Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Time Out

Time out
It’s November fourth. Most Homeschool families are into their third month of school—moving past the review sections in their math books, remembering how tough it is to stay focused, trying to balance home, church and outside activities. By this time I had already run to my room to pray for patience at least three times, rewritten the number to the public school a few times, and questioned the Lord’s call I was so sure of in August every other day it seemed.

Sometimes the difficulty of our choice to educate our children overwhelms. It’s okay to admit that. We face our beloved little sinners everyday (with our own sinful hearts in tow) and endeavor to teach them all the things they will need to be all God created them to be. That is no small order. So give yourself a break if any of what I described sounds familiar to you. And I mean that both literally and figuratively.

When I felt the weight of my children’s mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, academic, and social development crash down on me—usually right after I had lost my composure over a lost notebook or a sloppy report—I needed a time out. And I highly recommend the practice to all of you still out there in the trenches.

Take ten, fifteen, twenty minutes—go ahead, take a half-hour—and get quiet with the Lord. I used to hold out my hands and imagine my Heavenly Father grabbing onto them. I told Him each frustration, each failure, each fear. Sometimes I cried. Sometimes I yelled. Sometimes I just sat there. It didn’t always change the situation, but it never failed to change me.

Next week I’ll share some ideas I discovered to help me tackle the huge and precious job of homeschooling my little ones. Take a deep breath. It will be okay. I know. I’ve been there.
How do you handle the difficult times? Any suggestions for how to stay spiritually balanced?

1 comment:

  1. For me, there's nothing like a good dip into the Word of God to help me come up refreshed. Even after the kids were older, we'd take a "down time" after lunch. It helped me come back ready to face the rest of the day's work.

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