Well moms, you are almost halfway through the school year… maybe some of you are even just beginning your journey into homeschooling after Christmas break. Either way, as a veteran homeschool mom on the other side of things, I want to encourage you to keep up the fight. I wrote the following to my daughter who home-educates her four children at the beginning of this school year. Perhaps it will bless you as well.
Ramblings from the Other Side…
Dear Daughter,
I am writing things I already told you today, but I feel called to write them down for some reason. Perhaps they might bless others. So, here are some ramblings from one homeschool mom to another, from first generation to second generation.
I hear you. I hear your frustration with what seems less than perfect. Sometimes you will wonder why things can’t look like the cover of the Teaching Home magazine. There I go showing my age. Is that still around? Anyway, I’m sure there is an equivalent these days. It’s most likely a blog showing a perfect family. At any rate, it is intimidating because most days your life doesn’t feel like anything close to that.
As you gather your lesson plans and enjoy that wonderful smell of new books, please remember that this is WAR. Ladies, you are in the fight of your lives. You are in the front line of the battle for your children’s souls.
War is messy. The enemy that seeks to destroy you and devour your children hates that you are dedicated to bringing them up in Christ. He hates how bright your light is shining for Christ. He hates your marriage. He hates your church. He will try to attack you from all sides…
He will try to make you feel
… like you aren’t qualified.
… like you are too busy to pray.
… like your spouse doesn’t care enough.
… like the “experts” in public school could handle this job better.
… like you are generally not enough.
Here is the secret weapon for the battle. YOU aren’t qualified and YOU aren’t enough—but Christ is! Here are a few of His words you can take to heart and throw back in Satan’s face:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
– Psalm 46:1
4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Philippians 1:4-6
I want you to promise me this—when you get up every morning, as you brush your teeth and throw your mom jeans on (you know, the ones you swore you would never wear?) and face another day of terrible twos, feisty fours, sassy sevens and emotional eights—that you will not forget the most basic garment of all. The best-dressed moms don’t look like those bloggers. My guess is that most days, those bloggers don’t really look like that either. They wear armor, like all soldiers do. Promise me that every morning you will pray each piece of the armor on. As I mentioned before, this is WAR.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God –Ephesians 6:10-17
Oh, and bloggers, we love your tips and crafty ideas. Keep those coming! But please realize that this is war and war is messy. Most soldiers don’t return from battle and say that it went exactly as the general planned it. It gets confused. It gets scary. Some days we look a lot better than others.
The bottom line is that you will not feel like all your plans are falling into place. If you do, your kids are probably just learning how to look perfect.
Honestly, most days you will feel like you are not adequate. That’s because you are not—but the good news is that Christ is.
One day, you will be watching from the other side as I am now. If I had it to do all over again I would… absolutely not change a thing! God was faithful and made up for my shortcomings. From my view, I see that God took my imperfect but willing effort. He crafted my children into godly, caring and wonderful adults. Believe me. It’s so completely worth it.
And I promise, I will be putting my armor on too and taking our little angel faces to Jesus’ feet
… every.single.day.
