What Is The Purpose Of An Education?
Let me ask you this…what is your purpose behind educating your children?
Are you ever nagged by the striving of academic achievement, feeling the pressure for your children to succeed, coupled by the load of guilt of your inherent unworthiness? Pressured by a silent voice inside your head that drives you to push and prod your children during the course of a school day while doubting yourself? I admit that sometimes I too am listening to that condemning voice. It’s the voice that whispers, “You’re not good enough”, “You don’t have the necessary education to be an effective educator “, “You’re not qualified”, “What were you thinking?!”
Then, I am reminded of how God doesn’t talk to us in that way. Instead, he leads us, fills in those educational gaps, sends us friends to encourage us, and gives us well-timed resources when we need them the most.
We need a new perspective. In John 15 we are encouraged to abide. What does it mean to abide? In essence, we are to continue without failing, to act in accordance with what God wants to accomplish and accept His direction and leading. (New Oxford American Dictionary) We need to be so infused with seeking His face, that ours becomes radiant because we’ve spent time with Him. And, from time spent with Him we are changed, thus our children are transformed.
What are we to accomplish? As in life and in education, we are to plant the seed which God causes to grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6) Academics are not the only influence in a child’s education. Charlotte Mason writes that "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." An education that is worthwhile will influence the entire person.
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“Homeschooling is about discipleship. It is about God changing the hearts of the parents and children to conform us all into the image of Christ. There aren’t any shortcuts to reaching that end. To the best of our ability, we should embrace the call to lay down our lives for our own children and model the life of Christ, on a full-time basis, in from of them.”
—Israel Wayne, “Education: Does God Have An Opinion?”
In A Thinking Love with Charlotte Mason, Sonya Shafer writes:
Remember this truth: God will always equip you to do the task to which He has called you. You are qualified to teach and train your child because that is how God designed it.
The first qualification for the job is love. God has already gifted us mothers with that quality. No one had to teach us to love our children.
You may encounter days when you want to quit on your job; other days you may want to shout from the rooftops how great motherhood is! (Just don’t let your child see you on the roof; he’ll want to come up too.)
But through it all we will think and we will love. We will think about the best way to fulfill our assignment from God. And we will increase in our love for our children and for each other. And we will remember that motherhood is the greatest profession on earth. Let’s do it to the glory of God.
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