Homeschooling Isn't the Gospel | A Biblical Perspective on Education & Discipleship

**Christy** (0:00)
All righty, hey, you guys, we want to start with confession. We deeply value homeschooling, we love homeschooling, we believe it's a great opportunity for discipleship. But here is the real deal. We understand that homeschooling will not save our children. There is nothing apart from Jesus himself that will save our kids. And I think it's so important, part of the reason that we are jumping into this episode is that I think that if we forget that as homeschoolers, then even something that is good can suddenly become something very dangerous.

**Heather** (0:31)
An idol.

**Christy** (0:32)
Yes, an idol.

**Heather** (0:35)
Oh, hey, am I supposed to say something?

**Christy** (0:38)
Because now I'm gonna tell my story.

**Heather** (0:41)
Do I say hey?

**Christy** (0:42)
What's up, what's up?

**Heather** (0:43)
Hey y'all, hey y'all.

**Christy** (0:45)
Hey y'all, okay, yeah.

**Heather** (0:46)
It's us again, Christy and Heather. We're here to chat and uplift you and encourage you. And we're glad you're here.

**Christy** (0:53)
Oh, we love y'all so much. And so, yes, you guys, what prompted this episode is I overheard a friend of mine say, you know, they're analyzing school options. We're in the middle of the year now, but there are things that are working and are not working for their kids at the school they're at. And so they're evaluating. And I heard this person say, man, one of the biggest, they feel they sometimes get the most negative feedback or the most pushback. I don't know if those are the right words, but something like that, to that effect from other Christians, that they feel the most pressure from other Christians in their education decisions. And so, man, and then that took me kind of, it took me back for a minute. And I was like, man, that is so real that, you know, we so often can get caught up, almost like with politics, but in the field of education, whether you private school, home school, classical school, what kind of do you, monosori school?

**Heather** (1:46)
Go to co-op, don't go to co-op.

**Christy** (1:48)
Yeah, in every way.
And I think that's incredibly humbling because the reality is for us as believers, the number one thing on our agenda, the number one motivating factor really is that the gospel would go forward and we cannot allow legalism to creep in where we would think that we're pharisaic. That's what you were just saying that we don't want to act like Pharisees as if somehow we believe that homeschooling or private schooling or any other schooling saves you. Yeah, or saves our kids.

**Heather** (2:13)
Yes, it does not do that. I don't know, when I was reading over their notes and just think about this, think about God's Word, sometimes I feel like I can, you know, in my mind and my heart, like I need to adjust my heart posture because just because I do homeschool doesn't mean that I'm better and I'm repenting in saying that, in that, because it can bring that up in you, but that's not it. That's not our goal and it's to the gospel because God can save anybody, anywhere, wherever school they go to.

**Christy** (2:45)
Well, and then I think about the admonitions from scripture and really their commands, right? That we would diligently disciple our kids, that we need to train up our children in the way they should go and when they're old, they will not depart from it. There are incredible admonitions and a lot of them throughout scripture talking about how Christians should be in the business. And like we did a previous episode on Psalm 78, all about the legacy that we live is, leave is really us passing down remembering God and his faithfulness and what he's done to the next generation and then teaching them to teach it to the next generation and the next generation. I love that. And so that is very clear from scripture that we are called to do that. However, we recognize and I think it's worth saying that, you know, that every family dynamic is different. You know, if you have special needs kids or don't have special needs kids, if you're married or divorced, if you're, you know, there's so many different dynamics that that affect the way a family would educate their kids, then I do think it can be really haughty or easy to say that there is a one size fits all type of education when the reality is yes, we are all called to diligently disciple. We're all called to train up our children in the way they should go. We are all. I feel like the most incredibly loving thing that we can do for our kids is to help them to know God, to know his character, to hear his word, as we did these other episodes on parenting lying and the entitled kid and the fearful child, you know, all of it. The admonitions really are as we're pouring scripture over our kids. The hope is that it does not return void because God promises that it won't and that that actually will be bombed to impact their hearts. It will change them, help them not to conform to the pattern of this world as we read the word. And so…