Can you describe your Christian testimony (in general or about your homeschool journey) in under 140 words? Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows messages known as tweets, which are posts of up to 140 characters in length. Robin Sampson, author of the Heart of Wisdom homeschool blog, has this terrific idea: spark a testimony fire. She’s asking all Christians to add a Twitter Testimony Tweet: (TTT).
The power of this idea has to do with the number of twitter friends you have. For instance, I’ve got over 300 people following me on twitter, so that means that when I posted my TTT, every one of them saw my testimony of Jesus’ goodness! Not all of my twitter friends are homeschool Christians, so I’m praying that the Lord touches them and draws them to Him. Here’s my testimony tweet:
TTT B4: Alcoholic dad (I’m wounded); child dies (I’m broken)
AFTER:“Help me, Jesus” (I’m healed) – sweet relief http://tinyurl.com/tweettt
Here is Robin’s testimony tweet:
TTT: B4: Abandoned, rejected, unloved full of anger
AFTER: Joyfully, dwelling in an intimate relationship with Jesus http://tinyurl.com/tweettt
Robin got the idea after watching this powerful video where people in a church stood in front of their congregation with their cardboard testimony:
Will you tweet your Christian testimony on twitter? When you are finished watching the video:
Wipe the tears from your eyes.
Write your Christian testimony below in the comments (remember 140 characters max).
If you have not joined twitter, you can now. It’s free ( or if you prefer, I can add your tweet for you).
Retweet this line: Christians: Tweet Your Twitter Testimony Tweet (TTT). Please retweet and pray. http://tinyurl.com/tweettt
Blog about TTT to get others involved.
Email this link to a homeschool Christian friend so that she can also tweet her testimony on twitter.
May our Lord Jesus be exalted through your tweet, and may the Christian testimony idea go viral! And if you want to follow me on twitter, just click on the little bluebird below.
As a Christian, have you ever wondered why you are suffering? You may suffer with a chronic disease. Perhaps you suffer from depression or anxiety. Maybe you have lost something or someone you love and wonder WHY your pain is so intense. Sometimes we homeschool moms suffer the subtle condemnation of our friends who choose not to homeschool their kids and wonder why we are such curiosities. Suffering can be physical, mental, or spiritual. There are times when our suffering is directly related to our personal choices, but sometimes I believe the Lord allows our suffering for the sake of others.
Recently when I was on a fabulous ski vacation with my family, I had trouble getting my ski boot attached to my ski binding. In fact, I pushed, pulled, and stomped on the binding with my foot until my quadricep muscle was burning with fatigue. I strained and fought with that silly boot and binding for a good 20 minutes. So frustrating, and yet I knew the procedure from years of skiing…why was I having so much trouble doing something that I knew how to do?
Along came my husband, and he quickly assessed the situation…somehow in my exasperation, I had closed the binding position, and all he had to do was open the binding and my ski boot popped right in. Well, I felt like a fool, but I was so grateful for David’s intervention. It sounds selfish, but I have to admit, I skiied down the slope wondering WHY the Lord had allowed such a delay in my fun.
Later that afternoon I understood. I was coming down a snow-covered slope when I came upon a lonely man struggling with his ski binding. He was clearly exasperated, and I asked if I could help. He looked up at me and said it was just so frustrating trying to get his boot back into the ski binding. I quickly looked at the binding and realized he was in the exact same situation I had been in earlier that day…all I did was do for him what my husband had done for me…I pushed my ski pole on the catch, and the binding opened so he could slip his boot into the binding.
As I glided down the mountain, I thanked the Lord for allowing my earlier predicament. My suffering had caused me to see with clarity the need of another who was also suffering so that I could offer the Lord’s kindness.
Although this example of suffering is trivial, I do remember some serious suffering with a capital S! When my son, Davis, died in 1991, I suffered more physical, mental, and spiritual pain than I had ever experienced in my life. The agony was sometimes overwhelming, and I didn’t smile for six months. But soon after I began to heal, the Lord showed me a way to serve Him by using my suffering. I heard about a grief recovery programat my church and decided to volunteer. The professional counselor knew that she could refer grieving moms who had lost children to me because I knew what it felt like to have empty arms. I had walked the same path that they were walking, and with God’s help, I had survived to praise Him even in the bleak mystery of loss.
Are you a suffering Christian? What are your stories of grief or pain? Perhaps the Lord wants to use your suffering for the sake of others. Open your eyes; tell Him you’re ready to give back to those who need His comfort. Do for them what He has done for you and allow your suffering for the sake of others.
Dear Classical Scholar, What is a Christian home education? -Just Wondering
Dear ‘Just Wondering‘,
In contemporary Western culture, education is defined as the objective transfer of knowledge from an expert to a novice. Using various tools, techniques, and skills, the trained classroom teacher delivers “neutral” content, and the student is expected to master these facts. Public schools, private Christian schools, and even some Sunday Schools typically follow this educational paradigm which assumes that knowledge is simply a vast ocean of objective data which needs to be acquired by the student like the commercial fisherman catches a net full of fish. Consider three commonly accepted “neutral” fact families:
multiplication tables
punctuation rules
chemical elements
Students are taught unrelated facts by cool, clinical technicians as if they had no interrelated deeper meaning or greater purpose than to be regurgitated on a test at the end of the semester. However, Christians know that knowledge is not neutral, and all data can be interpreted in light of God’s nature. Suddenly, multiplication tables have profound meaning as the careful observer sees the concept at work in the multiplication of plant and animal cells. Punctuation rules become significant for clear and effective communication and exposition of truth. The Periodic Table takes on new meaning as the student discovers the differing atomic weights and chemical properties of the elements. In short, observations about our world become opportunities to express decidedly passionate responses as we stand in awe of the greatness and infinite goodness of the Living God!
So what is a Christian home education? If you break down the term to its simplest interpretation, Christian home education would be “learning about Christ at home.” In fact, Proverbs 1:7 says that:
“the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
According to this verse, we cannot even begin to acquire knowledge without first fearing , or respecting, the LORD from whom all truth originates. Instruction in truth comes from a relationship with the LORD.
Jesus didn’t send his disciples off to a trained technician who would teach them unrelated data from textbooks in a classroom with their peers. His educational system was rooted in a lifestyle of 24/7 community. He lived with his students. Where ever they were together was home. He taught and they imitated. Learning was not just about repetition of unrelated facts but about behavior and action. He didn’t artificially separate knowledge into categories or stand-alone subjects. Torah was His primary text. Loving God and loving neighbor was something they did…not just something they thought or read about. Interestingly, knowledge as Jesus gave it was certainly not objective - He was not in the least interested in transferring neutral data about life. His teaching was profoundly subjective, life-changing knowledge that created outrageous loyalty and love for God and men.
So what’s the first thing YOU need to do in order to give your kids a Christian education? You need to get to know Jesus personally. Spend time with Him, and let Him instruct you in His character, His passions, and His purposes. The better you know Him…the better disciple you will be; your relationship and knowledge of Him will directly impact the education of your children. You want to raise little image-bearers who reflect His glory everywhere they go and through everything they do. At the end of the home schooling journey, the Lord will not judge you on how much book knowledge you were able to impart to the kids. He’s concerned about how much your kids learned about Him through the home education they received.
Make time in your day to spend quiet time being discipled by your Lord; your own personal “Christian education” is crucial to the successful home education of your children. Don’t be a fool and despise His instruction. He wants to spend time with you today!
Just give me Jesus,
Diane
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If these posts are valuable to you, tell a friend about this blog. We all need encouragement in this home schooling endeavor, and you can actively show your love by sending the link to this post about Christian education.
Have you ever started your homeschooling day with a plan only to find yourself chasing a rabbit? I recently heard a well-respected authority say that all knowledge was related, and after following a link for learning a foreign language this morning, I landed on a blog which featured this beautiful video about Bosnia Herzegovina. I’m sure the author of the blog only intended to promote her beautiful country, but I ended up pondering other ideas related to Christianity and classical education. Today I’ll show you how to take seemingly unrelated trivia and incorporate it into your classical education. Enjoy the video then continue reading…
Trivia
Bosnia Herzegovina is located in southern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula directly east of Italy. Previously part of Yugoslavia, Bosnia Herzegovina is home to Sarajevo, host city of the 1984 Winter Olympics. During the struggle for independence in 1992-1995, the people of this country experienced war in their homeland. According to Operation World, 1.3 million citizens fled their homes, and after the war only about 1/4 of them returned to the country to build new homes and start again.
Although the war officially ended in 1995, NATO maintained a stabilization force there until December 2005. The video clip portrays a countryside of beauty and tranquility, and the people appear to be at peace, but there are ongoing ethnic and religious tensions. During the 500 year Turkish occupation, many Bosnians became Muslim (38-50% of the population), and during the ’90’s, the Croats created an alliance with the Bosnians against the Christian Serbians (35% in a 50/50 split: Catholic/Orthodox.)
You may recall seeing news reports during the ’90s about ethnic cleansing, looting, destruction, and death under Serbian Milosovic’s reign of terror. Such horror has “left deep scars and abiding hatred between communities that once lived together, spoke the same language, and even intermarried.” (Operation World p.116) The Bosnian language is based on the Latin alphabet although the Cyrillic alphabet is used occasionally.
Observation
So how can you apply seemingly unrelated facts or news events to your classical home school? One of the hallmarks of a classical education is inductive reasoning which involves 3 steps: (1) observe, (2) interpret, and (3) apply. In this particular situation, I have observed (step 1) something in my world (the enticing video) which caused me to want to learn more. My first reaction was a desire to visit Bosnia Herzegovina; then I wanted to learn more about the people of the country so I did a little more research.
Interpretation
Next, I quickly catalogued my new knowledge so that I could interpret (step 2) what I had learned. What did I learn? I discovered that Bosnia Herzegovina has recently experienced war; in fact, my peers there were fleeing their homes and losing loved ones while I was adding to my family and creating a safe home for my newborns! I learned that there are more Muslims than Christians in the country, and that Protestant Christians are nearly nonexistent. I learned that these people have a long history…they were around when the Turks dominated the world during the Crusades. What is the meaning of this information that I have gathered.
Application
Finally, I apply (step 3) what I have learned to our own home school situation. Application will be unique for each family, but here are five ideas I might use in my family.
1. Currently, my teenage son is studying the American Civil War, so I could relate the Bosnian Reconstruction to the American Reconstruction period of the 1860s-70s as homes were rebuilt and ethnic divisions were examined with a view towards healing.
2. I could take a thematic approach to application by talking about grief and forgiveness. We’re studying I Kings at table in the mornings, so I could relate the Bosnian situation to family divisions in ancient Israel during David and Solomon’s reigns.
3. We could discuss what it would be like here in America if conditions allowed a foreign religion to evangelize mass numbers of citizens like the Muslim conversions that occurred during the Ottoman occupation of the Middle Ages.
4. Right now, the kids are immersed in this year’s policy debate resolution on illegal immigration, so we could talk about the refugee situation in Bosnia and how it relates to immigrants like the Somalians or Liberians seeking asylum in the U.S.
5. Or I could go back to that original rabbit trail and relate the Bosnian language to the Latin language!
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So, keep your eyes, ears, and heart open when you follow rabbit trails and come across seemingly unimportant information…the possibilities for meaningful discussion in your classical home school are endless!
In our classical Christian home school, Scripture takes priority over all other subjects or activities. Why is that? Are we “Bible-thumpers” who learn Scripture so that they can correct others? No, we want to drink deeply of Scripture because we find that the Lord regularly reveals His character through His Word, and we want to know Him better! We also find that He uses regular time in His Word to transform our minds and hearts so that we look and act more like Jesus.
The Protestant Reformers knew this truth, and if you’ve ever heard the Latin term “sola Scriptura” which means “by Scripture alone,” you are probably familiar with the assertions that (1) the Bible authenticates and interprets itself, (2) the Bible is clear to the average reader, and (3) the Bible is sufficient to be the final authority for Christian doctrine. You may recall that the Protestant Reformers were pushing against the idea that experts (ordained clergy) were necessary to reveal and interpret God’s Word; they also opposed the idea that man’s traditions could determine doctrine.
Anyway, in our home school, Scripture takes priority in our list of 7 essential elements, and we consider it central to all learning. God’s Word is the lens through which we see the Lord, ourselves, and the world. Thankfully, David takes his responsibility from Deuteronomy 6 seriously and joyfully. He would never delegate this privilege to another. There is nothing my husband enjoys more than being in the Word! Every morning before the kids do any other homeschooling assignments, we gather around kitchen table and read the Word together over breakfast. We take turns selecting the book we read, and everyone is expected to read out loud. David doesn’t tell us what the text means; rather, he asks leading questions so that we come to understanding in community, and it’s amazing how the Lord does give us fresh insights that we may not have had if reading alone. We cherish our daily time together at table in the Word, and it keeps us all on the same path. It also shapes our worldview so that when we encounter ideas in our classical education we can evaluate them for truth and meaning.
Additionally, when the kids were around 12 years old, we felt it was time to introduce them to their own private quiet time with the Lord. They each retired their precious picture Bible to the closet and received a “real grownup” Bible. We shepherded them in making time with their Lord the first priority of their morning so that when they came to table, they were already in conversation with Him. The format for quiet time is flexible: we encourage reading of Scripture, prayer, journaling, taking a solo walk, or just getting away to a quiet spot for retreat time. The important condition is allowing your spirit to grow still so you can listen to His Spirit speak.
If your husband is not already leading the family in daily Scripture time, I’d encourage you to begin praying that the Lord would whisper His will to your husband. Don’t nag him about it…wait on the Lord to convict and provide the desire to guide your children (and you) in understanding and applying the Word. I’ll be writing more posts in the future about Scripture since it is such a critical component of our home schooling. Look for the next post on our belief that both Mom and Dad need to be involved to provide the richest classical Christian home education experience!
, 1.3 million citizens fled their homes, and after the war only about 1/4 of them returned to the country to build new homes and start again.