Freedom From Fear
Subtitled: Scared Parents Can Home School Their Children!
I’m really glad confidence is not a prerequisite when setting out on the new journey toward homeschooling ones children. If it were, I would bet there would be very few homeschooling families. Almost every family I have ever talked to began their homeschooling journey wondering why God would call them to do something that terrified them so much. It didn't help much that most of their relatives, friends, and fellow church members doubted they could pull it off. I’m sure we had relatives who were hoping we would quickly come to our senses and put "their" children in school where they belonged.
As we begin our first year of homeschooling we feel that we are under a microscope. Relatives begin "testing" our children’s knowledge. Well meaning friends examine our children, wondering when they will begin exhibiting "social reject" tendencies. A naturally shy child (who has always been shy) is suddenly pointed out as being "unsocialized". A naturally outgoing child (who has always been outgoing) is labeled as "one who needs to learn to curb his outgoingness by being properly socialized.
After the third week of "school" we wonder if we have made a mistake. Suzie still isn’t reading the KJV of the Bible. In fact, she can’t even remember the sound a "d" makes, even though we have covered it every day for the past three weeks. We thought she would have superior knowledge being homeschooled. The house has fallen apart. The little children begin showing signs of rebellion. Our husband comes home to find us worn out and exhausted. Who wouldn’t be exhausted doing five hours of school with a five-year-old? He too begins to wonder if we should be homeschooling our children. The fear that we had in the beginning is getting stronger.
Then something wonderful happens. We go to our first Mom’s Night Out meeting. Or perhaps we venture into the homeschool chat room on crosswalk.com. We meet other homeschooling moms. We cry out to them that we are scared. We don’t think we can do this job. We don’t even LIKE doing this job. The women turn us to face God. He has called us to this job; He will give us the strength, and even the courage, to perform the tasks that He requires of us. We learn to seek Him first.
We also learn that we don’t have to spend five hours schooling a five-year-old. We begin to relax. Our house gets in order and we again spend time with our younger children.
THEN...our child grows. We have more children we homeschool. We fear that we will not be able to give all the children what they need. We begin searching once again for the "perfect" curriculum for our growing needs. We may find it, or we may not, but we question. We are always questioning our ability to homeschool.
THEN...our child grows. It is now time for HIGH SCHOOL! Again we are gripped with fear. How can I help with the advanced science? What if "I" don’t get it when my child comes to me and says, "Mom, I don’t get it."?
Forgive me if I sound like I’m mocking a homeschooling mom who is afraid. I am not! I am drawing only on my own experiences.
Satan likes to plant seeds of fear in our lives because it makes us ineffective AND is turns us away from God and onto ourselves. If we fear not being able to find the "perfect" curriculum, we are searching ONLY for that. We forget to ask God what He wants for our children. When the high school age rolls around we fail to cry out to God to provide people who do "get" it.
2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
I love the Amplified version for Jeremiah 29:11-13. "For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace, and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for and require Me [as a vital necessity] and fine Me; when you search for Me with all your heart.
Dear friends, if you are being gripped by fear, whether you are just beginning to think about homeschooling, just starting your homeschool journey, searching for a new way to homeschool, preparing for high school, or simply afraid you have not made the right decision, turn to HIM. He will give you hope in the final outcome! ©2003 Terri Camp
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