Category: Transforming Moments

1 Peter 2:9-10 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him  who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

"A Chosen Generation...Called Out of Darkness"

I've spent the last week seeking the Lord's guidance for our home and schooling.  Feeling a bit overwhelmed, I knew something needed to change.  If there is anything I've learned during our homeschooling adventure, it is that this should not be a journey of chains or bondage.  When I begin to feel strapped down, I know that I have enslaved myself to something.  When preparing to teach Sunday School this week, the Lord used this passage of scripture to open my eyes to what He's doing in my family and why I'm feeling tied down.

Anytime I begin to feel overwhelmed with schooling, I know it's time to pull out my favorite collection of homeschooling books...Teaching the Trivium by the Bluedorns, Charlotte Mason books, Ruth Beechick books, Cindy Rushton books & audios, etc. to find inspiration and motivation.  So I did that this last week.  But this time I also pulled out some new resources that had been sitting on the shelf.  I read "A Thomas Jefferson Education" earlier in this school year.  Although it really resonated with me, I knew it would require some changes in our schooling.  Some of these changes would cut to the heart of our homeschooling and would take some time for me to wrap my brain around.  So I went ahead and ordered more materials on TJEd with the intent to read through them at my leisure and perhaps rework our schooling during the summer months.  Well this turned out to be the week to read them.

I'm not the best person to give you a synopsis of TJEd, but I'll tell you which parts have really drawn me to this methodology.  In TJEd, you become a mentor to your children.  Instead of being the dictator of their education, you inspire them to learn and to seek knowledge on their own.  You do this by seeking to educate yourself first.  You may not consider yourself a dictator, you may feel like your children already seek knowledge on their own, you may have a college degree and feel like you're fairly well educated ... I did too.  But what I found in myself this week, is that I try too hard to make my children love to learn.  Having a background of public education and being a public educator for a time, that system is so deeply ingrained into my being, that I'm often times blind to the way that it affects me, my behaviors, and the way I think.  Even though we do not do "school at home" and we implement a number of Classical, Charlotte Mason, & Ruth Beechick ideas, my "big picture" is still boxed up within my old ways of thinking.   I realized that this week.  My children do sincerely love to learn, but I think a large part of their love for learning may come from a desire to impress me or to gain approval from me.  There is some value in that, but overall is this what I want driving their love of learning?  No. 

I'm reminded of the times my children have come to know the Lord.  Did I want them to come to know Him because I had somehow pressured them to want to know Him?  No.  Did I want them to do it because they sought my approval?  NO!  I wanted them to come to know Him because they felt His calling.  I wanted them to come to Him because they knew they needed Him.  In a similar way, I want my children to want to learn because they feel that drive within themselves.  God will plant this desire within them.  Isn't it God that should give us the desires of our hearts?  I do not want to plant my desires into the hearts of my children, they will only fail and be temporary.  I want them to crave what the Lord desires for them. 

What happens though is that we feel, especially as homeschooling mommies, that we need to "do" something to bring about all of the good characteristics and qualities that we want our children to have, including this "love of learning".  While it is true that we should provide an environment that provides for the ingredients to nourish this, it is God that will truly produce these characteristics and qualities within our children.  I know, I know, I know we must train them and we must lead them and we must discipline them.  I'm not saying that we let them completely loose.  I'm saying that God has equipped them with the ability to grow into the man or woman He has called them to be, and we need to make sure as parents that we are not hindering His natural ways of producing this in them. 

I'm not going to even try to lay out all of the ways that I see God calling me to do this in my own home.  First of all, I do not have this all figured out yet!  Second of all, I wouldn't want you to think that the way He calls me to do it, will be the way He calls you to do it.  That's what has been so refreshing to me.  Each of our children has been so uniquely created that only God could know what makes the child truly tick!  I have 7 dc, 4 of which are adopted, and I can tell you that part of my journey has been about learning how different God makes each of His children.  I feel freed especially when I look back over the years of our homeschooling to see how God has been chipping away at me leading me to a closer relationship with Him while also leading me to a greater understanding of who He wants me to be, specifically in this case, to my children.  I don't look back over the past however many years with regrets for doing some things the wrong way or for not learning about better methods sooner.  Each experience has taught me much and likewise it has taught my children.  This is what is refreshing - God knows us from beginning to end.  We do not have to figure out every detail of the plan, He already knows it.  We just have to seek where He is working and join Him. 

Right now my focus is on learning more about the phases of my children's development and letting them alone to see what they are naturally drawn to.  God has called them.  They are a "chosen generation" with a purpose.  Only God knows what that purpose is.  I think part of my job as a parent is to help my children find that purpose, that mission.  It's not all about math or science.  I think the math and the science will be helpful to them in finding their mission, but these subjects themselves are not the mission.  What about my mission?  Well before this week, I thought I had this pretty well thought out.  But now, I too am feeling challenged.  I'm challenged to educate myself so that I can be the mentor my children will need.  I'm also challenged to find what mission God has for me to those who are still in the dark.  I know my greatest mission right now is to my children, but I'm also feeling the call (& this is why I know I've been struggling lately) to be a light to those around me who are in the dark, to those families who are still in the darkness.

Whatever method, whatever philosophy, whatever curriculum (or lack thereof) that you are following, ask yourself if the learning process is being taught TO your children or if you are allowing it to be BORN in your children.  Are they learning to seek (knowledge, love, the Lord,...) because of a desire to seek and find what they need or do they do it because it's what is expected?  If you back up to the early part of this chapter in 1 Peter 2, you will find this: "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious". 

Peter is not talking to just new Christians here, but instead is saying that we should all have a heartfelt desire and need for God's word and that we need His word in order to grow.  If we have tasted His goodness, then we will crave this growth.  Let your children become as babes, let them taste what the Lord has to offer, let them crave growth, ... let the Lord do amazing things through you as you mentor your children.  Let them begin to work on their mission while they are young.  Help them to find this within themselves.  It may require a renewing of your mind.  I know it is for me.