Jesus at the Center

I had the privilege of attending a women's group where I got to watch Christine Caine talk about moving forward on our journey. She described life as a wheel and the spokes on the wheel as the different things our life is made up of: being a wife, a mother, our job, our ministry. She said the only way we can stay in balance is if Christ is the center of wheel. 

That is true for all of us, especially in homeschooling and motherhood. It is so important to follow the direction of the Lord. We have to get our marching orders from Him. If we don't there are too many things that look too good, not to chase after. We will exhaust ourselves in the process. The only thing that really matters is Christ in us, the hope of Glory.

Being a mom there are so many choices to make, so many things we can concern ourselves over. One mom's conscience allows her to use BPA ridden, plastic bottles, another mom is kept awake by the thought of toxic chemicals leaking into her baby's juice. One mom feels compelled to lead her children through pages of charts, notebooks, and memorization in order to say she has done school for the day, another feels free to take them on a field trip and call it good. One mom dutifully prepares organic, natural, balanced meals for her children every day. Another can feed her children chicken nuggets and call the ketchup a veggie side. However passionate you may be about what you feed your children or the method you use to educate them, if you are a follower of Christ, these things are what Paul calls disputable matters. 

"Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand." Romans 14: 1-5

 What Paul is reminding us of is that the big deal is WHO we belong to. We are the Lord's and that is really great news, because HE is able to make us stand, regardless of what we eat. Paul admonishes us not to judge someone else's servant. Well, we are Christ's servants. Hello! That means we are not even to judge ourselves. 

When we allow Christ to be our judge, instead of comparing ourselves to each other there is immense freedom. There is no striving, anxiety or feeling like we have failed. Instead there is a sense of adventure in knowing that we get to craft our very own story with our beloved. We get to trust and rely upon his good sense, knowing we can't go wrong when we let Him be the center.