Probably every parent still stuck in the virtual school nightmare with multiple children can relate to the feeling of helplessness as you watch your children have the lowest grades of their lives. What in the world happened to the leniency of the spring? It is gone. The motto is “sink or swim” now. If you cannot figure it out and get it in on time, here is your zero. The middle and high school no longer accepts late work.

When your work is not handed in on time, you get an NHI.

That stands for “Not Handed In,” and for middle and high school that is a zero here, of course. Elementary school is nicer. That just means a 50 for them.

This lady right here is sunk. Sunk hard. I am at the bottom of the ocean with the nastiest of the creatures and those sharks that hide in the sand.

Some of the NHIs are from technical problems. Others are from forgetfulness or not wanting to make a video. Many of these assignments were finished and sitting on their desk, but they never uploaded them. It is so frustrating because in person there is so much less of this problem.

Why do I take their grades so personally? They feel like my grades, and I was an extremely serious student.

No, I cannot check behind eighteen classes per day. I mean I could, but then no one would get to eat or wear clean clothes.

So in the midst of my depressed state, I turned to my daily Bible reading for comfort. Only the thing is I am currently reading in Jeremiah! Ha!

That does not feel super comforting. Jeremiah’s job is to warn the Israelites to turn back to God and away from worshipping idols before he gives their country away to others. They did not listen, and in came the Babylonians and the Chaldeans.

Then after all these terrible things happened to Judah, and even the governor that Babylon had left behind for them was murdered, things still managed to get worse. The people asked Jeremiah to ask God what they should do next, all those poorest of Hebrews, left behind. They promised they would DEFINITELY do whatever God said this time.

So Jeremiah went and prayed. It took ten days before he heard an answer from God. Have you ever been there? Asking for answers, and you wait and wait before answers arrive?

Finally, God tells Jeremiah that the people are to stay in Judah, and he will take care of them. He warned them not to take off for Egypt looking for safety because safety would not be found.

And what did the people do? Well, they took off for Egypt and dragged poor Jeremiah with them.

What a downer!!! That was my reading today.

It all feels a little like the sadness I already felt. Except for one thing: there is HOPE in there too. If they had just done what they said they would, none of these problems would have happened. So many if onlys! Those if-onlys are not so hopeful though.

We are dealing with if-only here at our virtual school, especially “If only you had made those jump rope videos, your P.E. grade would be better.”

“If only I could fix this!”

But you know what? I cannot always fix everything in this house. Jeremiah could not fix the Israelites. Past mistakes cannot always be changed. What we have is this day. We have this moment and our next assignments.

A teacher of ours had a good suggestion.

She recommended letting him earn increments of time on his xbox games and devices. For each graded assignment, he earns 15 minutes.

Mrs. P

Some kids do not need this, but others do. This sounds like a surprisingly great idea. I judge myself for not thinking of it. Ha! It could work!! But I will still have to check behind him for that. I must insist he comes to me with it though.

To be honest, after fifteen years of parenting, this does not fill me with any false sense of high hopes.

Will this work perfectly? No. There is no perfection in a family of six. Haaaa!!!

The one child will have to come show me all the work he submitted each day, and the others will not because they have earned more freedom.

Yet, it feels good to have some sort of plan in place, you know? It feels slightly less like sinking, and more like reaching for a floatation device slightly out of reach as you struggle to maybe float back up to the surface! Ha! We may reach it, but we probably will not, honestly. But by golly we are certainly going to reach for it!!!

P.S. About that Jeremiah story…

Eventually, God did bring the Israelites back to their land. And eventually, God will end this trial too. 2020 is going to stretch right in to 2021 with more virtual school for us. In the meantime, we will grow, and one day, it will be over.

“Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.”

Ezekiel 11: 16

God is a refuge for us in the present day too.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”

Jesus in Luke 12:22-25

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