I have felt it. Felt the pressure hovering all around me as I attempt to wade through the waters of homeschooling the little ones entrusted to me. We all dream the dreams of raising inventors, world changers, and influential leaders. As mothers, the dreams lie within us all.
So we set to work.
We look at our curriculum through the eyeglasses of achievements to be conquered. We search for co-ops to push us, and pray our children fit the mold. We add in tutoring, sports, and specialized classes in order to give them a better opportunity at life than we had.
We can picture it. Picture them finishing high school early, only to go to the most prestigious college with scholarships in their back pocket. We are confident that this will continue the shaping process of what worldly, ideal success looks like. We would like to think this all rest in our strength as we spend years writing lesson plans, researching, and pushing them to their highest potential.
What if we missed the mark? What if nothing is by our own strength? What if the curriculums, classes, and co-ops don’t really matter at all?
They don’t.
The dreams we dream can only become a beautiful reality with all of Jesus, a lot of character, and endless passion. We want the kind of world changers that embody this. Our society depends on it. In an attempt to fill their minds, we are failing to capture their hearts. Their hearts are a bottomless reservoir that we have the opportunity to fill with every lovely, noble, true, right, pure, and admirable piece of this world.
To capture their heart takes strategic diligence with hands stretched toward heaven. We must look up, be relational, and intentional. The bond must be strong as we speak life, beautiful scripture, and wisdom into their souls. I yearn for the type of bond where souls are connected.
Oh, how I often I get this wrong. The wading waters can feel so shallow. I want to go deeper. Deeper than numbers, letters, and diagramming can take me. I want to dive into words, ideas, conversations, and discovery.
It’s all in the books, The Book, God’s Book, The Bible.
Deuteronomy 11:18 says, “Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they be as frontlets between your eyes.”
God is telling us that because of this…
Isaiah 55:11 says, “So shall my word be that goes out of my mouth; it shall mot return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent.”
This is a promise to us as parents that when Jesus is the focus of our children’s education, true success will follow. Our efforts will be multiplied. We must fasten the link connections between hearts and point them to the One and Only. He can take every spec of their uniqueness, gifts, talents, and abilities, and bless them beyond imaginable. He can take dreams they didn’t even know they had and bring them to life to reach a world for Him.
I’m shifting my focus. I am striving to focus on the eternal instead of the temporal, knowing that this is without a doubt the greatest path of them all. Rather you are homeschooling or not, let’s stay on our knees relying on the source of our strength.
What about you? Has your vision become cloudy in your homeschooling journey? Any words of wisdom?
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Brittany
Brittany Styron is a believer in Jesus Christ, a wife, and momma to four amazing kids. She has a passion for country living, cooking, gardening, homeschooling, and encouraging women in their roles as wives and mothers. She blogs honestly about all these things at Sweet Country Roots.
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I am considering homeschooling in the future (my oldest is only 2) and this was a great read… “focus on the eternal and not the temporal”. Happy Wednesday!
I am considering homeschooling in the future (my oldest is only 2) and this was a great read… “focus on the eternal and not the temporal”. Happy Wednesday!
Thank you! Have a great rest of the week!
Love this! What a powerful reminder of what really matters. Thank you.
Thank you!
Excellent article! A couple of thoughts come to my heart and mind. A way that helps me continue to focus on the eternal and not allow the temporal to cloud my judgment is to make sure that I regularly carve out time for spiritual nutrition and nourish my heart, mind and soul. Presently reading, “Keep a Quiet Heart,” by Elisabeth Elliot which along with daily being in God’s Word has transformed my thinking. Secondly, a book that I would highly recommend especially for parents of younger children, “The Wisdom of Fenelon.” Oh what I would have given to have had that book in our daughter’s earlier years. Yet God in His grace brought it into my life and it has revamped how I speak to my now adult daughter.
I really needed this, thank you!
You’re welcome. 🙂 I hope you have a nice evening. <3