With all 5 at home all day ...and I mean ALL day I find myself exhausted by mid-afternoon. Now don't get me wrong I love love love love love LOVE LOVE LOVE (just so we are clear LOVE) being home with the kids but I never quite appreciated the work involved in this endeavor. Don't get me wrong I have never been afraid of hard work and I easily spent 60+ hours a week at the office when I was a "working" mom not to mention the late evening phone calls to handle any crises that occurred. I juggled work and family and still managed to get the kids to various activities and keep a semi-clean house plus no everyone was feed. But this is different. And I realize I am different now.
I remember in my early days as a mom. I wasn't a parent but a foster parent. I was temporary. I only had a finite number of days with "my" kids. We didn't make plans for the future past THAT day. I mean dealing with the trauma they had faced all we could do was get through the day and hope they felt our love. To give them hope that life could be different. To show them unconditional love. To pray that their love for Jesus was greater than any love they had for me. As we began moving into parenthood with our adoptions, we shifted. I can see that now. We were caught up in the whirlwind of life.
Plans for the future.
Dreams.
Hopes.
But I think we lost focus along the way. I lost focus along the way.
Chip Ingram says it best
"Giving your children great opportunities is good; it is not, however, the goal of parenting. Christlikeness is. Above all, seek to raise children who look and act like Jesus."
Schooling for us is not just about teaching arithmetic and reading. Creating a lesson plan and schedule and staying on "track". This is much more. We don't keep pushing through material to get to the goal set at the beginning of the day. We don't have daily task lists or to do lists. This is much different.
I cannot describe it better than a dear friend said this past week....I am in the business of discipleship.
No longer am I focusing on how successfully they master an academic skill or task.
No longer am I focusing on did they make the team for volleyball or basketball.
No longer am I focusing on college plans or career paths.
No longer am I trying to figure exactly how to ensure they are successful.
NOW I am focusing on so much more! (And to all my educator friends we do still learn reading and math and many other wonderful academic subjects!)
After the Israelites failed to understand God's power, the older generation would never enter Canaan and the new generation would be the first to take this land. In Deuteronomy, Moses teaches of God's faithfulness and redemption of Israel and provides a second reading of God's commandments. He commands the Israelites ito teach the younger generation God's commandments.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:7
The Israelites spent EVERY day EVERY moment teaching the younger generations about the mighty power of God and his commandments. Are we that different? Are we past this now? In the modern age is this no longer applicable?
God has shown we are NOT that different. We are NOT past that. It is is still VERY much applicable to us today.
So there is NOT a moment that I am not teaching my kids SOMETHING. But not just ANYTHING. I am teaching them to be like Jesus....every opportunity I get (and even a few I create).
And that is how we are Growing Up on Dublin Lane.
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