Waiting for Sunrise

SO many moms have made the assumption that because I homeschool my children, I have enormous amounts of patience just oozing out of me.

Let me clear this up right now - absolutely not!

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And that was especially not the case yesterday. Although I had made some of my all-time best efforts to prepare for Monday morning, I also forgot to set my alarm. I slept very poorly the night prior and our morning got off to a very late, chaotic and sluggish start.

And then, I spent over an hour battling with Joshua so that he would complete two pages in his math workbook. Two pages. This could have taken him ten to fifteen minutes if he'd had a decent attitude.

On a side note, I would love to hear how other parents, homeschooling or not, deal with children that won't do their school work or do it at a sloth-like pace because of their attitude. I can't be alone with this dilemma. 

I did not handle this with patience. Not by a long shot. In fact, my Lenten resolution to not yell was completely abandoned. (My tiredness sure didn't help!)

Sometimes when a day turns out like that, I have a hard time letting it go. I feel like just throwing my hands up in surrender. "I give up!" I want to yell. Yes, yell. I know, I know - I'm working on the yelling.

I didn't quite give up. I called Jason in tears. I reached out to a few other homeschooling moms I know. I prayed. And it's only by the grace of God that my heart softened, my spirit sighed and I was able to apologize for my yelling and forgive the boys. (Yes, Noah was being quite the handful too.)

Sometimes our best efforts are not enough. Though this can be so frustrating, it is God's intention. If we could do it all, if we never struggled, then we might not understand our need for Him.

Also, as cheesy as it may sound, we are given the continuous blessing of the sun setting and rising again, of a new day.

Today I get a fresh start :)