Math is one of those things that I never enjoyed. Not that I didn’t try, I did at one point genuinely attempt to have some form of affection for it, after all, whether or not I had fun with numbers didn’t make them go away. But it was never to be. So year after year I dreaded math class. When I moved that tassel and received my final diploma, I thought I was FREE! Then I had kids and had the crashing realization that I would one day have to relive the math misery.
So here I was, at our kitchen table, helping my daughter with her pre-algebra homework. Her math was still quite doable, even if was becoming tedious enough to inspire nightmarish flashbacks to high school and college math courses. The level of complexity wasn’t typically my challenge with helping her…not yet anyway. No, my problem was that I typically got around to helping her after work and checking some items off my to-do list…in other words, I typically had tired mom brain during these sessions. No problem, I thought, I bought the answer key AND the solutions manual. I’m all set, mom brain and all. And usually, these resources were my lifeline to confident assurance that I would ALWAYS have the correct answer during these long (and emotional because my tween girl also hates math) sessions.
“Okay, honey, let’s try it again.”
“UGH!” <Insert desperate tween girl face blinking back tears with hints of frustration kindling into anger emoji.> We had BOTH attempted this particular math problem at least two or three times individually and once together. We kept getting the same solution, and it just wouldn’t match the answer key! I was beginning to get frustrated with my apparent incompetence in getting the numbers to fall into submission. Not to mention the urgent tween girl emotional situation that was approaching the proverbial point of no return. I had to figure out the solution fast for both of our sakes.
No go. Same answer. As my daughter slumped over, head on the book, I just knew tears were imminent. I gasped. “We got it right!! We got it right!!”
“What are you talking about, Mom?”
I almost hated to admit it after what we had been through, but the problem wasn’t in the numbers or how we were working with them. The problem was my focus. It was all my fault. I had been looking at the answers for Lesson 52 when we were working on Lesson 53. The answers were tiny and all crammed on the same page; the difference in spacing from the incorrect lesson to the correct lesson was an inch? Maybe? (If you can trust my math and judgment lol.) Yet that’s all it took.
If I had been more alert and vigilant, we could have moved on several attempts ago. We had gotten the correct answer together on the first try. I hung my head and informed her of my mistake. Thankfully, she was gracious, elated to celebrate that we could move on, and chose to not harp on me for my error.
It got me thinking…how many times do we do this in life? How many times do we lose focus and wind up off track? 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith…” (KJV). Here Paul is instructing the church in Corinth in just this, staying vigilant and being alert. And in what? Remain vigilant in what? In the faith. Faith, that confident assurance that God will do what He said He will do. Paul is telling them (and us) to be vigilant to stand firm in your confident assurance that God guarantees His word, that He keeps His promises.
Our focus should be on Him! Not on the world, not on ourselves. If our focus isn’t on Him, we risk spinning off in the wrong direction and in endless cycles of frustration…just like my daughter and I did when I wasn’t vigilant and focused on the wrong lesson in the answer key!
Sure, the correct answer was there. The answer key wasn’t the problem, I was the problem. God is our answer and our focused faith in Him is the key to living in His victory. He is not the problem, He is the solution. It doesn’t matter how much we try to work the numbers of our life so-to-speak, if we don’t focus on Him, we won’t align with Him, the solution. How much time do we waste in life losing focus and getting ourselves anxious and/or angry when we simply need to shift where we look?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like getting frustrated, angry, or anxious, and I really despise wasting time. The key is maintaining focus, vigilance, and being alert…on the right thing, on God. I can tell you one thing; I never thought I’d get something this valuable from a pre-algebra lesson.
Thank You, Lord, for always being the solution. I choose now to focus my mind and my heart on You and Your word, for You are always good, always true, and always faithful. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.