We Don't Homeschool To Avoid Sin!

Photo source: blogs.sfgate.com

As I have mentioned before, I find it helpful to review the reasons why we homeschool either at the end, or the beginning, of each homeschool year.  This year I am reviewing all of those things--the why and the how we homeschool--as we launch into our summer break.  This has also been a good time for me to note all the reasons why we don't homeschool, too.  For example, we don't homeschool to avoid sin in this world.  Why?  Well, it is because we have PLENTY of sin within the four walls of our home and right inside our five little hearts, as a matter-of-fact!

I have read the words of a few other mothers that speak to this reality recently, and it just made me smile.  Not a smile of pleasure, mind you, but a smile of complete and utter understanding.  It brings comfort knowing my family is not alone!  Perhaps, you too, can relate, dear friend!

Blogger Beth at Pocketful of Rocks writes:

"Lots of people homeschool for religious reasons....However, if you think you can lump us together with those homeschooling simply to shelter their children from the sin of this world, you’d be wrong. While there are some egregious things happening out there that my children are not ready to face, that’s really not what it’s about for us. Because you know what? The sin of this world can be found right inside our own four walls. Anger? Check. Pride? Check. Lying? Check. Laziness? Check. Envy? Check. Greed? Check. Selfishness? Check."

I feel the same way!! I can see a laundry list of my children's sin and my own sin even as we are getting ready and prepared to START the day!

Beth goes on to write...

"If anything, homeschooling has actually revealed what desperate, needy sinners we are. The whole lot of us. With me being the chief. Daily my senses are assaulted by my sin....Does it surprise you to hear we’re sinners? I hope not. We all are. But I’m realizing more and more that their sin and mine is exactly why God called us to stay home. Because sometimes I forget that I am in desperate-moment-by-moment need of my Savior. Sometimes I oh-so-wrongly think I have this all well in hand. But, believe you me, if I believe that for even one moment, the next moment proves me wrong. Or perhaps I should say that very moment is an indictment against me.

Homeschooling is not a way to avoid sin, but it certainly is a way to expose it, confront it, resist it,  and pray over it. I’m praying with you that if you are homeschooling or are thinking of homeschooling, that you are not doing it to avoid sin, but rather to see the gospel more clearly working in the hearts in your home."

I agree with Beth in sooo many ways.  For better or for worse, homeschooling exposes our sin, but I'd like to think that this is for the better, as we work to confront our sin, confess it to one another and to God, pray for each other, and apply the Gospel truth of forgiveness and redemption to our daily lives.  It is a moment-by-moment battle for hearts in our household, and one in which we win and lose many times over in a single day!  But it is my joy to teach my children about Jesus and our need for Him!

Another mother, Gloria Freeman, author of Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home, expresses her frustration when her girls are out in public, arguing.  So often she feels like declaring:

"Hi! Welcome to our demonstration of human depravity.  What are they fighting about, you ask?  Well, let me tell you. The featured argument from 9:00 a.m. to 9:06 a.m. is a petty argument over lip balm.  Whose lip balm is more sparkly? And whose is pink and whose is purple?  Step right up, folks, and witness our family's validation of the doctrine of original sin."

I have felt this way in public too many times to count!  Every day, whether at home or out in our community, my family displays the depravity of sin and willful, sinful hearts!

So, although we have a lot of reasons why we homeschool, avoiding sin has NEVER been one of them!  If anything, our homeschooling family does not escape or rise above worldly sin, but it all-too-often displays sin in all its base and depraved glory!!  But I am thankful that our time at home affords us the opportunities to slow down, converse with one another, pray for each other, confess to each other, and make wrongs, right.  In this way, I pray, the gospel will be glorified in our home and will transform ALL of our hardened hearts!