WHAT DOES HE WANT THEM TO KNOW?

As the school year forges on, I'm met anew with thoughts of what I'd like my children to know.

I ask myself and seek the Word, pray for the Holy Spirit to guide.

 

What does HE want them to know?

 

Who made the first American flag? Who was the 14th President of the United States of America? What is the capital of Greece? The best way to do long division? The most creative way to "dress up" a sentence? The history behind haiku?!

 

These facts and fundamentals matter. Our world operates and functions around such scholarship. But, I ask myself with respect to eternal significance, and as I contemplate how we as a family spend our time, what matters more...pedagogy or prayer? Learnedness or love? Handwriting or hearts?

 

What does God want my children to know and how can I train them best?

 

What does HE want them to know?

 

I'm not really asking what state standards suggest my children know, though I'm not out to dismiss their credibility.
I'm also not asking what other homeschooling parents think is most important to know, or even how they choose to spend their time, though there's validity in considering such things.

What I'm leaning hard and long into my Savior about,
what I'm asking His Word for answers on is what does HE want my children to know? 

How would HE have us spend our time?
How can we glorify God BEST by the choices we make as a family?
What is MOST important to the Lord as I educate my children at home?
 

“You shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,

and your neighbor as yourself.”
Luke 10:27

 

I could have the smartest kids in town, but if they have not LOVE, then what good will their minds produce? My children could win spelling bees one after the next, but if they know not Christ, then what will come of them eternally? Our family could don achievements, awards, and trophies from every offered activity under the sun, but if we don't stop to consider others before ourselves and live a life marked by God's love, then in the eyes of Christ would we have attained any success at all?

 

What does the Lord our God want for us to know?
 

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

 

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

 

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE."

1 Corinthians 13

 

Balance.

 

I'm educating minds, encouraging hearts, and sweating through an education of my own mommy heart in the process.

As with most things, I take a bend toward relationships, love, and eternal perspective. I press into my Lord and ask of Him that He guide my intuition by His holy Word when it comes to what He wants us to know.

 

I want my children to be smart. I'd like them to be well educated.
But these achievements will never save their souls.
What I really want for my children to know is how profoundly Jesus loves them...
with so great a love that He gave His very life for theirs.
What I really want them to acquire is the fruit of the Spirit.
Who I'd most like them to grow up to be are devoted disciples of Christ
who sense the needs of others and pour out kindness, sensitivity, and compassion.

 

This is where my treasure lies as a homeschooling mom and thus my heart and actions follow.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 6:21
 

I believe this is God's will for our family. I believe this is how He has created us to be for His purposes in using us for His glory and it seems to me there are simplified ways to live where we can best hone in on these aspirations. This is not always a popular choice. It can come with misunderstanding. But Jesus didn't take an easy (or popular) road...and He hasn't called His followers to such either. In fact, the more likely response is persecution.
 

"Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
2 Timothy 3:12
 

When I consider how I delight myself in the Lord and ask that He direct the desires of my heart, it all makes perfect sense.

These inclinations are from Him. They are not haphazard personal preferences.

These inclinations to focus on the heart come from a devoted parent heart that follows a heavenly Father's heart.

 

Oh, that God would hold me close and never let me stray!

Oh, that I might sing with confidence the song He's given me to sing!

 

"Trust in the Lord, and do good;
    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
    and your justice as the noonday."

Psalm 37:3-6

 

In regard to education, Wikipedia states,

"any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational,"

and I concur.
 

It's an education of the heart that we're seeking most earnestly around here. We see homeschooling as an effective avenue to simultaneously teach and receive instruction from the Lord for the heart, mind, and soul.

 

Language and love?

Check.

Papers and patience?

Yes.

History, heart?

Organize, obey?

Check. Check. Yes and check!

 

Everything we do falls under the umbrella of education, in particular when we hold fast to an eternal mindset.

Everything we do is for the glory of God and He guides us as we seek Him each day.

 

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Matthew 6:33

 

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

1 Corinthians 10:31
 

It's really quite simple that which Jesus wants us to know...and everything else follows.

With one accord, we believe in our hearts that "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

 

With childlike faith we submit our lives to our heavenly Father and pray to follow His gentle lead as we lead our children.

I thank Him for His Word which reminds me that He's in control. I offer His love gifts, these cherished children of mine, back to Him from whom they came and praise Him for knowing His plans for them.
HE will accomplish His goals for their lives, with or without me.

"He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms;

he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young."

Isaiah 40:11

 

I most certainly do not have all the answers, but the one thing I'm sure of is Christ's love for us which overflows and pours out more, multiplies light and love in a dark world. We submit to the One who loves us beyond what we can grasp, take hold of the Rock, our foundation, trust the Word of God and ask the Lord to yield a harvest with our empty vessel lives. We choose to be both hearers and doers of the Word and hold onto faith in the saving truth of the gospel.
 

He does the rest. He creates the aroma which pleases Him most. He produces all good for His glory and we offer praise, in awe, that He would choose to set His love upon us. He has set His love upon us! And His story will play out as He intends, regardless of our flaws, in spite of our many weaknesses, whether we succeed by the world's standards or not. A mere glace through the characters of the Bible confirms this and reminds me never to fear, especially when it comes to my children. They are His and He's got this!

"Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand;
I work, and who can turn it back?”
Isaiah 43:13
 

Jesus LOVES us and He desires we love Him in return. He wants us to trust Him, follow Him wherever He leads, remain in Him, love others with His love, believe with innocent faith that He will accomplish His holy and perfect will on earth as in heaven. Sure, He can use our education. He can use our successes. He can use our shortcomings. He can even use our failures.
But, at the end of the day, what He's really after is our hearts.

 

I'm thinking that's what He wants us to know.
 

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; 

my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Psalm 23