Daily Focus

"A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit" (Proverbs 29:23).

My son and daughter had finished their schoolwork early and were heading out the door to go on a long bike ride for the remainder of the afternoon. I was looking forward to the additional free time from our homeschooling day to work in my flower garden. I waved and smiled as they left the yard and said, "Have a nice time." Little did I know, the plans for the afternoon were soon to change....

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"Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread" (Proverbs 20:13).

Another morning was getting away from me. I knew I should have gotten up early when I heard the alarm clock, but the covers felt so good on this crisp, fall morning. Certainly God wouldn't mind if I prayed to Him while lying down under the blankets. As I began my prayers, I felt my body start to drift. Shaking off the sleep, I started once again, but the sleepiness came back. An entire hour later, I was still in bed. I was late to start homeschooling my children and knew I would be playing "catch up" for the rest of the day without God's strength or guidance....

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"For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God" (Romans 13:1b).

Standing in the rotunda of our state capitol, I knew this homeschooling field trip was going to be a memorable day for my children and me. We could feel the history of past generations all around us as we visited our state senator, a long-time family friend. We had come to see the compelling process of how a bill becomes a law, and we weren't disappointed....

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Learning how to diagram sentences was emphasized in our homeschool. We always began by diagramming the verb first, the subject next, and then the remainder of the words in the sentence. The constant review of this technique caused my daughter to tell me one day, "Mom, I can't even read a sentence anymore without seeing it diagrammed in my mind!"...

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What type of food do you serve at your homeschool cafeteria? My children's favorite benefit of homeschooling was the fresh and delicious meals we made together as a family. No canned or prepackaged entrees were allowed. Learning how to cook was a mandatory lesson we incorporated into each child's curriculum. All the family appreciated the tasty A+ lessons of lasagna, stir-fry, oven-baked pot roast, fresh pies, cakes, breads, and salads....

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Our monthly homeschool meeting was over, and we were cleaning the house after everyone had left. The young children of several couples had played together with our four children for most of the evening, and there was a trail of toys throughout the house. Walking to my son's room with my hands full of toys, I stopped short as I went through the doorway. I couldn't believe my eyes as I stared at his broken bed. The scene told me that the bed had been converted into a trampoline, and from the look of things, whoever had bounced on it had a good time....

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Imagine going to a job each morning where you can set your own schedule. You arrive when you want, take breaks whenever you want, and leave for an extended lunch hour without anyone breathing down your neck. Answering your phone calls and emails is regulated to a minimum each day, and the work responsibilities and goals you have are varied. There is no dress code or security passes to wear around your neck, and no one cares if you eat at your desk or play your favorite radio station. Your boss is off-site, and you can manage your workload to best suit your needs. Your work is rewarding and exciting, and you usually see immediate results from your efforts. Wouldn't we all love to have a job that fits this description? As a homeschooling parent, you do!...

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"Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance" (2 Corinthians 7:9a).

I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom with my makeup case in my hands. There seemed to be a sense of irony in the fact that I was putting on a "pretty face" for the rest of the world to see, but inside I was an angry and ugly homeschooling mother. The morning had gone from bad to worse with my husband's car that wouldn't start, a broken washing machine, and my mother's "helpful" advice. I should have talked to the Lord when I felt the tremors coming, but instead, my pent up emotions erupted onto my ten-year-old son like a violent volcano when he failed to complete his math assignment. I had quickly said, "I'm sorry" for my outburst, but my son's expression told me I had hurt his loving heart....

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Homeschooling while living in our "little house on the prairie" in western Nebraska was both exciting and dangerous. We lived with sand burs, relentless wind, prairie dogs, harvester ants, coyotes, scorpions, and worst of all, rattlesnakes.

Since you never knew if rattlesnakes would be hiding in the long grass, under a rock, or even in the flower beds, we had to teach our young children to be on a constant lookout during the summer. What made things even more complicated was the fact that good bullsnakes looked exactly like bad rattlesnakes except for the shape of their heads and the rattles on the tail. Our cowboy neighbors tried several times to teach me and our children the difference. I refused to learn this lesson. To me, the only good snake was a dead snake!...

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