This is a copy of a hand out to accompany a talk given by Mary Hardy to mums on the theme of keeping going day after day. It is very common for the mother to carry the practical responsibility for organising and motivating the seemingly endless routines of learning within the family. After several years of undertaking this task and working with a number of other Christian home educating families, Mary shared her experience of how to keep the vision fresh when the rest of you isn't. The seminar was part of the Manchester Christian Home Educators Conference, 25th. March 2000.

1.    GET A GRIP MENTALLY - don’t drift.

2.    BE A SURVIVOR - count the cost, accept your chosen path is a rugged one, come to terms with the fact that most of the world is going in a different direction to you, and press on.

3.    DON’T BE DOUBLE-MINDED, varying with the wind. It’s your convictions, not your nice thoughts that keep you going.

4.    GET YOUR ROOTS DEEP IN GOD, the great I AM, who was, who is, who is to come. Practise abiding and resting in Him more. Don’t be ashamed to call on Him at all times.

5.    TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME - don’t try to anticipate the future of your whole family all at once. The day’s own worries are sufficient for the day - He will prompt you about things in the future you need to be considering in plenty of time.

6.    AFTER FAILURE AND SETBACKS, pick up, assess, get on the way again - don’t brood.

7.    WHEN A PROBLEM PRESENTS ITSELF, don’t despair. This is quite normal in a sin-ridden world. Try to identify the root of it, and seek to remedy that.

8.    MAKE SURE YOUR DREAMS AND VISIONS HAVE BIBLICAL SUBSTANCE and are not just human wishful thinking. Beware of always looking over the fence to someone else’s set-up. Reject escapism - "if only’s" are usually a road to nowhere. Try to live your own life as it is, to the full.

9.    PRAY FOR PERSPECTIVE TO BE MAINTAINED - try not to get bogged down in details and everyday operations. Remember the overall direction and why you’re doing all this.

10.  THANK GOD FOR HIS ULTIMATE VISION AND BLUEPRINT - pray for grace to live with the tension between the actual and the ideal of your own particular situation.

There are two things: the actual and the ideal.
To be mature is to see the ideal and live with the actual.
To fail is to accept the actual and reject the ideal;
and to accept only that which is ideal and refuse the actual is to be immature.
Do not criticise the actual because you have seen the ideal;
do not reject the ideal because you see the actual.
Maturity is to live with the actual but hold to the ideal.

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