Obeying the Nudge

Recently I wrote on God Moments in the Every Day, and interestingly enough after posting that blog I experienced one of those moments.

I’ve decided to continue to casually homeschool through the summer months, simply because starting from scratch was so painfully frustrating with my son. Granted it was our first year of homeschooling and he had never done school before, plus the fact that I had approached homeschooling as school at home. It was a rocky start but eventually we got into a routine that worked for both of us and I slowly adopted an unschooling style of homeschool.  Since, the whole homeschool routine was going smoothly, I just decided to continue going with it, but with no worries of missed days, rather just focusing on refreshing the skills we learned this past year in reading, writing and math.

One thing I really wanted to incorporate into our days this year was Scripture memorization. Awesome enough, our church decided to do a study on the book of James this summer and incorporated it with the children’s ministry from K-6. They have the children memorizing a passage of Scripture from the book of James each week. I decided I would use it as my son’s copy work (an idea I got at the homeschool conference this year). I printed out the weekly verse three times and stapled it into his journal. I loved that he could practice his printing and read God’s word at the same time. Plus, it is such a great practice to instill now in hopes of him continuing it when he’s older.

I went into this activity thinking it would be easy to do. I envisioned it being a quick and independent activity that he could do at the kitchen table after breakfast every other morning. Well, let me tell you how wrong I was. He hated the activity and refused to do it. He chose to sit at the table and do nothing for 2 hours. In my own stubbornness, I let him sit there thinking what a perfect consequence. I told myself not to get irritated by his choice but it just drove me nuts. I eventually lost my cool a couple of times and tried being “boss mom,” but it still did nothing to get this activity done.

I was frustrated and feeling defeated. I just wanted this time to be quick and easy with a focus on God, but we both just wallowed in our sin. I felt like a mom failure. As I sat and reflected on the day, I felt the Spirit nudge me with the answer I needed to bring restoration and healing to this situation. He said, “Sit and write out Scripture alongside him.”

Yes, I know how simple this answer sounds but it was not the direction I had set my mind too. I had decided he was going to learn to be independent and copy Scripture all on his own. I realized my expectations were not realistic and the Spirit reminded me of my true purpose for homeschooling- to develop relationship over academics. I wanted to learn alongside my son and I wanted us to have a truly positive relationship together, not one of fighting, frustration and resentment.

So, the next day I got out my own journal and pen and sat down with him to copy out Scripture. It was still a very slow process but we did it together. Our attitudes remained in check and we spent time together discussing God’s word. I was praising rather than scolding, which was such a nice change of pace.

We’ve continued to work alongside one another. His work is getting neater and quicker as he becomes more willing to do the activity with me. This is a special time I get to share with him and I am so grateful the Spirit nudged me to take steps in a different direction. The Spirit knows that my heart longs to foster a loving relationship with my children and to bring them up knowing the Lord. When our desires align with that of the Spirit, He will always gently nudge you in the right direction. Are you ready to listen and follow the path He lays before you?

Many Blessings!

SHARE: Tell me about a time the Spirit nudged you. Did you follow in obedience or ignore the nudge?