(In October of 2018 Auntie Elizabeth [my older sister] visited and helped the children learn to sew. Here she is helping Thor.)
This song came to me in 1996 and was inspired by my experience as a children’s leader for Bible Study Fellowship in Glendale, Arizona while I was stationed at Luke Air Force Base. In many ways it is even more meaningful now that I’m a homeschooling Mama of six. Largely due to my own educational background, our homeschooling (I like to say discipleship) goals are a little unusual I suppose, perhaps even extreme. Growing up, I was very academically oriented and although I cried out to God for direction I didn’t know where to find the answers that I sought. Therefore I made some very strange and even costly choices that could have been avoided if I had simply read the Bible and gotten to know God a little. Thankfully I did start to find the answers while a cadet at the Air Force Academy when I started following Christ, but $250K is a big price to pay when a $5 Bible could have easily done the trick ten years earlier. Thankfully God uses it all for good when it is turned over to Him and nothing is wasted in the kingdom.
If I struggled back then with my identity, how I grieve for young people today who have even less access to the truth than I did. Therefore, these are our goals for our children before they leave our home. We want them to know God and love Him, know God’s Word and love it, know people and love them. If we can accomplish this, we believe that everything else will fall into place. If there is one thing that our children are well aware of it is that our goals for them do not include making a lot of money and living comfortable lives. We want them to storm the gates of hell for a living even if it means fasting 7 months out of the year like David Hogan does or even an early grave. While I often feel completely inadequate as a wife and homeschooling Mama, I figure it is my greatest hope of success since it keeps me on my face crying out to the only One who can do the work that needs to be done in us and our children.
“Lord, help us teach the children” as You are our only hope to do so rightly.