Hey Mama Monday: Mama, I Want to Give Up (But I Won’t!)

Before you say, “I Quit!” I want to encourage you to think otherwise. Let me just say that there is probably at least one day a month or more that I want to say, “I Quit!” to something in my life, whether it be teaching, cleaning, cooking, transporting, or disciplining a child. We all share the same thoughts and feelings.  I think those feelings stem from a lack of peace. Because of the difficult, mundane, or tiring circumstances in our life, we lose our peace and therefore feel that if we quit, we will find that peace. But peace won’t magically come in a change of circumstance. However, I know just the place to find it! Here is what the living Word of God says:

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength” (Isaiah 26:3, 4).

1. Our MINDS need to be stayed: focused, kept, and continued on HIM. Take your mind off your circumstances and put it on HIM. Magnify HIM and not your difficulty.
2. Our minds are able to stay on HIM because we TRUST in HIM. Do not trust in what you see or feel. Trust in your God forever. He is the only unchanging thing in your life!
3. In HIM is everlasting strength! Tired, weary, discouraged? You need strength, and you don’t have it in yourself. In the Lord alone is everlasting strength.

Think about and memorize that Scripture in Isaiah and start putting it into practice, and you will find peace. Don’t put more things into practice until you put this into practice. In other words, don’t try to find solutions to your problems until you find peace in HIM. Let me encourage you with 25 reasons to not give up:

25 Reasons Not To Give Up

1. God’s grace is sufficient.
2. God gives us everything we need for life and godliness.
3. God’s mercy endures forever.
4. It is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
5. Our children need Godly parent mentors and teachers.
6. Our children need their questions answered from a biblical worldview.
7. Our children need and are permitted room to grow and time for creativity.
8. Our children need and receive Godly socialization.
9. Our children learn to be unselfish and how to serve others.
10. Our children retain their innocence.
11. Our children will have a lasting legacy of love and commitment.
12. Our children and our children’s children will be spared worldly indoctrination.
13. We know where our children are at all times.
14. We know what our children are being taught at all times.
15. We know who our children’s friends are, and we know their friends’ parents.
16. We retain our God-given right to educate our own children.
17. Our children receive a superior education no matter what philosophy or curriculum.
18. Homeschooled children receive one-on-one attention and specialized training.
19. Homeschooled children can see and experience the world around them regularly.
20. Homeschooling permits the teaching of important life skills.
21. Homeschooling builds strong character and strong relationships.
22. Our children will not have to walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
23. Our children will not have to stand in the path of sinners.
24. Our delight will be in the law of the Lord, and everything we do will prosper.
25. Our God never gives up, and He gives us His strength to continue the journey.

Still want to quit? Here is an encouraging article called Before You Say, “I Quit!”

Hanging onto my Great God with you!

~ 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 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).