For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; –Ecc. 3:1,2 (ESV)
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility follows three Dashwood sisters as they navigate life through a series of unexpected happenings, laced with both devastating disappointments and unexpected love. Their roller coaster of unanticipated events reminds us how quickly things change throughout life.
One of the greatest parental temptations is to think we will discover some type of magic discipleship interstate where we can hit the cruise button and leisurely drive along the straight and flat trajectory of homeschooling life into the future of multi-generational bliss. Many are caught off guard by unexpected turns in the roads, going from mountain peak experiences of joy to valleys of near despair. It usually takes new homeschoolers about a week to realize the beautiful and serene curricula advertisement seldom mirror real life in the trenches. Obviously, seeing a mother in tears as her children run wildly in the background doesn’t sell well in the marketplace.
We must understand that there is no finely tuned balance of homeschooling life where we can set up camp and ride it out until our children graduate and marry. Why? Life is dynamic. Not only do seasons change but our children—not to mention we parents—change within the seasons themselves. Solomon caught the spirit of this in Ecclesiastes 3 when he reels off over a dozen seasonal changes in only a few verses. Much of parental success depend much on how well we navigate these changing seasons and the various tensions they produce as well as helping our children to do the same.
Do we show the same amount of gratitude in seasons of mourning as we do in seasons of dancing? Similarly, are we as grateful in planting season—where it is all work with no reward—as we are in harvest when we get to experience the fruit of our labors through God’s blessing? Ecclesiastes 7:14 says the God makes the one as well as the other. While we shake our heads in rhetoric agreement, is that what we portray when the change in winds occur?
We must remember that most of life is caught not taught, and, as we learn to navigate the fickle winds of cultural change gracefully, God will be glorified, and our sons and daughters edified. It is a powerful testimony when they observe Dad and Mom turning to God during seasons of difficulty. Mental pictures of a father calling the family together for a time of prayer during a tough season will linger far longer in our children’s memories than a rote devotional about God.
Teaching our children that everything goes through seasonal flux and equipping them to steer though those varying seasons will serve them well throughout life. It is one thing to accept this inevitability, but it is another thing to truly embrace it. When our children have a heart for the latter, they will show sensibility in changing seasons.
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