During my years as a homeschooler, I remember the feelings of insecurity. Am I doing things right? Will my kids follow the Lord? Are they going to grow up, and will they succeed? I watched friends, compared, copied, and coveted.
If we ignore our family’s uniqueness, dynamics, personalities, history, interests, talents, and giftings, and instead compare, copy, and covet, we not only lose out on the advantages of homeschooling, but we also miss the will of God for our family.
Years ago, I heard a speaker tell of hours in the car listening to his three boys talk about their passions and interests. He wisely took that information and created homeschool opportunities for each child within their distinct area of interest. These boys became men who worked in vastly different occupations, but thrived as they lived out their unique giftings! What if that father had designed their homeschool education without regard to how God had uniquely created his children?
Are you fully utilizing the benefits of homeschooling to develop each child’s character and prepare him to accomplish God’s purpose for him?
The good news is that God will do it for you if you ask Him. If you’ve read my blog, you know about some of our trials and of God’s work in me: losing 50-pounds, going from messy to organized, learning from my failures in parenting to raise Godly kids and homeschooling through cancer. We had trials, and I know what overwhelmed feels like.
God Uses Trials and Failures
I understand your desire for the most comfortable and natural path to raising Godly kids, with the least trials, tests, and temptations! I wanted the easy way–the 5-step plan. I compared, copied, and coveted others’ paths, thinking I’d found that plan.
I failed miserably, and God used my failures to humble me, make me teachable, and show me truths about parenting, which I now share with you:
- You can’t avoid suffering and trials, or completely prevent your children from going through them.
- Each of your children is unique, with a particular purpose from God.
- It isn’t by your great parenting or homeschooling that your children will become adults ready to serve God and make their mark on the world. It’s by God’s grace and through His work in them.
- Parenting your children is not going to look anything like you thought it would.
God’s Best For Your Family Involves Trials
I want God’s best for you and your kids. That involves trials. But, I have good news for you. My most compelling testimonies came from a 7-year trial when I thought we should copy our friends and make a change, but my husband didn’t agree. Accepting that situation sent me to my knees, seeking help from God. That’s when I learned to pray.
I thought my children were missing out. God showed me He was protecting them, and giving them opportunities to serve. I wanted friends. Instead, God opened up the door to disciple other women. I wanted my husband to lead. Little did I know God would use this trial to make my husband dig deeply into the Word of God for answers, and become the head of our family and our homeschool.
The Top 5 Things To Teach In Your Homeschool
My list of the top 5 things to teach your children:
1) To Love, Serve, and Trust God
2) To Love Others
3) To Love Learning
4) To Love Books, and
5) Where to Find the Answers To Their Questions
This Teaching Will Look Different In Every Home and Family
Satan wants us to compare. Comparing will lead to pride or despair, and either is ok with him. Neither pleases God.
We want to fulfill our roles well, and to do the right thing. God is the One to go to for answers because He is the Creator of womanhood and the Author of marriage and parenting. He wrote the Book, literally, on how to please Him in these roles.
How to homeschool without comparing, copying or coveting is by prayer and study of the Word of God. Get your eyes onto God and off of people. God knows how He wants you to raise your children! He made them! He knows all the amazing things He’s going to do through them in life, and what preparation they need.
Pray desperately, fervently, and passionately for your children and husband, believing that you’re talking to a God who answers prayers and loves you! Study His Word as a family, obey it, and act upon His leading.
Use your unique gifts and talents. Delight in the Lord and enjoy serving Him. Help your husband become the head of your home and homeschool by listening to his parenting and homeschool ideas and implementing them.
Trials are inevitable. We will struggle. As we take our problems and struggles to God, He gives us answers, but they are never one-size-fits-all! We learn from His Word, apply His wisdom, and are changed by Him into the image of Christ. That is His desire. He writes a story of His transforming power in our lives–how He led, helped, and used us when we didn’t have a clue what we were doing. Then He uses that story to inspire, change, and grow others into His likeness, drawing them closer to Him. And the cycle continues!
Be The Wonderful Unique Family God Wants You To Be
Be who God uniquely created you to be. Bring glory to Him! Allow God to do His work in your children, recognizing that they, like you, are uniquely created by God for a particular purpose in this world. Homeschool your children, deciding on the curriculum, activities, and path you should go with each one, by asking God to show you the unique way He wants you to educate them. God will lead you to the subjects, books, and courses of study each child needs.
And, through trials and struggles, He will grow your character and faith, developing your testimony to the world.
Your homeschool should be fluid, fluctuating, changing, based on the leading of the Holy Spirit, in response to who each child uniquely is becoming. The problems, attitudes, and habits you each have that need fixing, and the trials God takes you through, will also direct and lead you to His answers specifically for your family. What a blessing to homeschool with the Lord!
Your homeschool will look different from anyone else’s because it’s God’s work in your unique family, making you into His image for His glory and purpose, writing a testimony through you to the world.
Wendy Gunn helps overwhelmed moms grow spiritually with joy in who God uniquely created them and their family to be, raise Godly children (without comparing, copying, or coveting), and get their lives organized for God’s glory, through Mentorship, Ebooks, Courses, and Coaching.
You can connect with Wendy on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You can also find her at her website, Your Home for God, or Make Your Home for God Facebook group.
