10 Days of Homeschooling Enrichment: Day 6

Welcome to Day 6 of Homeschooling Enrichment series! Today we’re finishing up our look at 1 Corinthians 13 in relation to homeschooling.

continued from Day 5…

8. Love is not easily angered

Oh this one hits home hard for me! I never realized I could fly off the handle so quickly until I had kids. I used to be calm, relaxed, easy going, but boy can those little guys push my buttons! Unfortunately, if I haven’t started my day in fervent prayer seeking God for patience, I’ll lose it in about 2 seconds. I did a search on “slow to anger” for this section. I was looking for James 1:19 “So then my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” but what I found instead was a whole page of verses that came back stating that “the LORD is slow to anger and abounding in love” Wow! I’ve been on the receiving end of His rich love so many times, why is it so hard for me to pour out that same love on my children? Let’s be careful to be slow to anger and quick to listen to our children!

One of the verses I have memorized over the years is James 1:20 “for the wrath of man [mom] does not produce the righteousness of God.”

9. Love keeps no record of wrongs

Ugh…another one for me! I have to say that I’m wonderful at remembering all the wrong things my children and husband have done over the years. I can recall in an instant that time several years ago when so-and-so did such-and-such. (Strangely though, I can’t seem to remember what we ate for lunch yesterday without looking at my meal plan…hmm…)

But love keeps no record of wrongs! It’s so easy to bring up some previous instance and beat our kids over the head with it when some opportunity for fun comes up. “Mom, can I have a play date?” “No! Remember yesterday when you did *whatever*!” Be careful not to hold on to bitterness over their failures and disobedience.

Hebrews 12:14-15 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”

Yikes, I do not want to be the one responsible for defiling anyone!

My beloved sisters (and brothers) do not let the root of bitterness rob you and your children from loving one another! Un-forgiveness is like a poison the offended party eats in hopes of causing pain to another but in reality it will eat us up! How many time should we forgive each other? Matthew 18:22 tells us seventy seven times!

How many times has your heavenly Father forgiven you?

10. Love does not delight in evil

How many times have I told my children “I told you so!” ?

We can even seem happy that our children have received a natural consequence for their actions. Proverbs 24:17 says “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice.” If we are to treat our enemy with this kind of respect, how can we rejoice when our children who we love fail?

Confession time…this is Confessions of a homeschooler….So, my husband and I have agreed to let our children go to things before that we didn’t feel like going to. We allowed it because we knew that our kids would disobey between now and then so we could take it away as a consequence! I think in legal terms that’s called “entrapment”. And then when the inevitable happens, we smile at one another rejoicing that we didn’t have to endure yet another birthday party at Chucked-Up-Cheese!

Delighting in our children’s failures is not supporting them, encouraging them, or lifting them up! From now on, I’ll do my best to set them up for success by guiding them, reminding them, and teaching them to be responsible. We can’t expect that they always know the best choices to make even thought it may seem obvious to us as adults. Remember they’re kids, they are self serving, self seeking bundles of joy that need constant re-direction to stay on task!

11. Love rejoices in truth

• How often do I point out my child’s faults?
• How often do I point out their success?

On an average day, how many positive and negative comments do we make in regards to our children? Most of us can easily answer that the majority of our comments are negative. “Do this, don’t do that, what were you thinking?”

Remember to pray for wisdom regarding your children. Ask God to give you His love for your kids. To show you what their strengths are, so you can focus on those, and how you can use things like strong willed behavior for good!

Let your children know that God has given them all gifts, seek out what those gifts are and praise and encourage them in that!

12. Love always protects

Am I faithful to support my children and have their backs in all things?

Galatians 6:2 says “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Let’s be sure to help our children in whatever area they are lacking. Help them to be responsible, remind them to do the things that are required of them, show them how to be faithful. It is our job to train and disciple our children, they don’t come out of the box knowing how to act and what to do. Bummer I know, our jobs would be so much easier if they did!

13. Love always trusts

Do I trust my children or hold past deceptions against them?

Have a willingness to always pursue a trusting relationship with our children. Lying can drive a spike into any relationship, and knowing that our children have deceived us can be very hurtful. That’s why it’s important to be consistent in discipline. If you missed it head back to Day 3 where we talked about discipline. If you have an agreed upon plan for discipline in your household you will be more successful in avoiding lying and deception between you and your children.

In our house we have a double consequence for lying. Remember when dealing with this that we have all lied, we’ve probably even lied to our children at some point. Be firm on this rule, but remember that love does not keep hold of bitterness!

Rom 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

14. Love always endures all things

Do our children know that we love them? Do they have a false expectation that our love is conditional depending on their behavior? I remember talking to my 4 year old one night because she said that I didn’t love her anymore. I said “don’t you know that Mom and Dad love you no matter what you do?” She sadly replied “no”. That broke my heart! From that point on, whenever she disobeys I am careful to let her know that I still love her no matter what bad choices she’s making. I also made sure that she knew that Jesus loves her no matter what as well. Our love for our children should be un-conditional. Our children can easily take our anger towards them as a sign of our lack of love for them.

Take some time today and make sure that your kids know that you love them no matter what they do, that you will never leave nor forsake them, just as our heavenly Father will never leave nor forsake us!

15. Love always perseveres

Go all in!

Col 3:21 Fathers [mothers], do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. As ministers of our family (Day 2) it is our God given calling to train up our children in the way they should go (Prov 22:6). We can impart the same grace we have been given to our children, showing them that we are in this for the long haul.

We can stick with them through their trials and give them the security knowing that they aren’t going through life on their own. If something isn’t working in our homeschool we have the power and authority to change it. If something’s causing us or our children frustration, throw it out! (Well, sell it on ebay) But find something that does work!

I spent the first couple years of our homeschooling with the attitude that we were “trying it out”. I knew that if I failed we could just stick the kids in school and be done with it. I wasn’t fully committed to our decision to homeschool or to my kids education. Once I decided to go all in, our school came alive, and I think God was up there breathing a sigh of relief that I’ve finally accepted His calling!

16. Love never fails

God gives us everything we need to disciple and train our children. God gave us our children knowing how foolish we are, but He also gave us the answers that will give us the ability to succeed in this journey! He wants us to pray for our needs, letting us know that whatever we pray for in His name he will give us! We may (and probably will) fail, but He never fails, and His love and guidance will carry us through on this journey.

Today’s Challenge:

Spend some extra time in prayer today again asking God to help you in any area you are lacking when it comes to following 1 Corinthians 13 in your home and homeschooling.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Stick around tomorrow for Day 7 of Homeschooling Enrichment where we’ll talk about getting your kids in the Word.

Note: Some of the ideas from today came from an awesome bible study on parenting that my husband and I have just started which I’d highly recommend going through, plus it’s FREE online at “Parenting as a Ministry”.

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