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Monday, June 28, 2010

First Things First


One of the joys of homeschooling is also one of the greatest responsibilities; raising our children in the love, joy, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. I humbly admit that one of the things I seem to set aside, to attend to what I call our Core Subjects, is Bible.

Even though I have a subject header in my planner for Bible, it is more than a subject. For a Christian, the Bible and our living relationship with Jesus Christ is our foundation. By neglecting Bible I am teaching my children, indirectly, that it's "words on a page", and not The Living Word. As I said, I'm inadvertantly doing so. Does this neglect support my core value of raising my Children in the Lord? No. Rather than bend and yield family values to the pressure of the clock that is in sight, I remind myself that God's word, and having a living relationship with Jesus Christ, IS by far, the most important thing I can teach my children.

So, by God's grace, our school day began at 10:15, and I have to say that we had a most wonderful time recalling the story of Joseph. The passages in Genesis 37 & Genesis 45 provided the backdrop of a great lesson on forgiveness. God gave me a wonderful example of demonstrating forgiveness and unforgiveness. We had an empty laundry basket (a modern day miracle) which the kids had fun lifting up, up,up, and over their heads. Then, we piled in Danny's work bag - a nice, cube-shaped monstrosity, and a few other items such as a Windex bottle and a Star Wars light saber. Some items (offenses) were small, and some were HUGE. When they picked up the laundry basket, well, there was no more up, up, UP, because they couldn't carry it. I explained that God didn't design us to carry those offenses. Their faces lit up as they enjoyed their own understanding of the object lesson.

Then we had an activity where we drew a picture of a cross, wrote in our sins that we remembered, and then we colored over them nice and DARK so that they couldn't be seen, just as Jesus covered OUR sins on the cross. Then next to the cross, we drew a heart, and wrote something in it that we needed to forgive someone for, and then also colored over it with a dark color . That demonstrated our forgiveness of that person as Christ in God has forgiven us (Eph. 4:32). What a wonderful time we had. And now on to Math & Language Arts.

Whether or not we were homeschooling, a growing understanding of God's word & having a living relationship with Jesus Christ is more important than anything else we could attend to. How often do we allow the clock to dictate our priorities, rather than a God who made us for relationship with Him. In summary: guilty, but redeemed. Missing the mark, but continually refocusing my vision.

6 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Wow, sounds like an amazing morning you had over there! I love the object lesson and the coloring projects...Great job!

Susan said...

Your heart is so for the Lord, Kathy, and I know you are teaching your children THAT every day in a 100 ways. I love your object lessons. As I've told you so often, I wish I had "do overs" with mine growing up I'd do a far better job. Thank God for Jesus and total forgiveness of everything!!!

Anonymous said...

Like Susan I would love to go back and do many things different. I rest in the fact that I did the best I could and have three great kids so I must have done one or two things right, LOL.

My hat is off to any and all home school parents. I honestly believe that I would be one if I had young children today. Great job Mom!!!

Oh, and loved your purse contents. What a riot!

Kahri said...

Love hearing about your lesson, Kathy! such a sweet, special and important time!

Tricia said...

love the object lesson. This is one area I lack in and that God is working on with me. My kids need visual and hands on activities to understand whatever I am teaching them better. Sounds like a great morning. ;)

Unknown said...

You're a natural teacher, that is so evident!