Do you know your Homeschool Mission?
Do you Know Your Homeschool Mission?
There are a lot of websites out there that talk about having a mission statement for your homeschool. This is not that. Maybe I should make a homeschool mission statement, but I am not going to do that now. In this post, I am going to explore my foundation for homeschooling and for every other aspect of my life.
Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching then to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
The Great Commission. Jesus commanded his disciples to share the Gospel at home and then throughout the world. The commandment also extends to us. We are commanded to preach the Gospel to our neighbors and throughout the world as well. It should be our main focus in this life.
Throughout history there have been some amazing evangelists. Billy Graham, Amy Carmichael, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, D.L. Moody, Saint Patrick, David Wilkerson, Jim Elliot. These are just some of the people who took the Great Commission seriously. They traveled to different parts of the world to preach the Gospel to the nations.
Today, the Gospel has gone to every corner of the world through all the technology that has come to be in the last 150 years. One hundred years ago, an average person would be fortunate to read 50 books within a lifetime. Now we each have the equivalent of 600,000 books of information stored on our computers, phones, tablets, etc. The Gospel is available to every single human being on earth, and yet knowledge of the Bible is dropping at an incredible rate.
When my children were babies, I struggled with the notion of going somewhere and doing something great for God. I looked at all these amazing evangelists and saw their sacrifice and their dedication to doing the God’s will. Was I doing enough to promote the Gospel? How does my staying home and teaching my own children really contribute all that much to the spreading of the Gospel?
I prayed for a long time – “Lord, please make it clear to me what you want me to do for you. This doesn’t seem to be enough.” For a while it seemed that He wasn’t answering, because He wasn’t telling me to go off and do something large. But then, very quietly and persistently, He showed me what I needed to do.
Bloom Where You are Planted
He brought me back to the movie Facing the Giants. There is a scene in that movie where the main character is struggling with an issue and a wise older gentleman comes to him and reads this verse:
I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8)
He has made me a mama and put the desire in my heart to teach my own children about Him. Until He closes that door, I am to bloom where He has put me.
Susanna Wesley
She is my homeschooling mama hero. She was a mama to 19 children, although nine of them died as infants. Dealing with many hardships, she was also her children’s primary educator. Two fires that burned their home completely; separation from her children for two years while their home was being rebuilt; a husband that was in jail several times because of his inability to manage his finances; and a complete separation from her husband for over a year. He had left her and the children because of an argument.
During this year, Susanna did not fall apart, but she took it upon herself to continue the instruction of her children. She wrote this to her absent husband:
I am a woman, but I am also the mistress of a large family. And though the superior charge of the souls contained in it lies upon you, yet in your long absence I cannot but look upon every soul you leave under my charge as a talent committed to me under a trust. I am not a man nor a minister, yet as a mother and a mistress I felt I ought to do more than I had yet done. I resolved to begin with my own children; in which I observe the following method: I take such a proportion of time as I can spare every night to discourse with each child apart. On Monday I talk with Molly, on Tuesday with Hetty, Wednesday with Nancy, Thursday with Jacky, Friday with Patty, Saturday with Charles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Wesley
As her children got older, she was not satisfied with the church services that the family went to, so she started her own family services on Sunday afternoons. They would sing a Psalm, then Susanna would read either a sermon by her husband or her father then sing another Psalm. Soon the local neighborhood asked to be involved in those services.
While her husband was a preacher, he is virtually unknown. Susanna was just a mama who took her calling seriously, and in Christian circles she is well known. Why have I chosen her as my hero? She did nothing but teach her children about the Lord. She didn’t travel, she didn’t have a large influence outside of her own small community. But her influence still reaches the world today. Through her life, she demonstrated her own failings and the grace of the Lord in response to them. Two of her sons, John and Charles, became evangelists and were the fathers of the Methodist and Wesleyan Protestant denominations. She is my hero because she was just a mama, but the influence that she had on her children echoes throughout history.
Lead a Quiet Life
The last answer He brought me to was this verse;
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12)
My Homeschool Mission
It is all right to just have a small influence on the people in my life if that is what God has called me to do. Once I learned this, my struggle ended. I now have peace within my heart, knowing that I am where God has placed me. He will also make clear to me if there is something that I need to change or somewhere that He would like me to go. I can rest in that assurance.
For right now, my job, my mission, is to dedicate each day to Him. Allow Him to take control of my life for today, and then rest in the knowledge that He guides my steps.
As a homeschooling mama, what do you determine your homeschool mission to be?
