Day 12: How to Rest Right Where You Are

Maybe your mind won’t step whirring about next year. Maybe your mind won’t stop whirring about next month. Maybe you’re so fixated on the future that you can see the good gifts of today.

Even if homeschool is currently killing you…

Even though 7th grade homework is ruining her life {and yours}…

Even though the snotty girls won’t stop being mean and all of your efforts to equip your girl seem futile…

Even though he’s still not reading…

Even though tuition is wrecking your budget…

Even though everyone else thinks your decision is ridiculous…

For today, for this week, for right now — this is where you are. It may not be where you are in two months or next year but it’s your current place and your kids’ current place. And so you have a choice. You can wait to exhale when everything’s worked out and settled and as it should be. Or you can go ahead and exhale now.

I recommend the latter. Because there’s no guarantee that things will ever be like they “should be” in your mind. {Thanks Marian! How encouraging!} So you might be holding your breath a very long time. And while there is certainly hope that the current unrest, indecision, or hardship will one day settle down, there is still right now. The right now with all of its worries and what ifs about the future.

But here’s the thing about The Future. He’s a greedy villain who tries to steal all of the resources you need today and consume them for himself. And you let him do it. Much like Fear, The Future is a bully.

It’s okay to think ahead. It’s good to be wise and to plan. It’s fine to research and ask thoughtful questions. But are you being driven by Fear and controlled by the Future at the expense of today? At the expense of soul rest? At the expense of physical rest?

Your kids need you to be present. For the moment, they need you to help with the math instead of helping with the math and simultaneously thinking “This teacher is ridiculous and this homework is too much and I’ve got to FIX THIS!”

They need you to love them this week in your crazy, chaotic homeschool and to just simply do the next thing and not be consumed about the big decision you need to make, one that might mean switching paths.

They need you to simply get them to school and make sure they have lunch and listen to whatever they may want to tell you about their day.

They need you to unfurrow your brow and just meet the demands of today. They need you to live in the right now.

But how? How do we do this simple, impossible thing?

Peace, present-ness, trust — they begin with gratitude.

So here’s a prayer, for you and for me and anyone who may need it today.

Thank you God for where we are. Thank you for the lessons we’ve learned through the sweet gifts and the hard situations. Thank you that we have options. Thank you that you promise to lead us. Thank you that even if we make a decision that doesn’t turn out to be fruitful, it’s not the end of the world. Decisions about school aren’t permanent and we can change our minds. Thank you that failure is information and not always devastation. Thank you for options {even though I’m so overwhelmed by them.} Thank you that there’s nothing you can’t redeem.

And thank you for these children. In the midst of the hard days and anxious decisions, I’ve forgotten to simply be grateful for them. They are a blessing. Help me to not to take them for granted. Help me to be present and to love them right where we are.

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This book has become a widely-read, modern classic and for good reason. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ann and the beautiful message of life-changing gratitude as I wrote the words of this post. If you haven’t read it, what a wonderful season to pick it up. A Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You are.

For all the posts in this 31-day series, go here. And to read the other posts I’ve written on topic of schooling, you can go here and find them all in one place.

I’m linking up with The Nester and her tribe of 31 Dayers.

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