As school started for many of my friends, they posted pictures of happy (and sometimes not-so-happy) children with colorful chalkboards and fresh clothing or backpacks, noting their ages, grades and excitement for the new school year. As I looked at the many pictures of the sweet faces that blanketed Facebook, I debated whether or not I should post a picture of our new adventure.
It would have looked a bit different than many of the others, because my sons were in their underwear (I wish I could say pajamas), wrapped in the first blankets they found (because the robes hanging on the foot board of their beds is too much to think of when they’re stumbling from their room), and seated at the kitchen table for the start of their school day. There is no other way they’d like to roll…they’ve been looking forward to this all summer. They could do math in their underwear. Today was the first day of our home school.
Nope. I’m not calling all moms to home school. I’m not even attempting to say that you or anyone else should home school unless you feel called to it. For a while I thought about it but never felt called to it. And then one day I was. When I knew it, there was no escaping it. The call was certain and there was no looking back. I had to do it, or I knew I’d be miserable. I had made a promise of obedience to the Lord. It wasn’t subject specific, but I told Him that when He called, I would follow. When the call to home school came, I knew I couldn’t dismiss it, so I took Him up on it.And here I am writing to anyone who could be reading that my boys do math at the kitchen table in their underwear. Who wants to come over for breakfast?
So here is my question for you, sweet reader who is probably a mom and is contemplating whether or not I’m still going to ask you to consider homeschooling. I’m not, by the way. Did I just hear a sigh of relief?? What I am going to ask you to consider is this: What is God calling you to do with and for your children to make an eternal impact for His kingdom. No less daunting of a consideration, right?
We are called the moment we conceive. Beyond the responsibility to raise them, we are called to nurture, cultivate and guide our children into a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a call we’re not to take lightly. It isn’t a job for another family member, a teacher or a pastor. It’sour job as mothers to nurture the next generation of Christ-followers and through it, to bring God glory. How we do that and the individual calls on our lives and the lives of our children is very different from one person to the next.
“…for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” Romans 11:29
How do you know what your calling is? I think you know my response: spend time with God, allowing the Holy Spirit to impress His adoration and exhortation on your heart. To do to this, you must also incorporate spending time in His Word, a huge way in which God speaks to our hearts. And you have to listen. Quietly bask in His presence and hear what He desires for you, your children and your family. Reflect on the spiritual gifts He’s given you and how you can use them to His glory in your home.
Whether your children are in a public school, private school or a home school situation, you are called at the very least to mentor your children. It doesn’t have to be radical unless the call is radical. Sometimes the call is intimidating. I would have never thought myself capable of homeschooling if I had not been sure of the call and the promise that the Lord would be with me every step of the way. He had to bring me to a place where He could use me in this way, and a point in my relationship with Him where I would trust Him enough to take the step. Maybe He’s doing the same preparatory work in you for your unique call.
The start of the school year is the perfect time to start a new thing, to obediently answer your call. Don’t pretend you don’t recognize the caller ID. Pray, pray and pray for clarity. He WILL show up with it when the time is right. Whether it’s nightly devotions, morning prayer together, or in depth study, discern God’s call for your family and answer it with, “yes.”
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 11:18-19
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