I well remember the frazzled day I told my husband (in a not-so-gentle way), “I AM NOT CUT OUT TO BE A HOMESCHOOL MOM! I just can’t do it!”
Looking back those eighteen or so months, I realize I am not the same woman who sobbed those exasperated words to my husband. Granted, I have the same struggles. Wake up to the same challenges every day.
But I am not the same. Because of grace.
Eighteen months ago, I believed ”because I’m not cut out for it” meant I couldn’t homeschool.
Today, I’m convinced that I am equipped to rise above the struggles of my flesh and walk in grace towards my children.
If you still don’t believe me, I’ll give you a few good reasons why I’m not “cut out” to be a homeschool mom:
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I’m impatient.
This lack of virtue has been my life-long struggle. I get irritable. Easily.
Gentleness does not come naturally or easily for me. I’m task-oriented. High strung. A perfectionist. Interruptions bother me. Chaos distresses me. Need I say more?
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I’m inconsistent.
Homeschool moms are Super Women who know how to train perfect children, maintain a well ordered home, prepare healthy meals, sew their own clothing.
I can’t do all those things all the time. I start… and stop. Learn… and burn (out). I struggle to with stick with basic routines, much less strict regimens. I’d ruin my kids!
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I don’t have time.
Seriously, what mama does “have time” to homeschool her children? Who is supposed to clean the house and buy groceries and do laundry and plan menus… while Mama teaches her children?
I haven’t even mentioned my role of being a wife, much less the wife of a pastor. I definitely don’t have time. Do you?
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I don’t have space.
In my house, I mean. Right now, there are 7 of us living in a 2-bedroom house. Where would I put all those books and supplies and materials- piled on the dining room table? We’d be in each other’s hair all day.
It just isn’t reasonable. I need my space.
See, I’m definitely not “cut out” to be a homeschool mom. The odds are against me: temperament, schedules, circumstances. It just wouldn’t work!
But it does work. And I am.
Not because I’m necessarily “good” at it, or because it comes easily for me, or because everything always just falls into place for our family.
Homeschooling “works” for our family because we make it work. It is a priority. A calling. Even a conviction.
Because of our commitment to homeschool, there are many other things we aren’t involved in, don’t spend our money on, don’t invest our time into. Not because some of these “other things” are bad, but because they would rob us of these precious years to nurture and train our children.
I can only homeschool my children once in my lifetime and theirs. Now is that time. It is up to me, and to my husband, to make these days count. For eternity.
Ladies, all this is why I choose to get up every morning, sit down at our dining room table, and teach my children in the best way I know how.
Honestly, I don’t love it every day. But every day I am learning, growing, and increasingly grateful to be a homeschool mom.
Even though I’m not really “cut out” for it.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Are you “cut out” to be a homeschool mom?
Why or why not?
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