Glimpsing the Vision Afresh
One of the many homeschooling magazines that have found their way into our mailbox is Home School Enrichment. Usually these publications, worthy though they may be, are just added to the piles next to my nightstand along with my little stack of World magazines. That particular stack of World I use as a barometer of just how far behind I am in life in general.
One month behind, 4 mags, is par for the course. Currently I am at 9 or 10 mags, so it is evident I am not in the least caught up these days.
Nonetheless, one of the cover stories in the Jan/Feb issue of Home School Enrichment really caught my eye. In bold letters it said “Changing Our World—Why The World Will Never Be The Same Because We Homeschool.”
That title made me catch my breath; it brought me up short. What a gripping thought. Long ago I heard George Grant give a talk on a vision for Christian education. One thing he said gave me shivers. We are first-generation Christian homeschoolers; when we started out on this adventure we could not have imagined what God could do in the lives of our children and grandchildren.
We have started a legacy which God has promised will yield tenfold. In training our children to think Christianly, we are raising up future families who will have the tools to fight against the enemy and prevail.
This past summer I attended the graduation of my oldest niece in Winter Springs, Fla. The class speaker was a friend of hers whom I had met on several occasions. He was charming, handsome, articulate and had political aspirations.
In his speech he berated his parents’ generation for leaving him and his generation a mess to clean up. He idealistically rhapsodized about his proposed solution to the world’s ills. Basically it involved a sort of a forced redistribution of wealth. His views were liberal to the core. Ah yes, he had been well taught.
We have started a legacy which God has promised will yield tenfold. In training our children to think Christianly, we are raising up future families who will have the tools to fight against the enemy and prevail.
Later that evening I got in a conversation with him and joked that I enjoyed his speech but disagreed with everything he said. We argued good naturedly and I could just see what the future held for this graduate who looked and acted like a young Kennedy.
Twenty or thirty odd years down the road, this young man would be running for office, I (from my rocking chair!) might just glimpse him on TV in a heated political debate against his opponent, and his opponent would be one of our own, a home-educated Christian young man with all the right ideas.
My niece’s friend, admittedly not a Christian, was deluded and lost. Yet he was ready to lead. Perhaps in God’s providence, grace will be extended to this young man and he will see the error of his ways. I pray so. But as we can see this political season, there are plenty of folks ready to lead us the wrong way.
I n a conversation with my mom this past week, she lamented that our world is in such a mess. The economy, education, environment — she felt so sorry for my children who would, as she said, be paying the price for all this while she will not have to, being in her mid-eighties. I light-heartedly said, “Don’t worry about us, mom. The home-educated folks are going to get us out of all those messes. You see, we are training our children to rescue all of you!” We laughed. But I was serious.
In our recent support group meeting, several of us moms commiserated on how hard it was to start back with lessons after the Christmas break.
For me, it was harder than I remember in previous years. Due to one of my son’s different learning abilities, I had to switch this year from my usual Charlotte Mason style of teaching to mostly workbooks. We had gone from reading lovely stories for most of our subjects to fill-in-the-blanks, reading comprehension exercises, specific skill series books and spelling tests. Neither of us looked forward to the daily stack of rigorous, repetitive lessons.
But it is precisely these times when we must keep the bigger picture in view. Here the article from Homeschool Enrichment lived up to its name.
It was enriching, it did add a needed boost of inspiration. The author, Timothy Palla, a pastor from Ohio, states this about parents instructing their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
“You see when the Word of the Lord has free course, it changes the lives of people. It heals relationships, It edifies. It promotes genuine love. It invests in others. It encourages the weak, It confronts the wrong. It opposes evil, It brings order out of chaos. It rebuilds what has been broken down. It gathers what has been scattered. It protects what is defenseless. It beautifies what was once ugly and shameful. It strengthens homes. It even restores hope to mankind and life to a discouraged, dying community.”
Of course our children are perhaps not where we would want them to be. We may not see the transforming power of the Word of God in their lives as much as we had hoped. But we must believe that we are shaping characters, conforming our children to Christ. Our obedience to God’s call matters.
Pastor Palla answers the question of “Will our homeschooling make a difference?” with these words:
“Yes, as long as my children’s education is built upon the foundation of God’s truth, it can’t help but make an impact. You see, it takes selfless love to lift up the weary, strengthen the weak, bind up the wounded, give to the poor, rebuild what has been broken, protect the defenseless, honor life, make decency and security possible, and invest in the wholesome well-being of others. That kind of selfless love cannot be generated apart from the knowledge of the Lamb of Calvary. If ‘life is the history of one’s dreams,’ then the world is about to be ‘turned upside down’ once again by a generation of young men and women whose Bible-based home education has caused them to dream of the impossible, have faith in the almighty, and courageously make a difference among the people God has called them to love and faithfully serve. Make a difference? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Homeschooling will make a positive difference — in my community, in yours, and in the world around us.”
Thank you, Pastor Palla, for that much-needed encouragement as we stay the course to finish another year of home education. Remember we are doing more than just give our children a parent-designed, custom-made education.
We are instilling in our children God’s very Word. They are becoming different people because of our efforts. Let us not grow weary.
—JMT
