The other evening I was listening to Dave Ramsey and he made the comment that a recent caller "wasn't looking past Friday." I hope through this post to encourage all mothers out there, especially homeschooling moms, to look past Friday.
Now, Dave was referring to a financial issue and, although we should definitely strive to look long-term at our financial future, that is not the subject of my post today. I have been homeschooling since 1994 and my oldest two children are married with families of their own. I still have six children at home ranging from 2 to 18 years old. Many a late night has seen me pouring over my Bible or a book trying to figure out how to teach and train my children properly. I have cried myself to sleep after a tiring day that seemed filled with failure, to awaken feeling a renewed sense of hope and purpose. Many days that sense of hope seemed to disappear as soon as the children awoke and began bickering or whining. My grown children, like myself, made some poor decisions and disappointed themselves and me, which increased my sense of failure.
Multiple things have happened lately that have me looking "past Friday." I am hoping to encourage others as I am being encouraged. First,we must be aware that it isn't specifically today and tomorrow that are most important; Decisions we make today will most assuredly either bless us or curse us or our families in the days and weeks to come. All choices must be made thoughtfully, prayerfully. All actions have consequences and we must choose wisely so that the results will be positive. Second, we need to be able to realize how easily we allow some of the little petty things to drag us down and cause us to feel like failures. No two people agree on every single issue or deal with things in the exact same way. We must remember that our children are going to have squabbles and be irritated with one another sometimes. Human nature is what it is...... We have to look further than the silly things to the future. Yes, there will be things we must address and we must pray that we handle these things the best way possible but the end result is the prize.
My oldest son joined the Army National Guard at the age of 17. He was married at the age of 20 and went off the Afghanistan shortly thereafter. He is now a police officer and has just begun to take college courses. I am so proud of him! I don't really care one way or the other about college but it is important to him and he is doing very well. He has always done well anything he has tried! I say all of this not to boast, but to encourage you. He didn't always keep his room clean. He sometimes complained about chores and schoolwork. I frequently felt like I was failing him as a mother. But (drum roll please!) he has a great work ethic! He began working to earn his own spending money when he was 10 or 11 years old. His first jobs were mowing lawns for some of our neighbors. When he was 12 he began working as a bag boy at our commissary. At the age of 16 we let him start classes at the local high school and he made all As. (Even he was surprised when his algebra teacher said I had done a excellent job!) His teachers loved him because he liked to learn and made valid comments in class. About that time he got a job at Hardees and the manager always bragged to me about what a hard worker my son was. He worked as a food runner, a waiter, and also a clerk at an auto parts store before becoming a policeman.
From all my son's many accomplishments, I realize that I didn't fail. I succeeded! I helped to raise a responsible young man who works hard for his family. A man who knows how to learn about any subject he decides on. Surprisingly, I still feel like a failure at times when my 16year old son complains about his chores or my 13 year old gripes about her schoolwork. We still live in a fallen world and I have to remind myself to "look past Friday!"
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