Wednesday, April 23, 2008

When Life Gets in the Way

I've found myself begrudging many of the tasks that have crowded my schedule, my desk, my mind over the last several months. True, it's been a season of increased activity for our home. You know what, though? Life has a way of, well, just getting in the way. I'm beginning to realize (yes, count me among the slow learner camp in this area) that no matter how refined my schedule, how organized my calendar, how "on top" of things I feel, I'm not the only factor in this equation. Years ago I shared part of my life story in a church service and started this way: "I would be the perfect wife and mother if it wasn't for my husband and children." Ain't that the truth?

There's more to it than that, though. In all of this falling short of my goals and ideals, and certainly falling short of the mark God has set for me, I'm learning some pretty valuable lessons. The biggest one, of course, is that God is using my insufficiencies to show He is beyond sufficient. I'm embracing the value of this calling called homemaking and chucking out some of the long-held but incorrect notions I have of what this all means. That motherhood, teaching, cooking, cleaning, and managing our home is one of the roles God values highly. That all these times of missing the mark can result in fertile teaching ground. And I do need to be taught. Desperately.

We started homeschooling our children 5 years ago. Starting out, I thought that we could really offer them a strong academic foundation in a time–efficient way. What I've grown to understand is that academics are such a small part of what we do in a day. All this character stuff is way more important. And I'm not talking about the children.

Since my recent track record on posting isn't exactly stellar and it's statistically improbable that I'll blog again before Friday, I'll leave you with a pic of my soon-to-be-7-year-old girl. I'd tell you how time flies and all that good stuff, but I suspect you're likely aware of that already.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ah yes, I'm learning to embrace life and realize it doesn't get in the way, it just is, and we need to flow with it rather than fight it to meet some perfectionist agenda. Plans are good, I probably wouldn't accomplish much without them, but flexibility is the grease that keeps the wheel turnin'when a wrench gets thrown in the gears...
it's soo cool to see how God has led us on a parallel path over the years, heartwarming to me.

Miriam Pauline said...

I totally understand life getting in the way. I've been mulling the need to "organize better" but maybe I just need to embrace what God is doing? It's great to see you blogging again. I've missed you.

Velda said...

welcome back :)

Margaret said...

I've missed you. And thanks for posting a picture of my sweet girl!

Ara said...

Glad to have you back! I like reading your blog posts.