Good Advice

As I was going through my blogs last night one caught my eye from The Happy Housewife. It was a little bit of a long post so I just skimmed over the post and came across a gem of wisdom. The article was about how a homeschooling mom deals with negative reactions from people who thought she was crazy for choosing to homeschool.

Here is the portion that really caught my eye.

Morals of the story:

• Show, don’t tell.  We let our families and friends interact with our kids rather than try and prove they were doing well.
• Listen, don’t argue.  We heard the complaints, but didn’t try to counter them with arguments of our own.
• Don’t criticize back.  We didn’t tear down anyone else’s educational choices, just went on with our own.
• Wait.  Let critics see results over time.
• Answer questions about homeschooling without trying to ‘convert’ anyone.                                                                                     

To me this is just great advice for LIFE! I have had so many Bible verses running through my head since reading this and just wanted to share in case it might be of some encouragement to someone else.

There will always be someone who doesn't agree with the choices you make. I know I've not always responded well when someone criticized me for a choice I've made but this is an area that I want to work on. I am responsible to God for my actions/reactions even when I feel provoked.

And while I'm telling on myself, I have come to the conclusion that even when someone asks my opinion I need to say "Let me get back with you on that". I've really felt like I've stuck my foot in my mouth just by being too hasty and not really thinking about my words before I say whatever is on my mind.

It might be a good idea for me to sing "Oh, be careful little mouth what you say" about ten times through as well. :)

~Joy