Finish strong

It’s spring.

The sun is out. The weather is finally getting warm. The kids have been antsy since March. O.k., truth— you have been antsy since March. The house that felt so warm and inviting as you settled in to the start of your school year last fall is suddenly claustrophobic. The thrilling books are falling flat, the manipulative-heavy math suddenly seems too involved to even haul off the shelf.

You’re done.

The last thing you want to do is push through. Everything outside seems fresh and invigorating and so much more fun than the same school routine you’ve slogged through for months. You’ve done most of what you set out to accomplish this year and seriously, everyone knows that public schools never finish the textbooks, so what’s the big deal?

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.—1 Cor. 9:24

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. —Galatians 6:9

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. —2 Thess. 3:13

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. —Hebrews 6:11

Finish strong

Keep running, friend. Mix it up if you have to— take your studies outside, change your schedule, swap a dull, dry lesson for a game that gets the same point across, decide to read a chapter a day over breakfast for five weeks instead of pushing through a whole book in one— but finish. Finish well, and finish strong.

Your children are watching.

Don’t write off the last few weeks of your year. Please. I beg you. Don’t do it.

Unless you would allow your child to do the same, don’t give him the example of throwing your hands in the air and declaring that  the thing you want to do has won over the thing you ought. Don’t show him that it’s o.k. to set a course, navigate the waters faithfully through storms and floods… and abandon the ship before you reach the shore. You may think that there’s no consequences in gifting your child a few early weeks of summer, but the message sent is this:

I want you to work really hard and with your whole heart, and give me your full focus…

Until something else better comes along.
Until I’m too tired to keep going.
Until we can do more fun stuff.

You don’t want to raise adults who think that way. The world has enough of those folks. You don’t want kids who whine through their work next year because they’d rather be anywhere but at the dining room table balancing equations, kids who hear you talk about perseverance and think, “Seeing it through? Mom only sees it through when it’s convenient for her.”

Ouch.

Finish strong. Tough out the last few weeks. Be the mom that says, “We cast a vision for the year, and since the Lord hasn’t said otherwise, it stands.” Be the one in your homeschool group strong enough to hear the line about public schools who says, “That may be how they function over there, but we hold to a higher standard, right?” Be faithful to the task set before you, whatever temptations the beach might hold.

You won’t regret it.

2 thoughts on “Finish strong

  1. I appreciate this! Even in just my own day to day! yes – not quitting 😉

  2. I needed to hear this today. It hasn’t been a particularly strong year, although the work has been done, but I’m beyond ready to be done with formal academics. But we need to finish strong. Or at least finish. Thanks!

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