The Road Less Travelled

Sometimes, when I have a spare brain cell or a moment to think, I wonder why in the world am I doing all this. Why do I lead the life that I do, make the choices I make or even think about certain things? Why do I care to live in the city, have genuine concern for my neighbors, love my husband deeply, care about the way in which I mother, think honestly and realistically about homeschooling, and act the way that I do? Why don't I just walk away when I am frustrated with my kids and the way that they are acting, instead try to calmly teach the appropriate behavior?

I admit, part of it is a sense of responsibility that I have. And honestly, a great deal of it is a calling, a very personal one that I have chosen to accept. But that doesn't keep me from being frustrated, sometimes very deeply--I get frustrated by my inability to complete projects or even basic cleanings, I get frustrated when I feel that I am getting the losing end of the deal, I get tired. Sometimes, I just want to quit.

And when I think about all the things that I don't do well, or don't do at all, or I hold myself to some impossible standard that no one sees but me--well, rightly or wrongly I get discouraged.

But God has a funny way of pushing encouragement at us when we least expect it (but when we need it) and where we don't imagine finding it. Today I found mine in the juvenile poetry section from the library in a small collection of Robert Frost's poetry for people of all ages.

So here is today's encouragement:

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both the morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.