Life can feel like a bubble – bigger than normal, floating freely – and we like this, until it POPS!. Then it’s a scramble to pick up the pieces. When I’m trying to collect pieces to put it all back together, I realize it can’t be re-created. I want to not regret what I didn’t appreciate. We only get each moment once. I get caught up in trying to do everything right, I don’t appreciate every day moments enough – until they POP!, then I want them back.
This thought process is based on a post from a few years ago, interestingly I find I’m still asking some of the same questions and have added more. At the time I wrote the first post, I was just three months into school {thankfully I had no idea how many more why’s would be popping up!:-D} You know there is a reason we don’t know the future, that He gives us the strength through Him we need for each day – not for yesterday or tomorrow, but today.
This morning I was thinking about the article I read and wrote about then. That is why I am kind of re-posting/re-writing that post. So much is the same, yet different. Like I said, I have many of the same questions still unanswered since that day; just over two years later the only answer I can come up with: We are human. We are flawed. We make poor choices. God made us in His image, but gave us free will. It is our journey of life. I’m so thankful for a patient, merciful, gracious, and loving Heavenly Father.
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Life is full of so many “Why?‘s”. Life hurts. Life doesn’t go the way we think it should – in so many ways. Life can be fun. Life can be easy. But it isn’t always. We have no promise of easy or fun – so why do we think we need more? I have had several “Why?” questions in many aspects of life. My life. Other’s lives…
Even though so often our Why’s are more life determining, often we won’t ever know the answer.Why? I have to believe all of my Why’s? sound like an awful lot of whine to my Heavenly Father – but He still listens and He hears me. Unlike me, I tell my children, “I can’t hear whine”. I’m so glad my Heavenly Father listens to my “whyne”.
I am going to write out the beginning of a particular article, and a couple phrases from the ending. It is written towards homeschool parents, but is so true for any one – parent, child, adult, single, married – it doesn’t matter. Our relationship with Christ is ours alone – not for anyone else, ever. It is our responsibility to make time for this relationship. He is always there.
Life doesn’t stop just because you start homeschooling. Sometimes we wish everything else would go away so we could concentrate on the educational tasks before us. Wouldn’t it be great if our clothes suddenly never needed to be washed or mended? If meals just appeared on the table? And better yet, wouldn’t it be wonderful if no one got sick or had financial struggles or felt sandwiched between caring for two generations of family at once? Then, we tell ourselves, we would have time for planning all those creative lessons and grading all those papers we’ve assigned.
But that is not how our wise and loving Heavenly Father has designed things. In His wisdom, He custom designs the events of our days to grow us into the image of Christ. How would we learn patience if no one ever did things that frustrated us? How would we learn to trust Him if we never experienced want?
God is the ultimate homeschool teacher. He individualizes a curriculum for each of us, carefully selecting experiences and people that will draw us closer to Him. There are even pop quizzes and big tests along the way.
Unlike our children, we have the option to ignore His assignments or do them in our own way instead of in a way pleasing to Him. His goal is mastery learning; He will take us through a lesson as many times as necessary to help us learn what we need to know.
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The more times we refuse to learn, the tougher it gets. Rebellion reaps its own reward.
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God is building a unique life message in each of us, using our experiences, temperament types, and spiritual gifts to advance the kingdom of Christ on earth through us in unique ways. No one else has exactly the same life message to share as you do. God doesn’t use cookie-cutters to make us or to design our curriculum. [Washburn, M. (Sept/Oct 2009). Homeschooling through difficult times. Home School Enrichment, #41, 48]
We will always have why’s in our life. Some we will get the answers to. Many we won’t. But when we have Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we have hope. Hope for a new beginning.
But the joy for the Christian homeschooler is in remembering that we get a fresh start with every new day. As the author of Lamentations said, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Hang onto that promise as you work through the daily challenges of life on earth. (from the same article, page 49)
I am so thankful I have a Heavenly Father who has so perfectly orchestrated my life individually, to work together with others as a whole – for His good purpose. I don’t have to understand wh, I just need to rest in Him. He does not fail.
Life can feel like a bubble – bigger than normal, floating freely – and we like this, until it POPS!. Then it’s a scramble to pick up the pieces. When I’m trying to collect pieces to put it all back together, I realize it can’t be re-created. I want to not regret what I didn’t appreciate. We only get each moment once. I get caught up in trying to do everything right, I don’t appreciate every day moments enough – until they POP!, then I want them back.