“My kids have a cold…again,” I told a friend. She responded, “I hope everyone feels better soon.” That’s a kind and polite response, but as a homeschooling mom with small children, a cold going through the house can be a trial. The children are fussy and cry a lot. Sometimes they can’t sleep well due to coughing at night. Someone always needs a nose wiped; if I don’t wipe it soon enough, the child wipes it on me. I forgot to mention the oldest, who sobs about a sore throat. Oh, and school is half done. The cold takes three weeks to get through everyone. Then we have a week where all is calm. We do our nature walks, go to the library, and go to co-op classes. Then we are sick again. “Oh, yes,” I told my friend. “I hope my kids feel better soon.”
Homeschooling with young children who frequently catch colds is hard. However, as troublesome as a cold can be, it has taught me a lot. God often uses uncommon ways to sanctify me, and the common cold is one of them.
Something odd about me is that I like lesson planning. I enjoy planning the fun and engaging lessons we will do, and they are equally as fun to execute. When my plans are disrupted, I feel as though I haven’t done enough for my children and that they aren’t learning anything. It’s one thing if we get a cold every now and then, but it’s hard if we are in a season where we are catching every germ possible. We tend to have many months of no colds and illnesses. Afterward, we go through a few months of one sickness after the other. I am not writing this to simply have a space to complain, but to share what I have learned from going through seasons of constant cold catching.
Thankfulness for Basic Things
A cold is terrible, but even if the day isn’t as productive or as happy as I had hoped, it’s still a day that the Lord has made, and I should rejoice and be glad in it. I may not be able to go on a field trip with my kids or see a friend, but when I am denied things I want, instead of being bitter and disappointed, I have learned to be thankful for the basic things that I often forget about: my house, the fact that I can stay home and take care of my sick kids, beds for children sleep on, a couch to snuggle, and friends and family who check in on us.
Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say rejoice.” Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison. His circumstance was not ideal, and I have learned that my circumstances cannot determine when I rejoice in the Lord. We aren’t told to rejoice sometimes, but always. That includes the sick days. I do not mean rejoicing that my children are sick, but instead asking God to make me content when I naturally want to complain to someone. It means that I rejoice in that I can share my burdens with God and ask for help.
More Time to Pray
One day, I planned to meet a friend at a park but canceled because my children had a cold. I was disappointed because I wasn’t going to see my friend, but my reaction disappointed me more. “I guess I could pray for my friend since I can’t see her,” I thought. I was shocked by how unknowingly I didn’t value prayer but instead valued socializing. I started to pray for that friend and other friends and family more regularly. My conversations with friends are often interrupted by children and not as frequent as I would like, but there is comfort in knowing that I can still love and care for them by praying each day.
I also began praying for myself. I need more patience and contentment when my children are sick. It’s hard missing weekly activities and not talking to friends during the span of an entire cold with a large family, but it’s encouraging how God does hear and answer prayers. Being denied what I want makes me pray more.
Relax
Lastly, I have learned to relax when we are sick. I enjoy being productive and seeing my children learn. My temptation is to try to stick to what we usually do during the day, even when everyone isn’t feeling great, but it just doesn’t always work with my family. I have learned to choose which subjects we can do and which ones we can skip for a while. I have also learned to be content with just being at home and having a slow day, even if I know I am missing out on something. A day that is full of audiobooks, puzzles, coloring, and simple board games is not a waste of time. After all, missing a few days or maybe even weeks of school here and there won’t derail their future. Everyone will be fine.
I wish I could breeze through life and have no trials. Homeschooling is hard work, and hard work means difficulty. At first, homeschooling looked easy, but in my experience, it turned out to be more complex than I first imagined. I have to remind myself to look at my children and ask, “What do they need from me right now?” It might not be a rigorous math lesson. Instead, it may be something as simple as reading a book aloud. Despite my plans regularly going awry during a season of illness, the trials only sanctify me and help me learn to accept that my days and weeks will not always go according to my plan. The good news is that my days go the way God has planned them, whether we are sick or healthy.
Carly McGinty 2023