What Didn't Work for You? {homeschool blog hop}

 
I would reword this to say, "What doesn't work for me?" And the answer to that is:  comparison.

I think one of the biggest challenges to educating your children at home is letting go of the unrealistic expectations that you have of yourself and your children. In large part, those expectations are planted in our minds through comparison with other people.

Regardless of whether it is someone's clean house, school schedule, homemaking or general abilities, when we allow ourselves to look at someone else and say, "I should . . .," it is an opening for the enemy of our soul to begin to torment us with performance anxiety and perfectionism—both of which are deadly to peace and harmony, as well as good relationships with our kids and our Savior.

Here's what the Bible says about comparison, in 2 Corinthians 10:12:

"For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding," (NASB).

If we want the education we give our children to be based on the foundation of Christ—the only foundation that will be strong no matter what they encounter in life—then Christ is the only one we should compare ourselves to, the only One we should emulate.

That's not to say we cannot learn from each other; that's the purpose of this blog hop. But there is a fine line between reading the post of another and gleaning wisdom from them, and reading a post and feeling like you are doing things wrong or not doing enough.

And just in case you think this is something only newbies struggle with—I deal with it all the time. Comparison can cause you to take your children's power struggles personally. This is something I've been going through lately, and it has been hard. I've felt like a failure. And I've allowed feelings lies and comparison to cause stress and fear.

As the verse above says, comparison robs us of understanding so we don't see what is really happening.

Conversely, what gives us understanding and wisdom?

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding," (Proverbs 9:10 NASB).

As I mentioned before, spending time with the Lord is essential. My utmost desire is that my children know the Lord, and that is not something that goes unnoticed by Satan. If he can distract me with comparison, he can get my eyes off of Jesus and on myself.

And that never works for me.



Check out what wisdom the other bloggers have for you today:
Lorrie @ Life and Lessons Learned,
Selena (that's me) at Campbell Clan,
 Kathleen @ Positive Adoption,
 Audrey @ Everything Beautiful,
Charli @ WV Urban Hippies,
Tracey @ Building My House, and
Maria @ The Joyfully Frugal Home
 Jessica @ Redeeming the Home (not pictured)

(All of these moms (except me, of course) are in my blog list at the right.)

And stay tuned! We'll be blogging on Tuesdays and Thursdays in April about these topics:

• My biggest frustration . . .  (Thursday, April 18th)
• How do I feel about socialization?  (Tuesday, April 23rd)
• Blogger's choice (Thursday, April 25th)

Also linking up with others at: