My beautiful friend Debbie and I homeschooled together. Last week we went to the pool and shared about our lives now. Debbie works with opioid addicted women and some men here in Cincinnati. We got to talking about what it felt like to see someone give up the addiction, and make progress in their lives, and then revert to drug use. Debbie made a wise observation that I felt was critical for us to think about.

She said when she joined the organization to do this work, she believed her task was to help rescue people so that they would have improved lives. Naturally, not everyone can achieve the improvement. There are lots of stories of progress, not finished work, with growth and back tracks. She said she discovered she had to change her criteria for success in order to keep going and to not lose heart.
 

What Debbie believes now is that any time she gives love, she is offering her highest act of service, no matter the outcome.

As Debbie says, “Love given is never wasted.”

That phrase keeps echoing in my mind. How often is our goal to push for an outcome as opposed to creating a sacred space of love?

Perhaps a good question to ask ourselves when working with our kids is, “Is this the loving thing or the pushing them to my agenda thing?”

I want to remember: any love I give is never wasted—no matter how it looks today.  

Julie Bogart homeschooled her five children for seventeen years. Now she runs Brave Writer, the online writing and language arts program for families, and is the founder of The Homeschool Alliance and Poetry Teatime. arts program for families, and is the founder of The Homeschool Alliance and Poetry Teatime.