Some encouragement for a new year

I received this e-mail today and just thought I’d share.  I hope you find encouragement in it.

The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done

Posted: 21 May 2011 08:20 PM PDT

 I thought my college Head and Neck Anatomy class was hard.  I thought studying for and passing the National Board for Dental Hygiene, all seven hours of it, was hard, too.  I thought working full time and volunteering at church was hard.  I thought childbirth was hard.  And colic. . . months of colic. It was hard to surrender my child over for surgery at 9 months old .  So was praying for her salvation since before she was born.  Acting in front of 13,000 people was hard.  Staying married during rough times is always hard.

In comparison though, homeschooling remains the hardest thing I’ve ever done. 

 And if I had the choice to make again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Despite the lonely days when I thought if I didn’t see another human being over three feet tall I would
scream. 

Despite the 547 days of phonics instruction before one of my daughters could read a four-word sentence without pausing.

 Despite the buckets of tears I (we) shed over Chemistry, Algebra, and Geometry.

 Despite the days when fear would grip me as I wondered if I might be single-handedly sabotaging my children’s entire academic future. 

 Despite the days when I dealt with the same sin for the 100th time, and then had to correct it in my children as well.

If I had the choice to make again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

 I would do it for the joy of hearing my daughter pray to receive Christ into her heart during morning devotions. 

I would do it for the pleasure of watching my daughter read all the way through Go Dog Go and knowing that I had taught her to read. 

 I would do it again for the character training I received through the years.

  I would do it again for the opportunity to trust God when I knew that apart from His work in our homeschool, it would not succeed. 

I would do it again for the privilege of watching Him work in each of my daughter’s lives as they came to understand the world through a Christian perspective. 

I would do it again for the precious gift of time. . . never enough, but SO much more than many of my friends had with their children during their growing up years

. 

 I would do it again for every field trip/vacation we took to fascinating places on a shoestring budget.  

I would do it again for the chance to pray and ask God for all that we needed and watch Him provide bountifully.

I would do it again so I could own part of their high school graduation and their college acceptance. 

  I would do it again for the satisfaction of knowing that I had obeyed what God told me to do.  

 If I had the choice to make again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

“I can do all things through CHRIST who gives me strength.”

(Phil 4:13)