“What’s the Target?”
“Education is the knowledge of how to use the whole of oneself. Many of us use but one or two faculties out of the score with which they are endowed. A man is educated who knows how to make a tool of every faculty…how to open it, keep it sharp, and how to apply it to all practical purposes.” Henry Ward Beecher
We would not disagree that we need to target “making a tool of every faculty”, but when we talk about our children’s education we are entering “holy ground”. America’s founding fathers did not intend to take religion out of education. “Many of the nation’s greatest universities were founded by evangelists and religious leaders; but many of these have lost the founder’s vision and become secular institutions. Because of this attitude, secular education is stumbling and floundering.” Billy Graham (i.e. young fraternity pledge that died during hazing recently in Pennsylvania!)
If you are home schooling or have your children in a public or satellite school, or even a prestigious private school, you are aware of the effort, time and money it takes to educate young people today. Our progressive culture and the technological world have swallowed us up with their demands and the need to excel in every area if you want to triumph in this competitive world.
After all, we want the best for our children, don’t we?
As a young mom I wanted“the best” for my two princesses while living in the jungles of Panama. My choices were, however, limited, in that I knew I could not send my little girls to a mission school for months at a time and be able to focus on the job we had been commissioned to do among the Kunas. My hat is off to those who successfully pull this off! Home school curriculum was limited to ABeka and I was so grateful for this provision.
Jungle school with Christina in Kunaland Kindergarten!
Maybe some of you young moms are busy looking to the future for the education of your child and considering the multitude of options out there today. For those of you who have set your goals for your children’s education and are preceding as our culture sets the standard, might I suggest an additional target that you can add to your consideration?
As moms, our pursuit is “to find His purpose and make it our goal to please Him first”…because one day “we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us will receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” II Cor. 3: 2,3 Our focus, so often, separates academic schooling from the instruction of our spirit and soul. We, frequently sacrifice the spiritual aspect to make sure our children will academically excel.
We want to achieve the full potential God has planned for our children…
and us.
We, so often, compartmentalize academic schooling from the instruction of the spirit and soul, relegating the responsibility of the spiritual aspect to our local church, a good bible teacher or the weekly Sunday school class.
“(God’s) purpose is that (our) children be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they have the full riches of complete understanding (applied wisdom), in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom (learning to see life’s situations from God’s point of view and acting in harmony with Him, His will and His purpose for our life) and (lastly) knowledge (familiarity gained by insight to truth, experience, accumulated facts and reports). Col. 1:28, 29
Taking time to educate the soul (mind, will and emotions)
and the spirit of a child is the heart of where
the success of true education really lies.
The instruction of the spirit and soul cannot be taught well from any other place but a godly home from godly parents and it trumps all other forms of education. It takes personal commitment, learning to be a good student of the Word, time, “walk your talk” determination and dedication to teach the Words of God to an eager little prince or princess…but the reward far out ways anything this world, Christian or otherwise, has to offer.
Which will it be…?
What’s your target?
His will and purpose found in quiet times of rich Bible reading and then,
teaching your little one, introducing the eternal hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge
or
The secular education being fostered in most churches, homes and schools
across America today…?
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
