Hey Mama Monday: How to Get Back to School After the Holidays, Mama

Hey Mama,

I was trying to figure out this week why I was feeling so downcast right about now. Maybe it was because these last holiday weeks:

• I’ve been sick with a cold and nasty cough.
• I’ve had lots and lots of visitors.
• I’ve had some painful relationship issues to deal with.
• I’ve had my plans and to-do lists laid aside.
• I’ve had the tension of starting school after this break.
• I miss my loved ones who live far away.
• I am still recovering from all the crazy holiday events–so is my house–and my body.
• I’ve gained weight over the holidays … again.
• I have tons of unanswered email and more to add to the to-do list.
• I am missing my routine of prayer and study times.
• I feel like no matter what I try to do, I am not really achieving anything of purpose.

Okay, I just realized that the focus of that whole list was me! Hmmm, perhaps that is the real reason for my blues. Let’s see if I can change that perspective a bit.

• God has given us food, clothes, and a warm house in which to live and laugh and love.
• God has always provided enough to share with others.
• God continues to give me strength for one more day (and children in helper training).
• God has provided a bounty in His Word so my soul can delight in fatness.
• He’s given me friends who encourage me to eat everything else in moderation.
• Jesus was afflicted by men, rejected and reviled by men so that I might live and move and have my being in Him (especially in those difficult relationships).
• God has sent friends and strangers and maybe even “angels unawares” to my house that He might draw them to Himself and teach us all to be servants.
• The Holy Spirit is doing His work in the hearts and lives of my children and teens as I find help at His throne of grace.
• God gives me the freedom, the desire, and ability to do His will in spite of my plans while teaching me the grace of flexibility.
• Jesus is worth celebrating every day, all year round, no matter the boxes!
• God has blessed me to keep my children home all day to train for His purposes.
• He has given me the privilege of participating in their instruction as we discover what they were created to do for Him.

Real life can be discouraging, especially now, and our hearts can be easily overwhelmed. This is when we need to get a higher perspective from a safe, strong place.

Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. (Psalm 61:1-3) 

He knows our frame, that we are but dust, but He is the Excellency of power that dwells in us and holds us together. Cry out; He hears. To Him be the glory and the power, forever and ever, Amen.  

~Deborah

 dwuehler@theoldschoolhouse.com

If you are still wondering if you are even achieving anything, anyway, check this out.