They're Outta Here!!!!

Buckle your seat belt I am taking to the brief stint on my soap box. I signed up a while ago to get e-mails from a group that gives really great advise for saving money in the home. I have gotten some very valuable information and I have learned quite a bit. BUT today as I was reading the mail there was a section talking about how to save money on school supplies and such. In the article she was counting down the days to get her kids off to school. She later talked about how great it was to get them out of the house. Ok guys, we are talking about little kids. Her oldest looks about 3rd grade or so and her smallest is starting Kindergarten. This really burdened my heart. I remember a time when I was working full time ( I had one infant at the time) and school was set to start in a few days. A woman cam e into the shot clinic where I was a nurse with her three daughters. I said to her "I bet you are ready for school to start huh?". She looked at me with shocked tears and said "NO WAY! I treasure every moment with my kids!". I was humiliated that I knew really nothing about parenting at the time (other than 5 hour feedings and diaper changes) and I was suggesting that her children were a burden to her. Eleven years later, my heart still remembers the look on her face and the embarrassment that I felt. Those of you who know me know that I suffer from foot to mouth disease on occasion. Please don't misunderstand, I know that there are times when we get totally frustrated with our kids. I homeschool so I am with mine 24/7/365. I KNOW burnout in the Biblical sense. However, the Lord has so shown me grace to love and grace to see the beauty of my kids. I too treasure every moment, even the moments when idle threats exude my mouth like lava from the pits. God has granted me the love of messes and squeals, interrupted conversations and constant humming, dirty shirts and unkept hair. He is still working on me on embracing/obliterating tattling and whining. :) If you too are ready to lay out the kids clothes for school a week early, and announce to not let the door hit 'em in the rear on the way out, I encourage you to look at the last years school picture and the one from the year before that. That time will NEVER be duplicated and their changes will not stop. Try to remember all the wonderful moments that you have had with them over the summer. Try to realize that the trying times will soon pass as well. Phil 4:8 says we are to meditate on things good, honorable, right, lovely,excellent and worthy of praise and we are to DWELL on these things. Yeah, I am pretty sure this includes our spawn. So as another year of education (that's for Pam) begins, let's meditate on our time that we have with them in our homes. The opportunity to live out Deut. 6 in their lives. The God given and appointed chance to train them in the way he should go so as they grow they do not depart from it (Prov 22:6). Ps 127:3,4 Says that our "children are a gift of the LORD" (Jehovah; Creator). I pray that we can all accept this gift and treat it as such.