This past Thursday evening, the hubs and I were listening to a message from Elevation Church (a church and ministry that is near and dear to our hearts) from the Stretchmarks sermon series called Staging Your Celebration, and I really felt inspired to implement a new tradition for our family.

My main take-away from the message was that we need to celebrate the successes in our lives (however small and insignificant) in order to have the momentum to continue towards the goals the Lord has put before us. For me, I interpreted celebrating to look a lot like gratitude, to call to mind all the million ways the Lord has been faithful in the past, and more specifically, the recent past, to bring me to my current state.

So even if my current state looks pretty darn messy and to contain not a whole lot of progress, He has still brought me to this point. He has given me vision of where He wants to take me in the future-that is evidence of His Presence and work in my life. And instead of letting that vision paralyze or shame me, thank Him for being able to take that next little step with Him.

Practically for me, this applied to my new journey in homeschooling. It is SO easy to look at the vision the Lord has cast before me, and even though I do not know how long He may be calling us to commit to it, it can be quite daunting to even think of the next year, if I’m perfectly honest.

Because some days are. just.hard.

But the Holy Spirit spoke to me through this message and gave me His gift of perspective (and what a valuable gift it is). Perspective to choose to see the vision not as some long task set before me, but as I promise spoken of His Presence and guidance, and that that same promise that is calling me to homeschool a year from now is the same one that I can grasp right now, because He’s here for the next step, and all the other steps in-between.

How often do I allow the lack of perspective to sap my energy today?

Instead of His plan being a motivating, empowering companion along the way, the goal becomes a commanding dictator in the far off future, only revealing to me how very far I am away from where I am being called to.

This evening’s specific gift of perspective was the idea of having a review party at the end of each month.  (Envision worksheets and crafts and topic posters all strewn across our kitchen table (i.e., the school desk), hanging streamers from the ceiling and around chairs, and cake. That must be included.)

This would give us an opportunity to show the hubs all the amazing work the kids have accomplished during the month (the mounds of painted and pasted creations that were building up in a storage tub in our office), to celebrate Natalie and Peter’s hard work and all the awesome things they are learning, and covertly review all the topics we’d discussed to see how much they are really retaining.

And in doing this, to recognize the progress that has been and is being made. To practically and proactively acknowledge where the Lord has been moving and what He has done.

The idea seems simple enough, but for me, it was an answer to prayer. Jordan and I have really been struggling with knowing how to meet Natalie where she is in her current stage of development. There have been a lot of behavioral issues that have come up recently and I feel like the majority of my time is spent on correction and discipline.  The idea of a review party was timely, offering us a way to invest in Natalie relationally by encouraging her in all the positive choices she has been making that have been overshadowed by 4yr old big emotions and meltdowns. And more importantly,  to affirm who the Lord has made her – big emotions and all – the creative, insightful, curious, compassionate, spunky, amazing child of God.

In the same way that I need to be reminded of just how far the Lord has brought me and by His grace still thankfully still changing me, I can be reminded that He is not at all finished with my kids yet, either. It is okay that they are still in progress. It is okay that my daughter still has a hard time not being controlled by her emotions. She is 4. 4! Why do I stress about this?

If I’m honest, I see how she she may struggle and assume if we don’t ‘nip this in the bud’ (as in right now, today),  she is going to be a 30 yr old melting down in the middle of a grocery store because the cookies she wants are out of stock. It sounds ridiculous when I follow the train of thought and put it into words, but for me, it’s how I crazy. It’s how comparison gets at me because I see other 4 yr olds that can handle situations that set my daughter off, and I feel like we’re behind, deficient, and missing this parenting thing.

And I forget that it’s a process. And that there has been progress.

My biggest fear in parenting is that I will be trying to discipline and correct qualities out of my kids that the Lord intentionally put into them.

But with the Lord’s gift of perspective, what I would once labeled as failure instead can now be an opportunity to learn more of what is good (or not good) for my kids now, and then how we can work them towards certain goals in a pace that is realistic for them for the future.

For me, this picture really captured is concept.
My daughter has been building towers since she was tiny. Before she spoke 10 words, she was putting blocks on top of blocks.
But when she created this tower the other day, she told me to take a picture of her ‘leaf tower.’
She has added leaves to her design, incorporating what we had been discussing and learning through our Growing Gardens theme this past month.
To the outside eye, it probably wouldn’t be that significant. Another tower. One more of a million.
But for me, I saw a difference. New concepts were now part of her design.
She may still be doing some of the same ‘ole things, but there is change.

A Process. And there has been progress.

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