It is so tempting, when documenting one's life, to only show the good things. This happens often in things like scrapbooking and blogging, even the proverbial family Christmas card. I find it occurring naturally in this case simply because the good days are so good that I want to share them and the bad days are so .... blah. Who would want to read about that?!
Well, the truth is that not every day at home is wonderful. We aren't always building models of ancient architecture or creating gloopy messes in an attempt at kitchen chemistry. Sometimes we are just messy. Sometimes we are even lazy. I've honestly been amazed at how incredibly well this first year of school has gone, but still ... we've had our moments.
Saturday was one of those moments. I sat down to grade a back log of papers and discovered something amiss. A certain child had not been truthful in their work, only finishing about half of each math lesson, but trying to hide it cleverly. The principal was called in for disciplinary procedures for the first time. It was not pretty.
You see, wherever your children are taught, there will be temptation. There will be frustration. There will be mess and irresponsible behavior occasionally (I hope for your sake it will only be occasionally!) Children are growing and changing, struggling just like you and I over what is right and what is wrong and what they can get away with so that they can hurry back to the t.v. show they are missing or their favorite computer game. In the end it all comes down to a different kind of education: Teaching their hearts.
Yesterday I sat with the offender and we read from Romans 7 together. Verse 19 really struck home. "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." Isn't this so true? What a valuable life lesson. Those words were written by a man who lived several thousand years ago, teaching people about Christ across the known world at the time, suffering and eventually dying for the cause of Christ, and yet he admits this struggle. Not only does he admit it in a letter to his friends in Rome as a means of encouragement to them, but God preserves his words (something I find miraculous in and of itself) so that I can learn and grow from it, you can, millions of others, and then, on May 3rd, 2010, I can share those same words with my child in the first steps of their Christian walk. What an amazing thing!
Life for no one is perfect. Life is hard. Even in this incredibly blessed life I am living, where I get to stay home with my beautiful children and teach them all the incredible things of life, I also have to teach them how to handle the hard things. Things like lying, cheating, stealing, laziness, etc. They are growing up and with that the lessons will get harder. Pray for us. I, in turn, pray for all of you and all of our children, that the Lord will fit them with the armor of truth and righteousness, that they may be "more than conquerors through him who loved us."
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