When You Don't Feel Good Enough to Homeschool

I’m willing to bet that every one of us has felt like we weren’t good enough to homeschool our children.  Last week was a rough one for me, and many times I felt like I wasn’t doing a good job.  The crying and whining was driving me insane.  None of the fun things got done because it took forever to do the basic things.  But this weekend I found these verses, and God gave me a revelation.

Deu 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Deu 6:6  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

Deu 6:7  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Verse 5 talks about our relationship with God.  We are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and might.  Wow, that’s a big deal.  How is your relationship with Jesus?  Do you love Him with all your might?  What would it look like if you did?  According to Strongs, the word “might” in this context means Vehemence.  Synonyms of this word would be passionately, speedily, diligently, especially, exceedingly, loudly, eager, enthusiastic, zealous, and fervent.  This is not a casual brotherly love!  I think all of us need to work on loving Him with all our might!  Are we excited to talk with Him?  Are we diligent to keep our prayer time?  Do we speedily obey Him?  Do we loudly praise Him?

Verse 6 talks about God’s words being in our hearts, which is reading our bibles and knowing his words.  If we love Him with all our might, we should be interested in what He wrote to us!  Later on in this chapter, it also talks about writing God’s words on your doorposts.  Do you have any of God’s words on your walls at home?  I have been thinking about this lately and I intend to put more scripture in our home.  I remember every summer I went to my Grandparents house for a week in the summer.  On the wall was a plaque with the Lord’s Prayer written on it.  I was drawn to this plaque, and before I left one summer, I memorized the whole thing of my own accord.  I remember laying in bed saying it over and over to myself, and I still have it memorized today.  Written words are powerful!

So, only after God has told us to love Him and put His word in our hearts does He tell us in verse 7 to teach our children!  Wow, I have been getting it all wrong.  I have always tried to pray in the morning before school, but so often that time gets interrupted or cut short because we need to get to school.  I have been teaching my children first, and then working in a little bit of Jesus when I could.  There are no excuses.  It’s time for a priority shift.

Once my priorities are in the right place, I can then teach my children.  What does the bible tell us to teach them?  God’s word of course!  That needs to be our number one priority in our homeschool.  They need to know God’s word!  Will it hurt them if they don’t get to calculus?  Will it hurt them if they don’t know all the state capitals?  Will it hurt them if they haven’t read Shakespeare?  No, but it will hurt them if they haven’t been taught God’s word, and lead to have their own relationship with Him. 

As far at teaching the academics, I stand on this verse of scripture:

Phillipians 4:13  I can do all things through Chirst which strengthenest me.