Dear Friends,
We’re really glad to welcome all our new LOLACHE Members! We look forward to hearing from you on the Moms Forum, especially in the State by State connection area. Perhaps you live closer to someone else in LOLACHE than you think!
I’d like to remind everyone that we’re still running a special on LOLACHE membership until the end of June. It’s a great time to join so you can spend some relaxed summer days investigating the site and investing in your own education. You can see the LOLACHE Membership special here.
I’ve been thinking about a few of you who have been expressing that you feel overwhelmed and I’ve been praying for you. The dictionary says that ‘overwhelmed’ means to be crushed beneath something weighty that covers or encompasses the whole, or to be immersed, or to have cares, afflictions or things that need to be done bear down upon you.
For those of you who are feeling overwhelmed because you’re beginning to change the way you’ve been educating your family, there is MUCH hope for you!
When you minimize schoolish things, your children end up with lots of time where they are choosing what to do with themselves. When you examine the quality of what they choose to do and the way they behave while they’re doing it, you are looking straight at the fruit of your relationships and the fruit of the education you’ve been providing so far. You are looking right into the way they relate with their life, and the way they relate with you, the way they relate with their own interests, and the way they relate with each other.
This is the relational fruit of your family, and it most certainly can be overwhelming! It encompasses the whole of your family’s activities and relationships. You are seeing all that needs to be done, and the burden can seem very crushing. It is most certainly weighty and you are fully immersed in it. You might be seeing arguing and bickering, irritation and anger, independence and indifference, and perhaps boredom at work in your family.
It may have seemed easier to have the many schoolish assignments you used to have, because it masked and covered up the reality of this relational fruit by keeping everyone busy with assignments. But when you are able to look straight at your relational fruit for what it really is, you are in the best possible place to experience a true remedy, and begin to cooperate with the Lord to change it all—to begin sowing toward different fruit.
The Lord is with you even as you are feeling overwhelmed! It’s common when feeling overwhelmed to not know where to start.
The first step is to begin to listen to your conscience. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through our conscience to show us the way to go. He shows us what not to do, and what to do. As you examine your own behavior toward your children, allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit to impact you. Are there things you are doing in relationship to your family that you know you shouldn’t do? Do you treat your children in a way that is unkind or unloving? Start there. Begin to stop doing those things in obedience to the Lord through your conscience.
It’s time to begin to rely on the Holy Spirit to show you what to do instead of the curriculum and assignments. Becoming Holy Spirit led will begin with your own relational ways.
He’s known all the work your family has needed all along, even though you’re just now beginning to see it more clearly. He’s just waiting for you to cooperate with Him as he shows you step by step how to win your children’s hearts, and lead them toward the Christlike character you are developing as you obey your conscience.
As I think about feeling overwhelmed, I’m reminded of a song we used to sing from Psalm 61.
“When my heart is overwhelmed, Hear my cry give ear to my prayer.
When my eyes are dimmed with tears, Oh Father, make them clear.
From the ends of all the earth, when my heart is fainting,
Let me know that you are near. Lead me into safety.
Lead me to the Rock, the Rock that’s higher!
Lead me to the Rock that’s higher than I! I will praise your name forever!”
Don’t stay stuck in the overwhelmed feelings of seeing all that isn’t going right and all that needs to be done. You can get unstuck by beginning to listen to your conscience and obeying. The Lord is with you and He has specific instruction for you to get you going in the right direction. Take your overwhelmed feelings to the Lord and tell Him how you feel about it all. Worship Him in His ability to help you and show you the way, and speak out your surrender to His ways.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, let the Lord lead you into safety as He lifts you up onto the Rock that is higher, the Rock of our Salvation!
I pray for your increased connection with Our Savior. Toward this deeper connection, I recommend you read Marilyn Howshall’s book Empowering the Transfer of Moral Values and Faith and look into the Making Heart-Level Connections mini coaching programs.
So grateful to have been rescued,
~ Barbie Poling
We started homeschooling three years ago…about six months into it, we found Lifestyle of Learning. How grateful I am! This is just where you told me to begin, by listening to my conscience and what a difference the past 2 1/2 years has made! Thank you Lord for rescuing our family as well!