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Greetings!

Deborah Wuehler and family

Before you say, "I Quit!" I want to encourage you to think otherwise. Let me just say that there is probably at least one day a month or more that I want to say, "I Quit!" to something in my life, whether it be teaching, cleaning, cooking, transporting, or disciplining a child. We all share the same thoughts and feelings.  I think those feelings stem from a lack of peace. Because of the difficult, mundane, or tiring circumstances in our life, we lose our peace, and therefore feel that if we quit, we will find that peace. But, peace won't magically come in a change of circumstance. However, I know just the place to find it! Here is what the living Word of God says:

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength" (Isaiah 26:3,4).

1. Our MINDS need to be stayed: focused, kept, and continued on HIM. Take your mind off your circumstances and put it on HIM. Magnify HIM and not your difficulty.
2. Our minds are able to stay on HIM because we TRUST in HIM. Do not trust in what you see or feel. Trust in your God forever--He is the only unchanging thing in your life!
3. In HIM is everlasting strength! Tired, weary, discouraged? You need strength and you don't have it in yourself. In the Lord alone is everlasting strength.

Think about and memorize that Scripture in Isaiah and start putting it into practice, and you will find peace. Don't put more things into practice until you put this into practice. In other words, don't try to find solutions to your problems until you find peace in HIM. Let me encourage you with 25 reasons to not give up:

25 Reasons Not To Give Up

1. God's grace is sufficient.
2. God gives us everything we need for life and godliness.
3. God's mercy endures forever.
4. It is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
5. Our children need Godly parent mentors and teachers.
6. Our children need their questions answered from a biblical worldview.
7. Our children need and are permitted room to grow and time for creativity.
8. Our children need and receive Godly socialization.
9. Our children learn to be unselfish and how to serve others.
10. Our children retain their innocence.
11. Our children will have a lasting legacy of love and commitment.
12. Our children and our children's children will be spared worldly indoctrination.
13. We know where our children are at all times.
14. We know what our children are being taught at all times.
15. We know who our children's friends are and we know their friends' parents.
16. We retain our God-given right to educate our own children.
17. Our children receive a superior education no matter what philosophy or curriculum.
18. Homeschooled children receive one-on-one attention and specialized training.
19. Homeschooled children can see and experience the world around them regularly.
20. Homeschooling permits the teaching of important life skills.
21. Homeschooling builds strong character and strong relationships.
22. Our children will not have to walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
23. Our children will not have to stand in the path of sinners.
24. Our delight will be in the law of the Lord and everything we do will prosper.
25. Our God never gives up and He gives us His strength to continue the journey.

Still want to quit? Here is an encouraging article called, Before You Say, "I Quit!"

Hanging onto my Great God with you,

~Deborah

TOS Senior Editor

SeniorEditor@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com  

Diana Waring

Relational Homeschooling

www.DianaWaring.com 

Dear Friends,

You are facing extraordinary challenges, regardless of how easily your kids are learning their school work. Parenting itself is more demanding, more fraught with difficulties, than ever before 

. . . and homeschooling adds layers of complexity, stress, and labor beyond that. Don't believe for a moment that this is easy for others and difficult only for you!! 

So, having acknowledged that it's hard, what do we do? I suppose the answer depends on your goal, your end result, and your vision.

For me, I wanted relationship. At the end of the day, the end of schooling, and the end of life, I wanted an authentic, deeply loving relationship with my children, and I wanted them to have an authentic relationship with God. To reach that goal, we decided to take the unusual path of living our lives fully engaged with our kids--learning together, laughing together, working together, praying together, singing together, traveling together . . .

But, oh, there were times I wanted to quit!!!! When the money fizzled, the clutter exploded, the kids argued, the energy evaporated, and the sun disappeared, I was ready to throw in the towel . . . until I remembered why I was doing this. The term for continuing, even when you're overwhelmed, is perseverance.

Like a honey bee to flowers, I have been drawn to books which describe those who have had to persevere to accomplish their dreams. One particular book emphasized that the only reason the people profiled were extraordinarily successful was simply that they refused to give up!

Which, of course, leads me to Winston Churchill . . . you remember him, don't you? With a bulldog face, big cigar, and a Homburg hat, this Prime Minister was elected just as Britain faced the first onslaught of the Nazi war machine. Read what he said in June, 1940, less than a month from becoming Prime Minister--a time when many on both sides of the Atlantic doubted Great Britain could survive the month:

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender . . ."

They made a plan that looked like this: "We will persevere. We know we will be attacked and it will be difficult, but we will not give up."

Even if you don't revel as I do in history, you know that Great Britain did survive. In fact, along with its allies, it won the war.

Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

Think about your goal, dear friend. What is it you want for your children? If homeschooling will get you there, then I encourage you to prayerfully persevere.

Remember, stay relational!

Diana

Raising Real Men

www.RaisingRealMen.com

Hal & Melanie Young

Melanie has a recurring dream that she is back in college, final exams are approaching, and suddenly she realizes with horror that she's been signed up for a class that she's forgotten to attend all semester! Thankfully, that never actually happened to her, but that kind of panic feels pretty familiar sometimes.

We've had a few really challenging years in our homeschool as our family faced cancer, a baby in ICU, starting a new business and ministry, and so many other trials that it sounds like bad fiction. There are days we've had that "What are we doing? What are we even supposed to be doing?" fear. Now, our children have always been homeschooled; it's a commitment we made before the first was even born, so we don't think, "Maybe we ought to put them back in school." There's no school in their past to go back to! That doesn't stop us from having doubts and anxieties, though, does it? So, what do you do when it seems everything is falling apart around you? Here are a few things we've learned along the way:

God's curriculum for our children is often different than ours and that's not just okay, it's good. We've had to simplify and let extras go in our schooling at times, but the character and life lessons our children have learned are amazing and humbling.

God will stand in the gap. We'll never forget the time we weren't able to prepare our son as much as we'd hoped for the state National Geographic Bee--the Henty novel he read the week before was set in the very location they asked him about. We have tons of stories like that.

Simplify your home and life. Fish sticks on paper plates won't kill you, and if they leave you the time to teach and disciple your children, be thankful for them. We try to eat healthy, too, but sometimes you just have to survive. After all, "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man" (Matthew 15:11 NKJV). In the same way, focus on getting the basics done in your school and add more as things get under control.

Suffering has purpose. Our trials have allowed us to reach so many hurting people because we've "been there." We're told to comfort one another in the way that we've been comforted (2 Corinthians 1:4) and we've found this to be such a blessing. Trust that this time is for your good (and your children's!) and for His glory.

So, don't quit! Homeschooling is about so much more than school. As your children watch you in the fire of trials, they'll see your Christ just as when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). We wouldn't have chosen to go through the trials we have, and Melanie often wishes it hadn't taken such a toll on our schooling, but we can thank God when we see what it has done in the character of our children. May the Lord bless your family the same way in your trials.

Yours in the battle,

Hal and Melanie

For more on "Just As I Am: Homeschooling in Hard Times," download our workshop by that title here.

"What's up with him anyway?" We're starting a new session of our much-loved, live, interactive webinar series, Boot Camp 9-12: Getting Geared Up for the Teen Years. Sign up now for a $15 discount! 

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