Lies a Homeschool Mom Believes

This is isn't just general. I keep finding that I believe more lies than I ever thought I had. Why is that? Well, because I am a sinner and in need of saving. R.C. Sproul makes the distinction that we aren't sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. Some how I keep forgetting that I may be in Christ, but I have a horrible tendency to trip and fall face first in the mud.

I have a great book of homeschooling cartoons by Todd Wilson.One of these cartoons portrays one homeschool mom running into another homeschool mom in public. The second homeschool mom has 8 children all lined up in matching outfits. The first has one child with his finger crammed up his nose. The caption reads something like: Betty hoped Jane wouldn't see her. Jane's children always say, "Yes, Mom," speak fluent Latin and play three instruments. Betty's son hasn't changed his underwear in 6 days. I had xeroxed this cartoon and colored. I then had it on my refrigerator. It wore off:( I should replace it.

I need to remember that I am not doing things on my own. I am dependent on God. People often say to me, "How do you do it all? I only have two and they drive me crazy." I guess I seem more serene than I am. Some of it is that I feel it is hard to share my true feelings for fear of being seen as a "desperate housewife." I am desperate, but not to escape my family and live in Tahiti with a new man (or something equally lame). I am desperate to know that I am accepted and loved for who I am not for what I do. Now my husband and children are good at telling me I am wonderful. Unfortunately for everyone involved I need to rest in my acceptance by God. I fail and fall short. My husband and children fail and fall short. Some how, though, I seem to forget that and expect that we will be perfect some how. That we will all live "happily ever after."

Part of the problem too is that I care so much about what other people say. I wish I didn't. My friend,Bucca, is such an example to me in this area. She doesn't really care what other people think. Oh I wish to be free of this sin of man-pleasing. It doesn't matter what people think of my clean laundry stacked up. I want my children to look back on their childhood with good memories. I want them to remember that we had fun, that we danced stupid dances in the living room, that they were more important than being able to eat off the floor. DISCLAIMER: Notice I said ABLE to eat off the floor as in clean. I did not say that my children didn't eat off the floor. They do. I just don't consider it clean enough to do so.

I am not making a resolution. I am simply starting to pray that God would graciously help me to relax and enjoy the family He has given me. There are wonderful truths that God hits us with even from movies (gasp!). The mom in the modern Yours, Mine and Ours said, "Home is for self-expression not for good impressions." Lord, help me remember that.