The early weeks of school are given an automatic grace period because they rarely go as planned. We need to adjust to rising early and having our mornings filled with reading, arithmetic, and writing rather than sleeping in, personal projects, and agendas. I struggle with the demands on my time and my kids struggle to adjust to academic rigor.

 

It’s not the early weeks of the school year that test my level of endurance, it’s the string of days, weeks or months in the middle of the school year that cause me to waver and question this calling to home school.

 

Last month I shared the importance of hearing the voice of the Lord over the voice of doubts or the complaints of your children or the criticisms of society. How did it go hearing his voice? Were you able to focus in a bit better?   Part 1

 

The decision to homeschool includes a cost that must be considered before diving into the journey. As much as I would like to tell you that everything is fun and sunshine and flowers, I cannot. There will be days filled with tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, and blinding desert sandstorms in the form of a no good, terrible, horrible, and very bad days.

 

Not every day is like this, but there are days when everyone in my family experiences this kind of day on the same day. Those are the super tough days. The regular tough days are those when one or two experiences it. But the really great days are the days when none of us have days like that, but with two teenage girls, a pre-teen boy, and a 10 year old girl those days are rare. Oh, and did I mention me? I’m not exempt from those days either. (pesky hormones)

 

So, what gets me through those days? For starters, I consistently remember God’s calling to this journey and I trust him, but that’s the pretty answer. The hard, nitty gritty answer is found in this month’s word: Endure.

 

To endure means to suffer patiently or to bear with. Ugh, I don’t think “fun” when I think of the word endure. It’s one of those words that conjure hard times, unknown times and hard work. I imagine ragged edges and worn out things. But I’m wrong because enduring produces strength, hope, and maturity that would be incomplete without endurance.

 

I’ve had to look for the beauty in enduring. Searching for light and joy in the midst of enduring requires a choice to look beyond my current circumstances and see what God is wanting to produce in my heart. We must learn to endure—while searching for beauty— through our own heart struggles and through our children’s challenges academically, interpersonally, and personally.

 

Within endurance lies a noble theme that weaves through our lives. Within endurance we find maturity, hope, and strength not our own. And we grow to understand a deeper level of God’s love for us as he loves us through the faithless times, the hopeless times, and the doubting times. When we dig for endurance in our lives, we find gold.

 

James 1:2-4, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect [mature] and complete, needing nothing.” NLT

 

Romans 15:4-5, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.”

 

Colossians 1:11, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.”

 

As homeschooling mamas our days are filled with opportunities to “hear” God’s voice and to “endure.” As you tackle your day to day living, remember that your endurance produces strength, hope, and maturity. Homeschool by HEART.

Jessica Van Roekel is a woman on the journey to wholeness through brokenness. She believes that through Christ our personal histories don’t have to define our present or determine our future. Her greatest desire is to see people live this ‘God-life’ with all the power and grace that God provides. Jessica lives in a rural community with her husband and four children. She leads worship on Sundays, but seeks to be a worshiper every day. You can connect with her atwww.welcomegrace.com  and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/JessicaVanRoekel