My Own Life is a Phantom

Posted by Renae | 0 comments

Sometimes I get frustrated by the sacrifices required to be a mother, wife, and homeschool teacher. I rarely get time to myself until after sunset, but staying up late to enjoy the quiet makes me tired with a propensity towards grumpiness no amount of coffee can remedy.

My hobbies are stuffed in closets rarely to be seen. Most of my conversations begin with the question, “Why?” or “What?” and do not end until I say, “Let’s have a snack.” I serve apples slices. Then clean up the salt my youngest used to finger paint the table while my son jumps around asking more questions.

Living amid confusion and chaos is common for mothers; however, what we do has a higher purpose.

The most basic place of our sacramental living is in our marriages and homes and families. Here we live together in well-reasoned love for everyone around us. Here we experience the sacrament of the present moment…

C. S. Lewis wisely observed, ‘the great thing, if one can say it, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course what one calls interruptions are precisely one’s real life–the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.’ Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster

I am living my real life, and it is good. Wiping little noses, answering questions all day every day, reading Winnie the Pooh over and over, and bringing cups of water to my children (after they have been put in bed), are privileges in the eyes of eternity.

Renae teaches her ten-year-old son and two little girls at home. She has prepared lesson plans, enjoyed children’s literature, and delighted in discovery with her children for five years. By studying Principle Approach philosophy, she realized what she always suspected: the Bible lies at the heart of all subjects. Find her reflections at Life Nurturing Education.