I am very excited to share the posting today with Lori Hatcher, author of Joy in the Journey. I have been blessed to read this devotional book for homeschooling moms and to share it with you.

Joy in the Journey: Encouragement For Homeschooling Moms

As I enter my 24th year of homeschooling, I can attest to the fact that WE NEED ENCOURAGEMENT!

It is so easy for us to feel isolated, discouraged, like everyone else knows what they are doing and are churning our Harvard-ready children by the time they are 11. We think they all have immaculate homes while they milk cows, bake bread from wheat they grew and ground themselves, sew clothing for their children (always color coordinated), and are perfectly coiffed even as they get in their 5 mile run each day.

Well, I don’t know about YOU, but that AIN’T what MY home life looks like!! We’ve had some children not ready to start school until age 8, some never wanting to darken the doors of higher education, a home that is tidy for 3 minutes twice a day and a mom who takes ANY short cut she can and still be able to stay in pjs until just before Dad comes home, in case I have the opportunity for a nap and who is often heard to say, “Anybody seen my hair?”

To have someone write a devotional JUST FOR ME, to recognize my needs, my fears, my failings and point me back to Jesus – and always in grace and GET THIS NOW- encouraging me to REMEMBER the joy in this journey God has me on is a breath of fresh air.

I was very very encouraged by the weekly devotionals Lori wrote. And I love that she touches on very real, sometimes hard topics that every one of us struggle with at some time. Set up as a weekly devotional throughout the academic year, this is a book I can heartily recommend (and yes, I got a free copy to review but for $1.99, I’d buy it in a heartbeat!) that will bless and uplift you through this marathon we run called Homeschooling. Here are some words from Lori.

I’d Do It Again in a Heartbeat

By Lori Hatcher

I thought my college Head and Neck Anatomy class was hard. I thought studying for and passing the National Board for Dental Hygiene, all seven hours of it, was hard, too. I thought working full time and volunteering at church was hard. I thought childbirth was hard—and colic—months of colic. It was hard to surrender my child for surgery at nine months old. So was praying for her salvation since before she was born. Staying married during rough times is always hard. In comparison though, homeschooling remains the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

And if I had the choice to make again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Despite the lonely days when I thought if I didn’t see another human being over three feet tall I would scream. Despite the 547 days of phonics instruction before one of my daughters could read a four-word sentence without pausing. Despite the buckets of tears we shed over Chemistry, Algebra, and Geometry. Despite the days when fear would grip me as I wondered if I might be single-handedly sabotaging my children’s entire academic future. Despite the days when I dealt with the same sin for the 100th time, and then had to correct it in my children as well.

If I had the choice to make again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

I would do it for the joy of hearing my daughter pray to receive Christ into her heart during morning devotions. I would do it for the pleasure of watching her read all the way through Go Dog Go knowing I had taught her to read. I would do it for the character training I received through the years. I would do it for the opportunity to trust God when I knew that apart from his work our homeschool would not succeed.

I would do it for the privilege of watching him work in each daughter’s life as she came to understand the world through a Christian perspective. I would do it for the precious gift of time . . . never enough, but so much more than many of my friends had with their children during their growing up years. I would do it for every field trip vacation we took to fascinating places on a shoestring budget. I would do it for the chance to pray and ask God for all we needed and watch him provide bountifully. I would do it so I could own part of their high school graduations and their college acceptances. I would do it for the satisfaction of knowing I had obeyed what God told me to do.

If I had the choice to make again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Lori and her family today.

Please go to Lori’s site and purchase her ebook for only $1.99 today! And share this with your friends!

I’m linking up with these lovely blogs.