#93 - The Gift of Trust: Preparing for Christmas with Ruth Chapter 4

Are you ready to homeschool with confidence this holiday season? In this special episode of Homeschool Unlocked, Jesús and Monica Aviles share timeless lessons from Ruth Chapter 4 to help parents overcome fears and embrace homeschooling as a gift, not a burden. Just as Ruth trusted God’s provision, you, too, can approach this season with renewed faith and purpose.

Tune in to discover why homeschooling is more than an educational choice—it’s an opportunity to deepen family bonds, instill resilience, and nurture a Christ-centered home. Whether you're considering homeschooling, new to it, or a seasoned homeschooler navigating the busy holidays, this episode will inspire you to rely on God’s love for every step of your journey.

Listen now to unlock a new way of seeing homeschooling and enter this season with faith over fear. Share this episode with a friend who could use encouragement as they prepare for the holiday season, because Homeschool Unlocked—it’s not school. It’s life.

#HomeschoolUnlocked #Homeschool #LessonsFromRuth #Faith #GodProvides #HomeschoolingWithConfidence #InspiredToHomeschool #FamilyFaithJourney #Christmas #Parenting #MomLife

https://1lnk.page/MonicaAviles

Transcript

Welcome to the Homeschool Unlocked podcast, the show that helps parents see homeschooling as a unique opportunity. So forget fear. You can inspire.You can guide your child. Homeschool Unlocked. It's not school.It's life. Good day Homeschool Unlocked family. This is Jesus Aviles.I'm joined with my lovely queen, Monica Aviles. This is Homeschool Unlocked, and we want to love everybody that's listening to this podcast from all across the world. That's right.We actually have had downloads from Singapore. Preach that, baby. That is correct.We are international. This is an international podcast, technically speaking. And we are reaching out to all those that are considering or thinking about or curious about homeschooling.But, you know, I'm running ahead of myself. Normally we start off with a little true or false, or what are we trying with today? Yes, true or false. Yesterday was election day.True. Yes, correct. I have some great true and false questions that actually have to do with the barley harvest.Any idea where the barley harvest is mentioned in the Bible? Of course. The barley harvest. Yes.It's all over the Old Testament. Yes, actually. And it's in one book in particular.One book. The book of the Bible. The book of Ruth.The book of Ruth. Okay, great. Now, the reason I'm going to share about that is because we're going to be talking about Ruth and focusing on Chapter 4 as we prepare for this Christmastime.Let's do it. Okay, so true or false. In ancient Moab, the barley harvest typically took place in the spring.Of course. Of course, the spring. Yes, actually.Nice. See, I like to say things with confidence, even though I had no clue on that. But good, one for one.Well, and it actually occurs in the month of April, special month for my honey pie. My birthday, April. Yes.All right. And in that region, that was when there was a lot of harvesting happening. Okay.So, let's see. True or false. Barley was primarily used as animal feed in Moab and was not a common part of the human diet.I'm going to say false to that. You are right. Yeah.You're doing so good. I'm not peeking to my left at the answer. I'm not doing that.Let me cover it. Hold on. Let me put it here.No, you don't need to cover it. Okay, great. How do you expect me to get them right? You have a 50-50 shot.I do. All right. Barley was a staple food in Moab and in the surrounding regions.I'm covering this. And it was used to make bread, porridge, and sometimes even fermented drinks. I did not look at the answers, by the way, but let's keep going.Okay. Well, then I'll move this. Number three.Barley grows best in well-watered, fertile lands, fertile valleys, and requires a long rainy season. Barley, huh? I'm going to say no to that. Yeah, right.You're right because Moab is east of Jerusalem. Okay. So, that area does not get a lot of rain.And it's actually a very hardy crop that requires – it doesn't actually – it's not very fussy. So, it can grow in drier soils. Sweet.It has a short growing season. And so, in areas where there's less rainfall, it's a good crop. It's a good crop.Okay, great. Yes. No cap.No cap. No cap on that. No cap.It's a good crop. All right. Truer Falls, last one.The barley harvest was an important social event with workers often singing and celebrating during the harvest. I'm going to equate harvesting with, like, real hard work. And unless you're like Snow White, you're not whistling while you're working.So, I'm going to say no to that. Well, technically, it was also the dwarves who were whistling. It was the dwarves.Obviously, I have not watched that movie either. It's okay. Actually, true.It was a huge event. Really? And so, they often celebrated with songs, feasts, and community gatherings as people came together to bring in the crop. That's excellent.Yes. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So, people are happy as the workers are going out there working.That's right. Excellent. Very good.Very good. And Homeschool Unlocked friends, we're here to talk to, who are we focusing on today, honey? My love, we're talking to those that are curious, that are wondering what is homeschooling, what would be a great reason to homeschool. And, you know, the only reasons I can share with those that are considering possibly homeschooling, right? That whole opportunity to kind of create something at home.I think of a couple of different reasons. Number one, it brings you closer to your family. I mean, you can't, you know, you're talking about bonds and relationships, super-duper close.Next, it's super-duper a safe and nurturing environment. I mean, homeschooling with your kid, you're like there in the grind day-to-day. Also, it's super-flexible.I mean, when we talk about the super-duper benefits of a homeschooling, being flexible is definitely a big, awesome one. And the next one, you know, we talk about it often about, you know, skills over content. You know, there are actually values that supersede sometimes what you would call fundamental skills.And these values tied to faith, these values tied to love, tied to, you know, resiliency, perseverance. Like these character issues is something that, you know, you can easily bring it to the homeschool setting. So those are just some of the reasons why I believe that if you're on the fence or if you're thinking through homeschooling, think no longer.Let's do. Yeah, and this is actually our 21st year homeschooling during the holidays. And so why should somebody who's thinking about homeschooling think about it during this time? I mean, what's been going on? Well, you know, I'm going to put on my old public school hat, right? At this particular point, school has started in August, right? We may be sitting with some kids that had to go to summer school, so maybe there wasn't a break.So all of a sudden, we're two, three, four months actually into the school year. We're about to hit a nice little break, a break for everybody involved, right? And so all of a sudden, it's in these moments where, you know, might be a nice time. The timing could fit if you're super interested, if homeschooling might be an issue.But some of the things that kind of hold us back from these transitions, not just now, but like forever, like these thoughts, these fears of I'm going to mess things up. Like whatever the school was working on, let's just assume that what the school was working on was great, that you're going to mess that up, right? So you got these fears, you got these worries, you know. Also, because the holidays are coming up, you might think it might not be a good time to start something.But listen, the best time to start something was when? Yesterday. Yesterday. So if you can't start yesterday, start today.If you can't start today, start tomorrow. There's no need to think I need to end the school year here, right? So again, these are things that kind of get in the way of making this transition when you know something's calling you, right? Also, with the holidays, you have family gatherings. Also, the holidays is a lot of time when money kind of flows out and may not be coming in as much.So you have these financial issues. But, you know, anytime we talk about homeschooling, you're talking about taking a true, not leap, but just taking steps in faith. You know, believing if you were called to this, you can do this.It is. And it is. We are entering Christmas time and we're celebrating gift giving.Yes, we are. And so even though there is going to be a lot happening, because we're remembering the greatest gift of all, which is the gift of Christ. Yes.He came and he lived a perfect life and he died and was resurrected. And so even though there are demands on us during this holiday season, one of the really beautiful things that I got to reflect on while I was preparing for a girls retreat, I was able to speak at a girls retreat for our church and Nola organized it. She did a great job and I was able to focus on Ruth chapter four.And Ruth is a short but powerful story. And it was just a great time to learn from the example of Ruth. And here you have this woman who was ordinary.We don't know anything about her being royalty or remarkable in any kind of worldly way. Yeah. And yet God, I mean, it's so amazing.I was reading the book of Ruth and it was just like striking that this woman who was nobody, so to speak, actually had such ease trusting God. Whereas Naomi, who grew up knowing about God and was an Israelite, really struggled. So during this whole Christmas time, you can celebrate the gift of Christ.And if you're curious about homeschooling and if maybe this whole this whole school year hasn't been going well and you feel rushed and you feel overwhelmed, you know, during this break, it might be a great time to think what would be the if I were to homeschool, what would be my next step? I like it. And I'm very glad you framed homeschool in the context of a gift to be given. Right.This is not a burden. Yeah. Actually coming alongside your kid and kind of learning stuff, maybe sometimes together.In your case, it's probably you're being refreshed of things that you forgot long ago. But it is a gift and we are in the gift giving season. You know, if for whatever reason, whether things are going poorly at at school, per se, if things are going poorly in the community, if things just need to get stronger at home, these are all multiple reasons for this gift to be given.And we talk about all the blessings and fruits that come out of bringing your child home, spending a season. That season could be for the rest of the school year. It could be like for the rest of their whole academic career.Right. It could be whatever season that is. But it's just a great opportunity to be blessed and begin, you know, putting the seeds down for that fruit.Yeah. And this definitely applies even to families that are already homeschooling. You homeschool, you enjoy homeschooling, but the holiday season is coming up.And so that can, you know, bring on certain demands and stresses. So from the book of Ruth, we're going to discuss how really one of the most humble things that you can do and one of the most humble ways that you can prepare for this Christmas time is to boast in God's love for you. I like it.Seems counterintuitive. It's often easier to think, well, let me boast about my love for God. You know, let me let me humble myself and really show how much I love God.And really, you know, because we are so finite, it's actually a lot more humble to boast in God's love for you because you're recognizing as a mom, maybe you're already homeschooling. Your confidence is coming not from knowing, you know, not from knowing at all, but because you trust in God's love and in his provision for your family. So imagine this Christmas time, if you were fully confident in God's loving provision for you, which Ruth, in some amazing way, she was, right? We don't even know that she read her Bible, right? They didn't have Bibles there available.No libraries there. Yeah, we don't know that she journaled for an hour or that she did all these really good things. We just know that for some reason she had this like childlike faith in God and that she was able to be used by God to do great things.So can we, can I, can I invite you to imagine what it would be like to enjoy this Christmas time, confident in God's loving provision for you and your family as you homeschool, as you enjoy the season. So, you know, will you trust that God can work even as you enter Christmas time in these strained family relationships, right? Because we're going to be going and visiting family and you may not get along with everyone sitting at the table or maybe you have certain needs. Okay, it's gift giving time and there's not a lot in the bank.It's so easy to feel fear and to compare and just worry about unwise choices. But instead of feeling doubt and feeling stressed, one thing in the book of Ruth is let's not have these fears and these barriers and let's instead know that God is faithful and God provides. You know, it was, this is not specifically from chapter four.I had the pleasure of speaking on chapter four, but in chapter one, it was so interesting because God is so faithful when you read his word, you can find new things in his word. And in Ruth chapter one, Naomi says, you know, go back. Actually, now I'm questioning it.I don't know if it's one or two, but she says, go back, my daughters. So basically, Naomi gets there. Naomi's husband dies.Her sons marry Moabite women. Ten years later, they die. And now there's three widows.So we started with Naomi, who had a husband and two sons, and now she is a mother-in-law. And now the three of them, her and her two daughter-in-laws are all widows. And she says, turn back, my daughters.You know, I'm not going to be able to get married. And if I get married, you know, my sons, I'm not going to be able to have sons for you to marry. And because she's so fearful, she literally doesn't have, she doesn't think of any possibilities, right? And how many times have we been in those, you know, been thinking when we're, all we see is kind of like a bleakness because we're so full of fear.But later on, she goes, oh, you know, what about Boaz? She says to Ruth, I think in Chapter 3. Why? Because she is not operating out of fear. She now sees Boaz as a kinsman-redeemer. And she says, hey, let me, you know, she presents this option to Ruth.So, you know, it's amazing that when we look at a situation, depending on how we look at it, we are able to envision different things. So one of the things as you're celebrating and you're preparing for Christmas and for Thanksgiving, which happens even before, you know, in the small things, in the small things that you encounter every day, like, oh, I have to pray, whatever. Instead, why not shift it to, I get to pray? I like it.Right? Instead of like, I should journal. Well, it becomes like, I choose to journal. That's right.Or I have to, I must plan. No, I'm going to trust God to help me get organized. And so whether or not you're homeschooling, you can look at this time with your kids and with your family in a totally different way if you boast in God's love for you.And the last verse of Ruth, Chapter 8, the last verse of Ruth, Chapter 3, Verse 18, Naomi says to Ruth, basically, like, don't worry, because the man will not rest until the matter is settled today. I am paraphrasing, and she's talking about Boaz going to work. And that really stuck out to me.It's basically when I rest, and I say this humbly because it's an active rest, like I'm actively trusting in God, I'm actively looking to him. But when I'm actively resting, he's going to go to work on my behalf. I like it.And, you know, I mean, when you rest in the Lord, you really begin that whole information to transformation process, right? We talk about information, reading the word, but we talk about transformation, it actually changes your mindset. So just going back to operating out of, I have to, I must, to I can, I have the opportunity, I am gifted to, right? Just seeing this as a fruit of your faith. You know, I mean, this is not obviously a direct statement toward, you know, hey, you got to homeschool tomorrow.If not, you lack faith. But we definitely want to say homeschool, man, and you need faith. And if you're in this zone, if you're in this area, if God has you in a position where you're ready to exercise some of that faith, I ask that you exercise this homeschooling.I ask that you consider it, that you think about it, that you transition from it being curious or being some sort of novelty or maybe just one more thing that you hope to do. I say you do it. I say you make it happen.Here at Homeschool Unlocked, we're willing to come alongside you. We're willing to care for you. We have 21 years of homeschool experience.My wife taught at the private school level for about five, six years. Four. Four years.You know, it's like fishing, remember? Every year the fish gets bigger. So Monica has four years of teaching in the private sector before 21 years of homeschooling. I've worked at the public school system for 18 years, so close to 20 years.So we come with a lot to the table. We're willing to come alongside those that need some assistance and reach out for some assistance. That's what we're here for.We're not only promoting it. We want to help you actually achieve it. You may feel like you're Naomi in this picture where you're so familiar with it that you are a little overwhelmed.Or maybe you're like Ruth. You're excited, but you don't know what to do. Either way, God is faithful because his son is so good and he gave us his son.How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? That's Romans 8.32. I'm pretty sure about that. Homeschool family, share this with a friend that needs some encouragement and help them get ready for this Christmas time. That's right.Follow us, like us, forward us. Send us to everybody that you think would benefit just from a message of just encouragement and of not operating from fear and to really consider homeschooling. Love you guys.Bye. Bye. Thank you for spending time with us today.Check out our link below and subscribe to our podcast. We hope that we helped you by unlocking a new way of seeing homeschooling. Who else needs to hear this? Only you know.So take action and share it because remember homeschool unlocked. It's not school. It's life.