I just do.

Probably THE most frequent comment (or is it a question?) I get from people regarding either the size of our family or the fact that we homeschool our children or that my husband is retired military and now working in a job that keeps him out of the country for three weeks at a time while I remain home to "hold down the fort" is:

"I just don't know how you do it."

I'm no superwoman. Seriously. I don't claim to be. I'm no "saint" (at least not in the typical understanding of the word, but that's another post entirely!); I don't have some strange ability to do things that other people don't. Oh, and for the record, I DON'T "have the patience of Job". Well, maybe I do. He did get flustered with people telling him how he was doing everything wrong and yes, he even questioned God on a couple occasions. Hmm ... maybe I *do* have the patience of Job? Anyway ...

I actually have had a couple of people in the last few years come right out and tell me that they would NEVER put up with the life I live. That I just have too much "on my plate" and that it's not fair to any human being to "have to" do what I do as a stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of seven and wife to an oft-absentee husband. "Why do you put up with it??," I'm asked.

My answer to both of these questions is quite simple--I just do. I do what I do because it's my reality in life. It isn't glamorous, it's exhausting, and quite honestly, it's pretty lonely a good portion of the time. But it's my life, and I love it--warts and all. God uses my life as it is right now to mold me--to shape me into something HE wants me to be.

God has never handed me anything that He couldn't get me through. He *has*, however, allowed situations to come into my life that have rocked me sideways, upside-down, and inside-out, and in all honesty, I've wondered out loud just how much He thought I could take! The answer has always been right there in front of me in the Bible:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ~2 Corinthians 12:9.


Sure, I'd love to have a life of ease. Wouldn't we all? I'd love to have my husband home with me all the time; I'd love to have date nights, romantic getaways, and shoot, just the ability to depend on him to be there every day to do the things I just can't do! I'd love that. I'd love to have an open schedule to go do lovely things with my girlfriends that I miss so much, to go have "girls night out" and have an opportunity to interact with others. But it's not my reality. Not now. It may never be! And you know what? I'm just fine with that. In fact, I love it. WHY? Because I trust that whatever this crazy life throws at me, God can get me through. Maybe not "literally", because I know God is not going to come down here and fold my laundry and lift the heavy garbage into the trash can when I can barely get it off the ground with my one good hand, but God will make a way. He always does. I believe that with everything in me. Why?


I just do.