How Do I Love Thee...

My friend, Janet, is such an encouragement on so many levels. One of those levels happens to be the topic of homeschooling. She wrote a book of devotionals, "The Daily Focus" (highly recommend!), that I've grown to love. In one of her stories, she told how she wrote a list of reasons she decided to homeschool, taken after the poem How Do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Barret Browning. Whenever Janet had a rough day of school with her kids, she would reference her "I Love Homeschooling" list to help refocus her on the big picture.

I liked the idea. I liked it for a lot of reasons...the main one being that one of my goals is to live intentionally. Referring to a list like that - and continually adding to it - would remind me to be intentional with my days.

Many of you do not homeschool, that's totally cool ;o) But, I thought I'd share the list that I started this year and maybe you'll start a list of your own for whatever thing proves to be your challenge.

Homeschooling, I Love Thee, Here are the Ways:

1. Freedom to be where we want to be physically & still be in school
2. No dragging kids out of bed at 6am (ie: early) to meet a preset time schedule
3. A daily schedule that can be adjusted as needed to dive into a subject more in depth, or adjust around appointments or ministry opportunities
4. Interaction with a variety of ages on a daily basis...kids learning to adjust to the needs of others and help them or be helped
5. I get to see what the teacher sees...all the dots connecting, the lighted eyes of my girls when it suddenly all makes sense
6. They grow up so fast. I will never regret spending this "extra" time with them and sacrificing to be the one who teaches them
7. We're leaving a legacy...and we only get this one lifetime to pass on what we feel is needful for them. This is a part of that legacy, infusing Christ and HIS love into every single part of their daily lives, because life without Christ is no life at all.

So what's your challenge? At the end of the day, why do you do what you do? Start the list...