Hey Mama Monday: An Ordinary Homeschool, Mama
Hey Mama,
What do you get when you add 2 children with the flu, 2 dentist appointments, 1 unmotivated teen, 1 child with 100 school questions, 1 student waiting to read with mom, 1 teen who needs a work permit (today!), 1 music lesson, and 1 husband who wants to know what’s for dinner? You get an ordinary homeschool day. This is my actual day today, and rather than choosing to become overwhelmed, I choose worship. An ordinary life can become extraordinary when we choose worship over worry.
Even though we school through the summer, this was supposed to be our first official week of the new school year. But since we have had numerous visitors, illnesses, and activities to sidetrack us, we are going to be okay waiting another week to start the new curriculum and schedule.
If you are in the same situation, take heart. It’s an ordinary thing among homeschool families to have life interruptions! And guess what? Even if you are behind in your school year, your children are probably ahead in both academics and character. (NHERI has a free factsheet for you.)
The ordinary life is never glamorous, but it is in those very ordinary days that we find we need an extraordinary God. He gives strength for the moment, wisdom for the lack of it, grace for the trials amidst us, and mercy for the rebels among us. We cannot make it through these ordinary days without Him. And when we try in our own strength and sufficiency to handle everything, we find that we come up without enough of either.
He is our sufficiency, but how do we walk that out practically? By taking one step at a time in an attitude of prayer, worship, and listening for His Voice whether diapering or diagramming. By soaking in His Word in whatever manner possible throughout the day, and by worshiping the One True God in the middle of the mundane.
The glory in these ordinary days is that God is waiting to gloriously rule over them. He wants you to come to Him, yoke up with Him, and let Him do the work in your heart and life that is necessary for peace in your heart and homeschool.
Sit close to your Savior and pull His children in to sit close to you. May God bless your efforts as you, in these ordinary days, keep them Home Where They Belong.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD forever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength . . .” Isaiah 26:3, 4
Deborah Wuehler is the Senior Editor and Director of Production here at The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. She would say she is a very ordinary homeschool mom–with one exception: she has an extra-ordinary God Who provides all she needs for life and homeschooling. She has eight children aged 11 to 29. Deborah’s mission is this: to point other homeschoolers to the Lord in all they do, think, and feel—and to confirm that they, too, can find everything they need for life, godliness–and homeschooling–in their knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:3, 4).
