So, it's time for school to start again (or continue, if you start early or home school year round). The store shelves are piled high with notebooks, pencils, erasers, calculators and backpacks. You're purchasing your curriculum, making sure your schedules are arranged just right, paperwork done, the lunches made... You're all ready to start school, right?As I was doing all this to get ready to start school with my kindergartner and first grader, I had to stop for a minute. I was more or less ready with the academics, but was I ready... spiritually? I have been catching myself snapping at my kids, losing my temper and sounding annoyed at them lately. Life has thrown us some challenges over the past 6 months and it's been difficult at times not to take my stress and frustration out on them.
So, I paused in my lesson plan preparation and library book searches to search my heart. More importantly, to ask God to search my heart and bring to light what was hidden there. I need Him to take my frustrations, my stress, uncertainty and all the other junk and toss it. Call it spiritual de-cluttering! As I educate my kids at home, I want them to learn more than history, math and science. I want them to learn godly ways to deal with stress, how to treat others and how it's OK to take a break to calm your temper before it spills over onto someone else. I guess I need to learn those lessons a little better myself!
Even though we started school today, I still need daily searching and cleansing to assure that I'm as prepared spiritually as I can be to be the Mom and teacher that He wants me to be. My time alone with Him in the morning before the kids get up is now even more important than it was before.
How about you? What do you do to be spiritually prepared to home school your kids?
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2 comments:
Read your response today on TWV2 and just wanted to offer encouragement. You are plugged into a noble cause, homeschooling. I pray time opens up for you to write as well.
I adore naps.
~ Wendy
Sorry to hear about it Amy. What I do is take a few steps back or say, "We'll do this later." I don't push it. That is why we home school year round, so I can take the time I need to be a good teacher. Plus, it allows the children more time to learn at their pace. Sometimes, this isn't a perfect answer, but it works most of the time.
I'm not perfect though. With as many as I have, I would be living in my garden if I had to walk away from every stressful situation. So sometimes, I mess up quite a bit.
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