It’s time for school to start, and moms everywhere have next-level anxiety about a new school year. Standing at the base of this mountain, the path forward can be dizzying. Maybe you’re an overloaded educator, frazzled homeschool mom, stressed-out school drop-off lady, …or any combination of these? It’s easy to get paralyzed by all the preparation.
So as we begin a new school year, I’ve been reading the same Scripture every day: Deuteronomy 6:4-9. There’s a popular phrase educators use among these verses. Deuteronomy 6:7 starts like this: “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children…” and it goes on to tell us that we should talk about biblical precepts throughout our day. What an important charge to parents!
If I read that verse alone, I start to feel like I’m drowning and hear things in my head like, “You aren’t doing a good job. You are missing a lot of opportunities to share God’s truth with your kids. You are failing.”
I’ve learned that I can’t stop there. Here’s a picture of these verses in my Bible.
Looking at these verses, I remember that it all starts with me. “Teach them diligently” is sandwiched between a lot of other valuable truths that are directed toward me.
I need to –
- Love the Lord my God with all my heart
- Love the Lord my God with all my soul
- Love the Lord my God with all my might
- Put God’s Word in my heart
- Place visual reminders of it in front of me
Then as I learn these concepts, I can diligently teach my kids from the overflow of these practices in my life.
Teaching from the Overflow
I’ve heard it said, “You can’t pour from an empty cup.” While I understand the sentiment, I don’t agree because I don’t know anyone with an empty cup. We all have a very full cup!
So let’s replace that thought with this one: my friends and family can be blessed with the overflow in my life. Sometimes, that’s very good! Our blessings abound, and we overflow with gratitude and peace.
Other times (more frequently than we’d like to admit), it’s not. We have trials, and problems, and baggage, and stuff that we carry alone. We don’t want people to see our cups overflowing because what spills out isn’t that appealing. So we say our cup is empty because it describes how we feel. But really, it’s overflowing, too.
Today, I’m telling you that it’s ok to overflow with both. More importantly, your children will learn from you either way.
See, if my kids only see the flood of good things, they’ll have some pretty unrealistic expectations about life.
But when they see anger spill out, they can see me can ask for forgiveness.
When I make mistakes, they can learn about God’s mercy.
If they see me in conflict with another person, they can also see reconciliation.
When I have an obstacle, they can watch me overcome it.
And if I can’t, they can watch me run to the One who can.
My kids can learn humility and grace from the overflow. From that vantage point, they learn to exercise genuine faith while sitting in the house and walking along the way. They can lay down with God’s Word and rise again and learn from a cascade of real-life experiences with authentic responses. And my hope is that they will learn to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and might, too. That is teaching from the overflow.
Friend, are you feeling overwhelmed today? Me too. Let’s lean into His grace and allow that to spill out, too.
A Cup That Runs Over 