Becoming Peculiar

I was studying the talk by Anthony D. Perkins of the Quorum of the Seventy from the 2006 October Conference. Elder Perkins counsels us to "Refrain from repeatedly thinking or saying negative words about yourself - there is a clear difference between humility and humiliation."

When I first read that I thought, I'm glad that I don't have that problem. I hadn't even realized how much of a problem it was, until recently as I've heard from lots of people that seem to suffer from the "snare of false inadequacy" in the yahoo groups. The General Authorities of the church are so aware of the goings on it is obvious that they are in tune with the spirit and doing the work of Heavenly Father.

As I continued to read on my mind flitted back to this quote and I realized that at times I have suffered from this condition. Only recently have I overcome it in my homeschooling. I've been homeschooling for about a year and a half. When we started my girls were very excited and wanted to have school at home, just like they did at school. We tried that for a while and it was fun, but some days it just didn't work, and more and more often it didn't work and I would get frustrated that I wasn't prepared enough, that I didn't have a clean enough house, etc. We were enjoying homeschooling, we were enjoying being together, we were having regular devotionals but it wasn't enough, or was it?

Heavenly Father has his ways of blessing us and teaching us at the same time. We had felt promptings to move and had occasionally spent time looking at houses online, but the housing market was moving so fast I was afraid to sell our house and not find one to move into. We had never sold a house before and I didn't know how the process worked and we were so busy when did I have time to move. I learned to be humble as I read in Alma 37: 38-47 that Lehi and his family would not progress in their journey to the promised land if they were not faithful and follow the Liahona. Alma goes on to explain to his son Helaman - and to us - that all things are spiritual and temporal to the Lord. As I read this it hit me so hard that we were not being obedient to the Lord and that he would multiply our trials until we humbled ourselves before him and followed his counsel.

I discussed this with my husband and the next day he set up appointments to look at houses. However, Heavenly Father had more learning in store for us. I was about 7 months pregnant at the time and that week the Doctor put me on bed rest and said I needed to move closer to the hospital or he would put me in the hospital. Through whispering of the spirit - that I hadn't acted on yet - I was able to tell him we had a place to move to immediately and by the end of the week we were living in my Grandmothers house. During the 4 months that we lived in her house - with only a few of our things - and me on bed rest and recovering from C-Section we learned that we could homeschool in our own way, with minimal supplies, and that it was important for the kids to work on keeping the house clean. Yet how quickly we forget some lessons.

We sold our house and moved into a new house with a 4 month old baby. It was summer so we took a break from school and concentrated on organizing a new home. I realized that the kids were still learning so much on their own and being creative and getting along well - yet school must start in September - right. What a struggle that was, I was frustrated if we weren't ready for devotional at 9 am sharp. Some days we didn't have devotional until 11 and I would wonder, should we skip devotional (which we all loved doing) and do our school work instead. They have to be punished for not obeying this morning. We pressed on and I never did school unless we did devotional, I knew in my heart that our spiritual learning was of the utmost importance.

I really struggled with this desire to "DO SCHOOL RIGHT" yet I wanted to do so much more with my kids. They were learning and growing, we were enjoying our activities and being together, yet I would feel bad because we hadn't done math, reading, and writing everyday.

I attended the LDS-HEA conference in September and realized that I wanted more for my children than a public school education. I wanted to prepare them to live in the Celestial Kingdom, I wanted a celestial education as described by Michele Brady Stone. Around this same I finally began to understand what Thomas Jefferson Education was about. I finally realized that my children were still in their core phase - where it is more important to learn to love, to work, to play, to know right from wrong, true from false, and good from bad. We were progressing quite smoothly into the love of learning phase. Whenever we "DO SCHOOL" we enjoyed it, we loved learning and working together, but forcing it and stressing over it wasn't working for me.

Case in point, right now my kids have a huge mess in the kitchen, they are in the middle of making valentines. Last night for FHE we made mailboxes and I didn't clean up the mess after they went to bed. I could beat myself up this morning because we didn't have a sit down breakfast - but instead I'm happy that I have time to work on this article and the kids were inspired to get up and make valentines, they are being creative, working on writing, and showing love to others. It's 9:30 and we are all still in our PJ's and ate leftover pancakes for breakfast. We will clean up in a little while and have devotional - but will we "DO SCHOOL" today - of course not.

Elder Perkins goes on to say, "Identify and use your unique talents rather than dwelling on your weaknesses." I've discovered what works for us as a family, we work on projects that capture our attention, with an occasional bit of skillwork, chores, and drudgery thrown into the mix. As the kids told Grandma recently, "We don't do school, we're too busy." We are too busy living, loving, and laughing to worry about the fact that our education doesn't look like school. I don't beat myself up over it anymore and I'm a lot happier person.

I hope that you can identify what works for you and your family, follow the promptings of the spirit, and remember You are a Child of God and He loves you.

Nancy Georgeson
February 2007