Goals for Our Children

When Matt and I realized that God was nudging us toward homeschooling, we began to research. One of the books we read {The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling; Debra Bell} wisely suggested that we cannot make important decisions for our children until we have thought about the big picture: What is it we desire our children to learn in the few precious years of care that God has given us?


working through this process was the beginning of God-given clarity for us.
I thought I would share this list with you, which is precious to us:

Goals we desire our children to reach while under our care:

1. We want our children to develop a fine Christian character
2. We want our children to decide to believe in the Lord, follow the Lord, and walk in His ways
3. We want our children to grow in their gifts and skills to the best of their God given abilities, and then to know how to use these gifts in their lives to the glory of God
4. We want our children to receive the finest education within the context of biblical truth.
5. We want our children to be culturally relevant, wise, and socially confident; in turn, enabling them to successfully communicate the Christian faith and to do their best work in their future endeavors.
6. We want our children to be able to identify and to find healthy, loving, Christian relationships in their lifetime, both in friendship and love. 
7. We want our children to value family time, family closeness, and family love.

Many, well...no, ALL of these goals are in God's hands.

But we are excited to be obedient to our calling, and we now know that, for our family, homeschooling will be a part of this path.

While this list reveals our prayer to have God be the compass in our children's lives, and that they will, by His grace, choose to believe in and follow and love the Lord.... we have no desire to shelter our children in a bubble. We have no desire to make sure that they only have Christian friends or Christian information.

What we DO want is to present them with Truth, train them up in the way they should go, and nurture them in the benefits of following the Truth....

and provide them with information about many other beliefs and theories,
and then, allow them to choose.

free will.

all the while, we pray:

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."

-Proverbs 22:6