Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Enough is enough... Really it is!


I've just spent the last couple of weeks pouring over curriculum catalogs and websites...  You'd think that after 14 years of homeschooling, I'd have made up my mind what to use.  The problem is, no two kids are alike and new materials are coming out every year.  But the biggest reason that I'm making a change this year is that I'm spending too much time planning each week.  It's not uncommon for me to have to work 3-5 hours on the weekend just to be ready for the next week.  Enough is enough.

As a recovering perfectionist, it always seems to me that there is more that I should be doing for my kids.  Planning their work and preparing just the right lessons had begun to consume me, much to the chagrin of my family.  I've  come to the point where I must admit, it's just not working for me.  I love my old curriculum, but at this season of my life, I can't afford the time it takes.  So the search began.  How to find a curriculum with the educational value I want, without all the hours of preparation?  I had to find the balance of "enough".  I've settled on something that will give my kids enough history, math, language arts, science and supplemental learning without ruining our life.

I don't know about you, but when I think about the word "enough," it has a negative connotation.  Maybe because it is often preceded by the phrase, "not good."  Enough always seems to be the amount that is just getting by.  A disappointed second place...enough.

e·nough

[ih-nuhf]
–adjective
1.
adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose or to satisfy desire: enough water; noise enough to wake the dead.

–pronoun
2.
an adequate quantity or number; sufficiency.

–adverb
3.
in a quantity or degree that answers a purpose or satisfies a need or desire; sufficiently.
1. ample. 3. adequately, amply, reasonably.


According to these Dictionary.com entries, I should be satisfied with enough.  It says that enough is "adequate; sufficient for the purpose..."  Perhaps I've fallen victim to the mindset that I must have more than enough, an over-abundance of something to feel secure.  Could the consumer mentality have crept in even here?  Maybe so.  If I have enough ingredients to make cookies, don't I end up with perfectly good cookies?  More than enough does me no good.  It may even be wasted.

In thinking about "enough," I've discovered that my subconscious aversion to it has tainted a well-known Christian song, Your Grace Is Enough, by Chris Tomlin.  We sing it quite often but I can't help feeling that old skin-of-my-teeth enough.  That's not the meaning of the song.  God's grace is enough; adequate; sufficient for the purpose..  The need of my sin was adequately met by the blood of Jesus. 

So in my journey to a more simple life, I must embrace enough.  I have enough possessions.  I have enough food to eat.  I have enough time to do what needs to be done.  And by the time my children leave my home school, they will have learned enough.  But most importantly, God's grace is enough to cover all my sin, all my failings, and all my need.  Jesus is enough.







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