Focusing on the Why

Why are you homeschooling your children?

What is it at the end of this adventure with them that you wish to accomplish?

When I first set out on this homeschooling journey it was because of one simple thing obedience. I knew the Lord was asking me to bring my kids home but I had no idea what it would look like. The thing about obedience is, it's simple, but it's not easy. I was sure homeschooling was going to be a disaster and my family would somehow end up on the evening news with a headline something like "Mother Bores Her Children to Death."  Truthfully, there may be days where this headline would be accurate. What keeps me going on those days is my answer to those two questions.

Why am I doing this? What do I want to accomplish?

I want my children to leave our home loving Jesus.  I want that love to overflow to their communities and beyond. I want them to hear His voice and follow it.

And if these are my goals, how does my homeschool reflect that?
What am I doing every day to point them to the one who suffered and died for their salvation?

Cultivating our family relationships, discipling our children, and living sacrificial lives is the most difficult and most important endeavor we can undertake. And it is worth it.

No amount of time I've laid in bed worrying about their education and future can stand against the times I've prayed over them, studied scripture with them, or worked on their character.
No amount of time I spend scouring through curriculum can replace the moments we've lounged on the couch reading aloud from The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe.
No penmanship worksheet will do for their hearts what packing bags of food for hungry people around the world will do.

I write this as a mom who has cried over a reading lesson.
Yelled over a math assignment.
A mom who has lost her temper with her husband for wanting to have a conversation with her while she is prepping for tomorrow's school day.
Yuck.
Of course, my kids must learn to read, write, and work out math equations. What they don't need is to learn those things from a mother consumed more by those lessons than capturing their hearts. A mother exhausted by her fear of not being enough or not doing enough. I am not enough. But He is.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. - Philippians 4:8

Oh that this would be true in all our homes. I'm praying for it to be so in mine.