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Search Results for: creation blessing

Joy of Learning: Taking Joy at Work

October 22, 2019 by Ben

taking joy in your work
When I was six, my dad took our family on a homeschool field trip to Patriots Point Navel & Maritime Museum in Charleston, SC. I was awestruck from the moment we drove into view of the Yorktown aircraft carrier. After exploring old navy ships, I was hooked—history became my favorite subject and it was fodder for play. And I still love history.

Joy permeates my history learning. Even in times when it became tedious, the thrill of mastering the subject never left me. That experience with my dad set the tone for my learning.

As homeschool parents, we want our children to have joy in learning. I want my daughters to love history as much as I do.

Joy of Learning in the Bible

Do we have a scriptural expectation to find joy in learning? We should start by looking at our expectation to have joy in our work. Then we can examine the connection between learning and work.

Taking Joy at Work

Most Americans view work as a drudgery, a long slog until they get to what they really want: a weekend full of pleasure. One way to summarize the American Dream is “work hard so you can play harder.”

But that’s not a scriptural view of work. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us three times that “a man… should make his soul enjoy good in his labor” (Ecclesiastes 2:24, see also Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 and Ecclesiastes 5:18-19). And for good reason. The Lord intends that we “enjoy the good of all [our] labor” (Ecclesiastes 5:18). Even better, we should enjoy our labor because God gives us the power to work (Ecclesiastes 5:19).

Best of all, the work itself is given by God. In the beginning, God gave mankind dominion over creation. Even before the Fall, Adam and Eve worked by dressing the garden and naming the creatures. So when we take up a lawful task to meet a legitimate need, we are fulfilling one of God’s original intents for us.

You know, we, as parents, experience this every year at Thanksgiving or Christmas. We invest long hours on our feet in the kitchen preparing a feast. Some parts are fun, like making pie filling. Others are tedious, like peeling ten pounds of potatoes. Then there’s the layer of dust to clean from the fine china. And, of course, we can’t use the dishwasher for that! But what a joy it is to cook with your family and see them delight in the meal! Even scrubbing the grease off the turkey roast pan can be satisfying.

Let’s not lose sight of the joy we can have in the work of homeschooling our children. Some parts may be fun, and others tedious, but the final result is priceless. It is God’s calling for us, and we can and should find joy and satisfaction in it.

Work and Learning

Since God intends for us to have joy in our work, can we apply that to our children’s learning? In Isaiah 28, the Lord makes an important connection between learning and working.

In this passage, the prophet confronts the proud farmers of his day. He asks them a series of questions about the fundamentals of farming. Do they plow? Are they planting seed? What about the careful arrangements they make in planting their seeds? “Of course!” the farmers are thinking. Then Isaiah asserts, “For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him” (Isaiah 28:26). You can imagine these arrogant men thinking: “No he didn’t; I figured that out on my own,” or, “My dad taught me that, not God.” But they’re missing the point. God created His world to work a certain way. When we adjust our lives through careful observation to the way He made the world, we are learning from Him. The learning is coming from His hand.

The learning and the work both come from God’s hand. For our kids, their primary calling—their work—is to learn. It enables them to exercise dominion over creation, just like the farmers from Isaiah’s time. And just as God gives joy to the laborer, we can expect God to give joy to our children while they work at their calling of learning.

I love teaching history to my daughters. My dad inspired a lifelong love of learning about the past, and now I get to share it with his grandchildren. Homeschooling is one of our most blessed callings. What a delight it is to be right there, when the light bulb goes off for our children and we see the joy! What we’re witnessing is our children receiving the gift of joy in learning from God’s own hands.

Filed Under: Shaping Worldview Tagged With: Christian Homeschooling, Creation Blessing, Creation Mandate, Joy of Learning

How to Bless Your Homeschool Dad

June 14, 2018 by Ben

bless your homeschool dad
Every Father’s Day, children struggle to come up with a way to bless their homeschool dad. “We want to buy him a gift, but what can we get him that he wouldn’t already be able to get himself?” What is the best blessing you could offer a Christian dad?

Psalm 128 provides an excellent way to think about honoring dads on Father’s Day. In six short verses, this psalm inventories the blessing of a father who fears the Lord. The blessings are appropriate goals for every Christian dad, and children can honor him by contributing to those aspirations.

Wise Dominion

For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be.

Christian homeschool dads work hard to provide for their families and attempt to be wise stewards of the resources God gives them. Psalm 128:2 describes a blessed man enjoying the literal fruit of his work. He has fulfilled the blessing of dominion over God’s creation.

Children can join in on that blessing by diligently contributing to their household. But beyond carrying out chores, children should be preparing for their future vocation as well. Few things bless a father’s heart more than seeing his children study hard and prosper academically. It assures dads that their children are on their way to exercising good and wise dominion within God’s calling on their lives. That is being truly blessed.

Little Olive Plants

Thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

I love the metaphor found in Psalm 128:3. Children gather around the table, enjoying the fruit of their dad’s labor. As he nurtures them, they too will grow to be fruitful olive trees.

One of most basic characteristics of living things is that they perpetuate. If they didn’t reproduce, living organisms would go extinct. And this principle is linked to Genesis 1:28, where God blessed the animals and people to be fruitful and fill the earth.

Little children are such a delight to dads. They are a fulfillment of God’s blessing on their lives.

But more than having physical descendants, believing dads want to see their children experience new birth. We perpetuate by making disciples. Our commission is to perpetuate to the uttermost parts of the earth. For dads, the natural location to begin doing that is in our homes. Knowing the sweetness of our life in Christ makes it natural for us to want our children have the same lifelong experience. Children can bless their fathers by giving their hearts in response to their dad’s efforts to disciple them.

The Next Generation

Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children.

The final verse of the psalm telescopes out to the third generation. Here, a blessed man (first generation) is enjoying his children’s (second generation) children (third generation.) It envisions the little olive plants growing to maturity and being fruitful themselves. They too are working hard to provide for a family. And God has blessed them with their own little olive plants.

This is the blessing of multigenerational discipleship. God-fearing dads are most blessed when they see their grandchildren also following in their ways. My dad is honored as I seek to disciple his grandchildren.

This Father’s Day, as you seek to honor your homeschool dad, meditate on Psalm 128. God wants to bless your dad, and He knows the best way to bless him. In fact, you’re an integral part God’s means of blessing. So if you give your heart to what God is doing, you will bless your dad.

Filed Under: Shaping Worldview Tagged With: dominion, Father's day, Psalm 128

Following the Wise Men to Raise Wise Children

December 26, 2017 by Ben

 

wise men manger scene
As a homeschool dad, I love seeing my girls put aside their rivalries to put on a Christmas pageant. Last Christmas, our first grader organized a Christmas Eve pageant that she and her sisters put on for us and their grandparents. Of course, one of the cutest parts was when three little “wise” girls presented gifts to their baby doll.

We often meditate on the symbolic nature the wise men’s gifts but may not realize that their presentation of gifts to the King plays a significant role in the unfolding story of creation, fall, and redemption. Their acts of worship before the Christ child are a pattern for what Christian parents are trying to accomplish in homeschooling. Let’s meditate together on the wise men, their role in “the old redemption story,” and how we can use it to inspire our homeschooling all year round.

The Past Worship of the Wise Men

Their Story

The wise men are mentioned in the Bible only in Matthew 2:1–12. Since they’re called wise men or magi (from the Greek magos), it is clear that they had wisdom in their work that was respected by their community. It was probably because of this wisdom that they had prospered enough to be able to afford gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

In some way, they also had a heart toward God. As scholars, they were familiar with the Scriptures and apparently knew the messianic prophecy of Numbers 24:17. Since they were watching the heavens for a sign of God’s Messiah, they saw the star when it appeared and immediately set out to find the child. When they arrived in Bethlehem, their hearts rejoiced—not that they had found a new source of earthly treasure but that they had found the child.

The wise men went in and humbly bowed down in worship. They opened their treasures and presented their gifts to the King.

Their Part in God’s Story

In the unfolding of God’s redemptive story, the wise men’s worship of Jesus was a sign that He was the King of the Jews. Jesus was the Christ, the Chosen One, who was coming to break the power of the fall and redeem people and the creation.

Part of that redemption involves how men and women use God’s blessing of dominion over creation (Genesis 1:26–28). Fallen people pursue wealth through dominion to be independent of God. Redeemed people use the prosperity produced by their wise dominion to accomplish God’s purposes and give Him glory.

This is exactly what the wise men did. They had grown in wisdom by observing God’s creation in the fear of the Lord. Their exercise of that wisdom in dominion over creation led to prosperity. And they took that prosperity and offered it to their God in worship.

The Future Worship of the Wise Men

The wise men of that first Christmas were prototypes of future wise men. At the end of story of Scripture, the Father and Son rule from the new Jerusalem. There “the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into [the new Jerusalem]” (Revelation 22:24). These kings of the saved nations are exercising dominion in the restored earth and bringing their treasures to the King in worship. Notice how the unique treasures of the kings are called “their glory.”

In the eternal state, redeemed men and women will still use math, science, social studies, and language arts. And the end of their labor will be God’s glory.

Homeschooling Wise Men (and Women!) Today

So what does this have to do with homeschooling? Everything! It demonstrates the redeemed purpose for learning history, math, science, and language arts. Here are three steps our children can take to follow the example of the wise men in the past and in the future.

Grow in Wisdom

The wise men didn’t become wise by being lazy in their study of God’s creation. Remember, when we study how God’s world works, we’re learning His wisdom.

Prosper in God’s Calling

Exercising God’s wisdom in His calling led to prosperity for the wise men. It can for your children as well. If they’re faithful in their mastery of science and math and God calls them to engineering, they should prosper as engineers.

Offer the Glory of the Calling

Prosperity is piece of glory that we receive for acting wisely in the fear of the Lord. We should take that glory and offer it to God. When we use our skills in service to our neighbor or in the household of God, we are worshiping. When we take a portion of our treasure and give it to God, we are worshiping Him in the exact same manner as the wise men of old. We are literally giving glory to God.

This Christmas, as my homeschooled girls perform their Christmas pageant, I want them to know that they can follow in the footsteps of the wise men. They can daily study to become wise women so they can offer their treasures to King Jesus.

Filed Under: Shaping Worldview Tagged With: Christian Homeschooling, Christmas, homeschooling, wisdom, Wise Men, worship

The Role of a Lifetime: Dignity Reclaimed

May 9, 2016 by Cosette

I asked myself when I first picked up The Role of a Lifetime if an author dealing with gender issues could be both frank and encouraging at the same time. Can a writer be really truthful and still communicate encouragement and gentle solace? Claudia Barba proved to me that it’s possible. This Bible study succeeds in telling it like it is and how beautiful it can be, “it” being life as a woman, and─yes─that in today’s world.

BJU Press book cover of The Role of a Lifetime: The Script God Wrote for Women by Claudia BarbaThe curtain rises in The Role  of a Lifetime at Creation. Then comes . . . the Fall. What begins as exquisitely harmonious becomes devastatingly divided. Our Creator establishes something special for us, which, when severed from the Divine, ends up twisted, marred, and spoiled beyond recognition from what was meant to be. Barba is frank here and refreshingly real. We all experience the consequences of the Fall every day, and knowing the devil’s game is exceedingly helpful.

After highlighting the promise given in Genesis that the woman would crush her enemy’s head, Barba comes to the New Testament. A woman conceives her Savior, and a glorious hope is born. He is there in the beauty of meekness for us to behold. From manger to tomb, the Lord Jesus loves to Himself a colorful variety of women from a smorgasbord of backgrounds and circumstances. Barba shows that His instructions are always appropriate, His manner always gracious. And He always, always opens the women’s eyes to His beauty, so they can in turn see their own.

The Role  of a Lifetime goes beyond just dealing with gender-role dos and don’ts. It’s for the woman who wants to dig and to use what she learns in fruitful service.  For women married or single, it sets the stage for a rich and compelling study of Scripture and vividly sets forth God’s plan of salvation for us.

Download the free study guide for group use.

Filed Under: JourneyForth Tagged With: battles, Christian living, gender, Role of a Lifetime

Sharing God’s Good Works

March 8, 2016 by Megan

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 78:4, especially the last phrase.

WP-Thankful-1-2016

Let’s face it—it’s easy to overlook the blessings in our lives. Sometimes the Lord blesses us in very obvious ways. He gives a new baby, miraculously provides finances for a specific need, or grants healing after an accident or serious illness. But He blesses us in other ways too. He allows our cars to start so we can go get groceries. He gives us hot water for showers. He gives us strength to feed our children even when we’re so sick we can hardly get out of bed.

My children need to know about all of God’s wonderful works. They need to know He gives only good gifts because this truth is foundational to their development of a biblical worldview. They need to know that God is faithful in small things as well as big things.  It is part of how their faith will grow.

So here’s my list of blessings for today:

  • Cuddles with my toddler
  • The willingness of older men and women to share their wisdom about childrearing
  • Libraries
  • Hot drinks
  • Naps
  • Technology such as cell phones and email that allow me to stay in touch with far-away friends and family members
  • A great deal on a new coat for my middle daughter
  • Supper that’s already made and simmering in the slow cooker
  • Sunshine after more than a week of rain
  • Taking a walk with my children and enjoying God’s creation
  • Observing my children learn new skills—my toddler can now climb a ladder
  • Strangers in the grocery store who graciously allowed me to get in front of them in line
  • Watching the relationships among my children grow stronger
  • The ability to read God’s Word for myself

God has given us so many good gifts. Let’s continually praise God to our children.

Filed Under: Simplified Homeschool Tagged With: blessings, children, praise, thankful

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