Hey Mama Monday: Mama, How Are You Feeling?
Lately, I am feeling a little bit anxious. Besides this strange “pandemic” we are in, the end of the school year is fast approaching. I feel the need to get it all done, but I don’t feel the desire. I never feel like I have done the best job, and I always feel like I could have done more. When these crazy feelings take hold, what do we do? We exchange them for Truth.
We focus on what’s true and keep on keeping on by the grace of God, because days turn into months, months turn into years. Soon your child will graduate from your high school, and you wonder where those days and months and years went.
Although I do not always feel secure in myself, my curriculum choices, or of what’s ahead, I am confident in God to complete the work He starts in me and in each of my children. “I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).
Knowing the truth that God wants to work in all of us, I must put the feelings aside and purpose instead to be on the lookout for when He wants to reveal His character each day. I stop thinking about how incapable I am, and I continue to ask God for wisdom in raising His children.
Will I trust these feelings of lack or insecurity, or will I believe the truth that God will provide everything I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3)?
What always gets us into trouble is when we let our changing feelings direct our actions. We don’t stop homeschooling or any other thing God has called us to do because of feelings. The enemy wants to distract us and defeat us with these fleeting feelings.
We don’t meditate on our very fickle feelings. If so, our minds will be bogged down and we will not be able to be used by God. How do we control feelings? The Word of God is where our mind should dwell for, in dwelling there, our minds are renewed (rehabilitated, transformed), and we will be able to know the good and perfect will of God (Psalm 1; Romans 12).
We should lay our feelings down at the feet of Christ and take our thoughts captive unto obedience. Obedience should never depend on our feelings. Our obedience will be rewarded by God. Our feelings will be rewarded with more like feelings and can lead to a downward spiral.
I may never feel qualified, prepared, or secure, but I think my children are happy to know that I am committed to this God-given conviction as I put my faith in the power of God and the Truth of the Word of God as I teach them and keep them Home Where They Belong… whether I feel like it or not.
~Deborah
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 4 to 21. She is a leader of her local homeschool group and prays constantly for the right balance of priorities. 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)”.
