Wasting My Life?

Posted by LisaV | 0 comments

Do you ever feel like you are wasting your life as a full-time mom or a home school teacher? Do relatives or friends ever ask why you’re wasting your time, talents, and abilities at home? Maybe they don’t say it in those exact words, but you feel the sting just the same. Do we place our value on the cleanliness and size of our home, the type of car we drive, the compliments we receive on our cooking, or the number of comments we receive on our blog posts or Facebook statuses? Why are these things so important to us?

Recently I started thinking that maybe I am wasting my life in an unpaid, disrespected position. I could be making a good salary as a Certified Public Accountant, have a title, and send my children off to school. Others have done it and their kids have excelled. Am I doing any better? Why am I here?

As moms, I believe we go through these questions in our minds or we may hear them audibly from others. So much of our worth in society is based on what we earn or don’t earn. We’d rather not listen to these voices, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.

If I start contemplating that collecting a regular paycheck is so important to me, then I have to ask myself why I place so much value on material things rather than on God. Is it because I don’t spend enough time with Him? That I value the temporal over the eternal day after day? Because I fear man rather than God?

My focus is so easily distracted by emails, Facebook, and what other people think and expect. Perhaps if I spent as much time discovering what God expects of me from His Word, I wouldn’t listen to the other voices drowning out His will for my life.

Psalm 119:36-37 states, “Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.”

It begins with where our worth comes from. God gave his only Son for us, that we may have eternal life. Jesus died a cruel, lonely death for me! God created us. He is the one who gives us worth, not the neighbor down the street or our friend from church or even our husband. Can we fathom the love of God? I know I cannot.

Romans 8:38-39 declares, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do I regret the decisions I’ve made? Not at all. The time I’ve spent with the kids, from changing their diapers to answering their questions about pre-algebra, adverbs, and God, cannot be replaced with anything I could have gained from a career in the workplace. I’ve learned right alongside them.

At the end of the day, what really matters? Will I wish I spent one more day at the office or one more day with my sons? So if anyone inquires, I’ll be wasting my life, my brain, and my time with the people whom God has placed in my life.

How about you? Do you struggle with these thoughts as a home educator?

Lisa Van Dong has been teaching her two sons since 2004 and attempts to incorporate study, work, service, and play into their homeschooling days. She takes an eclectic approach to homeschooling and enjoys reading, writing, editing, and essential oils. Lisa blogs publicly at Pockets of Time and privately at Scooter and B.