I am prepared to be an old lady, here me out because you just might be ready too. Fuzzy socks, front porch sitting, coffee, and puzzles are just the beginning of my list. If you have known me for a while then you understand my obsession with planning (even into my old lady stage) and puzzles fit perfectly for this desire to have the “perfect place” for everything.
When you are completing a puzzle, it may get frustrating but you know in the end all the pieces will fit because the box tells you so! This is the problem I have in life, despite my desire to plan every single detail, I fail (please read Detail Fail for how I ruined Christmas last year). Why can’t I just see all the pieces laid out in front of me? Why can’t I just see the end product so I know if I am headed in the right direction?
If you are a parent and reading this, you have probably spent the past few months fretting over school. Whether or not to send them to school, whether or not to do virtual school, or whether or not to do homeschool. All have been topics of discussion at great lengths in my home, my neighborhood, and amongst my friends. What makes it so hard is there is no “right” answer. All the options have their advantages and disadvantages and not every option has the same outcomes for every family. This is one of those instances I really need the box because the puzzle pieces are oh so hard!
Honestly, whenever someone would decide to homeschool I would have a lot of things come to my head, “absolutely crazy” being at the top of my list. When my best friend told me last year she had decided to homeschool one of her four kids I thought she had lost her mind. We don’t homeschool. We are not “those kind of Mom’s.” But she did it. She made the decision she needed to make for her daughter last year.
Slowly, God has been opening my eyes to it too, one puzzle piece at a time.
A piece… last fall my husband added a new room upstairs to change the playroom.
A piece… this past winter we painted the upstairs and rearranged (purged toys) in the playroom.
A piece… this past spring I began a women’s study and in the first week I wrote “Homeschool” in the workbook and it completely freaked me out.
A piece… one morning in late June I thought, “Well if I do homeschool I would like a round table with four chairs” and began to envision how I could make the playroom the homeschool room. That afternoon a friend posted their round table and four chairs for sale on Facebook.
A piece… I kept telling myself when Governor Cooper makes his decision, then I will know. Well Governor Cooper delayed his decision, which as you can imagine, did not go well for my planning.
I began to look at curriculum and Pinterest ideas. But as I am “pinning” I have a flashback to a camping trip four years ago. When we camp with our friends I am always in charge of breakfast. So I found a pin for a Campfire French Toast. It looked so yummy in the picture and the instructions were easy peasy. I am not sure where I went wrong, but it was ALL WRONG. It was burnt in some places and undercooked in others. Needless to say, it got a lot of laughs and we ate granola bars, muffins, and fruit that day for breakfast.
If you chose to send your kids back to school are you worried about the “fails”? If you chose to do virtual school are you worried about the “fails”? If you chose to homeschool are you worried about the “fails”? I am 100% positive the answer to all those are YES! I have good news and I have bad news. I’ll give you the bad news first, there WILL be “fails”. Which is the reason if you google “pinterest fails” you will see hundreds of hilarious pictures. This fall will be full of “fails”.
Twice this past week I read about Moses and quails. What struck me is I have either never heard this story before or just didn’t pay attention to it, but when you read something twice in a week you pay attention. This my friends is the good news you have been waiting for.
Let me set the scene: Moses has just rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. They have witnessed the plagues (gnats, frogs, flies, locusts, etc), escaped through the parting of the Red Sea and yet we find them here grumbling in Exodus 16.
1 Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt. 2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
3 “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “By evening you will realize it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 7 In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?” 8 Then Moses added, “The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against the Lord, not against us.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Announce this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Present yourselves before the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’” 10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the wilderness. There they could see the awesome glory of the Lord in the cloud.
11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13 That evening vast numbers of quail flew in and covered the camp. And the next morning the area around the camp was wet with dew. 14 When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. 15 The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was.
And Moses told them, “It is the food the Lord has given you to eat. 16 These are the Lord’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent.”
There is more and oh so much to discuss here, but the one detail you may have missed like I did all these years is in verse 13.
We just went camping this past weekend and if I were to wake up to a “vast number of quail” covering the camp I might have screamed out loud. Really. Can you imagine?!? Not only was this just a crazy sight to see, but it was an answer to their grumbling. Remember last week how I wrote about Unanswered Prayers? Here is another example of when God answers us even when we aren’t asking. He hears our complaints.
But let me heed some warning here. Our grumbling and complaints shall not be constant and we should remember the provisions He has already provided. In Numbers 11, you find Moses again and they are complaining about God’s provision of food (manna) and they even long to go back to Egypt. This time God provides the quail again but not without a plague as they gorged on the meat from the quail. Oh this can be a whole new post!
All the pieces are here. God has provided the provisions we need. We may not have the box with the “final product” showcasing it, but God is giving the instructions.
When we are willing to lean in and listen, the next piece of the puzzle becomes more clear.
Today I want to encourage you as you begin your new adventure. Are you following the instructions from the Lord? Are you listening to the answers to your prayers? Does your gut tell you what you are doing is what is best for you and your family? If the answer is “yes” then the opinions of others is just that, opinions. You do not have to answer to anyone but God.
You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t need to know the “final picture.” Cry out to God when it feels too hard and wait for his answers. This school year will be full. Whether it is full of “fails” or full of provision it is all in how you view God.
