Are We Too Late to Start Plodding?

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. –Proverbs 21:5 (ESV)

Over the past several years I have been blessed by the number of young parents who were attending our homeschool conference for the first time. When I asked them how old their oldest child was, some replied with an embarrassed grin that he/she was only three. They added, “I know we are a few years away, but we wanted to get off on the right foot.” While I commended them for having such foresight, the reality is, they started discipling the moment their baby came home for the hospital! My advice to the newly married is to attend a conference before they even have children in order to set a biblical trajectory for their home from the outset. This is especially true in today’s spiritual, political, and cultural climate. I’m sure many of our veterans would say, “Amen!” to this encouragement. Few of us realize how much we don’t know, and by the time we do see it, so much water has already gone downstream, never to be seen again.

We can never start preparing too early to disciple our children. Gratefully, we are having more and more second-generation homeschoolers. One thing they need to understand, however, is that it is one thing to be homeschooled but another thing altogether to actually be the one doing the homeschooling. After eleven children and well over twenty years under our belts, my wife and I are still learning things we could have done better if we had been instructed.

Other fathers and mothers are starting to homeschool midstream, when their children are in jr. high or high school. They wonder, “Are we too late to disciple our children?” I respond, “In God’s economy, it is NEVER too late!” As they old sports adage goes, “There is more time on the clock than you think.” There are some unique challenges in starting to homeschool older children, but this should simply motivate us to be intentional with what time we have left.

While steady plodding obviously includes the longevity of time, it also connotes the consistency of the time we have. In other words, if we don’t have much time to plod, we need to be hyper focused on being steady. Consistency over the short haul can still communicate a powerful message to our children, regarding our changing values and priorities. If we bring our children home in their teen years, I believe it is important to include them in the process and discussion, letting them take us to where we want to go. This means we should demonstrate patience and understanding. We can ask them what the scripture says about outsourcing the training of our children to a secular institution that refuses to invoke the name of God. Hopefully, the answer will make the decision pretty obvious—to parent and to child alike. When we discuss the type of language and content that is among their peers—even good peers—most will confess it is not biblically edifying. If they get onboard—even seventy-five percent—our job will be much easier and more impactful. Of course, we want to pray that God’s grace permeates their heart for this change. God is more than willing to go before us if we ask Him.

In this month’s prayer and fast time, we want to pray for God to help us to make the most of the opportunities and time we have with our children. We also want to pray that we will be faithful over the long haul. Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart. It takes stout-hearted women and visionary men to see the task to its end when we release our children to do the very same thing with their children. This is not about employing cute remedies but about it is about appropriating the grace of God and His anointing to speak into the lives of our children in significant ways. The more time we have with them the better; still, a little with God’s blessing is worth more than a lot without it.

Please join us on the second Tuesday of the month as we pray for:

1. Pray for increased vision, conviction, and energy to homeschool our children to the end of their schooling career. (each of these build upon the previous one)
   • Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. –Deut. 34:7 (pray that our spiritual eye and energy will not be abated)
   • And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. ¹¹ I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. –Joshua 14:10,11
     
2. Pray that we will experience avenues of encouragement that will help see us through the varying seasons of homeschool life, especially between the now and not yet.
   • For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. –Romans 15:4
   • that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. –Romans 1:12
     
3. Pray that our vision for diligence will begin in our own spiritual walk and then spill out onto our children. Being an example is so much more effective than nagging.
   • but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, –1 Peter 1:15
   • “My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. –Acts 26:4
     
4. Pray that we will have the strength of character to say no to cultural and religious short-cuts but will instead be willing to pay the price day in and day out to raise our children.
   • take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? —that I also may do the same.’ –Deut. 12:30
   • You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. –Psalms 119:4
     
5. Pray that as we seek God’s ways, we will experience God’s grace.
   • “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. –Deut. 28:1
   • if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. –Job 8:6
     
6. Pray for young homeschooling parents to understand the life-changing difference between merely homeschooling and home discipleship, and that this vision will be communicated to their children in an meaningful ways.
   • Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. –Proverbs 22:6
   • “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children –Deut. 4:9
     
7. Pray that our seasons of weakness and weariness will drive us to the cross of Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit.
   • But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. –2 Cor. 12:9
   • If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. –2 Cor. 11:30
     
8. Pray that we parents will give a steady and consistent witness for the gospel and be willing to confess when we do not.
   • Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. –Psalms 119:133
   • For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, –Psalms 56:13
   • Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. –James 5:16
     
9. Pray that God will empower us to stay faithful over the small things in our homes over a long period of time.
   • His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ –Matthew 25:21
   1. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. –2 Thes. 3:3
      
10. Pray for parents who feel they got a late start. Ask God to multiply the time they have remaining.
    • The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied and years will be added to your life. –Proverbs 9:10,11
    • making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. –Eph. 5:16
    • Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. –Ecc. 9:11