Servants of the Weaver
As we look forward to the upcoming Curriculum Fair/Home Education expo, we may be tempted to think that we just have to go out there and fi nd that perfect curriculum for our child or children. We know it is out there, we just have to sort though the maze of resources and somehow come up with all those perfect choices that will make all the difference in our next year of home education.
I want to encourage you all with an excerpt from one of my favorite articles on this topic. I read it many years ago but even today it gives me comfort. I asked the author Cyndy Shearer of Greenleaf Press for permission to reprint parts of the article and she graciously allowed me to do so. The full article, “Curriculum Dependent No More,” may be found on the Greenleaf Press web site in the section on resources.
“Now my criteria for the perfect curriculum is simple. I am looking for a program that will teach my children, keep them on (preferably above) grade level, fi x the meals, do the laundry, and clean up after my daughter’s cat without being told. Once I fi nd that perfect curriculum, I can relax and depend on it to get me through.”
OK, you may laugh but our expectations as we enter that wonderland of the curriculum fair/ expo are high. Furthermore you may even be thinking that if you don’t make all the right choices you will be ruining your children.
Cyndy goes on: “As long as I keep repeating the ‘If I could just…’ statements to myself (If I could just get organized, If I could just fi nd that perfect math program, If I could just get the kids to quit picking at each other…), I will continue to nurture the biggest Myth, the Myth that says that I can do it in my own strength.
“Actually, this tidbit is more than mythology; this is a major league lie. I have fi nally realized that the Lord has spent this last school year trying to teach me — that no organizer, no curriculum, no book on child training, nothing will enable me to do this job in my own strength. If the Lord God is not my strength, I will not make it. He has to be our ultimate support and refuge, and we have to rest in the confi dence of the promise ‘Faithful is he who calls you, who will also do it.’ …
“None of us can do this in our own strength.
“We need to stop looking for ‘the perfect curriculum’ or the ‘perfect home-school mom teacher training seminar’ or ‘the perfect organizer’ to depend on. If we depend on these things, they will always leave us frustrated and unsatisfied.
“We need to depend on the one who has called us to our high calling. He is the only one who can be depended on. So as we begin to plan for the coming school year , may we get our dependencies in order.”
I do not think Cyndy is saying that we are not to put forth effort to fi nd the resources that are best suited to help us to teach our children. But we are not to put all our dependence in these.
The myth of the perfect curriculum that Cyndy warns against is not the only trap we might be tempted to fall into. Another misconception that might hamstring our efforts is the feeling that our children’s success or failure all hinges on the choices we make.
The poem on the front of this issue of Esprit was chosen to remind us that in the midst of all our curriculum decisions, all our planning for the next year of lessons, all the choices that are out there, we can take great comfort Servants of the Weaver in knowing that the God who loves us sees the end product of all our labors. He knows us, knows our children. He knows our frame, that it is but dust, and still He knows how He will use us to direct the education of our children.
Our failings do not limit Him, rather He has chosen to use our work, our efforts to train our children up. It is a mystery, this confl uence of our decisions and His will. Edith Schaeffer once described it as if one were lying on the ground between two large trees growing close together. When one looks straight up into the sky one sees the branches of both trees all entangled in one another. One can not tell which branches belong to which tree. It is all of God’s will and it is all our choices.
So we make those choices as best we can, being fi nite in our understanding, our resources and our time. But we trust in our infi nite God to help us, to guide us and to lead us where He wants us to go.
We do not know what this year holds for us, for our families, for our loved ones. We do not know what the threads are that God will chose to weave into our tapestry. But we can take confi dence in knowing that the end result will be His weaving, one of beauty and glory. Let us take heart in making our choices. Let us pray with our husband or wife as to what shape we want our lessons to take this year.
Be encouraged. Our God goes before us!
