Today my sweet little five- and- a –half -year old looked up at me through a tear-stained face and wailed, “Why does it always have to be me?  Why can’t it ever be big sister?”

Poor little thing; she has so far fractured a finger, nearly garnered a concussion yesterday falling off a swing, cut open two other fingers in a bicycle accident, and knocked the bonding off her front tooth this afternoon.  Needless to say, it has been a rough week for her!

How many times have we said this sort of sentiment in our lives, in our own parenting, in our own homeschooling?  That wrestling with God when we ask burdens to be lifted, burdens that we know we don’t feel confident enough to rise up to face.  “Why me?  I don’t want this path.  I don’t want this journey.  Please just take it away from me, and give it to someone else.”

You all know this scenario of parenting:

We are gliding, and then we trip.

We are rising and succeeding and then we fail.  Perhaps we fail miserably.

We so often forget that the gift of parenting and of homeschooling is in the striving.  There is no perfection, just the journey.  I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, “Change is inevitable, growth is optional.”

Isn’t that so true?

How are you going to grow today as a parent, as a wife or partner, as a neighbor, as a friend?

How are you going to set the tone in your home to include peacefulness, reverence, awe?  How are you going to handle your children and meet them not only where they are but uplift them to the next level?  How are you going to love your spouse, your children and most of all, yourself?

What is your plan for parenting?  Do you have a Family Mission Statement?  It is that time of year to review, renew, strengthen our inner reserves as we head into this time of Michaelmas.  It is one of my favorite times of the year.

That question of “Why Me” really can become one of your favorite questions if you can focus on the striving and the progress.  “Why Me?”  can become “Of course it is you, my Beloved. Who else would it be?  Who else has these lessons to learn and this journey to make?”

Love your children and live big today,

Carrie