Dear Homeschooling Friends:
'Tis the season...for "mid-year" blues! Yes, it's
that time of year - especially for many who follow a September-to-May
"school year" - when it's very common to feel bad about "being
behind." But I want to encourage you that what you may be feeling
may not be legitimate.
In Proverbs 16.9, God says, "The heart of man
plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." This means
that making plans is a good thing! Planning helps us to be organized and
purposeful, and God doesn't condemn it at all.
However, He doesn't ever want us to turn plans into idols we
place on a pedestal. Instead, we are to make our plans and do our best by
them. But we need to remember to hold them rather loosely, not
forgetting that He is the author of time as well as of the path He
has intended for us, day by day and month by month. He knew how the
last several months would unfold even when you did not. Thus, what we plan in
good faith is sometimes (often?) not what He in His sovereignty actually had
mapped out for us.
Now, if you've been sitting around for the past
several months watching soap operas and eating bonbons, letting your kids do
absolutely nothing (which - to be clear - is markedly different from
the method known as unschooling!), then, yes, you have legitimate
guilt and some repenting and redirecting to work on. We ought not
sugar-coat that because, after all, God gives us a big responsibility in educating
our kids, and He expects us to be diligent in our calling. I doubt very much
that's really where most homeschooling parents are coming from...but even if
you really have been lazy and undisciplined lately, don't let the
enemy of our souls win! God does not ask perfection of us, and you have not failed
as a homeschooler. He does ask us to repent when we realize we've messed up and
then to simply get up and move on in Christ without guilt. Of course,
that goes for homeschooling as well as anything else.
But, if - as I suspect is true in almost every
case of homeschool mom "guilt" - you have been doing the
best you can within the context of what has really happened to you
and your family over the past few months - and if your heart and mind are still
directed toward making diligent progress (no matter how limited some days) -
you have nothing from which to repent even if your plans have not all
panned out. Nothing! In this case, the feeling you're experiencing is not guilt
- true guilt only exists when we have actually sinned. Rather, you're feeling
shame...but shame is from the evil one, his trick to get you distracted from your
purpose and calling.
And the remedy for shame is to spit in the devil's eye (tell
him he has no place in your heart, home, or family!) and make yourself
dwell instead on truth. That means choosing to put the facts of
the matter (i.e., what really occurred in your life and family the last few
months versus what you'd originally planned and the reasons for that) and faith in
the Lord - do you really trust Him to properly order your days even when your
best-laid plans have gone awry? - ahead of your feelings. Feelings
lie; Jesus does not.
Finally, remember that the true authority for
Christian homeschoolers is the Lord...not a government bureaucrat and not
even a homeschool law. I'm not suggesting we flout the law...but please
remember that God's ways are not man's ways. Thus, we may at times -
in obedience to the Lord - need to be willing to get "creative" with
aspects of man-made homeschool law. When we know we have indeed been
diligent before HIM in whatever circumstances we've faced in recent
months, we can in good faith work around the details of man-made law if
necessary - again, not to flout it but because we must acknowledge that the God
of the Universe, who sees all things over time and for eternity - not a
homeschool law - is our Master.
Be of good cheer, my friends. God blesses - in His ways
- whoever He calls. And there really is no doubt that, biblically speaking, He
calls every obedient Christian parent to take the lead in directing the
upbringing of his/her own - in every facet of life, not just the
spiritual. So you are called by default to keep your children home.
Therefore, He will bless your obedience to Him as you persevere in
your call to homeschool, even through difficulty and even when it
doesn't look like you think it should.
*****
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