Equipping the Next Generation

As I've been going about our routine this week, there have been some interesting things that God has brought to my mind.

I've homeschooled my children all along and feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to homeschool them. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is God's will for our family and R & I both love it and are very committed to it. Our number one priority in raising our children, including homeschooling, is to raise them to love and serve the Lord.

That said, my mindset toward homeschooling has been a journey through the years. When I first began homeschooling, I thought that I would approach it the same way as I taught school. (I even called around to some of the private schools to find out what curriculum they used, so I could use the same.) All this happened when my oldest daughter was the ripe old age of 4. :)
God led me down a different path and we were much more relaxed than I originally envisioned and loved the results. I saw my daughter learning and flourishing. The amount of information she retained impressed me. My goal became to encourage my children to love learning.

Time marched on, my children grew, and not all of them loved having to work on their reading and math. God moved me into another stage. While I wanted them to love learning, I also let them know that my job is to educate them. Sometimes we enjoy what we need to do, sometimes we'd rather do other things, but ultimately it's important that we do what needs to be done. My goal at that point became to educate my children. (I still hoped they would love learning and encouraged it but I didn't make all my decisions based on if they'd "love" this or not. Math can never compete with the fun of jumping on a trampoline.) :)

This year, I've felt God leading me further on this homeschooling path. As our family has begun to really pay attention to politics and what's going on nationally and internationally, I've felt a burden to equip my children. I've assured them that this does include reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the purpose is to equip them for whatever God has for their lives.

As I was mulling this all over, I visited a blog I enjoy and read this wonderful post:
http://hskubes.blogspot.com/2007/06/are-we-raising-daniels.html It's about how God showed her this week that Daniel and his friends were taken from their homes as children and yet they were equipped to stand firm. She relates it as a challenge to herself (and to us) - are we preparing/equipping our children to be able to stand in whatever circumstances God allows in the future. (It's an excellent post, I highly recommend reading it.)

This week I was thinking over that post and also some information I'd received about something David Wilkerson had posted on his blog. I've also said for years that I truly think that God is preparing the next generation and is doing something really special within them. (I look at the homeschooling movement, how much more I see them thinking outside the box and living radically for God, the Rebelution/Do Hard Things mindset, etc.) I have a tendency to imagine the status quo remaining - things going on the way they are now - and envisioned God using them (the next generation) with things kind of like they are now, we'd all just be older. That may happen but this week I realized that He may be raising them up to be used in very difficult times. While that sounds depressing, it really isn't - it's encouraging. Imagine our children shining brightly in the midst of darkness. (Isn't that where God shines the brightest?) Daniel was able to witness to a pagan king. God is amazing, He's in control, He can do all things, and His way is always best. He loves our children more than we do and we can completely trust Him. What a privilege that He chooses to involve us and use us. What a privilege to raise our children to know Him. How we should number our days and use them wisely for His glory.
Psalm 90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

I don't know what the future holds, but I know it's been filtered through His fingers of love.