise from God attached to it, just be sure that you understand clearly what our half of the verse is telling us to do (just FYI, the key to obeying the first half of v4 is found in always chasing after God, never after the things that we think that we want from Him).

TzipiDee said:

I need to make a decision - whether to pursue studies full time, or to stay at home and be there for my husband and young adult kids if they need me.
I'm of an age that I feel that this is almost my last chance. If I don't go back to college this year, I think I will have probably left it too late.
I always feel when it comes to these big life decisions that God seems especially silent.

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Just to say My wife completed a BHsc degree in her 50's and now runs a Post Natal Care business.

I was a finalist in a University Innovation competition at 78 - age need not be a barrier.

TzipiDee said:

I need to make a decision - whether to pursue studies full time,

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In order to get teacher training, you say.

How is this interesting to you?

TzipiDee said:

I always feel when it comes to these big life decisions that God seems especially silent.

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So, you have experience with God being "silent". Possibly you already have discovered how it was best to handle this.

Even so, I think of how God can seem silent, but really He is quiet while we can have noisy stuff in us keeping us from communicating with Him.

And He might want you to discover how things are going to work. Actions can speak louder than words.

And He could want you to have communication with your husband about this. But yes indeed sharing with your family can be a higher priority and benefit.

Doing things as family might help to feed you for how to do things as a teacher. After all, our God is our Father and Jesus His Son. Man made in God's image is a multi-person family being.

And so, your teaching could go better in a Christian school or Sunday school where family relating would be welcome more fully. But God is not limited.

About how to teach > you might consider how babies have become able to speak any language, while students in schools often can be all but clueless about how to speak a language they have studied even for years.

How is that?

My niece's girl has been doing Spanish for years and she got tongue-tied when I said a very simple thing to her. But my pastor's daughter-in-law is conversing in Chinese and English with her two pre-school children.

One thing is that a baby learns in a family. There is individual attention. The baby can get praise and delight for making any noise, at all.

There's no theory or set, one-size-fits-all methods. It's a family exciting thing even for everyone. And the other children help the newer child to learn; this can strengthen the language ability of the children who help the younger ones.

You can learn a subject or activity better in helping others with it . . . in giving. And if you are dearly loving the one you teach, this can have things work even better. Family loving, then, has much to do with helping the baby to learn any language, and even be bilingual.

And it is used, right away.

TzipiDee said:

I need to make a decision - whether to pursue studies full time, or to stay at home and be there for my husband and young adult kids if they need me.

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What does your husband say?

TzipiDee said:

I'm of an age that I feel that this is almost my last chance. If I don't go back to college this year, I think I will have probably left it too late.

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It's never too late.

TzipiDee said:

I always feel when it comes to these big life decisions that God seems especially silent.

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Maybe he doesn't actually mind what you do?

Also, since you say "back to college," might want to check to see how many yrs you have to complete the coursework to fall under the classes the institution required for that degree. It will be stated in the cataIog for the specific year you enrolled. Or check with the department/college to get a clear, accurate evaluation - getting the results in writing with a signature. Though some can make exceptions regarding this matter depending on numerous factors.