Some May Trust in Horses...

Some may trust in horses, some may trust in chariots but we will trust… in homeschooling. “Okay, so that’s not how the verse goes. It really ends with “but we will trust in our curriculums.” No? How about, “But we will trust in our formulas”? Hmmm. “Rules?”
What exactly do we trust in? If you are anything like me then you (or I) am always looking for the silver bullet. You know, that thing that will guarantee my desired outcome for my children, my marriage, my relationship with God, my job, my (put whatever you want here). I want the quick fix, the ‘this is how you do it’ formula that, if I carry it out to the letter, assures me of the result I want. We do it in almost everything, don’t we? If I can only find the right history curriculum (I think we’re on our third now, and looking for a fourth) then my children will have a biblical view of the world. If only there were a certain type of math, literature, science, or Bible curriculum. We just want something we know will give our children a biblical worldview. No, let me rephrase that. We all want something we know will make our children Christians.
This isn’t limited to just curriculum. It’s in everything we do. If I only keep them from this TV program or from watching certain kinds of movies, or playing video games or certain types of music. Maybe if we go to a certain kind of church or keep them from certain kinds of kids, then my kids will come out the way I want them to be.
You see, we are all legalists at heart. Just like the Israelites, we acquire a set of laws or rules and then think that we can do it ourselves. We think we can attain godliness or at least achieve it in our children through certain prescribed methods or practices. Israel thought the same way. Though the law was never given to them so that they could earn salvation, they took certain practices and Scriptures and turned them into the formula for “godliness” and salvation. But the law could not save then, nor can tradition or a particular lifestyle save our children today. The truth is that there is no Christian panacea. There is only One that can save our children and give them correct worldviews and morals and Christian virtues: Jesus Christ.
We must trust and depend on Him to do this. We must trust and depend on Him to open their eyes and give them understanding. We must trust and depend on Him because it is what we are supposed to do. Anything else is idolatry. The point of the law was for the Israelites to trust and depend on God, not themselves! The Christian life is all about this one thing: trusting and depending on God in Jesus Christ. We must trust Him for our salvation and our children’s. We must trust Him for our daily food and for our intellect and for the sun. When we disciple (school) our children both the goal and the means to the goal are the same, and that is to trust in God.
I write this because I know my own propensity to lock myself into trusting just about everything but God, especially as a homeschooler. I have to realize that just because something worked one day that it doesn’t mean that I then trust it instead of God. We should not homeschool because it’s “the proven method”, but because we trust in God. Homeschooling works not because it is homeschooling but because of the sheer grace and power of God. “Some may trust in horses, some may trust in chariots, but we will trust in the name of the LORD our God!”