CHM023:Imitating Christ In Our Homeschools

Hi, and welcome to the Christian homeschool Mom's Podcast. I am Demitria, your host, and I'm very happy to be here today and talk with you guys about Christian homeschooling becoming more like Jesus in our homeschools and during this particular season. At the time of this recording, it is almost Easter twenty thirteen, and this I thought this topic would be very on time as far as timing that it's perfect time to discuss the things that we celebrate as Christians, as believers in Christ. And so my purpose in this particular podcast is to point you to Christ and how that are busy homeschools which seemingly have nothing to do with faith and everything to do with academics, actually stems directly from the root of our spiritual position. And I think that like a tree, we have roots that are deeply drinking from some spiritual fountain, whatever that fountain may be, or we may be becoming spiritually dry in need of nourishment and care for ourselves. Either way, I believe that our children are gleaning from the results of our spiritual position. So if we position ourselves to love the way Christ does by allowing him to fill us up when we're feeling empty. We'll be able to in turn love our families, become a sacrifice to the world with our lives, receive joy in the process, and then empower other people to do the same thing. So my key focal points in this podcast our love, sacrifice, joy, and empowerment. And I know this all sounds pretty deep, but it really is very practical. And in the rest of this podcast, I want to show you how I feel that Christ's death and resurrection relates to us as homeschooling moms. So I'll start with love. And in a previous podcast, I talked about loving our families. Loving our children are in how to lead our homeschooling with the spirit of love, And I do believe that in homeschooling our days are filled with excitement, it's filled with business. Is sometimes a lot of trial and error as we attempt to raise our kids in a spirit of love while they at the same time try our patients. And I'm reminded of how love is an important ingredient in home education and probably the most important key element in the glue that keeps our families together in the middle of all of our trials and upsets throughout our days. And I was reading in Romans chapter five, verse eight, and it says, but God shows his love for us, and that while we were sinners, still sinners, Christ died for us. And when I think of God's love being powerful enough to sind his one and only son to die for our sins, I realize the magnitude of both his love and his sacrifice. And as we're approaching Passover and Good Friday and Easter Sunday, it's a perfect time to reflect on what God did for us on the cross. And because of his love shown for us on the cross, Roman chapter eight, verse thirty five rings true for us. And it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? And the verse goes on to say that nothing in this entire world can separate us from Christ's love for us. So, in thinking on that verse, I was thinking, how that no matter what we do or don't do, or what we accomplish or not, what our children learn or don't learn, what curriculum we purchase or not, you know, in the end, all that really matters is that we loved our kids and we're able to love them because we have confidence that Christ loved us. First. He gave us confirmation over in Romans chapter eight, verse thirty five. So think about it. If nothing shall separate us from his love, nothing at all, then no matter what we do or don't do, no matter how good or bad we are, he will always and forever, without a doubt, unassumedly love us. And he demonstrated that through his work on the Cross. You know, we oftentimes feel unworthy to compare ourselves to our Lord and savior, Jesus, but he tells us to follow him, to pattern our lives after him. So by the same token, if Christ loves and came to show us love, then He's given us enough love for our kids in abundance. Even on the not so pretty days, when the little ones are throwing temper tantrums or the teenagers are leaning toward outright rebellion, we can love them through their seeds of disbelief in God's love because of our belief in God's love. And it really doesn't make for a different homeschool experience when we make up our minds that we're not budging, and no matter what, we're going to teach, train, discipline, and admonish with the spirit of love. And so here are a few more scriptures on love, and it says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I've loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. Secondly, Christ was our ultimate sacrifice. That's over in First Corinthians, chapter five or seven. It says for Christ, and this is part be. It says, for Christ, our passover lamb has been sacrificed. And so, thinking on reflecting on the scripture, I realized that when Christ died for us in the cross, he became the ultimate sacrifice, the Passover Lamb, so that we wouldn't need any other sacrifice to remove our sins. He would humble himself and become the sacrifice for us that we could actually live in freedom and hope. And at the time of this recording, again, it's pass Over season, and recently I attended a pass oversader at a community church here in town, and I was reminded of how all the things in the Old Covenant actually pointed to Jesus or in Hebrew Yeshua, and how he came to fulfill the old and the new, and thinking on how it applies to our home education, I realized that just as Christ became our sacrificed by laying down his life so that we can live, he allows us the grace to follow in his footsteps, to lay down a part of our lives for our children so that we can pass the baton to them and they will live to pass down the truth to generations to follow. So we're home for a purpose, and I believe that purpose is much grander than those core academics and our plans to excel our kids with secular knowledge. And don't get me wrong, I'm a firm believer in giving our children opportunities to learn as much as they can and with excellence. And if they don't know how to read right and calculate, and have a general understanding of history, culture and science, and be able to research answers to their questions, I'd be doing them a disservice. But beyond these ideals, as practical as they may be, while work alive in the world, lies a spiritual reality. And I personally I am not a fan of leaving our kids to their own devices and their own thoughts about spirituality. But I'm a firm believer of the scripture in Deuteronomy, chapter eleven, verse eighteen, that says, you shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be asked frontwits between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord's war to your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth. So that sounds to me like the Lord would have us to actually teach our children in his way, And that's pretty proactive if you ask me. I think our main emphasis should be on raising kids whose hearts are spiritually tuned into the Lord in his ways, and that means that we'm almost have got a lot of work to do. We've got to be tuned in as well. So it's a sacrifice of time and energy, but it's so worth it to know that our children have a love for Christ. Okay, So moving on to the next topic, which is joy, and following the pain of Christ's death, Mary discovered the joy of Jesus's resurrection, and after what seemed like the worst news to mankind, the best news arose out of the ashes. Have you ever heard of the phrase every cloud has a silver lining? Well, it's true, and there's definitely the sun after the rain. And though weeping may endure for a night, joy comes in the morning and that Psalm chapter thirty, verse five. Our homeschools are not usually filled with those sweet faces and rosy cheeks, good times and celebration, and sure it's what we all strive for. It's what's on the glossy home school and catalog covers, but it's not the most sturalistic expectations it set for any soon to be homeschooler. But you know, one thing is for sure, God wants us to experience joy in the everyday tasks of our homeschooling. The kind of joy he wants us to experience is one of fulfillment, completion, and wholeness knowing we're doing what He's calling us to do despite our failures and inconsistencies as humans and as everyday moms. We're not perfect. But the Lord does want us to find joy, and he wants us to find life and to remember that in his resurrection there's life. There's a lot of hope, and then just thinking on the fact that our Savior was resurrected and in him we can find life. So a passion of mine for this web project is for moms helping other moms to homeschool with joy that we can do this. We can do it with joy. We can do it knowing that God has already provided for us what we need, and so that leads us into the very last topic, which is empowerment. Now, when Christ arose from the grave, he didn't leave defeated, right, Instead, he left with all power, and then he promised to relay that same power to us. And that's amazing to me. I'm encouraged by just the mere fact that he's given us the same power that he had. He says, the same power that I have, I give to you. And then in Romans, I'm sorry. In Ephesians chapter six, verse ten, it says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his mind. So Paul is encouraging us to be strong in our Lord and savior, that we can have his power and that we can be strong in him. And being strong means that we've been given some kind of empowerment that keeps us going when we feel like giving up. You know, it's a kind of empowerment that allows us to stay the course and then bring others along on the journey with us. And one of my last episodes, I did a podcast about should we keep home schooling or should we give up? And the kind of empowerment we have from the Lord is one that keeps us on the path when it's possible to stay on that path that he'll help us. If that's what we've chosen that's good for our families, then he will help us to do it. Nothing. Speaking with a lot of you on Facebook, and the feedback that I'm hearing is that our local homeschool and communities are just a blessing. And so many people are either looking for a homeschool community that is imbrasive of them, or they're looking for they're just looking for that community, either online or within their own area where they live, and we need that. What we do without that hands on love and support, a fellowship that many of us get from a homeschool support groups, I don't know what we do without it. And you know, it's exactly what empowerment is, being able to help one another and encourage each other when we need just a listening ear, we need a little advice, or we just need a shoulder to lean on. It's what we all need. And I like the fact that you know, in the power of Christ's resurrection, we can do all things. And there's Philippians chapter three, verse ten says that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. So earlier we talked about identifying with the death of Christ becoming a living sacrifice as a result of his love for us, and about receiving joy after struggle and then ultimately receiving empowerment to carry on his legacy. And I believe that this completely relates to our homeschooling because we must reach out with hands and hearts open wide to love our children. Then we must identify with Christ through our laying down our lives so to speak, for our children, and throughout the struggle and the sacrifice, there is joy, and we seek those windows of opportunity and those glimmers of hope like gold nuggets. But there is joy. And last but not least, we are empowered to inspire and help other families with home education so that we can be a blessing to the world around us and continue the legacy for many families and many generations to come. So I hope this has been a blessing to you. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a review in iTunes and can go to iTunes dot com, type in Christian homeschool Moms and search and go ahead and subscribe if you haven't already, and leave me a review. I would love to hear feedback. I would love for iTunes to know that this podcast is being listened to, and I would love the rating and the review from you. I would really appreciate it. And also, if you would like to subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Twitter, come join our Facebook group or our Google Plus discussion group. You can do so by logging onto Christian homeschool moms dot com and finding my social media icons at the top right hand corner of the website. You follow me any of those ways, you can also email me at Mom's Asked m o mcst at gmail dot com. So thank you so much for listening and you have a blessed me.