The "S" Word

The first day of school is staring me down. I have just a bit more shopping to do, and then I will be out of excuses. Oh, I could make plenty more, but the fact is that we simply have to get started around the time the public schools do or we will be plugging away while they enjoy their Christmas holiday. There's also the simple fact that it is bloody HOT outside and I would rather take a few days in the fall, if there are days to take, than right now when it is miserable outside. And so, the Davis Academy will soon be in session...

The truth is, I am looking forward to school this year. I know it will be cumbersome and at times I will long to be free of it, but if I can get my attitude right, I can enjoy this precious time with my children. That is the hardest bit for me, I think, having the correct attitude. It really all comes down to where my focus is. . . and to where it is not.

The prophet Isaiah wrote, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." I have found this little sentence to be absolutely true in action. When I have no peace, I find that my mind is full of my own problems or the dirtiness of my house or the burdens I carry and not of the Lord. When my mind is fixed on Him, well, the house is still a mess and my chores are still endless, but I do not have the anxiety that haunts me otherwise. I can be a regular Snow White, whistling while I work.

As this school year is about to kick off, it is my prayer that all moms, including myself, will have our minds fixed in the will of our God and King each and every day. I pray for all of you out there; that when mundane drudgery comes sneaking in to rob us of joy, we will ignore it completely, so focused are we on the glory of the One we serve. I pray that this attitude of worship and resultant peace will infect our pupils and children as well, and that this school year will be a year of spiritual victory. I pray that love would be the word that forms the root of everything we grow; that our parenting, teaching, learning, and living are all done on a foundation of love. Finally, I pray for those who do not know God and to whom this sounds like a bunch of foolishness--for you I pray that Love will find you anyway, and that this foolishness will someday make sense to you, too. Anything runs the risk of sounding foolish if we do not understand it, so Lord, enlarge our understanding!

Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.