Choosing Your Homeschool Direction

One of the most difficult parts of parenting is always making a decision about which direction to go.  In the beginning is the decision to have children, then choosing how to have the baby.  Then nursing?  Go back to work?  What about homeschooling?

Even now that we have made it to the homeschooling part, we still have decisions in front of us.  What is the best decision for our children?  Should they take a class outside the home?  Where should they go to college?   How do you make the decisions?  Read this story in the Old Testament, about Abram and his nephew Lot made a decision about which direction they should choose.

Genesis 13:8-18
So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”

Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD… So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.

The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.  All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

Lot chose the direction that looked the prettiest.  He chose in a superficial way, based on outward appearances.  Abram knew that what make a place “good” was the Lord – and anywhere he went with the Lord would be the right place.

When you are making decisions about where to educate your children, whether for an outside class or for college, avoid looking at the outward appearances.  It doesn’t matter how many people say it is wonderful, or who else is doing it, or what the current fad might be.  Look beyond the superficial.  Do you really want your children there?  Will it make them a better person, or is it just the best-looking?

Listen to your heart.  Parents know best.  Not your friends or relatives, not your homeschool buddy or the author of a book.  Parents know best.

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