I realize that Jameson’s first day of school is hardly around the corner, but I find myself thinking about his education, and the crafting of this little arrow in general, quite often. I’m looking at my own childhood in a new light, from the perspective of a new mother. (Amazingly enough, my mom was that new mother when I started school!)

These two posts, written this week by seasoned home school moms, encouraged and challenged me. The bottom line I came away with was this reminder: You can’t do it all. You can’t have it all.

And those are very needed reminders as mothers navigate their way through a culture obsessed with education and well-rounded children (read: kids who play every sport and every instrument, travel with the speech and debate team, and are class president.) Add to that the surging popularity of home education and the plethora of curricula now available, and you could end up with a mom driven by completely wrong priorities — or at least pressured by expectations imposed by everyone but the Lord.

Home education, when done as unto the Lord, requires the same level of walking by the Spirit as every other aspect of our lives. It requires the same dying to self, the same willingness to eat this day’s bread, and the same cultivated contentment with whatever talent He entrusted me with. And four years away from the first textbook, I can already feel the squeeze that puts on me, as a mother who is full of ideals, hopes, and dreams for my kids, my family.

What about His dream? His will?

Even choosing a math program becomes an opportunity to seek first the Kingdom of heaven. (And isn’t that exciting, in the end, to know that such a lowly decision can become a sanctified offering? Isn’t it exciting that He is really that much a part of our lives? That the very Kingdom of Heaven is brought to earth in our schooling decisions? Wow!)