The very best advice I have ever heard or read about teaching our children at home was from another lady on another blog at a time when I was feeling very overwhelmed with teaching.
"If you're not teaching your children to love God, then nothing else matters. If you are teaching them to love God...then nothing else matters."
That covers it in a nutshell doesn't it? We spend so much time and energy wondering if we're covering enough material, if we're adding enough of one subject or another, if they are really learning what we're teaching. But ultimately none of that matters if they first do not learn to LOVE the Lord their God.
This goes way beyond curriculum goals. It means we have to be expressing the love of Jesus Christ in every conversation and in every reaction to every situation. From the tone of our voice, to the looks on our faces, in absolutely everything we do throughout the entire day. God actually puts it like this:
"These commandments I give to you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Duet. 6:6-9
Do we fall short? Yes, always! And I thank Jesus that we do, since He is made perfect in our weaknesses...He so faithful to lead us along each day delivering us bit by bit out of our insecurities and into His perfect grace. I am learning slowly to rest in God's promises for our children and not to stress out so much about the little things. We try our very best each day to live out an example of Christ, and then leave the results of that up to God. Some days it seems as if we're not achieving anything, those are the days that we want to quit and give up. We whine to God about how hard it is, and how long we've been trying, etc. But then our Lord is so faithful to gently remind us that these children are first His and that He will not leave them or forsake them. He has a special plan for each and every one of them and we can safely rest in that promise. Academics are such a small portion of the design God has for their lives. We can fully rest in God's promises. :0)
