4-15-15 Hard Is Good

Friday I spent all day at the APACHE Homeschool Convention. It was, as usual, a huge encouragement in all ways. Catching up with old friends, making new friends, shopping, listening to speakers, lunch with a dear friend, more shopping, more visiting, more speakers, etc. All day long. Then supper with Dad. Excellent Keynote message. Still more visiting afterwards. And dessert with good friends after the whole shindig was done. Just a great day from beginning to end.

So.

Before I forget (which doesn’t take long), I’d like to try to share the main TakeAway I took away. Because I need to remember this for me and I suspect there might be others out there who might need this reminder too. It’s a simple idea from Todd Wilson, the keynote speaker at the convention, and he has written a short book, which pretty accurately parallels the keynote speech, called Family Is Hard – Deal With It.

A summary (copied from the APACHE convention brochure):

Choose the Hard Things or How to Keep Going When You Feel Like Giving Up 

Homeschooling is hard, parenting is hard, and marriage. . . well, that’s way hard. And that’s OK and even normal.  Trouble is we don’t like hard. We want easy, fast, and cheap, and at the same time we want successful results.  But the truth is that good things are hard and hard things are good, and they go hand in hand.  Sadly, most people don’t ever experience the good because they can’t handle the hard.  They put the hard thing off, hoping it will get easier, or they avoid it all together, and all they end up with is a pile of regrets.  Here’s the good news: you can handle the hard.  In fact, if you’re faced with two choices, pick “HARD.”

Well I’m not so convinced that homeschooling is any harder than public schooling or private schooling or pre-schooling, but since this was a homeschooling convention, naturally that was Todd’s focus. He was right on about parenting being hard, though, and that’s no matter where or how you educate your kids. Parenting is just hard at times! Not always, of course, and marriage isn’t hard always either. Homeschooling isn’t hard always either; as a matter of fact for the most part it’s not hard at all. But sometimes it is, and that’s what Todd was talking about.

So, the TakeAway:

Hard Is Good.

Young Moms especially – remember this: good things are hard and hard things are good, and they go hand in hand. Hang in there doing the hard things because those are the good things. And your precious little ones that can be so hard - - - - enjoy them today - - - - because before you’re ready, they’ll be gone. That sounds so cliché, but it’s not. It’s absolutely amazingly true.

They. grow. up. so. fast.

And if you persevere and plow through the hard – always remembering that God’s grace is available!! – you’ll find the good. Hang in there Mom, because

Hard Is Good!!

 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28