Although there are many good and worthwhile subjects to learn, theology (the study of God), is by far the most important subject we teach our children each and every day. In fact, it’s not so much a subject, as it is a way of life.
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 on 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. ~Deuteronomy 6:5-7
This passage in scripture exhorts us to intentionally seek God’s perspective on everything, at all times. How do we do this? By studying and growing from the most valuable textbook we own, the Bible.
C.S. Lewis said, “Theology is practical: especially now… Everyone reads, everyone hears things discussed. Consequently, if you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones.”
Establishing a biblical worldview from which everything else in life is filtered through is what we are commanded to do as Christ-following parents. If we fail to do that, we have done our children a grave disservice. We have set them off in the wrong direction. Hence, no amount of history, science, or mathematics is going to help them.
Our desire is that our children will be able to stand on biblical truth, using godly instruction, and spiritual wisdom.
We want them to be able to rightly discern and judge all things in the light of Scripture. Christian education fails if we do not pattern our thinking after God’s words and logic. If a child learns to think in terms of himself, his decisions regarding right and wrong, truth and error, reality and fantasy, will be humanistic or naturalistic. Without realizing it, he will be acting as his own god, determining for himself good and evil (Genesis 3:5).
Therefore, we are grateful that for us, learning at home not only provides the most natural environment to grow, it gives us more time to focus on the eternal matters at hand, together.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. ~Proverbs 9:10.
Of course by fear, the bible means something much deeper than “respect.” You can have respect for many different kinds of people. We are talking about reverential awe, worship, and wonder.
But how do we teach this?
“You can’t give what you don’t have; you can’t teach what you don’t know yourself.” ~Peter Kreeft
One of the best parts about our homeschooling journey is the fact that we, as parents, have become students ourselves. We must humbly and regularly commit to studying God’s word, not allowing for excuses, scheduling conflicts, or satan to prevent us from that which we need most.
Growing in truth while being admonished, challenged, and refined…
All the while, lavished in His tender grace.
Our children get a front row seat to watch us, intimately, live out this life, for Him.
It hasn’t always been pretty or easy, but it is real.
Of all the countless reasons I could list on why homeschooling has been awesome for us, perhaps this, this is the greatest blessing we share.
Dear Moms,
Let us encourage one another to pursue God’s word with reckless abandon. Let us not settle for simply meeting together for a lite-version of spirituality. Let us spur one another towards deeply knowing and loving the One for whom we were created.
And let us lead by example for our children, the godly hope of the future.
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