Learning

   While homeschooling brings great joy, at times it can also be extremely difficult. Rising every morning to train young minds to grow in knowledge and wisdom is hard enough in itself, but the one doing the teaching often times needs to be willing to learn as well. Learning is hard work! It is not quite as simple as opening a book, reading the texts, following the examples given, and working practice problems with the "student". The teacher must often times re-learn those things as well. This, however, is not exactly the learning that I am referring to when I say learning is hard work.

   Nothing seems to highlight individual flaws as much as another individual. Working with my daughters I see my own short-comings staring me right in the face daily. My patience is tested. I need to remember to keep my anger and frustration in check. Being kind and encouraging does not always come easy. There have been times when weeks go by and I seem to be fighting the same battle, hitting my head against the same wall, over and over..and over again. And while I can be frustrated with a simple task one of my daughters will not learn, I, at the same time, am refusing to learn that I need to find a new way to win the battle and not to keep bumping into walls! Ironic, isn't it?
  
   There is a joy that comes on the other side of these difficult moments. Not only do I get to grow closer to God who sanctifies me through these small trials and learn that I truly am reliant upon His grace to raise my girls to be strong, wise, and godly women, but I also get to see the fruit of my work as they are sanctified during these trials, hopefully learning that they are also reliant upon God's grace to guide them as they grow in knowledge and wisdom.

Sometimes we fail each other. Sometimes tempers do flair. Sometimes tears do fall. 

 But we have great love for one another and "love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8