The Older I Get


Maybe it’s because I’m facing a milestone birthday this year, maybe because I’m going to have an empty nest soon, maybe because I’m working on a homeschool resource book, but I’ve been thinking about how I thought things worked when I was younger compared to how they actually worked over time. You’ve probably noticed I’ve had a lot to say lately about other Christian wives and moms who give advice.  I’ve been reading a lot of different blogs and books as I process how I want to approach my resource book and one of the Christian mom/wife advice bloggers said something on her Facebook page the other day when talking about female teachers that aren’t her that struck at the heart of some of what I want to avoid in my book. She had posted about false teachers, in particular about Christian women teaching men with their ministries. Since she also gives advice via the internet and many of her commenters are men who agree with her, someone asked her what makes her any different.  Her quick reply: “I obey God, they don’t” followed by a verse from Titus 2.

Can I just ask, am I the only person who cringes at a reply like this?  Maybe I’m just less of a confident Christian than she is, but the older I get, the less I feel like I know. And the more I see that things that might sound good in theory don’t always work the way I think they will in practice.  

 

I have done some things in teaching my girls that worked for us. And there are some things that I am reasonably sure are beneficial universally (like reading to your kids from infancy on through the teen years). But what I want to avoid is telling people that what I did will definitely work for them. Because there are no guarantees. And the minute we are sure everything we do is right and good is the minute we stop being teachable and compassionate towards situations that are different from our own.

 

I don’t have all the answers, and that’s okay. God knows all of the things we are going to do, both right and wrong, and He has already figured those things into our unique stories. And that is a great comfort to me as I try to figure out what He wants me to do with all I have experienced now that I have “retired” from homeschooling.

 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

 

Romans 8:28

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