Do You Really Have What It Takes to Homeschool Your Children?

Well, I have bad news and good news. First, the bad new: No, you don’t really have what it takes to homsechool your kids. If you have not figured this out yet, it is the first important step to being able to successfully do so.

Now, the good news: By God’s grace you have everything you need to homeschool your children!

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you,
so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times,
you may abound in every good work."
(2 Cor 9:8)

I think we all already know that teaching our children at home is a “good work.” But how often do you find yourself with nothing left, out of energy, creativity, and patience? That doesn’t sound very abundant and sufficient. Is this because God is not giving you the grace to accomplish this good work? Of course not.

We receive God’s grace by faith. It is up to us to depend on him. We are not just imparting knowledge to our children, we are preparing them to fulfill God’s purpose for their lives (See Make Knowledge Easy for Your Children). Therefore, we can be sure God will empower us to accomplish this task!

Here are three ways you can depend on God’s grace for your homeschool: prayer, Scripture, and God’s Spirit.

Prayer     Are you praying truth from God’s Word by faith for your children every day? Are you asking for God’s wisdom, strength,  and anointing for your time with the children each day? Are you diligently seeking him for what he wants you to teach them?

Scripture   Is God’s Word a central part of your homeschool? Are you reading, explaining, and memorizing God’s Word with your children? Are you discussing real life issues with reference to God’s Word? Are you helping your children build a biblical worldview?

God's Spirit     Are you the only teacher in your homeschool? I don’t mean that your spouse or others in your family or community help teach. I mean, is the Teacher present? Do you expect him to be? Are you depending on him to show up and help educate and train your children for life?

Can you envision your home a place of energy, joy, peace, and spiritual fruit? This is God’s will for your family! By faith take hold of his awesome, abundant, powerful grace!

Are You Afraid to Think Big?

I have been afraid to think big. I see this as a common ailment of the mediocre. We fear sacrifice. We fear the cost. We fear discomfort. We fear failure.

I am reading The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller. Chapter 9 claims that the idea that "big is bad" is a lie.

This book is not from a biblical perspective, but (as usual) anyone who hits on something true hits on God's truth. The main idea is that our mindset (the bigness of our thoughts) determines our actions, which determine our outcome.

“Everyone has the same amount of time, and hard work is simply hard work. As a result, what you do in the time you work determines what you achieve. And since what you do is determined by what you think, how big you think becomes the launching pad for how high you achieve.”

— Gary Keller, The One Thing, 88.

Our limits are the ones we place on ourselves. Aside from the reality of my physical and mental limitations, this principle works in the natural word. But it is even more potent in light of God's promises!

“God is able to make all grace abound to you,
so that having all sufficiency in all things at all time,
you may abound in every good work.”

— 2 Corinthians 9:8

The connector to this mindset is faith. Do I believe that I really have access to the abundant grace of God that empowers me in all things at all times to succeed in what he wants me to do? If we believe this, we will BOLDLY OBEY ALL that God has said. And then there will be AMAZING results.

“Don’t fear big. Fear mediocrity. Fear waste. Fear the lack of living to your fullest. . . . Don’t fear failure. . . . We fail our way to success. When we fail, we stop, ask what we need to do to succeed, learn from our mistakes, and grow.”

— Gary Keller, The One Thing, 92-94

Do You Have Super-Human Strength?

Are you finding it hard to live the Christian life? You want to be loving and kind, you want to be obedient and pure. But being like Jesus isn’t easy. It is no life for mere human strength.

Amazingly, we often reduce following Jesus to a human endeavor. We feel that we must try harder, be more disciplined, turn over a new leave, set some goals. These are great ideas, and I certainly do them. But these strategies are perfectly insufficient to transform us into all that we can be and do in Christ.

So how do we do it? How does it happen? Carefully read these astounding passages (emphasis added):

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” 2 Cor 9:8 ESV

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”  (1 Cor 15:10 ESV)

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  (Gal 2:20 ESV)

"For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." (Col 1:29 ESV)

Here’s what you need to know and serve Christ: super-human strength.

Here is the good news: God stands ready to give you grace to make you able in all things at all times to love and serve him.