by Renée Gotcher

What do you remember most about the back-to-school season of your youth? The smells of freshly sharpened pencils, a new box of perfectly tipped crayons, and a brand-new backpack? Picking out a cooler lunchbox? Laying out your first day’s wardrobe, complete with scuff-free school shoes and coordinating accessories? Making plans to sit next to your best friend before someone else does?

I’ll tell you what I don’t remember: My mom snapping a photo of me on my first day of school every year and sharing it with everyone she knows.

Don’t get me wrong — I would have loved to have those memories captured in print to show my daughters now. I am sentimental that way. I love photography, enjoy scrapbooking (though it’s now mostly digital), and today, I’m the proud, snap-happy mom at all of our significant occasions. And I have happily joined the masses of Instagram-savvy mamas capturing (and hashtagging) our back-to-school milestones so that Internet friends can “like” them as much as I do.

Thanks to the convenience of smartphone cameras and social media, the fresh-faced, first-day-of-school photo has quickly become a treasured back-to-school tradition, and its popularity continues to grow each year. No need to wait for the bland, awkward, and often cheesy school portrait package that commemorates your child’s step up the school grade ladder to distribute to a few lucky family members. Now we have beautifully designed Pinterest printables, crafty chalkboard props, and Instagram filters to perfect our phone snapshots, which can be instantly shared with everyone, simultaneously.

But what if your back-to-school experience isn’t looking picture-perfect so far? What if you’re confused by your new curriculum, overwhelmed by a schedule that’s bursting at the seams, or struggling with a student who has special needs? As lovely as those first day of school photos might be, what are the chances that there’s an exhausted, unshowered, over-caffeinated mama behind that camera?

 

Back to School With Unexpected Setbacks

That was me in the fall of 2014. I had broken my left foot on July 31st, falling down a standard flight of stairs in my house. Thankfully, I was in a removable boot that made showering easier than a cast. Still, nothing is easy about spending six weeks hopping around on crutches in a two-story house with three daughters, while homeschooling, with a husband who travels frequently for work.

Rather than spend the rest of August enjoying outdoor adventures and the last days of summer by the pool, we were “back to school” a few weeks earlier than I had planned. And we weren’t easily able to use the tidy, reorganized homeschool area I had set up earlier that summer — although I was definitely grateful to have finished that project before breaking my foot!

That’s because a lot of our teaching time was taking place in my bedroom, upstairs. Our three daughters took turns working with me one-on-one in the mornings, often in our PJs. Next, they took their independent assignments to desks in their bedrooms or downstairs at the dining room table, if extra supplies and space were necessary.

We held off on our group lessons with the new multi-age curriculum I had chosen, and, thanks to a mid-September start for our homeschool group’s planned activities, I was able to avoid driving until I was out of the boot.

Even if an injury or physical setback isn’t slowing you down, are there other reasons the picture-perfect plans you had for this new school year are far from your everyday reality? How can you regroup or switch gears when you just got started?

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV).

 

God Sustains Us With His Strength

Although our back-to-school experience had been disappointing, I realized how closely the Lord was walking with me during this bumpy detour, teaching me that I could trust Him to graciously sustain us for His purposes despite my weaknesses and limitations.

Whether it was the timely visit of my in-laws to take the girls on some of those outdoor adventures while my husband traveled, a gift bag of get-well treats and a fresh book to read delivered by a caring sister in Christ, or a daughter who cheerfully brought me breakfast and coffee in bed, the unexpected gifts of grace provided during those immobile weeks reminded me to forget about the imperfect details and see the beauty in the bigger picture of how God was growing our family.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV).

Yes, my slowly healing foot continued to present challenges for our day-to-day homeschooling routine until it fully healed months later. But we made the best of it — even fulfilling a few of my summer wishes despite my limited mobility. We were not on schedule with the curriculum I’d chosen, but we were fulfilling our homeschool mission, which is more important than the to-do lists on a lesson plan.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

And as I continued to witness God’s provision for our family through unexpected gifts of grace, I was reminded that God’s purposes prevail — even in painful circumstances — and He’s working behind the scenes in our lives to paint His perfect masterpiece, no matter how imperfect it may look on the outside.

That’s the perfect picture I look forward to seeing in our eternal home someday.

Your Homeschooling Friend, Renée Gotcher

Are you struggling with an imperfect start to the back-to-school season in your homeschool? Where do you find support when you are in the midst of homeschooling challenges? What can you share about how God is working behind the scenes in your journey right now? We would love to hear about it in the comments below!

 

About the Author: Renée Gotcher

Renée Gotcher, the Communications Coordinator at CHEC, is a freelance writer, editor, and recently “retired” homeschooling mother of three daughters. Renée and her husband of 30 years, Kenny, are next-generation homeschoolers who were homeschooled in the late 1980s and began homeschooling in 2010. Soon after, Renée launched a homeschooling blog, NextGenHomeschool.com, and actively supported the local homeschool community through various leadership roles for 14 years. She recently contributed to “Life Changing Stories: A Devotional Collection Revealing God’s Faithfulness and Transforming Power” and writes monthly devotionals for the Daybreak Devotions series on Crossmap.com and her personal blog, The Pace of Grace.