How does a homeschool mama get it all done? Her to-do lists are long. The mama life is not like high school with 45 minutes for English, 45 minutes for math, 45 minutes for history, . . . . Babies need nursing during grammar lessons. Repairmen arrive during read-aloud time. Relatives text urgent news while we are making sandwiches for lunch -- the lunch that should have been ready an hour ago.
A key to homeschooling mamas getting it all done is her definition of "it all." No mama can look in a dictionary to find that definition. And no mama can cut and paste another mama's definition of "it all" into her own life. The best place to find out how to do it all is to look at the life of Jesus.
Talk about a to do list! Sometimes we act as if we have to save the whole world, but for Jesus that was a reality. He really did have to save the whole world. Still, Jesus was always where He needed to be. He was always doing what He needed to do. He never worried because He wasn't doing something else. He was content with what He was doing right then. Jesus was always about His Father's business but he was never rushed. Sometimes He let Himself be interrupted and He did what that person asked Him to do. Other times, He said, “No, I have to go over here and do this.”
I believe that is exactly what He wants us to do. Jesus had a to do list. His list had the most important tasks anyone on earth has ever done. Jesus knew what He came to earth to do and he spent every day doing that faithfully -- but never hurriedly. Jesus humbled Himself and let God define "it all." He said: For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. When I look at the life of Jesus as described in the gospels, I see a Man with a purpose walking through life (often literally walking through life), meeting the needs of the moment, while keeping His ultimate to do list constantly in mind.
We can follow His example. We can meet the needs before us today. We can say no sometimes because a yes would keep us from doing what we are really supposed to be doing. We continue with purpose to fulfill God's to do list for us.