I don't really write about this sort of thing much, but I have some personal, real life stuff I want to share with you today.
 

Hubby is a bi-vocational associate pastor. Over the last nine years, his primary responsibility at the church has been working with our ministry training program where people come to get a two-year Bible training, as well as training in coffee roasting and business.
 

This past February our senior pastor stepped out of ministry for a while. It turns out that he will not be coming back to that role. This means that Hubby has taken on many other roles and responsibilities during our time of transition.
 

This has been one of those especially busy and difficult weeks for him, but this time it has also filtered into the rest of the family as well. Many things have required me to leave the home (and children) to engage and minister with him… Our other associate pastor welcomed his first child this week, a young man who has been very ill and hospitalized for some time will be coming home this weekend, a young mom has been hospitalized for a chronic illness, and a family who recently returned from the mission field has lost a husband and father to depression and suicide.

 

In the midst of all of these very important life events, Hubby has been trying to string together some moments to prepare a sermon for this Sunday. He finally started preparing today.
 

I have also had many things that I have had to move to the bottom of the list. The blog and Facebook page have been quiet. There is a mountain of knits {lace scarves, cowls, and a bazoodle of hats} all waiting patiently for me to photograph them and put them into the DaisyHead Creations Etsy shop. Read aloud time did not happen this week. Tests and study guides were left ungraded. The three high schoolers did some of their academic work this week, but I have no idea if they have completed all that they should have.
 

I was too busy…

preparing a meal for a grieving family,

helping a new mom learn how to breastfeed her first baby,

visiting a friend in the hospital…

Shall I go on?

 

In homeschooling circles, we often hear how important it is for our children to see us engaged in and to engage in ministry to others. I don't know about you, but when I hear this sort of exhortation, I imagine setting aside the school work of elementary or middle school age children and bringing them into life engaged in the community of helping the Body of Christ. I have done this very thing so many times. Academics can wait on the more important issues of people. People are important.
 

This all seems well and good until you have teens in high school. There is this unseen pressure. They can't get behind. They must get their work done or they won't graduate on time.

 

Where does this come from?

 

I have thought about this issue a lot this week.
 

Isn't it still valid that children learn something about living a life of community and loving others by engaging in these life moments– the life-changing, unexpected moments– even when they are in high school? 
 

I am talking to myself as much as to you when I say that we need to remember and give ourselves permission to hold academics loosely when others within our Body need care.

 

People are important.

 

God will take care of the academics… even in high school.

 

I hope these words encourage someone. As I write them, I feel that they are mostly for me. This is not the post that I planned to bring you today. I planned to share some more video and helps for biology labs as a co-op class. However, my videos are still waiting patiently for me, and I am here reminding myself that it's okay for my high schoolers to have a week of renegade homeschooling.
 

If you have had a similar week, you are not alone…

 

photo credit

 

 

 

HomeSchool High is sponsored by Apologia.

I hope you'll tell them a big "thank you"!

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Now it's your turn. What have you been doing this week with your high school teens?

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