by Janelle Knutson
Anyone else have a rough day? I won’t even begin to explain the day I’ve had. Let’s just say that homeschooling 4 kids, along with a 3 year old who is testing limits and a one year old who has learned to climb just about anything, can make for a difficult and exhausting day.
It is days like today that remind me how important it is to be in God’s Word. It is easy to complain to my husband, get frustrated with my kids, and whine about how I didn’t get time to myself. What is hard is acknowledging my own sin, trusting God and meditating on His Word.
Truth from God’s Word
Today, in the midst of the craziness, I was encouraged as God spoke to me through the pages of Scripture. I was able, through Him, to tackle the challenges of the day with a right heart and mind (most of the time).
I still struggled through emotions of frustration, disappointment and anger. I had to continually come back to God’s Word, repent of wrong thoughts and feelings toward my kids and replace the wrong thoughts with the truth. It has been an exhausting day caring for my kids but my heart has not been heavy. For God’s Word is true when it says in Matthew 11:28-29,
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Christ Alone
I have spend 19 years of parenting and over 13 years of homeschooling to learn, the hard way, that Christ alone is my only hope. I cannot parent or homeschool successfully apart from Him. I cannot put my hope in parenting methods, homeschool curriculum or daily schedules. I cannot find my joy in well-behaved children. I cannot spend my days longing for “me time.”
Don’t get me wrong. I often misplace my hope. It’s easy to believe that my parenting methods will save my kids, that homeschooling will make my family better and that “me time” is the only way for me to have the patience needed to care for my kids. I struggle to remember that God is the one who saves, sanctifies and provides all my kids and I need.
Tonight, as I quickly type these words while my husband has the kids outside, I am reminded of the words God spoke to me today through His Word. Ephesians 3:14-21 says,
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen”
These words echoed in my mind and heart today through the ups and downs of motherhood and homeschooling. Tonight, as I close my eyes for some much-needed rest, I will be praising God for His faithfulness to walk with me through the trenches. How about you?
Janelle Knutson is a wife and homeschooling mother to seven children. She has graduated her oldest child from high school with six more children still to go. She enjoys encouraging and equipping homeschool families through speaking, blogging, YouTube videos and one-on-one homeschool consultations. You can find her blogging at JanelleKnutson.com.
This blog originally appeared on Janelle’s blog in September 2017. Used with permission.
Janelle was a speaker at the 34th Annual CHEA Convention. To hear more, visit Janelle’s blog or view her CHEA Convention workshop sessions.