Emotions vs Truth

Photo Credit:  Kevin McCroskey

There are so many emotions associated with homeschooling.  From delight, love, companionship, success, reward, laughter, joy, and celebration to dread, fear, frustration, anger, defeat, incompetence, disappointment, and so on.  This journey is one heck of an emotional roller coaster.

So, in all honesty, why do we do it?  This question is a doozy.  I have never actually been asked this question of anyone but myself.  What have I done?  Why am I doing this?  I know we have so many wonderful days, and yet the really difficult, hard days are what seem to take over my emotions.   Fear is a major player in this battle of emotions.  Am I doing it right?  Am I doing enough?  Are they doing enough?  Am I cheating them of something better?  This is a nasty war zone.

Point blank, I do this because God has called us to do this.  I am well aware this is not everyone’s path, nor does it have to be.  He made it very clear (once I would listen), that this was His path for us.  It was not a path of my devising.  Honestly, it was nowhere on my radar, for that matter, being a stay-at-home mom was nowhere on my radar.  Yet, I would not change it for the world.

Why do I bring this up?  Partially, I bring it up because I am in a place of need to remind myself why we are doing what we are doing.  Once shared with others, it seems easier to stand my ground.  It is our testimony, one of our weapons of warfare.  The enemy will inevitably try to deter our way.  Through faith in why we are here, by the word of our testimony, and the Truth of God, we can stand strong.

When it comes down to it, Truth trumps emotion.  I can stand on Truth, emotions will cause me to sink.  Emotions are wonderful, and God given, but they were never meant to be our standard of truth.  They were never meant to lead the way.  Truth is our Solid Rock on which we stand.

Your Turn to Play ~ How do you handle the emotional roller coaster of homeschooling?

Focus Forward

Over the holidays, I decided to take a short hiatus from blogging on The Learning Leaf.  Once the Christmas season started it did not stop!  It is finally slowing down and becoming life as usual –

or as close as you can get.

During this season, the posts stopped as did “formal” instruction of Mason and Madison.  Life went too fast to plan, create, and implement like I had been.  After wrestling with guilt over “not instructing” my son, I heard that lovely still small voice of my Lord, “It’s ok.  Mason is only four!”  It was a gentle reminder that all is well.  Yes, Mason loves to learn and he thoroughly enjoys the activities that are crafted.  However, he is four and is still very much learning through play, our outings, and every day life.

With this hiatus, I saw and began to have a clearer focus that we will be doing more formal “schooling” when Mason turns 5.  This also gave me clarity to see my focus between now and then is to tweak my life scheduling and organization where my house, business (The Crafting Tree), and book writing are concerned.  Time will look very different and have different demands within 6 months or so.  Between now and then, I get to gain the upper hand in letting the Lord show me His time management strategies for me.

This is exciting.  A focus, which results in forward movement.  I’m sure I will continue to have some fun, creative, learning activities for both Mason and Madison.  As I am sure I will be creating some of my own to share as well.  This new focus, however, will change the flavor of the posts for the next few months –

How exciting to watch and see!