Every morning when I use my L’Oreal Lasting Plum lipliner, I have to trace around a little scar on the right side of my top lip. I got that scar almost 50 years ago, when a 6-year-old boy in my neighborhood threw a rock at me and split my lip. As a result, my lips have been “off-kilter” most of my life — as has a lot of me, honestly. To continue my morning routine attempts at perfecting my imperfections, I also use a heavy-duty concealer to correct the dark circles under my eyes.
I have three choices for my morning beauty rituals:
- Ignore the imperfections…
- Spend a lot of money on plastic surgery… OR
- Just laugh it off, and bring on the makeup!
I choose L’Oreal (because “I’m worth it”). This daily self-correction for me is a constant reminder of the things we do to repair life in a fallen world.
As homeschool moms, we deal daily with the aftermath of those constant attempts at repair. First, in committing to this lifestyle,we have to die to self and embrace the never-ending pace involved in the sacrificial devotion required in home education.Wow. In even reading that sentence, one can feel so intimidated. However, I do not want to minimize or water down the sacrifices that go along with this most important choice.
In the early, pre-legal days, I typically wanted to talk more people into homeschooling as if the quantity of homeschoolers in our area would validate our decision. Nowadays, my reaction to moms interested in homeschooling is more often “Are you certain? Because it is difficult!” I recently had a phone call from a young woman who said, “I’d really like to homeschool—where do I sign my child up for classes?” That’s not homeschooling!!!
To be successful, you must commit to staying home and doing the work necessary for success. That entails mighty self-discipline and surrendering to God who calls us to hard tasks and then empowers us. In much the same way as I realistically look at my facial flaws, I must acknowledge that I will be an imperfect mom who will skip or miss things sometimes. The things I need to do better at are the things I am actually capable of doing better at, and the things that are out of my control must be left to God. I must train my children to work hard, to maintain a good attitude toward all they come into contact with, and to serve.
This discipling will be continuous, go unappreciated, and take you to the end of yourself, which is really a beautiful place of surrender to find yourself in. Just as I have to laugh at my laugh-lines, you have to incorporate joy into every school day. You, too, must choose to see the positive, laugh a little, and attempt to be transparently authentic as you share life with your family. I want to encourage all those reading this that if you make the daily choices of self-correcting, discipling your kiddoes, and choosing to laugh, then you will have success.
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