HOTM Article: Do You Know My Friend Worry

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:27

Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? What are they supposed to be learning at this age? Will they be able to get into college? Are we on schedule? Can we get back on track? Am I enough? In my last article, I listed the 8 main stumbling blocks to a joyous homeschool, based on your amazing feedback. These themes were Comparison, Busyness, Health, Worry, Scheduling, Interruptions, Housework and Media. In that article, I focused on the first three of these. As I sat down to expand on the remaining themes, I was hit by an epiphany. Looking over them now, I see that they can all really be boiled down to one simple, nasty five letter word . . . W-O-R-R-Y!

Worry and I are good friends. Even while typing and reflecting on Jesus’ wise words above, I worried about getting lunch ready, the house cleaned, and taking too long to write this article. What about you? What have you worried about today?

How about your Schedule? Did your day get started when you planned, or did an unexpected interruption sneak up? Did discipline issues or sibling squabbles hijack your well-thought-out Lesson Plans? If so, maybe it is time for a “time out”. . . for all of you! Mommy-to-four Tristan said that for her family, a too rigid schedule can be a major steal joy. “I find when the kids and I get too locked into a schedule and I start saying "We've got to get this done..." and skipping the fun breaks, that is when everyone gets crabby.”

Or maybe you are worried because a particular subject lasted longer than expected, or the kids interrupted read aloud time with a thousand questions every five seconds? This is something that I definitely deal with in our preschool, but I have learned that . . .

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