Jesus Cares About My Homeschool
What curriculum should I use? What daily and weekly schedule should I keep? Should we work through the summer? Start in April? Start in October? Have my kids under a program that does all the teaching and I just supervise? Or, be totally hands-on throughout the day with my kids?
There are so many options with homeschooling that, whatever decision you make, someone else is doing something totally different. How is a mom supposed to choose what’s right for her family?
I’ll leave others to give you wise counsel, to help sift through the sea of options. My point today is to start where our lives as Christians always start—with Jesus.
It’s the easiest thing in the world to forget how much Jesus cares about our kids’ education. Of course, Jesus is involved when they get hurt or sick. Naturally, he cares about their attitudes and character. It’s even easy for me to remember that Jesus cares about their school environment and is pleased by my sacrifice to keep them at home. But, at least for me, it’s easy to be unconscious of the reality that Jesus knows everything about educational philosophy, learning styles, curriculum focuses, and even hands-on manipulatives!
Once, I was part of a women’s group where we shared how we had seen God at work in our lives over the past week. It was amazing to me how often our experiences revolved around thrift store and garage sale shopping. It blew my mind how many times something exquisitely suited to our needs and personalities would just “happen” to be there for us. I am now firmly convinced that Jesus loves shopping even more than we women do!
What if I took that same sense of involvement with me when visiting a vendor hall? What if I remembered to invite Jesus into the process when opening my newest catalog? Jesus knows me. He knows my kids. He even knows my budget. He can help me find what I need and move on from the flashy and popular when it’s not the best fit for my unique circumstances.
Does this mean, if I’ve already invested time and money in something that’s not working for us, that something is wrong with my relationship with God? Not at all (unless I chose it because of peer pressure). Life is full of difficulties which God allows into our lives to deepen our experience with Him. Jesus could easily be showing me something I hadn’t realized about myself or my kids.
And Jesus never gets tired of me throwing myself wholeheartedly at His feet in dependence.
At least in my life, I get the impression Jesus really, really likes me looking to him, each moment, for guidance and support. It keeps me from unconsciously slipping into I’ve-got-this-by-myself mode, which has been the temptation since Eve was faced with the forbidden fruit.
It’s good to find wise moms, who have gone before us. It’s good to be students of our children’s bents and our own teaching styles. It’s good to research and read reviews. But all of this comes under our greatest need: to know and be known by Jesus and bring him into our situation.
Is one choice better than another for my kids? Many may be great. But the biggest thing that matters for homeschooling—as for all my life—is how much am I living in conscious connection with Jesus.
Cheri Fields is a 2nd generation homeschooler involved in learning and teaching at home since 1982. She currently teaches her seven kids in Michigan and has found ways to include them in the online ministry God has called her to, particularly as cohosts for their family’s podcast. You can find her at https://creationscience4kids.com. She is a member of the International Association of Creation and a graduate of the Institute for Children’s Literature.
