Listen to “CHM023:Imitating Christ In Our Homeschools” on Spreaker.
In Christian homeschooling, it’s easy to forget our focus is to raise up God’s kids in His love
…but in this podcast, I direct our focus and attention to what Christ did on the cross for us many, many generations ago. Hopefully, you’ll come away inspired by how what Christ did for us gives us the strength we need to give our children the foundation they need in Christian homeschooling. I’m including a free transcript below. Enjoy!
Podcast Transcript
My purpose in this podcast is to point you to Christ, and how that our busy Christian homeschools, which seemingly have nothing to do with faith and everything to do with academics, actually stems directly from the root of our spiritual position.
Like a tree, we have roots that are deeply drinking from a spiritual fountain-whatever that fountain may be- or we may be becoming spiritually dry- in need of nourishment and care for ourselves. Either way, our children are gleaning from the results of our spiritual position. If we position ourselves to love the way Christ does by allowing Him to fill us up when we’re feeling empty, we’ll be able to, in turn, love our families, become a sacrifice to the world with our lives, receive joy in the process, and empower others to do the same.
So my key focal points in this podcast are: love, sacrifice, joy, and empowerment. I know this all sounds pretty deep, but it really is very practical- and in the rest of the podcast I want to show you how I feel that Christ’s death and resurrection relates to us as homeschooling moms.
Love for Homeschool Moms
Our homeschooling days are filled with excitement, busyness, and sometimes a lot of trial and error as we attempt to raise our kids in a spirit of love while they simultaneously try our patience. I’m reminded of how love is an important ingredient in home education and probably the most important key element in the glue that keeps our families together in the midst of trials and upsets throughout our days.
I was reading in Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
When I think of God’s love being powerful enough to send His one and only son to die for our sins, I realize the magnitude of both His love and His sacrifice...and as we’re approaching Passover, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday it’s a perfect time to reflect on what Christ did for us on the cross. Because of His love shown for us on the cross, Romans 8:35 rings true for us:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”
No matter what we do or don’t do, what we accomplish or not, what our children learn or don’t, what curriculum we purchase or not, in the end all that really matters is that we loved them. And we’re able to love them because we have confidence that Christ loved us first. He gave us confirmation in Romans 8:35. I mean think about it: if nothing shall separate us from His love- nothing at all- then no matter what we do or don’t do, no matter how good or bad we are- He will always and forever, without a doubt, unashamedly love us. And He demonstrated that through His work on the cross.
We oftentimes feel unworthy to compare ourselves to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but He tells us to follow Him, to pattern our lives after Him. So by the same token, if Christ loves and came to show us love, then He has given us enough love for our kids in abundance, even on the not-so-pretty days when the little ones are throwing tantrums or the teens are leaning toward outright rebellion.. we can love them through their seasons of disbelief in God’s love because of our belief in God’s love.
It really does make for a different homeschool experience when we make up our minds that we’re not budging- and not matter what we’re going to teach, train, discipline, and admonish with the spirit of Love.
Here are a few more scriptures on love:
John 15:12-17: 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant[b] does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so thatwhatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. Secondly, Christ was our ultimate sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 5:7 :For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
When Christ died for us on the cross, He became the ultimate sacrifice-the passover lamb- so that we wouldn’t need any other sacrifice to remove our sins. He would humble Himeslef and become the sacrifice for us so that we could actually live in freedom and hope.At the time of this recording it’s Passover season, and recently I attended a Passover seder at a community church. I was reminded of how all things in the Old Covenant pointed to Jesus, or Yeshua, and how He came to fulfill the old in the new. And thinking on how it applies to our home education, I realized that just as Christ became our sacrifice by laying down His life so that we can live, He allows us the grace to follow in His footsteps-to lay down a part of our lives for our children so that we can pass the baton to them and they will live to pass down the Truth to generations to follow.
We are home for a purpose– a purpose much grander than our core academics and our plans to excel our kids with secular knowledge.
Don’t get me wrong-I’m a firm believer in giving our children opportunities to learn as much as they possibly can and with excellence- and if they don’t know how to read, write, calculate, have a general understanding of history, culture, and science- and be able to research answers to their questions, I’d be doing them a disservice. But beyond these ideals- as practical as they may be while we’re alive in teh world-lies the spiritual reality. And I personally am not a fan of leaving our kids to their own devices and their own thoughts about spirituality. But I am a firm believer of the scripture Deuteronomy 11: 18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
Sounds to me like the Lord would have us to actually teach our children in His ways- and that’s pretty proactive if you ask me.
Our main empahsis I think,should be on raising kids whose hearts are spiritually tuned in to the Lord and HIs ways- and that means we mamas have gotta be tuned in also. It’s a sacrifice of time and energy but it’s so worth it to know our children have a love for Christ.
Joy for Homeschool Moms
Following the pain of Christ’s death Mary discovered the joy of Jesus’ resurrection. After what seemed like the worst news to mankind, the best news arose out of the ashes. Ever heard the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining?” There is definitely the sun after the rain, and though weeping may endure for a night joy does come in the morning (Psalm 30:5).
Our homeschools are not usually filled with sweet faces, rosy cheeks, good times, and celebration. Sure it’s what we strive for, it’s what’s on the glossy homeschooling catalog covers, but it’s not the most realistic expectation to set for any soon to be homeschooler.
But one thing is for sure: God wants us to experience joy in the every day tasks of our homeschooling. The kind of joy He wants us to experience is one offulfillment, completion, and wholeness, knowing we are doing what He is calling us to despite our failures and inconsistencies as humans- and as every day moms. The Lord does want us to find joy and life. In His resurrection there is life. A passion of mine for this web project is for moms helping other moms to homeschool with joy.
Empowerment for Homeschool Moms
When Christ arose from the grave He didn’t leave defeated. Instead, He left with all power, and He promised to relay that same power to us. We’re encouraged by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10:”Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”
Paul is encouraging us to be strong in our Lord and Savior. Being strong means we’ve been given some kind of empowerment that keeps us going when we feel like giving up. It’s the kind of empowerment that allows us to stay the course and then bring others along on the journey with us.
I’ve been speaking with some of you on the Facebook group, and our local homeschooling communities are a blessing to so many of us- I’m finding. What we’d do without the hands-on love and support or fellowship that many of us get from our homeschool support groups is exactly what empowerment is, and it’s what we need.
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” Phil. 3:10.
We spoke earlier about identifying with the death of Christ, becoming a living sacrifice as a result of His love for us, about receiving joy after struggle, and ultimately receiving empowerment to carry on His legacy.
This completely relates to our homeschooling because we must reach out with hands and hearts open wide to love our children. Then we must identify with Christ through our laying down our lives so to speak for our children. Throughout the struggle and the sacrifice, however, there is joy and we seek those windows of opportunity and glimmers of hope like gold nuggets.
Last, but not least, we are empowered to to inspire and help other families with home education so that we can be a blessing to the world around us and continue the legacy for many families and many generations to come.
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