By David Quine
Homeschooling is so much more than teaching math, literature, grammar, composition etc.
God has called us “to make disciples.” This is our high calling from God and it starts within our own family! There is nothing more important! There is nothing more urgent! God has given us a great responsibility, but at the same time a great opportunity. Homeschooling is a mom and dad (and grandparents) teaching their children at home in the fulfillment of Christ’s command to “make disciples.”
FRAGRANCE
… thanks be to God! For through what Christ has done, he has triumphed over us so that now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume. As far as God is concerned there is a sweet, wholesome fragrance in our lives. It is the fragrance of Christ within us, an aroma to both the saved and the unsaved all around us…. to those who know Christ we are a life-giving perfume (2 Corinthians 2:14-16, NLT)
TRUTH
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” (Philippians 4:8).
A new bank teller is trained to recognize counterfeit money by first being permitted to only handle real money, so that they will recognize a false bill when they feel it. In the same way, we believe children should begin by handling those things that are true and consistent with Scripture, thus establishing a foundation on truth. Good literature that reflects Christian virtue is invaluable.
Our aim throughout our curriculum is that our children will live a life fruitful in the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:8) in the twenty-first century. To do so, we need to be providing them a “feast of ideas” (Charlotte Mason) filled with truth. We educate not in a way to have children simply regurgitate learned concepts back to us, but rather with the intention of teaching our children how to learn and how to reason through each concept. Our prayer is that children will be discerning and able to stand firm in Christ in the midst of a sea of untruth being presented by our world and our culture.
Only then they will “grow up into Christ” and no longer be immature “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. [They] will not be influenced when people try to trick [them] with lies so clever they sound like the truth (Ephesians 4:14, NLT).
LIFE
Home education Is implanting the life of Christ into the heart, soul, and mind of each of our children. It’s not trying to conform our children to some Christian morality, but rather, teaching them to present their lives as a living sacrifice to God and then allowing Him to transform their lives by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:1-2). “Man was so engineered by God that the presence of the Creator within the creature is indispensable to His humanity” writes Major Ian Thomas.
But you might be thinking, “I don’t feel prepared to do these things?” If this is the way you feel, that’s exactly where God wants you to be. Otherwise, you would depend on yourself rather than on Him. Paul wrote that “God has made us adequate!” (2 Corinthians) for these things. God makes us sufficient with adequate power to perform the duties He has called us to do.
’It is only the life of the Lord Jesus -- His activity, clothed with you and displayed through you, that ultimately will find the approval of God’ (Thomas) and give you the power to fulfill all that God wants to do in and through you as you home educate your children.
May God grant you wisdom to fulfill this high calling.