Posts Tagged Christian homeschooler
Wait on Jesus to Call the Plays
Posted by Diane in Various Essays for Homeschool Parents on December 2nd, 2008
Homeschool touchdown! Scoring more points than your opponent is the ultimate aim of an American football game. The team with the ball, known as the offense, strategically moves up the field in anticipation of scoring through passing, field goals, or extra points. The defending team, anticipating the offensive strategy, does their best to protect their end zone and prevent the offensive team from scoring. If the defensive team intercepts the ball, the roles are reversed.
Life as a Christian homeschooler is like football in a basic sort of way. Some days you advance at a quick pace with little interference. Other days you spend enormous amounts of time defending your position against aggressive opponents. But whether you find yourself on the offensive or the defensive your immediate call as a follower of Jesus Christ remains the same: wait on Him to call the home school plays.
Promise
After Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to His followers for a period of forty days. Right before He was taken up to Heaven, He shared with them two critical pieces of information for living the post-resurrection life: (1) you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and (2) you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8 NRSV) This two-fold promise requires nothing of us. Jesus shows grace to those who follow Him by abiding with us through the constant presence of His Spirit. Secondly, simply by abiding in His Spirit, our lives will be different, and people will know it from our closest family and friends to our casual acquaintances. We cannot DO anything to earn His Spirit, and we are not called to DO anything to be His witnesses. God is the one acting, and all we have to do is wait for His instructions and be obedient under all circumstances whether they are tough or easy.
Wait
Before Jesus left the disciples, He told them to wait for the promise of the Father. (Acts 1:4 NRSV) Wait. Expect. Be ready and available when the gift of His Spirit comes. Initially, every person who is called to follow receives the gift of His Spirit. After that, we wait on Him to deliver specific directions for living in real time every day. Our anxiety or impatience is fruitless because He is always faithful and delivers what we need at just the right moment.
Some of my kids’ home school friends like to log on to Google Talk and call each other through the computer. The funny thing about these calls is that these teens don’t just get to the point of the call and then disconnect like a busy adult who quickly takes care of business. They leave the communication line open while they are working on other things so that they can talk whenever they feel led to talk. To a pragmatic person like me, this phenomenon of open chat seemed strange at first. Connor would be working away on home school debate research when all of a sudden one of his friends would make some comment. Connor would respond, then it would get quiet again for a while. Sometimes the periodic conversations are frivolous, and sometimes the conversations are very serious, but the fact of the matter is this: these friends are in relationship, and they are immediately available to each other.
Now I see how live chat is like our relationship with the Lord. Because of His constantly abiding Spirit, He never disconnects from us, nor do we want to disconnect from Him. Sometimes the chatter is relatively inconsequential, and sometimes there are urgent messages that require immediate response. If we listen, we will hear Him leading, advising, suggesting, and requiring. He calls the plays minute by minute, day by day, in rough times, and in easy times, whether we find ourselves on the offensive, or whether we find ourselves on the defensive. All we have to do in our Christian homeschool is listen and obey.
Obey
In the promise of Acts, Jesus says we will “be” His witnesses. The word witness is used as a noun and not as a verb. We are naturally His witnesses by sheer association with His indwelling Spirit and our response to the guidance of His Spirit. We are not called “to” witness; we “are” His witnesses. Of course, being good witnesses requires that we respond in obedience to the daily conversation that He is having with us. Some days are worse than others. Some days are chaotic with seemingly endless demands. Some days are more relaxed and offer time for rest. Irregardless of the nature of the day, Jesus’ Spirit is available, and He is ready to lead you. Don’t deceive yourself into acting without consulting Him…you don’t see the entire picture so your call may not be adequate to advance or defend the play. He is the one with all the answers. He has already written a comprehensive playbook for the game. He knows all the possibilities, and He wants you to succeed. After all, you are His witness. You represent Him to your family, your neighbor, your friends, your grocer, your dry cleaner, your hair dresser, and every other individual you encounter whether in person, on the telephone, or in written correspondence. Let Jesus be the Coach who calls the home school plays on a minute by minute basis. All you have to do is wait and obey.
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My sincere apologies to those of you who recently received two strange email from me: one on Mark Twain and the German language and another long one on several published posts. I did not intend to send you spam! My internet service provider was making some technical changes to my website and Feedburner mistakenly thought that I meant to send you email. Thankfully, Midphase has corrected the problem. More exciting changes are coming soon with a brand new website design and the announcement of my new book for the Christian homeschool, Trivium Mastery: The Intersection of Three Roads, but I haven’t planned any more erroneous emails. Thanks for sticking with me, and happy homeschooling!
Words Have the Power to Change the World
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 3: SPEAKING on April 14th, 2008
Not long ago, I witnessed the trial of a first-time juvenile offender. (By the way, he was NOT a homeschooler.) Furious with his mom for refusing to drive him to his girlfriend’s house, this fifteen year old young man demolished the back window of her truck. His frustrated parents pressed charges, and he soon found himself in front of a judge and a jury on the witness stand. Regrettably, this in itself is not unusual in our culture; however what I found most astonishing and disturbing was the manner in which this young man communicated with his interlocutors: grunts!
Single word grunts issued from his scowling lips. He was extremely disrespectful towards the judge and showed no indication of repentance or remorse. The judge had to ask the young man to respond in complete sentences! But the real shocker came when the jury was dismissed to deliberate: both parents began an eloquent conversation with the court officials. Clearly, his parents were well-educated and effective communicators. How did this young man end up with such a deficiency in communication skills? Do we run the same risk as these parents? Is it possible that our homeschoolers, when faced with unexpected situations, will find themselves answering in one word replies? Do we take effective communication skills for granted?
Christians are called to more than grunts! We seek to glorify God in every word and deed. Colossians 3:17 succinctly summarizes our responsibility as Christians:
And whatever you do, in word and deed, do everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
What does it mean for a Christian homeschooler to speak every word in the name of Jesus? Let’s look at the term “word” in Scripture. The Gospel of John refers to Jesus as the Word of the Father, and the Old Testament prophets regularly delivered the “Word” of Yahweh to the King. The Creator reaches out to the creature and communicates, through spoken words like those delivered to the prophets, through invisible encounters as in the apostle Paul’s conversion story, through the written word of the canon of Scripture, and finally through the incarnation of Jesus. The Word of the Lord is of utmost importance because it is through that Word that the Living God reveals who He is for the sake of a full relationship with us. Communication is vital to our relationship with Him and with others, so we homeschoolers, as little “Christ-bearers,” recognize that our words, whether written or spoken, are also meant for relationship with others, and as such, they have the power to change lives. We speak in Jesus’ name as He would speak…in truth, in love, and with a mind toward advancing His Kingdom.
As Christian parents of homeschoolers, we have a deed to do: train our children in effective communication skills. They may have a true desire to speak every word in Jesus’ name, but if they don’t have the tools, their efforts may not reach full potential. All that we have done in teaching the classical trivium comes to fruition in mastering skill three, speech. In order to effectively influence others, our children must marshal the language, seek out the best arguments, and organize ideas with compelling style and captivating delivery. Equipped with the necessary skills, our eloquent homeschoolers will respond to difficult questions with thoughtful, persuasive words that, unlike base grunts, have the power to change the world!
