Homeschooling As Discipleship

Homeschooling is a great discipleship tool.  It give us time and opportunities to nurture our children's faith.  As we spend time learning and growing together, our children are more receptive to our instruction and correction. That's when their hearts can be shaped for the Kingdom.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Homeschooling for Discipleship
• 9:55 Creating a Healthy Family Environment
• 14:42 Teaching and Living the Christian Life

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:13

Hello friends, welcome back. I'm Audrey McCracken and I welcome you to Grace For my Home, and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. I hope that your year has gotten off to a great start. We are in the swing of things. We've gotten our kids back into school and my husband back into school and me back into work, and so you know I love the holidays. I enjoyed time off and time with my family, but I do much better with a stable routine, and so we are doing well. Starting back with basketball season. We're in the middle of basketball season now. My youngest son and then my middle son. He's doing wrestling right now, so he's doing wrestling matches, and then my oldest son is gearing up for soccer season. It's also his last year in high school. He's graduating this year and trying to decide what he's going to do for college, and, of course, me and his dad have ideas and opinions, but it's ultimately his decision, and so we've just been trying to coach him through that, and we need somebody to coach us through it.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Last week I started a series with you guys on homeschooling and I wanted to continue that this week, one of my goals for this year is to clean out my house. I have so much junk. I have so much stuff. You know, we homeschooled for 12 years, so I have books everywhere. I have thousands of books, many, almost all of them. We've read and we've spent hours on the couch reading together. And the other week, as I was going through these books and deciding what to do with them to keep them or give them away or whatever I found some that I just couldn't part with. I couldn't part with them because of the memories that they hold. We've spent hours on the couch together, laughing, sometimes crying know I'm crying and they're laughing because they think that's funny, that I'm crying over books, and I so enjoyed those days. Those days are over. My boys do not want to sit down on the couch with their mom right now and hurry to them, but I would do it in a heartbeat.

Speaker 1: 3:32

But as I'm going through and I'm going through these books, but as I'm going through and I'm going through these books, I couldn't help but think I wish people knew how good it is to sit down with their kids and read aloud and what it does for your relationship. It knits your hearts together, a book together, you know stopping at the place where your kids want to keep on going, and you know and laughing. You know doing the voices my boys wouldn't let me do the voices when they got older. I tried, but that was off limits after a while. But just the times that we spent together. And so what I did while I was cleaning out these books is I put together a list of 35 of our favorite family read-alouds. Now I will tell you I could have done a list of 100. I could have probably done a list of 200. But I tried to pick out a small amount of our favorite read-alouds. But if you'd like a list of our 35 favorite family read alouds, go either to my blog, which is graceformyhomecom I'll have a link there or you can go into the show notes of this podcast and see the link that says get our list of 35 favorite family read alouds. And I just hope that that list is a blessing to you and to your family as much as it's been to our family.

Speaker 1: 5:01

This week I want to talk with you about using homeschool for discipleship. Last week I talked about the calling of homeschool and how, for us, for our family, homeschool wasn't as much a decision as I feel like it was a calling, because I didn't just sit down and say one day okay, you know, how are we going to educate our children. I assumed they would go into public school and I honestly live in an area where the public schools are pretty good. You know, I've known some people who have gone into homeschooling because they did not have good schooling in their area, but that was not the case for us. We live in a good school district, and so it was kind of people were like, why? You know why? And the only answer I could give is I feel like this is the way God's called us to disciple our children. God's called us to disciple our children, and so that's what I want to talk with you about this week is homeschooling as a tool for discipleship.

Speaker 1: 6:06

The Great Commission, jesus, said to his disciples in Matthew. He said in Matthew 18,. He said All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. So that's the commission that we, as Christians, as the church as a whole, has been given. And so that's the commission that we, as Christians, as followers, church as a whole, has been given. And so that's the commission that we, as Christians, as followers of Christ, have been given to go into all the world and make disciples, teach them the way to walk with Jesus. You know what God has taught us, what God has brought to, given to us. We are to give out, and I never felt that more strongly than I did when I became a mom.

Speaker 1: 7:01

I was in ministry before my husband and I had been in ministry since we've been married and from very early as a Christian, I knew that my life was going to be dedicated to ministry. But when I had those children it went up another level. It was like, oh, I care so much about these children walking with Jesus, and I knew just instinctively that my job is to help this child learn about Jesus, learn what Jesus has done for him and how to live a life dedicated to Christ. And so for me, homeschooling was a tool to use to do that, because discipleship takes it takes a lot of things, but there's two main things that I think of when I think of discipleship. There's two main things that I think of when I think of discipleship. I think of time and proximity.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Discipleship takes time. It's not a one and done, it's not a Bible study. It's not something that you can get together on a Saturday afternoon and disciple somebody and say, oh well, the job is done. To disciple someone means to walk with them. Jesus, he walked with them for three years. They ate together, they stayed together, they traveled together, they ministered together. He taught them and they learned, and he trained them how to do ministry, how to serve the Father, because he knew that one day he would not be there and they would need to know how to do this. And so the Great Commission was him saying OK, now it's your turn, go do what I've taught you to do.

Speaker 1: 8:46

And so discipleship takes time. It's a lifestyle, it's a lifetime of pouring into someone. It also means you have to be close to that person. You have to be close enough so that the things you know and believe and do rub off on that person. You know you can't do it from a distance. You can't. You have to be close to that person.

Speaker 1: 9:10

And so I found homeschooling to be a great tool to disciple my children. See, our homes are the soil where God has planted our children that they may grow for him. The atmosphere of our home has a lot to do with the people that they will become, and families were created so that children could be raised to know the Lord, could be raised to know the truth. You know, a family was created to be a safe place for little ones to grow up, where they could learn how to serve God, who God is, what God has done for them and how to find their place in the world. And that's what a healthy family looks like.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Now I want to tell you my husband spoke about this yesterday at church. You know, we're all dysfunctional To some level. All families are dysfunctional because we're born into a sinful world. You know, our world went through a fall and it's not the perfect place that it was created to be. But Jesus has redeemed, he has made a way where there seemed to be no way. He has made a way where there was no way, and it's in him, and so in him we can have healthy families. But it doesn't come natural. A lot of times it feels like a fight to have a healthy family, and I don't mean like a fight with your husband, I mean like a fight against our nature.

Speaker 1: 10:44

And my heart's desire was to raise my children in a home where there was love and where there was forgiveness and where there was joy and where God could speak to us and we could hear him and, to the best of our ability, we could live the life that God called us to live. And I felt like that that kind of atmosphere would set my children up to at least know that there's good in the world, that love is possible, that it's not automatic but it's possible, and so that's one of the ways that, that's one of the things I loved about homeschooling was it allowed us, it allowed me to raise our children in a home where there was nurture, where there was somebody committed to teaching these children, somebody committed to teaching these children. And I just want to say I want to say a little caveat here to all of my public school friends Homeschooling is a tool. I'm not saying it's the tool, and I'm careful about that, because I know a lot of really good moms who are very intentional and have raised their children to love Jesus and they did not homeschool. So I'm very aware that homeschooling is not the only way and in some situations not the best way, but for us it was a tool and I'm very thankful it was part of the plan God had for our lives and we discovered that and we discovered the benefits of it.

Speaker 1: 12:18

But as parents, we're called to lead our children down the path of life. We're called first to go down the path of life to serve Jesus, but we're called also to take our children by the hand and take them with us and we're given a brief window into the hearts and the souls and the minds of our children. You know, when children are little, they look up to their parents, they believe everything their parents say and God gives us that little window into their soul where we can influence them for Him. Now, as they grow older and they start to question and they start to develop their own personality and their own beliefs and they start, you know, kind of kicking the tires of the beliefs that we've given them, then it's not as open. It's not bad, it's good because they've got to become their own person, they've got to decide what they believe, not because mom and daddy told them this is truth, but because they've discovered it for themselves. And so when they move on into preteens and teenagehood, they question a lot more of the things that we tell them and we've taught them, and that's not a bad thing.

Speaker 1: 13:24

But there's a precious time when they look to us for truth and we can influence them for good, and so with that time I'm very thankful for that time that I was able to speak into their lives. But during that time we have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We have to be sensitive to the times and to the seasons and to what God is doing at this time. And you know, in opportunities we have to be looking for opportunities to speak into their hearts and in ways that they can understand and ways that they can recognize. And so having that time at home with my children gave me lots of opportunities. Now I missed a lot of opportunities, but I'm thankful for the ones that I didn't miss. I'm thankful for the ones that I got right. But if you don't even know that there are opportunities, you're not looking for them. And I recognize that there were times, in particular at night when I was putting my kids to bed, that sometimes I think it was just they were trying to avoid bed, but other times I really think their hearts were open and I was able to speak life into them. I was able to encourage them, I was able to answer questions.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Homeschooling allowed us to have that time together to speak into their lives. And so, for us, the number one goal for homeschooling was discipleship. My goal was discipleship. My method was homeschooling. Discipleship is the transfer of a way of life. Through homeschooling, through discipleship, I'm showing them a way of life. We have been given a way of life. We have been given life abundantly. We know the path. The creator of the whole world came and brought us his son, because we're the ones who are. We were separated from him because of sin, and so he didn't want to lose us. He loved us so much that he took his only son and he sent him to earth to show us the way, and not just show us the way, but to die for us so that we could be with him forever. And this is a way of life. This is the way he's taught us to live, and I'm teaching you the way he's taught us to live. And so we're teaching them a way, and we're teaching you the way he's taught us to live. And so we're teaching them a way, and we're teaching them the way as we walk in the way. We're learning the way as we teach the way. Isn't that how life works?

Speaker 1: 15:52

Now, I wish I had a book that would tell me everything, exactly how to do and you know how to do this thing, and it would be a guidebook and it would just work in all situations and circumstances. But there is no book like that, and God makes sure there's no book like that. Even his book that he wrote, he doesn't lay it out that way. He doesn't say now do this first and then do this second and do this third, because he wants us to learn wisdom. And you know, I don't know why he doesn't do it that way. I wish he'd do it that way. But he wants us to learn wisdom, he wants us to seek wisdom, he wants us to grow as they grow. And if we had a book that said everything perfectly, exactly how to do it number one everybody's different, so we would all do it differently in any way. But number two we wouldn't have to trust him, we wouldn't have to walk by faith. We could walk by our own knowledge and our own ability to follow the rules perfectly. And, guys, that is never going to get us where God wants us to go, because he wants us to go there by faith, and I wish I could tell you exactly how to disciple your children. I wish I could tell you the ABCs and the one, two, threes, and if you do this exactly right, then you'll pop out perfect children. But it doesn't work that way. It's a walk of faith. So I can't tell you exactly how this works or exactly how to do this, but I will tell you that I committed my life to disciple my children for Christ and that God led me as I walked with him. He showed me how to take them by the hand and help them to walk with me so we could walk a life of faith together.

Speaker 1: 17:34

Now there were some things that I wrote down that I said I'm committed to doing this. These are the things I'm going to do in the course of discipling my children and, like I said, homeschooling was a great help in that, in that it gave me the time and the time with them to do that. But one of them was I was committed to teaching them the Bible. I wanted them to know what the Bible said. I wanted them to see it from beginning to the end, from Old Testament the New Testament. I wanted them to understand the whole picture, the whole story, and not just separate Bible verses. I wanted them to see the picture of salvation and who Christ was, from the beginning to the end.

Speaker 1: 18:16

I also wanted to teach them the basics of the Christian faith. I wanted to teach them what we believe and why we believe it, so that they could accept it for themselves, so that they would understand the principles of it. You know they have to decide for themselves if they're going to follow Jesus, if they're going to follow Christ. But I wanted them to understand what they were either accepting or rejecting. And I knew that if the Lord would give me the grace to show it to them the right way, then it would be very attractive to them, because I know, because I've lived, that it's the best thing out there. It answers so many of the questions that we have and it brings comfort to the soul. And I knew, if the Lord would give me grace, I could show them in such a way that they would be drawn to Christ, because he said if you lift me up, I'll draw all men to me.

Speaker 1: 19:12

I wanted to teach them Number three. Number one was I wanted to teach them the Bible. Number two was I wanted to teach them the basics of the Christian faith and what we believe and why we believe it. And number three is I wanted to teach them what God expects of us and requires of us. I wanted to train them in those things. So things like God's called us to be obedient. He's called us to be obedient to our parents and to be obedient to him. God's called us to love others and to forgive others. God's called us to love others and to forgive others. God's called us to be diligent in our work and to be generous and to be content with the things that he's given us and to treat other people with respect. Those were the kind of things I wanted to not just tell them but show them and train them in. I wanted to.

Speaker 1: 20:00

Number four I wanted to strengthen their faith by sharing with them stories of great men and women who have acted courageously and they have served God faithfully even in difficult times. I wanted to have a whole treasure chest full of good examples of men and women who love God and who did hard things because God gave them the grace to do so. Number five is I wanted to give them a sense of purpose, a sense of destiny that God had called them to do his purposes. God has called them to do things for him, to do exploits for him, to do things for him, to do exploits for him. Number six is I wanted to present the truth of the gospel in love. You know, I wanted them to feel the warmth that God has for us, the love that burns in his heart for us, in a way that only a mama can bring it. I wanted to bring it to them. You know, see, the gospel isn't cold and distant, it's close and it's comforting. And I wanted to present the gospel to them in such a way that they could tell God loves me. This isn't just truth, cold, hard facts. This is how he feels about me. God did this for me, and I wanted them to have their own personal relationship with him.

Speaker 1: 21:26

Number seven I wanted them to see that we don't live the Christian life because we have to or because we're afraid of judgment, that we live the Christian life because we get to, because we are the most blessed people in the world to know Jesus and to serve him, and that they too have been chosen to serve the one who loves them forever and that it's wonderful and I didn't say it's easy or it's perfect, but it's the best life. And if you don't believe that serving Jesus is the best life, then you need to get to know him. And so I wanted to be able to show my children that in real time. I want them to have, if they didn't have any other example, I want them to have an example of me and their dad that we love the Lord and we're not perfect but we enjoy him and we enjoy the life he's given us because that's how we serve him. We serve him with a grateful heart, we serve him with joy and he gives us that joy. It's a supernatural joy, it's a gift. You know joy is a gift and we wanted them to enjoy him. You know I can teach my children about God and I can tell them all the right stuff, but if I'm not living a life that they actually get a sense that I love my life, if they don't get a sense that I enjoy the Lord, then I don't know why they would want Him. So it was important to me, and still is, that my children see that we don't have to serve the Lord, we get to serve the Lord, that serving Jesus is the source of our joy and our comfort and our security, and that serving Him is the best life I could live here on earth. There's nothing out there that the world can offer me that is better than my relationship with Christ.

Speaker 1: 23:24

So discipleship is a lot more than teaching. It's showing them the way by living it before them and bringing them along and answering their questions and showing them a way of life. It's not something we do occasionally, but it's something we're committed to doing. It's a giving of yourself, it's a lifestyle. And you may say well, what about academics? You've talked a lot about Jesus, but when you're homeschooling, there's academics, right.

Speaker 1: 24:00

Well, what about academics? Well, there's a quote by CS Lewis that I love. It says aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you'll get neither. And I think that's true of homeschooling. I believe we can have the best of both worlds. I believe we can have the best of both worlds.

Speaker 1: 24:20

Now, my aim, my goal in homeschooling is discipleship, but I can teach them academically, as I'm teaching them about Jesus, and by His grace I can do both well. So homeschool discipleship is a wonderful way to grow. It's a wonderful way, not just for your children to grow, but I've grown the whole time. I thought I was teaching my children and I was, but really God was teaching me. I learned so much more than they ever did in homeschooling, and it's important work. It's satisfying work, it's very demanding work, but it helps us to lay a foundation for our children that will serve them for the rest of their lives. It's meaningful work, it's so worth it, and so I hope this has been a blessing and encouragement for you.

Speaker 1: 25:15

If this is a life choice that you're thinking about making, or you've already jumped in and trying to figure out why you made this decision. I hope this has been encouraging. I want to encourage you to reach out to me If you have any questions about homeschooling or anything. I'm here. I'm here for you. You can text me through the. There's a text option in the show notes. You can send me a text. Come straight to me. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear your questions, your comments, your concerns. Just send me a text. I'd love to hear from you. Also, don't forget to go and get a copy of our 35 favorite family read alouds. You can also find that in the show notes, and until next time, god bless.