The Choice to Home School

Today one of my closest friends emailed me with exciting news that she was going to be home schooling again. I am so thrilled for her. Starting out can be a stressful, yet stretching experience. Especially those first few months you bring them home from school. They can (not always) but can go through what is called a “detoxing” period. I think a lot depends on your attitude... When I brought Kelsey home for second grade after having her in a Christian School for first grade only, I thought she would have a hard time going back to our life of schooling. Thankfully and despite what everyone was telling me, she didn’t struggle one bit. She didn’t even miss recess… can you believe that! What a blessing it has been for me to have my sweet young lady back home with me. I can’t imagine having her in school. I can’t put it any other way than it is such a joy and feels like it is the way it should be… for us at least. I know home schooling isn’t for everyone; but I just can’t imagine not doing it.

Whether you are home schooling or not there are soooooo many great curriculums for training up your children in righteousness. I firmly believe the only way to disciple your brood is by living in the grace and love of Jesus everyday. The best you know how. Even though we screw up as parents daily, sometimes moment by moment even…
living in grace and teaching your kids what it means to live in grace is the only way to truly learn.

Home schooling isn’t just Mathematics, Spelling, handwriting, Reading and so forth. It is a life style. A commitment to teaching your kid’s everyday, everything you do. If you are cooking or baking… they are right there doing it with you, and if your kids are anything like mine… they are making a huge mess, but loving every minute of it. Mainly because you are just spending time with them, and letting them learn “big people stuff.” Meanwhile you have the opportunity to have great conversations with them about all sorts of things; such as the Bible lesson you did that morning or what they want to do when they grow up. The point is you are having connecting conversations with you kids and developing lasting relationships.

Duet. 6:5-10
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates... Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.”

How can we fulfill what God has commanded us to teach our children when they spend 30-40 hours a week at school and other activities? How else is a young girl going to grow into a young lady who should have the responsibility of babysitting someone else’s children? How else is a young lady going to become a young woman prepared for marriage and motherhood?

I was certainly not prepared, nor did I have the desire when I was a teenager. It wasn’t until I was in the midst of my first few weeks, months, and even years that I realized how much I had to learn and how unprepared I felt for this life of adulthood. My goal with my daughters is to teach them and raise them up so that they are fully confident and as prepared as possible for the ministry God has for them. I read that only 2% of women do not become mothers (naturally, foster, adoptive, etc)

The goal I feel God pressing on my heart for my boys is an even larger burden. But a burden I am passionate and excited about. The burden I have is to raise up leaders for this generations and the next. My prayer is that my boys grow up into being strong Men of the Word, who have a deep longing and desire to serve God through what He has called them too. We need masculine men in this world. Not mama’s boys. We need men who are leading their families, their churches, and their peers in the work world. My boys need to be prepared to be the head of a wife, the head of the household, and a servant for the Lord in all they do. And in an ever corrupting culture.

What a glorious and rewarding journey we are on together. We can not do this alone. And we don’t have to. There needs to be a revival of parents on purpose in raising their kids. More parents believing the truth that their children are a gift from God. And that God has full confidence in them to raise his precious ones to glorify and serve Him.

I think we are living in that day. More women are coming home and more homes are taking the stand against the liberal education system; saying, “no more will you indoctrinate my children away from the heart of God the Creator of ALL.”

Choosing to home school can be the hardest decision you will likely ever make considering your kids education. But it can also be the most rewarding. When you are called to serve the Lord in this capacity, even though you have your hard days when you feel like pulling your hair out and you seem to be losing your temper… you remember the end goal, the vision God’s Spirit whispered in your heart concerning the future of your offspring. The promise of your Legacy. Remember your Legacy, is His Legacy.

That Vision is what gets you through the day without regrets. Knowing you did your best and that God doesn’t expect perfection. In fact he expects imperfection, but is over joyed that you are trying your best. Oh, the growth you experience in making this sacrifice. It is a selfless act to home school. In choosing to be selfless, for the sake of your children, you will be blessed.

Like I said before I know that home schooling is a very difficult decision that often times, husbands and wives don’t see eye to eye on either. My prayer is that this article is empowering to those who do home school, encouraging to those thinking about home schooling, and spurring on thought for those who do not. May God guide us all in our journeys of raising godly children.

Blessings!