Not quite finished?
Here’s one more story from the North Carolinians for Home Education conference. A mama who is planning to start homeschooling in the fall told me about an experience her daughter had in science class in her public school. A week before the students had to take their ____ test (she told me the abbreviation, but I wasn’t familiar with it), her science teacher handed the students a two-page sheet of material to review. The teacher said, “We haven’t been able to cover half of it, but it will be on the test.”
I don’t know about you personally but I hear tell (as we say in the South) that some homeschooling mamas stress out and beat themselves up over unfinished material they meant to cover last year, but didn’t actually finish. Perhaps you know somebody like that.
I just thought I’d pass this along, just in case, perhaps maybe one or two of you might know somebody who feels like that. If you do, would you tell her for me that she’s not the only one?
You are the teacher, you know. It really is okay if you declare something finished. And, if you want things to be different next year, you have the prerogative to make new goals — perhaps more realistic ones than you did last year. You also have the prerogative to forgive yourself, if you fell short of what you really think you should have done, and start fresh next year.
In Philippians 3, Paul talks about his desire to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. I’m about to print part of it below. Pay special attention to the “forgetting what lies behind part” because wallowing in what lies behind often robs mamas of the joy of now and the future.
Realizing that he has a goal of worth beyond measure — a goal much more important than getting ready for the ___ test, but that he still has a way to go, Paul says:
. . . One thing I do:
forgetting what lies behind
and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
Amen!