A Teacher's Prayer

by James J. Metcalf

I want to teach my students how

To live this life on earth

To face its struggles and its strife

And to improve their worth

Not just the lesson in a book

Or how the rivers flow

But how to choose the proper path

Wherever they may go

To understand eternal truth

And know the right from wrong

And gather all the beauty of

A flower and a song

For if I help the world to grow

in wisdom and in grace

Then I shall feel that I have won

And I have filled my place

And so I ask your guidance, God

That I may do my part

For character and confidence

And happiness of heart.

They love their new backpacks at the start of each school year, don't they?  And we love them too.  We love how darling they look that first day of school, especially the little ones, weighed preciously down beneath their big packs.  But God never intended us Mamas to carry a heavy load as we discern where to put our children in school.

Nearly 6 years ago I birthed the most darling little blonde baby, this side of Holland.  He was altogether perfect.  However, I wasn't able to nurse him.  My let down was too heavy and never let up, and so he'd choke at my breast.  I tried pumping, to no avail, I just couldn't get enough milk for him that way.  O, how I cried.  I wanted the best for my baby!  After a month of persevering through the tears and discomfort I decided to put him on formula.  What a failure I thought I was!  And then I felt God speak these words to my heart:  "I have a wonderful plan for your child's life... do you really think formula is going to thwart it?"

I'm sitting here at the keyboard with goosebumps all over my arms at the memory, for this lesson has permeated it's way into so many other areas of my mothering.  God is bigger than I am, He is Sovereign over all, and he has a future and a purpose for all of my children.  

And yet, still, I get really tied up in knots over the thought of this school or that school... homeschool, public, or private.  And while we could discuss, debate, and deliberate all day long, via the comment section below, the truth I'm coming to grasp is that God's plan is bigger than the road I'm trying to build to get them there.  

The most important thing for us to learn, as parents who are yielded to training their children up to love Him, is to trust Him with the results.  When we think it's all up to us, we carry our own burdensome backpacks everywhere we go each day.  Weighed down with the stress that we might not have made the right choices, be it formula, breast milk, gymnastics, ballet, team sports or swimming, private school or homeschool...  make the best choice you can and then trust Him.

The second part of my role as "headmaster" over my children's education, is remembering what is most important for them to learn.  They are cherished by the God who created them, and made to learn and grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man.  When I take my eyes off of this I find myself weighed down again with worry over their academics, their college options, their future.  Those things aren't supposed to be strapped to my back today.  God carries my children's' future in the palm of His hand.  And he reaches that same hand out to me each Mothering day, over each Mothering concern and says ...

"Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest... for my yoke is easy to bear and my burden is light."  (Matthew 11:28 & 30)