Amazing!

I have a friend, a homeschooling mom of four, who also performs a service year-round for about a hundred or so other homeschooling families.  In an email exchange I had recently with her, I commented to her that she is AMAZING.  I don't know how she does all that she does, and I don't think that I would want to do it, either!  But I very much appreciate what she does!  She responded, "No I am NOT amazing", just a homeschooling mom trying to follow the Lord and wanting the best for her kids, "failing at times miserably, but getting back up and trying again."

My initial response was "great, she's humble too!", but later that day when someone else said almost exactly the same thing to me, I finally got it.  She is NOT amazing.  I am NOT amazing.  We are both of us learning as we go, doing our best to follow what we believe God would have us do with our lives and the lives of our children.  For myself, and I think my friend would agree with me, my philosophy on staying sane in the midst of the chaos that we call "life in the D. household" is inspired by borrowed advice from Elisabeth Elliot, in Keep a Quiet Heart:  "Don't think about all you have to do, just do the next thing!"