Grace Centered

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Tapestry of Grace

An integrated, classical approach to educating your children.

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Why "Tapestry"?

Our thoughts on:

Elementary Years

Middle Years

High School Years

Grace-Centered Schooling

Who really IS the best teacher for my kids?

How do I teach all my kids at once?

Teacher Development

Grace-centered Home Schooling

1 Corinthians 8:1 says: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

This page is a loving reminder of the WHY in our Home School. We can so easily get caught up in "how" and in "performance"--ours and our children's. This page is meant to bring both conviction and comfort, offering the plumb line of Scripture as a measure and guide to all of us as we walk this road together.

In embarking on any endeavor, it is best to know what your END is. Just WHY are you home schooling?

Are you schooling primarily because you feel led of the LORD to do so?
Are you schooling because Public Schools are unthinkable, but you can't afford your local Christian school?
Are you schooling as a means to the best possible education, because you believe that tutorial is really the most effective educational method?
Do you want to make your children active disciples of the Lord Jesus, and feel that time at home is the only way for you to properly train your child in the way he should go?
Does your child have special needs, gifts, or talents that make home schooling your best option?
Perhaps none of these statements, or a combination of them, would best describe your mindset.

It's worth thinking through, because your END for home schooling will, in many ways, influence the means you choose to arrive at your goal.

For instance, if your goal is simply vocational, you may not be interested in teaching apologetics.
If your goal is utilitarian--meaning, you simply want your child to have an education, because he needs it to become a functioning member of society--then discipleship issues will naturally assume background positions to the great and real business of getting the math lesson done on time.
If your primary goal is discipleship, however, the math lesson may be the heat that exposes sin in you and your child, and it will have to wait until both of you get your hearts right with God and each other.

Here are some more good questions to ponder:

What do I want my child to be like in 20 years?
How about in 10 years?
Five years out?

When I feel anxious about my role as a home educator, which of the below does my mind fly to FIRST as my primary inadequacies?

Am I a competent educator? Can I teach them academics adequately?
Am I a godly role model as a wife?
Am I a godly role model as a husband?
Do I consistently present a godly example of Christian maturity, and hope my child will grow up to be like me?

Your anxieties reveal your priorities. Your priorities will determine your actions. Our flesh screams for temporal efficiency and measurable progress. What is the Spirit concerned with today?

Another set of questions to ask daily, or weekly:

As I examine my life, am I consistently keeping the MAIN THING (my relationship with Jesus Christ) the main thing, or do I compromise in some of these ways:

Display self-reliance by skipping private meetings with God and just launching into my day.
Display fits of self-righteous anger with my husband or children, and not even repent to the LORD or to them?
Spend adequate time speaking the gospel into my husband and children's lives?
Put attendance at, and service to, the local church on a low priority, claiming that I'm too busy, or that I don't get enough out of the community to invest in it?
Do I allow sins of bitterness, resentment, anger, self-righteousness, or pride to rule my thoughts, words, or actions?

Sobering indeed is Luke 6:40
A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Let us educate our children with reverent fear of the Lord, not self-righteous pride, remembering James 3:1-2
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.

Clearly, we are called to teach our children. But, we should seek to grow in grace, humility, patience, and longsuffering, remembering that since we have been forgiven of all our sins, we should easily and quickly forgive the sins and failings of our beloved children and spouses. Kindness, humility, patience, and faith will produce far sweeter fruit than strict discipline, angry corrections, impatience with slow learning or character failures, or even the perfect plan of study! Below is my favorite passage for meditation so that I can be aligned with God's view of my children:

Matthew 18:21-35
     Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
     Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
     "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
     "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
     "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
     "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
     "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
     "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
     "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

It is our firm belief that the curriculum you choose will not, in the end, make you a successful home schooler. This is especially true if your goal is primarily to impart knowledge (defined for the purposes of this page as academic knowledge) and not love, as biblically defined. Below are some scriptures and questions that we rely on regularly to measure the success of our home school.

What is our END? We say that it's to make disciples. What have we done this week to disciple our children in skillful living (wisdom) as biblically defined?
Are our children loving each other, moment by moment, day by day? If not, why not?
If not, are we confronting that unlovely behavior at its root level, seeking to bring the Word of God to bear on their sinful attitudes, and seeking also to bring the good news of forgiveness to them, even as we confront their sin? Or, are we saying, by our focus on academics, that book learning is more important than love?
Does the math lesson go undone so that discipleship may progress?
Do we see corrections (verbal and physical) as central in our day, or maddening interruptions?
Do we regularly repent for sinful actions on our part, especially impatience, anger, or self-righteous and uncharitable judgments of our children's heart motives?
Do we preach the gospel to ourselves and our children every day? When our children sin, is it our habit to joyously point out that their sin only reveals their need for a Savior--and that, wonderfully, that Savior has been provided? Do we confess the same when we sin against them?

Grace-filled home schooling involves reminding ourselves regularly that sanctification is more important that the mere acquisition of academic knowledge; indeed, academics are merely a means of revealing our children's degree of sanctification: the fruit of love. In the end, success is measured by whether or not we produce loving disciples who can articulate their faith and serve the purposes of God in their generation. A well-kept secret is that our children are not the only ones sanctified in the home-schooling process. God is working on parents, too! We can take infinite comfort from the following Scriptures after soberly assessing our need for a Savior:

1 Cor. 15:3
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
1 Thes. 5:23-24
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Hebrews 10:19-25
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
James 4:6-8a
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you."