It makes me sad to see the pressure that some home schooling mums put on themselves in order to fit into the box. The homeschooling box can be quite large! There are so many things that seem to fit into it. They aren't bad things either! Lots of them are very appealing and it isn't any wonder that a Godly christian women would want to embrace them. I just feel that sometimes these things can become something that we judge our Christianity by, in some ways they become bigger than our relationship with Christ.
Things like Modesty relating to how we dress, if we do or don't wear make up, all worthy attributes but they can be taken so seriously by some women that they overpower the simplicity of the Gospel. I think it is good to take care of our appearance and to make sure that we are not offending others by the way we dress but I don't think this makes us a better christian. God looks at our hearts, not the way we dress. In some cultures it would not be considered immodest to walk along topless!
Allowing God to plan the size of our family is a personal issue and one that I won't delve too deeply into. I followed this teaching for years and am blessed with nine beautiful children. The only thing I would say here to women is ASK YOUR HUSBAND WHAT HE THINKS! A simple sentence but one that can make a world of difference! As much as I believe that God loves children and that may very well be his will for us, I also know that he loves the motherless women just as much as the mother of many! It is the spirit of motherhood that we need to strive for and that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to birth children in order to have it. The most motherly women I know of were not natural mothers! Mother Theresa had no natural children but was the most motherly women to all who crossed her path. Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China, dedicated her life to caring for others, especially the orphans of China. There are many others that fall into this category. I always feel sad on Mother's Day when our church plays host to spoiling the mothers in the congregation. I personally know of a number of women who are unable to have children and it saddens me to think that these women are excluded from recognition, especially since they embrace the spirit of motherhood.
Healthy Living is another item in the box! I have embraced this one with passion! but it took a health dilemma in my own life for me to realize that my ability to understand natural health methods and healing foods doesn't make me God. I thnk that I became over confident in my ability to look after myself and took God out of the picture! I reasoned that he wanted me to have wisdom and indeed, he had led me down the path of knowledge! maybe so, but at the end of the day God is God and I am not!
Sheltering our children, another important item in the box. Every parent has their own views on this and I am not about to stamp on anyone's box! All I would caution is to remember that at the end of the day, Our Children are gifts from God and he loves them so much more than we could ever imagine! Sheltering our children from school, television, computers, worldly friends, music and anything else that we might see as threatening might possibly save our children from damnation but then again, they might turn around and throw it all back in our face when they become teenagers (no comment!) so the ability to live in God's Grace is the biggest attribute that parents need to lean on. It is His Grace that will see us through and be the comfort to us when parenting doesn't go the way that we hoped!
Things like Modesty relating to how we dress, if we do or don't wear make up, all worthy attributes but they can be taken so seriously by some women that they overpower the simplicity of the Gospel. I think it is good to take care of our appearance and to make sure that we are not offending others by the way we dress but I don't think this makes us a better christian. God looks at our hearts, not the way we dress. In some cultures it would not be considered immodest to walk along topless!
Allowing God to plan the size of our family is a personal issue and one that I won't delve too deeply into. I followed this teaching for years and am blessed with nine beautiful children. The only thing I would say here to women is ASK YOUR HUSBAND WHAT HE THINKS! A simple sentence but one that can make a world of difference! As much as I believe that God loves children and that may very well be his will for us, I also know that he loves the motherless women just as much as the mother of many! It is the spirit of motherhood that we need to strive for and that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to birth children in order to have it. The most motherly women I know of were not natural mothers! Mother Theresa had no natural children but was the most motherly women to all who crossed her path. Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China, dedicated her life to caring for others, especially the orphans of China. There are many others that fall into this category. I always feel sad on Mother's Day when our church plays host to spoiling the mothers in the congregation. I personally know of a number of women who are unable to have children and it saddens me to think that these women are excluded from recognition, especially since they embrace the spirit of motherhood.
Healthy Living is another item in the box! I have embraced this one with passion! but it took a health dilemma in my own life for me to realize that my ability to understand natural health methods and healing foods doesn't make me God. I thnk that I became over confident in my ability to look after myself and took God out of the picture! I reasoned that he wanted me to have wisdom and indeed, he had led me down the path of knowledge! maybe so, but at the end of the day God is God and I am not!
Sheltering our children, another important item in the box. Every parent has their own views on this and I am not about to stamp on anyone's box! All I would caution is to remember that at the end of the day, Our Children are gifts from God and he loves them so much more than we could ever imagine! Sheltering our children from school, television, computers, worldly friends, music and anything else that we might see as threatening might possibly save our children from damnation but then again, they might turn around and throw it all back in our face when they become teenagers (no comment!) so the ability to live in God's Grace is the biggest attribute that parents need to lean on. It is His Grace that will see us through and be the comfort to us when parenting doesn't go the way that we hoped!
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