When planning feels like bondage...

image courtesy of Michal Marcol freedigitalphotos.net

Sometimes there is a fine line between having a plan and becoming a slave to your plan...


This is an area that I have struggled with extensively over our years of homeschooling. When I first started homeschooling, I didn't realize how many rough edges I had - rough edges that would be lovingly sanded by my Heavenly Father through homeschooling. But could be another post all its own...



I'm a perfectionist at heart and the ugly truth of that was, if something was written in my plans and I didn't get to check it off - at the end of the day I felt like a failure...Or perhaps worse, I worried that I may have failed my children...

I would lie awake at night and worry that a workbook page remained blank...and what would the school district think of that??

Neurotic? Yes. True? Sadly, yes.


I was so focused on checking off those little boxes in that slick all-planned-out-for-me curriculum we purchased that I forgot why we were homeschooling in the first place...(you can read our homeschooling testimony here.) Sadly, Precious Girl who needed her mommy to help her heal, was sometimes forgotten in her mommy's quest for homeschooling perfection. 


Thankfully, God stepped in and showed me that homeschooling was not about the lesson plans, it was about my child (and ultimately about obedience to Him). He showed me what a mess I was making by trying to do school in my own strength.

God helped me to see that homeschooling is about bringing honor and glory to Him, not the curriculum company (or showing the school district that Precious Girl was better off at home thank you very much). He helped me to gain freedom from planning bondage when I put our homeschooling fully in His infinitely capable hands.

He gently taught me flexibility when there was too much to do...
He taught me the beauty of a mental health day when everything was going wrong...
He taught me that the only plans worth following were His.

The heart of man plans his way,

but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

There are still days when I struggle with those things that are left undone, but I've learned that having a joyful journey with my children is much better than a bunch of neatly checked boxes.


Tomorrow I will share some more homeschool planning tips! I hope you'll join me.

Linking Up:
Far Above Rubies
Growing Home
Time-Warp Wife
Deep Roots at Home