Happy Sculpting!

Posted by Misty | 0 comments

A new school year brings high hopes, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I have been known to become positively giddy in a school supply aisle. Something about notebooks full of clean, blank sheets of paper, new pencils that haven’t even been sharpened yet, and boxes of brand new books does something wonderful for this homeschool mom. Who needs January when we all know the New Year really begins in August?

The homeschooling lifestyle has many wonderful benefits, not the least of which is getting to know these unique gifts God has given us . . .

“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward.” Ps. 127:3

As C.S. Lewis said, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ‘ordinary’ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

You’ve seen books with titles like, Children are Wet Cement. They propound the idea that our children come to us like blobs of playdough, ready to be molded and shaped like the objects of some baby shower game. The frightening truth, of course, is that they *are* extremely impressionable, and words we use may make indelible imprints.

But I’m afraid if we think our children are just unmolded blobs we can do whatever we like with, we’ll find ourselves extremely frustrated, discouraged, and exhausted.

I’d like to posit that our children are more like blocks of marble. And not just because they’re sometimes hardheaded. Prov. 22:6 is familiar to many of us. It reads, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” I have eight children, from one to eighteen. Amazingly, while having the same genes and being raised in the same home by the same parents, they’re all incredibly different. This weekend we dropped our eldest off at college. My husband and I had parcelled the other children out to friends and spent the night several hours away in my son’s new town, “to celebrate,” as my husband put it. As we reflected that night on the experience, I talked to him about how I felt we’d handed off our “upbringing” responsibility in some way to the college. He reminded me of a video we’d seen where the actors portrayed a Christian being worked on by God, Who chiseled away at him, shaping him as He saw fit. “It’s like we’ve handed off the chisel,” he said. And that felt sooo true.

Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

Raising our kids is like being entrusted with a marvelous piece of marble. It’s our job to carefully, prayerfully chip away at the parts that don’t truly belong to the sculpture–the parts that take away from the image God wants to bring forth. We must be careful not to chip away aimlessly, to strike in anger, or to just hack away at the parts that we don’t like or understand. God made that piece of marble in your living room, mom. He knows what He wants it to look like. It’s our responsibility and privilege to ask Him what His vision for our children is. And then we must listen. And then, if you’re as impatient, imperfect, and likely to mess up as I am, you might want to ask God to hold your hand and aim every strike.

When choosing marble, very rarely did sculptors use pure white stone, because that made it difficult to see the gentle curves of muscle. Another factor considered was the fineness or coarseness of the marble crystals. Fine textures allowed lots of detail, but left the sculpture a bit on the dull side, while coarse, large-textured marble was harder to work with but would have a brilliant sheen when finished. The marble itself contributed to the creativity of the artist and developed the artist’s style, since each type offered possibilities that the artist would learn to master once becoming accustomed to working with it.

Sound familiar?

Of course, our kids probably won’t look like David at eighteen. I’m pretty certain someone will turn my son to the side sometime soon and say, “Woah! Look at that big unformed hunk there–that needs some work!” because I’m imperfect and don’t even own every desirable tool. That’s why he has many more years ahead of him with the Lord, Who will use others to finish what we began.

But I can make sure I give them a good start. I can be faithful to pray and seek God’s will and do what He tells me, to speak purpose into the lives of my children and encourage them to put themselves under His discipline and correction. And so can you!

God is the ultimate sculptor. We just get to help out as His hands and mouth for a few years.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

I encourage you to get to know the wonderful gifts God has given you. Ask Him what He wants to develop in them–and you!–this school year. And let that bring you joy and perseverance as you walk through another year of sculpting.

Misty Krasawski is the overly-blessed mom of eight children whom she homeschools in sunshine-y Florida. She has been clinging ferociously to the hand of her Lord since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, homeschooling for the past thirteen years, and has eighteen more years ahead of her with the children who are glad she will have done most of her experimenting on those who went before. Her wonderful husband Rob has much treasure laid up for him in heaven for having been called to such a daunting task. After the house goes to sleep she can sometimes be found gathering her thoughts at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MistyKrasawski.