Skylight

I recently found myself wanting the same "amazing" calendar as all the homeschooling mamas around me have been talking about. The Skylight.

It's is actually a really nifty and well designed item. Essentially it is a tabletop, large tablet; with a family calendar system built in so you can organize anything from which child feeds the dog at what time each day, to children's individual reading schedules and chore charts.

But after ordering it, almost immediately, I was humbled by the simple fact that - no matter how beautiful and fancy and nice it may be, it will only work if I am a "systems and schedules" kind of gal. The Skylight will NOT make me organized. It will certainly help keep an organized system that's easy for everyone to reference and follow / access. However, no amazing system or chart or calendar will give me what is at the root of being organized - Self Discipline.

As it just so happens to be, I do in fact love me a good schedule and system! I love a clean house and my kids, perhaps not to their delight , have their own sets of responsibilities and chores they contribute to the home.

What I don't love, is continued consistency. Let me explain; I do like consistency. I like the kids to get into a rhythm and keep their responsibilities up daily. I like the house consistently clean and fresh, fostering a welcoming environment. However, the schedule we keep this month and next may very well be different the following month. I'm continuously CHANGING the system , tailoring it to our flexible and ever changing life-style.

Cue the skylight calendar, which makes it SUPER easy to switch times around and trade chores from one child to another.

What really hit me after ordering was not that this was not a good addition to our home (because it has in fact been wonderful!) but that this would require work on my part, as any schedule or chore chart I have made has. I have to input every detail with specific times, color codes , names etc., in order for the skylight to actually be useful for our home.

Now while the skylight itself is beneficial for my family specifically, the humbling thought was; how often do I find a "quick fix" to try to fix deeper rooted problems in an attempt to not have to input real lasting change through self discipline.

I think society as a whole has been so influenced to buy buy buy. Instead of train train train. And its mostly fruitless, and even more so, a repeating cycle with no way out.

No great garden tool is going to make your garden successful without the discipline to take the time to consistently tend to your garden.

No software is going to make you disciplined to take the time to actually sit at your computer and work.

No amazing curriculum is going to make you disciplined to actually daily teach your children.

We add another shiny thing, which may temporarily give us a heightened sense of motivation, but with no roots, the shine dulls, as does our motivation. I am guilty of this, it is easy to fall for if we aren't intentionally on guard against it.

In any area I want to see real change, its going to require one form or another of inward transformation. And in a world so quick to throw a "skylight" at you to "fix the problem", we have to be VERY alert, aware, and intentional, not to chase after the next "shiny" thing available to us in the place of true self discipline and growth .

Proverbs 12:27

The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt