I Just Needed a Reminder
Do you ever find you’ve lost your passion for something that you once loved? Not because you don’t love it anymore, but because the busyness of life has pushed it to the bottom of the priority list and suddenly you’ve become less like a unique individual and more like the energizer bunny, trying to cross everything off the “to-do” list of life? That is how I’ve felt lately, in more ways than one.
The biggest issue lately has been whether or not we were going to homeschool again in the fall, or send the boys to a local Christian school. I was actually physically sick from the stress of making such a big decision. I believe that we’re 99% sure we’re going to continue homeschooling and I’m really excited about that decision. It is the one I was leaning toward the most.
This morning as the family was slowly waking up, I grabbed a cup of coffee, one of my favorite books, and one of the cushions from my patio furniture and headed to the back patio for some quiet time. The book is “Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit”, by Teri Maxwell. This book was such a driving force in our first semester of last year. She is a homeschooling mother of eight and has been homeschooling since 1985. She loves the Lord and has incredible wisdom to give through her experiences with the Lord, a large family, and homeschooling for so many years. All it took was one single chapter to make me want to jump up from my chair and hit the ground running. I don’t know if you ever feel like this, but sometimes I lose sight of my ultimate goal in marriage and parenting. Sometimes, unfortunately, I take my eyes off of the Lord and revert them back to myself and suddenly I’m angry with everyone in my house and all I want is some ME TIME! In actuality, all I really want it to be the very best wife and mother that I can possibly be. I want to shelter, love, educate, and protect my children. I want to prepare them to be godly heads of household when they have a family of their own one day. I want to respect my husband and always make the wisest decisions for our family when the responsibility rests in my hands. I want my husband and children to think of me as meek and quiet. By definition, meek means soft, gentle, not easily provoked or irritated. The definition of quiet is peaceable, not turbulent, not giving offense, mild, meek, and contented. What a standard to live up to. I have to physically tell myself, out loud, each morning, “I have the mind of Christ!” Achieving a meek and quiet spirit is going to take as much work for me as would training for a marathon! I’m not naturally inclined to be meek and quiet, just like I’m not naturally inclined to run every single day in increasing distances with increasing speeds. Everything in life that’s worth having, is worth working for! I just needed a reminder.
I hope this encouraged you, regardless of what you’ve been struggling with.
Have a great weekend!
~audrey
P.S. My weekend challenge to you is to grab a laundry basket and head out to your car. Clean out all trash, clothes, shoes, books, toys…anything that does not belong in your car! Then, when you get back in the house, set the timer for 15 minutes and unload that laundry basket so everything gets back where it belongs (if you’re anything like me, most of it will end up in the trash!). Good luck!