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The
Heart of
True Education
and
of
What the Lifestyle of Learning
Message
is Really About
by Marilyn
Howshall
My message is not about how to homeschool, but about being a Christian. This
does not "look like" the model seen currently in today's mainstream Christian
culture. If it was, all you would need to do is continue doing school at home
and you could get the same kind of fruit that you see everyone around you
producing. If you want godly fruit, you have to know God and do things His way.
“‘For as the heavens are higher than the
earth,
so are My ways higher than
your ways, and
My
thoughts than your thoughts.’”
Isaiah 55:8,
9
You won't learn what His way is until you decide you want to know what it is
and surrender your will to become completely teachable of the Holy Spirit.
This message is about parents who truly know how to walk a surrendered life,
by faith ~ with the cross ~ becoming empty of self and filled with the love of God
that imitates who He is for their children. So filled with the love of God
that they are able to love their children as unique individuals instead of
enforcing generic, artificial substitutes in exchange for what God has planned
for the child's unique purpose. This can only occur if the parent is willing
to take steps of obedience in faith instead of acting out of the fear of their
hearts obeying what the world says instead of allowing God to be their fear
and dread.
"Let God be your fear,
and let Him be your dread, and He
will be your
sanctuary."
Isaiah 8:11
Our Christian faith seems to get put on the shelf for homeschooling, for
"ministry," and for many other worthwhile purposes. The Christian faith to be
truly the Christian faith is going to "fly in the face" of every preconceived
idea we might have been conditioned to believe. True faith in God will require
a true faith walk, step by step, not necessarily knowing what the steps are, but
following only the one step the Holy Spirit says to do next. Most decisions we make
are based upon assumption that we are supposed to do something a certain way.
Why is that? We are not listening to the Holy Spirit! If God is the one who
called you to homeschool, then He has the plan and the right to be the director
of it! Be still for awhile and know that He is God, and you will begin to hear
His quiet voice directing you. He will not lay it all out for you. He will
tell you one or two things to begin working on now. As you obey He will give
you another step. This is called dying to self, becoming still, empty, and
willing to be broken of your own ideas, methods, agendas, beliefs, etc.
His way will take you upstream from everyone else. His way will produce the
rich godly fruit of true, healthy relationships within your family; children
that grow to be mature, thoughtful young adults instead of selfish teenagers;
children that are strong in character and able to embrace the will of God for
their learning process; children who are able to pursue their own development
of character, purpose, and quality relationship with God; children who are
taught of the Lord, not just taught of their parents.
The grace-based training of children in obedience, relationships, and purpose
will produce all the godly fruit you could ever hope for. It will look
completely different from what you currently see in Christians today.
If the
goal of your instruction is love from a pure heart (which will only come with
an emptying of self) then you will provide a strong foundation of character in
your children that will enable them with your help to acquire a strong and
unique, God-designed education which will include creative vocational purpose.
"The goal of our instruction
is love from a pure heart and a good
conscience
and a sincere faith."
1 Timothy 1:5
Think about this moms. How often do you not instruct in love and with a clear
conscience that you are conducting yourself as God would want you to? Are you
imitating God to your children or are they getting a heavy dose of your carnal
flesh? And what about your faith? Is it true actively applied faith or is
it
feigned, a mere mental agreement to doctrine, ideas and religious duty, an
outward image.
You interact with your children all day, they won't hold you accountable and
no one else is around to see you so you are not careful about what you do. You
think that the seeds sown won't produce fruit? They will, God is not mocked,
whatsoever you sow that you shall also reap.
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked;
for whatever a man sows, that he will
also reap.
For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption,
but
he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting
life. And let us
not grow weary while doing good, for
in due season we shall reap if we
do not
lose heart."
Galatians 6:7-9
The fruit of rebellion, boredom, loss of soul life, loss of purpose, weak
selfish character and bad relationships are all a result of how children were
treated and provided for. Are their true needs being met? If mom is not
"dead to self,"
their true needs are being neglected; and what's more, mom isn't even aware of what
they are! Most of mom's decisions are based upon her need to feed her own
fears!
Children are schooled, churched, socialized, culturalized, virtualized and
"parentified" from a young age until they have no uniqueness or creativity, no
character or true fellowship in healthy relationships, no maturity and love to
give and most of all they become void of the very Life we think we are trying
to give them.
Academics is not what education is about! Nor is it about indulging the
child's every whim in the name of education along the lines of extra-curricular activities outside the home for the sake of doing them
~ just like
doing academics for their sake alone. Children need to interact with their
environment in order to develop. They need constant instruction in every
aspect of life and learning from a godly, loving source of wisdom. This
foundation will make the academic aspect of education far simpler to achieve.
If you faithfully work on your foundation, the academic aspect of education
will begin to make much more sense to you. Give this time and work on your
foundation now. God loves you and wants to become
intimately involved in all the details of your life.
"Lord, shine a light of truth into
the dark areas of our soul
and strike our
hearts
with conviction to listen to You."
~~~~~~~~~~
P.S.
from Barb: The above message was originally posted on
the
Wisdom's Way of Learning email list. Since emails don't
typically have official titles,
other than "Re:" this or that,
or I just gave it the above title and
subtitle
because
I felt they aptly described the content.
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