Ease Up
Ease up!
I was having a moment to myself (unusual during this strange locked down time we’re living in; (Not being a martyr, just being real!) I had a cup of tea and thought I’d have a scroll through Instagram. What I saw there was, in the most part, encouraging and was full of people sharing uplifting statements aiming to make those scrolling feel better about everything.
The only problem was that I also saw lots of parents absolutely killing it at homeschooling. Feeds full of paintings that their children had artistically produced, lego masterpieces, cakes that would be the envy of Mary Berry. I enjoyed looking that them and reacted appropriately to many but then I had a twinge. A twinge of guilt and disappointment. Disappointment that the ideas and good intentions that I had two and a half weeks ago when we started self isolation had pretty much petered out and guilt that I clearly wasn’t doing as good a job as everyone else at this. I must admit I wallowed a little, then vented to myself a little but then I gave myself a shake.
You know those times don’t you?
The moments when you have to preach to yourself and sort yourself out. So I gave myself a shake and gave myself some wisdom and I’m going to give anyone of you that has ever felt like I did in that moment, the same advice.
Firstly, ease up on yourself.
These are crazy and unusual times. None of us have ever lived through this before and few of us have ever had homeschooling in any shape or form thrust upon us so unexpectedly. We do the best we can and we forget the rest! And remember what Jesus said in 2 Corinthians 12:7
“My grace is enough, it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.”
His grace is there for us...whenever we need it!
Secondly, your kids will be fine!
They are fine! And the little things you are stressing about, they will have forgotten in an hour's time -believe me!
Thirdly, someone else’s success is NOT your failure!
Just because someone is doing a great job baking with their kids doesn’t mean that they've done anything that comes close to a spelling test this week! We all show our highlights on social media; we certainly don’t show the screaming or meltdowns which I think is just as well for everyone!
So scroll to your heart's content, like and send heart emojis to all the parents who show what they’ve achieved that day because we’re all pretty much on the same page here and we need to give ourselves a break!