Nov. 12, 2005
Homeschool Babel
One
day a child declares, I want to be an astronaut when I grow up
mommy! Last week it was a ballerina. The week before that
it was a swim instructor. I suppose next week it will be a
concert pianist. The parents smile a knowing grin at one another
and tousle the child's hair in encouragement. The parent knows
the degree of hard work, discipline, determination, and divine favor
involved in accomplishing any dream. The parent has experienced
achieving many dreams only to realize that they were not the heaven
that had been imagined.
Indeed, the desire to achieve a personal heaven through hard work, discipline, and determination has been a common miscalculation since the days predating Abraham. An entire global community united together and in singularity of purpose attempted to achieve heaven through personal achievement (Genesis 11:1-9). As is well known this resulted in God confounding all of the world with separate languages.
In the New Testament Jesus again draws our attention toward the error of seeking to build our own towers (Luke 14:28-30). We need to guard our homeschool dreams that they are His dreams. When they are His dreams we know that He will build them and let us help sometimes. When they are our dreams we know that they are destined to fail or worse still fail to deliver. We may believe that our child should be reading at a certain level or achieve a given status but we are commanded to bring a child up in the way that they should go but not necessarily the way that we want them to go (Proverbs 22:6). To let go and let God have his perfect way with our children is difficult but essential. Remember that unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain who build it (Psalm 127:1).
If only God is qualified to build our homeschools and grow our children then how much more is only God qualified to prepare us for the true heaven! He did not allow the whole world to build a tower to work their way to heaven so why would he allow a single person to do so. When Jesus says to consider the cost of building a tower He wants you to realize that He is the cost of building a tower. That tower is the Cross of Calvary. The only way that anyone may enter into heaven is by the free Gift of Grace through the Power in the Blood of Christ to bring atonement from our sins (Ephesians 2:8-9).
We bring all of our good intentions to the throne of God. Every good work that we have performed we show to him. Our heavenly father grins knowingly. He tousles our hair and points to the Cross. My sweet child, He says, Don't you know that to live you first must die? (Matthew 16:25)
Indeed, the desire to achieve a personal heaven through hard work, discipline, and determination has been a common miscalculation since the days predating Abraham. An entire global community united together and in singularity of purpose attempted to achieve heaven through personal achievement (Genesis 11:1-9). As is well known this resulted in God confounding all of the world with separate languages.
In the New Testament Jesus again draws our attention toward the error of seeking to build our own towers (Luke 14:28-30). We need to guard our homeschool dreams that they are His dreams. When they are His dreams we know that He will build them and let us help sometimes. When they are our dreams we know that they are destined to fail or worse still fail to deliver. We may believe that our child should be reading at a certain level or achieve a given status but we are commanded to bring a child up in the way that they should go but not necessarily the way that we want them to go (Proverbs 22:6). To let go and let God have his perfect way with our children is difficult but essential. Remember that unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain who build it (Psalm 127:1).
If only God is qualified to build our homeschools and grow our children then how much more is only God qualified to prepare us for the true heaven! He did not allow the whole world to build a tower to work their way to heaven so why would he allow a single person to do so. When Jesus says to consider the cost of building a tower He wants you to realize that He is the cost of building a tower. That tower is the Cross of Calvary. The only way that anyone may enter into heaven is by the free Gift of Grace through the Power in the Blood of Christ to bring atonement from our sins (Ephesians 2:8-9).
We bring all of our good intentions to the throne of God. Every good work that we have performed we show to him. Our heavenly father grins knowingly. He tousles our hair and points to the Cross. My sweet child, He says, Don't you know that to live you first must die? (Matthew 16:25)