"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
This verse has been on my heart for some time now. It is the one that encourages me to homeschool my children and to raise them to love the Lord. It means many things to me....so many things have been on my heart this year. I have chosen this year to work on character with myself and my children. I can not expect them to learn this by themselves. I have also decided that I must teach them to want to gain wisdom and knowledge. To some, wisdom and knowledge means applying one's self to their books and drill, drill, drill. I want my children to understand how to balance their bank accounts, to plan ahead for their futures, to understand math and language arts and history....I want many things for my children. But I am realizing that the greatest knowledge we can get is from God. I have been reading "When You Rise Up" by R.C. Sproul. His book is really interesting. It is helping me to understand afew things that were on my mind. I worry about my children's futures. But I need not really! I am realizing that I do not want my children to be something great without knowledge of Jesus. To have a life without Jesus, is an empty life. We have been reading together the Book of Proverbs. We just started actually. It really brought up alot of questions from my children...it was exciting to see them thinking and asking questions. Reading the Book of Proverbs has shown me that attaining a great job isn't the only focus we should have. If we put our trust in Jesus, then doesn't He provide for us? Getting knowledge though is going to require more time studying God's word. I don't know it very well and so it isn't easy to always explain things to my children. It is interesting though some of the things we have learned together so far. For an example, there was a verse that we read in our devotionals the other week....it told us basically that if we see our neighbours animal stranded that we need to return it, if we kill it accidentally - replace it, we have struggled a situation here where we live...all the neighbour's dogs have been in our yard...and leaving things behind *yuck*. And we don't have any pets. So this has really been upsetting us. We have chased the dogs home, we have walked the dogs home, we have thrown rocks at the dogs we don't know if we can trust. But now we know that we can not cause injury to them by throwing rocks....lol. I have two boys, and one has a sling shot....so really this was a big issue here. lol. A chance to shoot the sling shot was pretty exciting for my older son. He does love animals....but hates stepping in their little bombs.
The other very hard lesson for us to learn, that will take us some time. Is going to be "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This should be interesting. As I have a quick temper sometimes and so does my older son....my daughter who is the oldest gets upset easy too...and lately my youngest has taken to hitting others...and sometimes with something in his hand. We all have our tendencies to do something wrong. But we should try to curve that desire to want to hurt someone back. It is wrong. My son is a very sensitive boy, and he usually reacts first without thinking of any consequences. His feelings get hurt, so he does back unto others as they have done unto him. I know that he isn't perfect, for none of us are. We all fall short of reaching perfection...it is unattainable. So I know my son has his faults. One though he doesn't have is lying...if he does fib, then he squirms with his guilt and finds me and confesses his sins. The other day he confessed something from over a year ago that he did. Oh how he cried. My poor boy, he is getting to be such a big guy now. This year he will be 11. My daughter and my youngest son don't have this quality....they are usually told on if caught. But when confronted, they do confess. I hope that with time, that they too will seek me out and confess. The Bible is a wonderful tool for training....as I am only just learning. I did always know I think, just never attempted it because I didn't feel that I knew my Bible well enough. Now I am seeing that I need to just jump in and allow the Holy Spirit to just guide me. Because my children won't wait for me to gain knowledge...they are growing up. They need this information now. Just like we need food for our bodies to be healthy and live. This knowledge is food for our souls. And this food gives us ever lasting life. I love my Lord...and I just pray that my children will too.
Just thoughts from my heart.....
Blessings from acraisydaisy |
