Home Education: An Embarrassment of Riches

I must admit that I did not know exactly what we would do to educate him. Perhaps I was vaguely hoping that a true Christian school would spring up out of nowhere where we lived. When out of the blue my husband suggested home education, it was as though a lightbulb flashed in my head. Although I had never really heard of home education before, much less knew any families who were actually doing it, I was certain that this was the Lord’s leading. Six babies later (including two sets of twins!) and I can honestly say that we are thriving as a family. Home education has become a way of life, and nothing could entice me away from my children and out of the home. The Lord has been good to us.

Thinking biblically impacts many areas of our lives.

Thinking biblically impacts many areas of our lives. The Apostle Paul writes that young women are to “love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home” (Titus 2:4–5). Moses instructed the people of Israel to teach God’s Word diligently to their children, “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). These verses have greatly impacted our thinking on family life, and what began as a step of faith has proven to be a path laden with low-hanging fruit. We are commanded to “forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2), and I give thanks as I number the Lord’s blessings to me.

Sanctification

Home educating has drawn me closer to the Christ. When we plead with the Lord to sanctify us, we do not generally bank on the tools that he will use to make us more like himself. Perhaps we are hoping for something a little more glamorous than a life full of children! Countless mothers have said to me that they do not have the patience to have their children with them all the time. But the truth is that I, too, do not have the patience. There is nothing special about my abilities. I do not have a unique calling to motherhood; motherhood is the calling of all women once we bear children.

I recognise that my children are a means by which Christ has gently exposed and dealt with sin in my life. I would like to become more patient overnight, but God works patience in me through long nights spent with wakeful twins rounded off by a hungry toddler demanding breakfast at the crack of dawn. I long to be slow to anger, and the Lord trains me in responding graciously when I am teaching math to a child and a sibling clumsily spills a drink. I hope to be a peacemaker, and the Lord teaches me how “to seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14) when I resolve the forty-ninth dispute of the day. I yearn to become more joyful, and the Lord shows me how a mother sets the tone of the home and how her bad mood has the power to make everybody miserable. I want my home to be orderly and pleasant, and the Lord shows me that tidy homes are a result of diligence rather than miracles!

It is difficult to see the Lord’s work in me over short stretches of time, and I know that I still have a long way to go. But if I look back over the past 13 years, I can see that I am very different today.

Marriage

One of the purposes of marriage is godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). Of course, I acknowledge that in the providence and perfect purpose of God, this is not always possible. Nevertheless, the Lord has seen fit to bless my husband and me with children, and I can testify to the fact that raising and homeschooling children has strengthened our marriage.

There is a peace that comes into a household when both spouses acknowledge their God-given responsibilities. In our home, we both seek to serve the Lord in our respective spheres: I nurture our children and make a home; my husband works to provide for and protect our family. Of course, there is some overlap, and it goes without saying that we have bumpy patches along the way. Nevertheless, there is something glorious in marriage. We share the same goal of serving the Lord in this generation and we recognize that in order to work together there is a head (Ephesians 5:23) and a helper (Genesis 2:18).

We know the joy of partnership in the gospel because we share the same goal of serving the Lord in this generation and we recognise that in order to work to the best of our abilities, we need to diversify and play to our God-given strengths.1

Opportunity

I grew up longing to be a missionary. I learned a second and third language at university and went to Bible college with missions work in view. Little did I realise that the Lord would lead me to be a missionary to my own children.

Over the years I have learned to actively point my children to Christ with whatever book is open on the table. I teach my children to read because I want them to be able to read the Word of God for themselves. I teach them grammar because God is a God who communicates clearly with us, and we want to be able to communicate clearly with others about him. I teach my children science because “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). I teach my children history because it is the account of God’s dealings with mankind from creation onward and our heavenly Father is always at work answering prayer, extending mercy, and promising judgement and salvation. I teach my children math because math is the language of science, a tool given by the Lord to help us take dominion of creation. My most productive times of the day are given to teaching my children about the Lord as opposed to waiting for snatched moments in the rush to get out of the house or those tired seconds before bed.

All too often we fail to see the influence that a mother can have on her child’s life.

All too often we fail to see the influence that a mother can have on her child’s life. Jesus talks about believers being salt and light (Matthew 5:13–16), but perhaps we have missed the point that parents should be salt and light in their own homes. In Proverbs 31, the excellent wife “opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue” (Proverbs 31:26). To teach with kindness means we present our children with the gospel again and again and again. Fittingly, the Lord has decreed that those who love children the most are particularly placed to be the feet that bring good news (cf. Romans 10:15).

No Regrets

I am the first person to admit that I am a sinner saved by God’s grace raising sinful children in a sinful world (cf. Ephesians 2:1–5). We have great days and not-so-great days. With nine bodies in the house, there are many relationships to negotiate. Nevertheless, I know that I will never regret our decision to educate our children in the ways of the Word rather than handing them over to the government to be educated in the ways of the world.

I can honestly say with the psalmist that “the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (Psalm 16:6). I do not deserve to be the means by which my own children hear about Christ, and one day I will stand before God and say with a countless multitude, “We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty” (Luke 17:10). Yet, the Lord is kind to me. He has sustained me and drawn me closer to himself. I have only loaves and fishes to offer, and yet he has repaid me with an embarrassment of riches.