This post is from contributor, Kasey Norton
My kids spent a few years in a very small Christian school. The teachers were amazing and I was so thankful for how they invested themselves in their students. I was exhausted, however, by all the un-training that had to be done each evening and weekend. Kids, when surrounded by other kids for so many hours, begin to become what they behold.
When we were able to all return to schooling from the security of our own home, I realized I had some work ahead of me. I quickly found holes in the characters of my children that I hadn’t even noticed during the hustle of the school year. But God, in His abundant mercy, afforded me grace and patience to see the situation for what it was: an opportunity to extract the good from the previous 3 years and move forward with singleness of purpose. My ultimate goal was (and still is) to help my precious kids have a life-changing encounter with Jesus…daily.
Some days I find myself surrounded by selfish motives and unkind words. I want to run and hunker down in bed until the storm passes. But He always reminds me that my kids are simply becoming what they behold. They are mirroring my own behaviors in the most unlovely ways. He calls me back to my post and pleads with me to turn their focus to Him.
Because, you see, if left to myself our homeschool hours would be filled with the worst kind of hypocrisy. I’m that mom who is carnal enough to begin a verbal attack when a child does not catch onto a “simple” concept quickly enough. I’m capable of the kind of ugliness that crushes a tender spirit in my feeble attempts to mother without the cloak of Christ. He not only saves my kids from me but He saves me from myself.
The core subjects covered in our chosen curriculum for the year are only the tip of the homeschooling iceberg. We choose to school from home, not due to the belief that we can offer our kids a vastly superior education, but so that Christ himself can be the instructor. I am far less concerned with math facts and phonics drills than I am with seeing them invest in a living, breathing relationship with their Savior.
And when it comes to discipline, superficial efforts like time-outs and other arbitrary punishments have nothing at all on reintroducing a young heart to the One who can save him from his own wickedness. So often when we step off the straight path it’s simply because our eyes wandered from His beautiful face.
If we are to become what we behold then we must help our children to throw off the world and train their hearts and minds entirely on Christ.
Every moment, every frustrating and irritating display of self, is an opportunity to point them back to Jesus. That relationship alone will bring about the changes that are evidence of a life lived with eternal purpose.
Latest posts by Kasey Norton (see all)
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- Beholding the Beautiful - December 2, 2013
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Well said! Thank you for the timely encouragements and reminders! Focusing on Christ, the eternal perspective is what matters. I will be sharing this with my husband to hopefully and prayerfully dissuade his thoughts towards public school….