• Oct. 7, 2008
Who Will Your Kids Be?
I went to my first AGAPE support group meeting last night. The speaker was Misty Spinelli who owns a homeschool company out of the Charlotte, NC area called Growing Scholars.
She related homeschooling to baking bread, but the thing that stood out most in my mind was the first part, the recipe. In a recipe, you have a finished product in mind. Misty said that we are homeschooling, not for our childrens sake, but for the sake of the adults that they will become. I've never given that due consideration. Of course I'm homeschooling for my children's sake. I want them protected in body and in spirit. I want to be able to tailor a curriculum to suit them and not make them fit into a mold that they were not made for. I want to be able to nurture their God-given gifts and abilities while helping them learn how to overcome their personal weaknesses. Of course I'm homeschooling for the children's sake. But am I really? Is this the extent of what I want for my kids? To what end? Is their childhood the sum of all that I want for them? Am I not concerned with who they will be when they are responsible for themselves and their decisions have more impact than deciding what game should be played today?
Misty gave us an exercise to do with our husbands. It seems to me that it is an important one and worthy of our time. In your mind picture your child as an adult of 20 years. Who do you want them to be? What is important to you that they know? Write these down. Go ahead and do it. At least make a mental list before you read any further. I'll wait...
OK
I'm sure that a lot of our answers will be the same. Now look at that list and notice what percentage of these things is academic. Probably not many. It really helped me when Misty compared our kids to a pie. (He he, sorry I just got a funny picture in my head!) Academics are just one slice of the pie. They are certainly not the biggest slice, just a regular old slice. Now that slice is important. You want it's quality to be just as good as the rest of the pie, but it is not the main thing to concentrate on. If your daily focus is 7/8 on academics you made need to consider your ingredients. Have your book learning, but put it in it's proper perspective.
Pretend that like me, one of the qualities that you want for your children is for them to be a servant. Then you need to add that ingredient to your recipe! They will not grow up naturally with a heart for service. Who does? It needs to be shown to them. Taught to them. Done with them side by side. Helping with a soup kitchen once or twice a year is not going to cut it. Make it a regular part of your life. Once, twice, three times a week. Now, before you say you don't have time for that, consider again the recipe, the finished product, the pie. What is most important?
Take your list to God. What does He say? Who does He want your kids to be? No person is perfect, but we all have strengths. God has a plan for us all, even the smallest one among us. As you go through your day, THINK about the end product. Does it matter if your child has not memorized that thing you've been struggling with for over a month? How much of that month of memorizing could have had a better purpose? What will it profit their soul? Be careful not to get so caught up in the agenda for today that you forget the goal.
Please know that I am speaking to myself in a big way here. It's so easy for me to get bogged down in what seems to me to be important at the time, but has no eternal reward.
