Seeing the Value in Our Days

                                      
I often remind myself of the saying, "the days are long but the years are short."  It makes my heart sad each time I think of how quickly my little ones are slipping into new stages of life that will surely usher them upward and onward from our home.   We have four children and have been in the trenches with little ones for a while.  As the older children come into their own, the battles seem to turn a different shade of interesting.  Honestly, I can't say that no one ever told me this would happen.  I just didn't predict that it would look like this. 

Most of our days are filled with the monotony of homeschooling, sports activities, and keeping the home in good running/operating order.  And that fills our days completely.  Homeschooling presents its own unique set of challenges but many are similar to our other-school counterparts.  Our boys would rather be outdoors on nature hikes or playing ball.  Girls have "other things" they would rather be doing.  Nothing I can offer will even solicit a second glance were it not for the consequences of retaining their current grade level for another year. 

Those other things that our children have to do often seem unimportant to me.  Silly, even.  Now, I do know that play IS the work of children.  But my mind doesn't immediately acknowledge the fruit of that labor most days.  It is helpful for me to be reminded fairly regularly that there is value in those parts of our day, too.   Nature hikes (and other challenges) give the boys the hill they need to climb to be an overcomer.  They need to stand on the top and look out over what they've conquered.  The sword battles they fight teach them to protect the ladies and  'least of these', and to get back up again.  The Hotwheels races-I'm not sure what they do, but I'm sure it's important. 

The girls learn to bring beautiful smile and heart in their dressing up and playing in makeup and doing hair.  The music time, well they learn to sing a new song to Him-and someone in particular does it with boldness!  Even the occasional email session can be used to arrange fellowship and hospitality times that are refreshing to their hearts. 

The notebooks and test scores are necessary, even good.  But the true value in our days runs much deeper than the recited words and calculated numbers we produce as "evidence" of our successful days.