The Gift of Humility

This week, another homeschooling mom showed inspiring humility by sharing with me (...okay, "venting!") some of her frustrations that day.  It seemed everything she had spent the past two decades teaching her children had flown directly out the window!  The laundry was mountainous; the kitchen was a sticky mess; and school work that day was most characterized by inattention.

Go figure!

Now, I will have you know that this mother is widely regarded as a "Super Mom" around here, so you know where I'm going with this:

"Whew!  Thank God!  It's not just me!"

It's never easy to have a "bad day" with our children, and on the most elemental level I think we moms actually are consoled by shared conversations that include the selfish relief of, "Whew!  It's not just me!"  When we see "Super Moms" who really DO have their act together in so many ways and for so many years, their "bad day" here or there gives the rest of us the encouragement of knowing that, even for the most talented mothers among us, not every day is perfect, even in homeschooling.


Now, I'm not encouraging you here to go out and gripe gloomily and endlessly about your vocation as a stay-at-homeschooling-mom (or whatever your parental situation is), which actually is quite a privilege.  I am, however, encouraging you not only to be a good listener to your mom-friends when they need to vent, but also to welcome the shared support of reciprocity in that regard.  Allow yourself to share your frustrations or perceived failures with a trusted confidant who shares similar moral and family goals, and I'd be willing to bet you both will end your conversation by feeling the relief of released anxiety.

Lift each other up in prayer and be renewed in your commitment to the gift of the lifestyle that God has given you and your family!

It is a gift of humility for us to step out from behind The Polite Facade we all wear to face the public.  Share that gift with a dear friend who can help you reorient your focus back to being on your knees, not in frustrated defeat, but in the triumph of grateful supplication and prayer.

As I like to say:  "In homeschooling, not every day will be perfect, but every day will be blessed."

So, the years might fly by, but if today feels like an eternity, think about what God might be wanting you to learn today -- and perhaps it's not geography, math, nor algebra.

Plus, in the immortal words of Scarlett O'Hara, don't worry about it too much.  Because, "after all, tomorrow is another day!"