I Will NOT be overwhelmed!

I have started planning and organizing for next year.  I have worked a great deal on the office (schoolroom) this week.  I am looking for some hanging file boxes to replace our workbox system.  I am also using a free trial of the Simply Charlotte Mason Online Planner.  I have begun entering all of our books into the system and planning our year.  I am feeling a bit overwhelmed this evening.  I just want so badly to be on top of everything, to be doing the best I can for my kids, and to not feel overwhelmed during the year.  I want to plan out as much as possible.  But looking at all the books, all the things I WANT to do….it gets overwhelming.

I was not an organized kid.  I was always a mess.  My poor mother who is an extremely neat and organized person, had the task of dealing with me as a kid.  I can imagine how hard it was!  Well, the Lord has changed many, many things about me and one of them is my organizational skills.  He has given me the desire to be organized now and to be neat.  Yet, these things still go against my nature.  I feel I have to work very hard at being organized.  I get very distracted.  I will start a task and then quickly deviate to another.  But the Lord is continually working in my life in so many ways.  And He, just as my own mother did, puts up with my misgivings.  I am constantly feeling like a little girl again when I see things get messy or out of order.  Yet, now it bothers me and I want to be organized.  I hate the feeling of being late or behind.  So you can imagine, when trying to plan out a school year for three children, the task is daunting.

There is no way I could ever do this without my Lord.  It still amazes me every moment of every day, that He chose ME to bring into His Light and live in His Truth.  That I am no longer that messy little girl, but one who has been made clean in ALL things by my Savior.  He did all this because of NOTHING that I have done for Him, and not because of any good deeds I have done.  He does this because of who HE is.  An amazing Truth to know!

Thank you Lord for helping me every step of the way.  So many people say to me, “I could never homeschool. I am not organized enough!” HA!! Don’t they know who they are talking to?  The little girl with the mess in her room, junk under bed, and loose change scattered about (it never made it to my wallet!)  NO ONE can do anything on their own apart from God.  That is the beauty of His love for us.  I do not do anything with my own strength.  He has redeemed me, transformed me, and set me free!  I am free to live in His Will and not my own.  Praise God for that!

So YES~ I WILL get through the planning!  I will feel overwhelmed at times, but when I do, there is no despair.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Phil. 4:13