Through skillful and godly wisdom a house, a life, a home, a family is built, and by understanding it is established on a sound and good foundation, and by knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasure.”
Proverbs 24:3-4
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!! (I know you sang that in your head.) If you homeschool with the traditional school year you are most likely wrapping up the second semester and you’re looking forward to some fun in the sun. If you’re like us, you homeschool all year round and take breaks when it’s most convenient for your family. Either way, there’s a good chance that you’re re-evaluating your homeschool, deciding what worked and what didn’t, and making adjustments accordingly.
I’m right there with you.
If we take Proverbs 24:3-4 to heart and apply it to our homeschool, we will be looking at more than new curriculum or healthier lunch options as we plan for the next school year. Instead, we will be looking for ways to make our homeschool a treasure trove filled with the rare and beautiful.
That sounds nice and poetic but what does that even mean? What does that look like fleshed out?
When I re-read this passage again, I immediately saw that I needed to inspect my foundation before I start filling rooms with treasure. Upon first glance, it seemed pretty obvious that God was the foundation of our home and our homeschool, but upon further inspection I realized that it was my own desires that held up the framework of our homeschool.
My desires were mostly godly, but they were still mine. They had my fingerprints all over them. No wonder the ground shifted occasionally and we often lost our balance. It’s hard to fill a room with treasures when the floor is wobbly beneath you.
That’s when I realized that I had not been using God’s blueprints to build our homeschool but I had unrolled my own plan that was similar to His, but not exact. Maybe you’ve made the same mistake. If so, here’s 3 ways both of us can re-lay a solid foundation and begin building a treasure trove in our homeschool.
#1 Examine Your Reason for Homeschooling
I know this one sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s the most foundational aspect of everything we’re looking at today. Does God want you to homeschool? When you list your reasons for homeschooling, do they include a calling on your life or is this just something you’re wanting to try?
Are you tired of paying for private school and worried about sending your kids to public school or do you sense God moving upon you to invest in your children by educating them in the safe, encouraging, Spirit-filled comfort of your home? There’s a difference, so make sure you examine your motives closely.
I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with giving homeschooling a try or shifting to a home education for safety or financial reasons. Not at all. That’s exactly how we started out! What I’m saying is that after five years of doing this crazy life of ours, I’ve realized that God has so much more for us and He wants you to swim in His abundance, too.
#2 Determine Your Starting Point
When we began this journey, I sat down with 2 homeschooling friends and asked them to share everything they knew about homeschooling with me. That’s not a bad place to start.
The next year when we moved to Florida I went straight to the state website to learn what would be expected of us and I began building our schedules around their recommendations and requirements. I looked at the state’s guidelines and then looked for Christian curriculum that would meet those objectives. It seemed like the only logical way to go about it, but I was slightly off-base.
I did manage to graduate our oldest child this way and she’s moved on and is doing well in college right now but I missed the opportunity to properly lay her foundation.
My starting point this year is Christ, our Foundation. Instead of adding Christianity to our homeschool, I’m going to add a home education to our Christian walk. Our education will start with Bible study and prayer and then learning about the world God created. A deeper faith and closer walk with God will be the expectation and a solid education based on a Christian world-view will be just one of the ways we go about achieving it.
#3 Recognize the Treasure
We’ve all heard of fool’s gold and cubic zirconium. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize a treasure when we see one and sometimes it’s easy to overlook a rare and precious stone. As we build our lives, our houses, our families, our homeschools on Christ the Solid Rock, it’s easy to misidentify the accessories that we collect along the way.
The above-mentioned passage in Proverbs tell us that it is by knowledge that our rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasure. Knowledge. We must be walking close with the Father, spending time in prayer, spending time listening for His voice if we are going to acquire the knowledge and ability to discern what is junk and what is jewel.
Is your daughter’s strong will an asset or a liability? Can you help mold her into a confident leader or do you need to teach her to soften her heart and bend her will towards God? Only God can answer that.
Is your son’s constant curiosity an attempt to stay off-task or is it a God-given gift that will motivate and encourage the rest of his life-long quest to learn? Only God can answer that.
When we see our children being kind, showing compassion, putting others first, using good manners, or serving others, we are recognizing rare and beautiful treasures that God has given us. Our work as parent educators is rewarded in the maturity and Christ-like development of our children.
Please join me in prayer for our homeschools and our families.
Father God, You are the foundation of everything that is good in our lives. Help us to build our lives and our homeschools upon Your Truth. Help the mama who is reading this post learn to recognize the treasures in her home. Fill her homeschool with laughter and love. Give her wisdom to lead and instruct her children so that they will follow after You for all their days. Help us to keep Your blueprints front and center so that the things we build here on earth can bring You glory and further Your Kingdom. Amen
