Spiritual Aspects of Home Education
Bringing up children is hard work whether your children are educated at home or at school. There is no magic bullet or formula that guarantees success.
Our children are Persons and when it comes to passing on our faith there is no foolproof formula here either. Family devotions, church attendance, memorising scripture are all vital spiritual disciplines, but as Richard Foster says in his book, Celebration of Discipline,
‘In and of themselves the Disciplines have no virtue, possess no righteousness, contain no rectitude. It was this important truth that the Pharisees failed to see. The Disciplines place us before God; they do not give us Brownie points with God.’
The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1669
There comes a time when our children have to make their own decision to follow the Lord. Although we can’t ‘make’ our children follow God, we can make it attractive for them. Or we can set up barriers. Hypocrisy in our lives – when our behaviour doesn’t line up with what we claim to believe, or Legalism, where we focus on outward appearances rather than on the heart, are major barriers.
We can also pray & never give up if our children have wandered. We can be firm about our beliefs but do so in a way that our children can always approach us.
Make time to feed your spirit. We are ALL under God’s authority and our children need to see this in our lives.
Life can throw some difficult things at us. It’s important that we keep close to the Lord ourselves. He needs to be in our life. We can only teach and pass on what we know and have experienced for ourselves.
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5