Homeschooling: A Challenge

~Written several years ago when the children were small.~

Do you know how often people tell us that we are “so lucky to have gotten such good kids”? As if we haven’t spent the better part of our adult life pouring our entire being into our children. As if the countless hours we’ve spent praying over them and monitoring the details of their life; reading them Scripture and helping them to apply it to their lives, having had them hear it, read it, memorize it, see the need of it and teaching them to love it. As if the difficult times of disciplining them in love and with concern for their present, as well as their future well being, meant nothing in the development of these children. As if the choice to be their tutor and to make the sacrifices necessary for this arrangement had nothing to do with their emotional, physical, spiritual, as well as their social vitality!

The reason you see the results in our children that you do is because we have not delegated the privilege of raising these children to anyone else. God has given these children to us. We conceived them, we gave birth to them, and we are the ideal candidates to love and nurture them in the way that is the best for them. God is not mocked; what you sow you will reap. The reason the fruit of our labors is beginning to show itself so sweet is because God’s commandments have been our constant guide; His standard is what we have tried to uphold in our home; and His mercy is what we have sought after and begged for daily as we have consulted Him and asked for His wisdom in dealing with our children.

Homeschooling mother, you’ve signed up for the long haul. Your days are full of work, both physical and mental, even though you are classed among the “non-working”. The stakes are high: those little eyes are watching you all the time and those little ears are taking in all that is said to them and all that is within their ear-reach. Souls are being shaped and molded under your care, conforming to your design.

Never in your own strength can you accomplish anything of eternal value in this costly arena. It will not be to your glory as you stand one day with your “trophies” around you…you will know it was, and is, all Him; it is and always has been all to His glory. For without Him you can do nothing. Your ship has safely crossed the wild, stormy seas because its anchor is Christ. You labored in your home, with your children, out of your love for Him, for the One who saved your soul and set your path aright. But for the grace of God, there would you go, racing on towards Hell, losing your children as you went.

Yours is a labor of love in the deepest sense of the word. Giving and expecting nothing in return. Choosing to care for, respect, and sacrifice for, with no consideration of your own flighty emotions or feelings. Yours must be seen as a ministry, a special calling from God on High. For that is what it is. He has called you and He has given all necessary power to accomplish His plan for you.

He who is called Faithful and True is ever-present and is ever-willing to enable you to face long-division, prepositional phrases and world geography. He who called you will never leave you wanting the resources necessary to accomplish your task. Doubting your ability to do this job is to doubt your God and His abilities and His chosen path for you. He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you. Have you no faith, dear one? Faith involves trusting what God has said and moving forward even when the next step seems to be into the dark. Troubles, trials and difficulties are part of the journey. Had we not these obstacles we would not need God to guide us through, and we would not need faith to traverse a clear, well-lit path.

The hard times that will come are meant to draw us closer to Him, to cause us to mount up with Him in His chariot, to mount up with wings as eagles and get a heavenly view of our situation. This view changes everything. Above the storm the sun is always shining. With God in prayer, rise above the circumstances and seek to see this old world through the eyes of Him who loves you so; through the eyes of Him who has promised to work all things together for good to them that love Him and who are the called according to His purpose.

You, your spouse and God; what a powerful combination for changing the world one soul at a time.