(A.K.A. How to Leave the ICHE Convention With Hope and Glory)
I remember vividly walking out of the front door of Calvary Church in Naperville after our first ICHE Convention back at the turn of the millennium. We didn’t simply drink from a fire hose that weekend, for that would have been a thrilling memory to share with our children when we arrived home and soon after forgotten. Instead, God absolutely turned our world upside down by enlightening our eyes to a brand new way of parenting through the biblical concept of discipleship. Like Saul after his Damascus experience and Ananias’ subsequent prayer for sight, the secularized scales that had covered our eyes for the first six years of our parental life had fallen off. We experienced our first peek into the Divine keyhole of our future. It was overwhelming, humbling, invigorating, and challenging. Fortunately for my wife and me, we had a five-hour car ride home. This time was a precious gift from God that allowed us to draw a breath, compare notes, decompress, share personal thoughts, and make modest plans to address numerous unbiblical paradigms and patterns in our home.
I believe this type of transparency is important for people who attend the ICHE Annual Convention in order to prepare them—especially first time attendees—for what is coming their way. We have brought friends with us over the years that merged from the conference with the deer in the headlight look, even though we shared our testimony with them in preparation. Some were so convicted and overwhelmed by what they saw and heard, they never went back again. Us? We’ve only missed two times in over twenty years. Here’s why.
Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” When God enlightened our eyes to how secularized we were in our approach to raising our children, we realized this chastening was a sign that we indeed were His children. What a blessed thought! He loved us so much that He was willing to show us how errant we were in a tender, loving, non-embarrassing way. He took time out of His busy, timeless schedule to give us a private tutoring session. Let me ask you, is this the way you see the corrective hand of God in your life?
Those whom God loves He corrects. Let that sink down into your soul for a moment. Ponder its implications. If we never sense the chastening rod of God in our lives, we need to ask ourselves if we are truly His!
I want you to be filled to the brim at this year’s family conference. One thing you can do to see this accomplished is every time God reveals an area you are deficient in, give Him a quiet word of praise for His unfailing love to you. It is a kiss from God. You can even have a hidden sign between you and your spouse, perhaps a wink, as you sit in session together listening to those who have walked the path before you and who too learned to embrace the loving correction of our Lord. Do not give any room for condemnation. How dare the devil try to take something good from God and taint it with his darkened touch!
I also encourage you to schedule a dinner together after the last session so you too can have time to share with all your family members that come, whether that be a spouse, a parent, or children. Listen to how God dealt with them at their various sessions. Give Him praise for His faithfulness as a family. In light of these insights, ask each other what tweaks—or transformations—need to take place in the home.
For my final thought, please make way for the old coach in me to come out. If a basketball team is significantly behind at half time, the worst thing players can do is to start the second half by launching three pointers in order to catch up quickly. Instead, they should seek to get into a rhythm that allows them to slowly pick away at the deficit, often going back to the fundamentals. The tendency to feel pressed by the clock and try turn things around quickly. That is not God’s modus operandi. Though the devil will whisper otherwise, there is plenty of time left on your family clock.
Start by writing down a few things you feel you want to see happen in your home. For instance, I always encourage parents to start with committing to a fifteen-minute devotion every morning. This is especially impactful if Dad can lead. It doesn’t have to be a deep, theologically rich sermon but a biblical to meditate on throughout the day. If there is an action point of some kind, even better. Proverbs is a good place to start.
Success in the home is a result of the grace of God painted on the canvas of our everyday efforts in life. It is not the big things from this convention that will turn your home upside down but those small, seemingly insignificant activities that, when infused with time, will change destinies.
I hope to see you at the convention this year. Additionally, I encourage you to go out and invite three to four other homeschoolers in your scope of influence, especially those who have never gone before. If all of our worlds are turned on end, we may produce a generation of children who will turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ.
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