How To Make It To High School

“Whether, then, you eat or drink or WHATEVER YOU DO, do ALL for the GLORY OF GOD…”
1 Corinthians 10:31

If you were sitting at my table drinking coffee and you asked me for a word of advice about homeschooling, there would be many things I could talk about. I could tell about the curriculum we used, what philosophy of education we lean towards, and what groups or activities we are involved in. All of these things would be a part of the big picture of our homeschooling journey. You might be able to glean from me sharing these things. But the most important thing I could share with you would be simply to “Seek the Lord. He knows what your children need!” I would encourage you to not try and fit into any person’s or group’s mold, but to allow God to lead your family in the way He wants you to go.

We had thoughts of homeschooling even before we had children. We knew a few families that were homeschooling, and we loved what we saw. We saw smart children who were thriving, we saw close families with children who loved their parents and were being taught principles from God’s Word on a daily basis. We attributed all that we saw to one thing – Homeschooling. We wanted to experience in our family what we were seeing, and we thought that might be accomplished if we homeschooled our children.

That was over 20 years ago, and we have learned so much since then. It is not quite as simple as what we perceived it to be. We have observed many families over the years, and now know that not all families are like the ones we knew so long ago, even if they homeschool. We have also met some families that DON’T home school, but have those same positive qualities. It is a privilege to live in a country where we have so many options, including choices when it comes to how we will educate our children. I am very grateful for the option to homeschool, and it has been the best thing for our family.

All that being said, it is vital that we seek the Lord and pray over each child asking Him what HE thinks would be best for our children. It is also important that we evaluate the potential positives and negatives of each option, so that we go into whatever God leads us with our eye wide open…relying on the Lord to provide for our children what He thinks they need.

Over the years we have prayed regularly:
1) That God would show us any potential negatives, and that He would “fill in the gaps” that might be a bit challenging to fill on a human level.
2) That God would provide for our children what they need to become the people that He wants them to be.
3)That God would provide for our children the activities and outlets that they need so that they won’t feel frustrated.
4)That God would provide for our children all that they need so that they might grow in all the gifts and abilities that He has given them.

AND

5)That God would show us very clearly if it ever got to the point where homeschooling is not the best thing for our children, or that there may be something that He wants to accomplish in them, and that might be done best in another setting. I have to be honest, that prayer is prayed with some tears, and is an act of faith, because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having my children at home. I wouldn’t want it any other way. But I must remind myself that it is not about me. It’s about what God has planned for my children’s lives. Ultimately I want the best for my children, even if it means it might be hard for me! He has been faithful.

There can be a danger of homeschooling with OUR own agenda. We may be drawn to a curriculum, or to a philosophy of education, or to an ideal that sounds good, but there is danger in that we can become committed and passionate about homeschooling when we really should be committed to, and passionate about, God and what He wants for our children.

Some of the things that God has provided for our children over the past 13 years, have not been what fit my ideal for them. Opportunities have come up and my first response at times would have been to say, “No!” to them. As my husband and I talked about, and prayed over each situation, we have seen that these opportunities were the very things that God had in mind for our children. Some of them didn’t fit into the “mold” that had been set before us, but it was what God had planned for them. What is so incredible and encouraging is that those very things I doubted at first…the things that didn’t fit into my plans… were the very things that God has used to produce in my children, and in our family, those qualities that drew us to home schooling in the beginning!

God’s thoughts are not our thoughts!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways.’ declares the Lord”
ISAIAH 55:8

I am humbled and very grateful for the work that God has done, and is doing, in our children and in our family. We attribute all of it to God. God has used home schooling in the life of our family, but it is God that gets the glory for the fruit in our lives. For me to take the credit as a parent/teacher would be stealing glory from God, the ONE who has provided for us!

There can be the temptation to become fearful as we look around us. To doubt our abilities, and to question whether or not homeschooling is the best thing for our children and our family. Or to become discouraged when people question your decision to homeschool…and even criticize you. We can become tempted to compare ourselves, our family, and our children with others, and to worry that they won’t get what they “need”. I want to encourage you that IF GOD HAS LED YOU to homeschool, HE WILL PROVIDE all that is needed to accomplish the task. Just keep looking to Him.

I want to warn you to be careful that you listen to God’s voice. There are so many voices out there…in homeschool groups, and even in churches…that tell us what our children “need“. We could potentially run ourselves and our families to exhaustion, physically, mentally, and spiritually, trying to provide for our children what we think they might need. The most important thing we can do for our children, and for our family, is to ask God to show us what HE thinks they need. We were challenged to do that years ago, and it has been one of the best things that has happened to us!

As I look back on the last 20 year of marriage, 17 years of parenting, and 13 years of homeschooling…

…although we are far from being done!
…are not “the experts”!
…have NOT done it perfectly!!
…and, are continuing to pray!

I can say with the hymn writer:

He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content,whatever lot I see,
Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

Gina is the mom of two high schoolers, a freshman and a Senior. In her column “Reaching High,” she shares the many lessons that God has taught her and her family, as they have sought Him through the years. Visit her at her blog, Chats with An Old Lady.