Set out cheerful flowers, real or artificial, and sing or listen to uplifting songs. One of my favourites is, “His Strength is perfect, when our strength is gone. He’ll carry us when we can’t carry on!” Post encouraging Scriptures, poems and short quotes around the house and read them – out loud! One of my favourites is on a little plaque sitting right beside my computer monitor – “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!” (Phil. 1:4) During difficult times a favourite poem written by a friend comes to mind and hopefully it will be an encouragement to you. It is called, “Everything’s Under Control.” Everything’s under control, Praise God, there’s peace in my soul; Though problems abound, I have heard the blessed sound — “Everything’s under control.” Sometimes we wrestle so long with problems when things all go wrong. Our minds may not see What the answer might be, but everything’s under control.
that the answer you need, the solution, or the success you have struggled for, is just about to move into view on that radar screen. Take another look: you may be surprised at just what is around the corner or just off the edge of the screen. Sometimes you just have to make a little change, a little tweak to how you have been doing something, a little adjustment in your attitude, a shift in the angle from which you have been looking at or approaching a challenge, and suddenly the whole picture or view changes for the positive. More often than not, reading your vision or plan from when you first started on the journey – or which you wrote just moments ago – will get you back on track by reminding you of your original purpose and commitment. Consider these words of wisdom by Robert Half: “When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! I will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine, with God’s help!” ●
The controlling is not done by me; Though things aren’t as I’d like them to be. But when I’ve done my best, God takes care of the rest, And everything’s under control. Praise God, when I’m in His control, And to Him have committed the whole, His loving wisdom and might Will make things turn out right For everything’s under control. By Honoria Groves, http://www.noraspoetry.com I have been challenged and encouraged over the years with the following words (by writer unknown to me): “The way of obedience is the way of blessing; we stumble over pebbles, not mountains; brooding over the past paralyses the present and bankrupts the future!” You’ve decided to educate your children at home, except that some days it is HARD! You have to focus on the good days, the good times and the successes - no matter how small they may be. When you began the homeschooling journey, you no doubt made a promise to yourself; in obedience to that promise to yourself, and perhaps even to God and your children, don’t let the pebbles of frustration or the mountains of discouragement paralyse your present and bankrupt the future. Got a pebble? Kick it out of the way and keep walking forward. Got a mountain? Remove it by replacing each discouragement with a shovelful of positive thoughts and positive action. Earl Nightingale once said that you get what you think about most of the time. If you think of frustration, failure, disappointment and inadequacy, they are what you will attract and get; if you think about moving forward, success, excitement, enjoyment, learning and growing, then, yup, that is exactly what you will get! The choice is yours. Your life, your circumstances and your problems, are like a little dot on the radar screen of the universe. At any precise moment, with your limited vision, you can’t always see the solution from where you are standing. You might not know
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