The heart of Whole Heart Ministries is our books and resources. We are excited about the possibilities for expanding our publishing into new areas, moving into ebook and digital book publishing, and beginning to use Print On Demand (POD) to offer more titles than ever before.

A motherhood ministry training event hosted by Sally Clarkson.

MHLIT Cost: $400.00
Online Registration: Currently on hold while we process the initial applications.
Information: Contact Whole Heart by email (re: MHLIT Inquiry), or call 888-488-4466

Application Request:

Please send me a MHLIT Leader Application

May 5, 2010: You may still request and submit an application, but it will be placed on a waiting list at this time. We currently have received more applications than we can process for the limited enrollment of 35 mothers, and are in the process of securing registrations in the order the applications were received. If you are in that initial group, you will receive an email from us soon instructing you how to pay if you would like to attend the Intensive. We appreciate your patience as we work our way through this process.
 

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS…

 First, what is Mom Heart Ministry?

Mom Heart Ministry is a small groups movement of Christian mothers who are committed together to cultural CPR—Celebration, Preservation and Restoration of God’s biblical design for motherhood. The vision of Mom Heart Ministry is to mobilize this generation of Christian mothers to return to God’s biblical design for motherhood, and to influence their children to be faithful followers and servants of Christ. To realize that vision, especially for a new ministry, we need to identify and train a team of mothers who will be leaders alongside us to reach mothers not only nationally, but internationally, with our biblical messages for CPR for motherhood. That is what this MHLTI is about.

What is Mom Heart Leader Intensive Training?

 Mom Heart Ministry will provide three kinds of training events for mothers, both on-site and online: 1) MH Leader Basic Training will train any mother how to start, lead, and multiply a Mom Heart small group in her church or community; 2) MH Leader Advanced Training will provide resources for church leaders to create and manage a church-based small groups ministry to mothers; and 3) MH Leader Intensive Training, this event, will encourage, equip, and enable mothers to become leaders who will speak, write, and blog about biblical motherhood. Although we need qualified speakers and writers, we are not looking only for those with “professional” skills for this training, but for spiritually mature women who have a heart for ministry, a commitment to biblical motherhood, and a willingness to be used by God “for such a time as this.” This MHLIT is not a “retreat” where you get away to find fellowship and refreshment; it is an “advance” where you get together to follow a call to and formulate a plan for strategic ministry. If God is convicting your heart about ministering to moms, MHLIT may be where you need to be.

What kind of training will I receive at the MHLIT?

 Mom Heart Leader Intensive Training is just what is says it is–a time of intense training to equip women for ministry to mothers. In addition to biblical, inspirational, and motivational training, you will receive personal, practical training in ministry-centered speaking, writing, and blogging for mothers. In addition to Sally, Clay, and Sarah Clarkson, a carefully selected team of individuals with professional and personal experience and expertise in ministry and communication skills will offer hands-on training and coaching as you practice your own speaking and writing skills with the group and receive helpful feedback. The training will be intense and focused, guiding you through a process of defining your personal ministry strengths, skills, and goals. The ultimate purpose of MHLIT is to equip you for personal ministry to mothers in this generation, and to have a leadership ministry of influence as a speaker or writer.

What will I be able to do after attending the MHLTI?

 The purpose of MHLIT is to equip you for an expanded ministry to mothers, especially in the areas of spoken and written communications. You will leave with a plan in hand for beginning to move toward that goal. This training is also the first step to becoming a “Certified” Mom Heart Leader, formally recognized as qualified to represent Mom Heart Ministry as a leader in teaching, writing, or blogging. Certification will include the ability to schedule and present Mom Heart Mominars, both for ministry and as a home-based income opportunity, as well as submit articles for the Mom Heart Blog, future publications (Mom-e-Zine), and other writing venues. However, certification is a separate process that will be explained at the MHLIT, but is not part of this training event. Attending MHLIT does not provide Certification.

What will the schedule be like for the MHLIT?

 Although any daily schedule is subject to change, we anticipate the following schedule (breakfasts are provided by the hotel):

• Thursday/Friday evenings: Sally’s house for dinner and training.
• Friday/Saturday daytimes: Deb Weakly’s house for lunch and training.
• Saturday evening: (tentative) Local church for catered dinner, training, and worship.

How many mothers will attend the MHLIT?

 Registration will be limited to no more than thirty (35) participants. The intensity of the training, the amount of personal interaction that will be required, the challenge of managing the schedule (transportation, meals, speakers), and the restrictions of the home setting naturally limit the number of participants. The Mom Heart Leader Executive Team will prayerfully review each application, and make recommendations.  If your application is accepted, you will be contacted with further instructions about how to register and what to expect. If your application is not among the thirty accepted for this first MHLIT, you will be able to renew your application for a future MHLIT.

What is the cost for the MHLIT?

The tuition for this Mom Heart Leader Intensive Training is $400.00. This fee covers all training and materials, all meals, your hotel for three nights, and all transportation within Colorado (some restrictions may apply on airport transportation). You are responsible for your roundtrip airfare to Colorado. For those who submit a completed Leader Application and are approved for Mom Heart Leader Training, you also have the option to raise funds for the training through friends and family for tuition, transportation, and expenses. We would provide an acceptance letter and other materials to assist you in raising the funds. Whole Heart Ministries is a 501c3 tax-exempt organization, and donations made on your behalf would be tax deductible by the donor (a 15% administrative fee would apply to each donation; funds are donated to Whole Heart Ministries; donations in excess of individual needs are not returnable).

What is the application like for the MHLIT?

The MHLTI application is extensive enough to enable us to get to know you, your heart, and your ministry potential, and yet hopefully not so extensive that it will be burdensome. We know you are a mom, and extra time in your day is probably hard to come by for filling out an application. However, because this is a limited enrollment event, and it involves intense personal training, we have to ask enough questions to help us make sure we invite the women God wants to be here. Here is a summary of the application (“Short” answers are up to 300 words; “Longer” answers are up to 400 words):

• Personal Information: Basic fill-in information about yourself, your family, your education, and any relevant vocation/work experience.
• Church Experience: Check boxes to locate yourself within Christianity; short answers (3) on church ministry, your gifts, and your testimony.
• Personal Profile: Short answers (4) about Whole Heart, the Clarksons, training, and talents; information about books read and social networks.
• Skills and Interests: Short answers (4) on any speaking and writing experience, your ministry vision, and MHLTI and MH ministry expectations.
• Beliefs and Convictions: Longer answers (4) on your views on marriage and family, motherhood, childhood education, and childhood discipline.
• Personal Comments: An optional longer answer section to add any personal thoughts and comments not covered by the application.

I want to attend the MHLIT, so what do I do next?

Request either an MHLIT Leader Application or a MHLIT Attender Form. Upon receiving your email, we will send you via email the Leader Application or Attender Form (a Word.doc file). To register online beginning April 30 you must return your completed Leader Application to us no later than that day. To register online beginning May 7 you must return a completed Attender Form within 7 days of registration.

For all of you who requested… here ’tis! And for all of you who didn’t, well, have fun anyway. You can never know about too many good books now can you? I began this list for the talks I did at the WHM conferences this year. I tend to talk too quickly in my speeches for people to write everything down, so here is the list in its completed glory:

Picture Books

1. When I Was Young In the Mountains (Cynthia Rylant)
2. When the Relatives Came (Cynthia Rylant)
3. Bunny Bungalow (Cynthia Rylant)
4. Miss Rumphius (Barbara Cooney)
5. Roxaboxen (Barbara Cooney)
6. Only Opal (Barbara Cooney)
7. The Brambly Hedge Series (Jill Barklem)
8. The Boy Who Held Back the Sea (Thomas Locker)
9. The Young Artist (Thomas Locker)
10. Fritz and the Beautiful Horses (Jan Brett)
11. The Bear Who Heard Crying (Natalie Kinsey Warnock)
12. All the Places to Love (Patricia MacLachlan)
13. A Song for Lena (Hilary Horder Hippely)
14. Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)
15. Make Way For the Ducklings (Robert McCloskey)

Children’s Classics

1. Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie)
2. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)
3. The Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
4. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
5. The Tales of Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)
6. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter)
7. The Anne Series (L.M. Montgomery)
8. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
9. Little Men (Louisa May Alcott)
10. Kidnapped (Robert Louis Stevenson)
11. Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
12. The Water Babies (Charles Kingsley)
13. The Railway Children (E. Nesbit)
14. The Treasure Seekers (E. Nesbit)
15. Heidi (Johanna Spyri)

Children’s Fiction

1. The Little Britches Series (Ralph Moody)
2. All of A Kind Family (Sydney Taylor)
3. Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
4. The Winter Cottage (Carol Ryrie Brink)
5. Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes)
6. The Good Master (Kate Seredy)
7. Carry On Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham)
8. Ellen (E.M. Almedingen)
9. Across Five Aprils (Irene Hunt)
10. I, Juan de Pareja (Elizabeth Borton de Trevino)
11. The Journeyman (Elizabeth Yates)
12. Escape from Warsaw (Julian Padowicz)
13. The Trumpeter of Krakow (Eric Kelly)
14. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken)
15. Because of Winn Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)

Fairy Tale/Fantasy

1. The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
2. The Princess and the Goblins (George MacDonald)
3. The Princess and the Curdie (George MacDonald)
4. At the Back of the North Wind (George MacDonald)
5. The Light Princess (George MacDonald)
6. The Lost Princess (George MacDonald)
7. Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
8. The Redwall Series (Brian Jacques)
9. Dangerous Journey (John Bunyan)

One of the highlights of my year was seeing Sarah, my first child, graduate this past spring. With close friends and family gathered in our living room to celebrate and share in the occasion, Sarah displayed some of the unique qualities and skills God has graciously built into her life. She played several of her favorite piano pieces, read a chapter of a book she is writing, discussed some of the more influential authors and books in her life, gave a short talk about what God had been teaching her, and shared what she hoped to do with the rest of her life. Of course, I was so proud and blessed to see what a lovely young woman my daughter was becoming.

But the highlight for me was not that her education had been “completed.” Rather, it was knowing that her life had really just begun, and that God had used me to give her His life. She graduated not just from our home school, but into her own life and walk with God. By God’s grace, and in spite of the academic holes I have left in her education, she seems “well equipped for every good work.” God called me to the higher goal of giving Sarah life, not just giving her an education, and it pleases me greatly that I see not only her sharp mind, but her growing heart full of life and love for God.

Since that special graduation weekend, I have reflected often on what it means to be a life-giving mother. By God’s design, I have the unique privilege of giving the “life” that I have been given by God, to the children that God has given life to by me. God has called me to partner with Him in the spirit of the first mother, Eve, whom Adam called “the mother of all the living.” I am called by my loving God to give life to my children’s relationships so they will love as He loved. I am called by my sovereign God to give life to their spirits as they learn about God, His word, and His greatness and purpose for our lives. I am called by my wise God to give life to their minds, that they might think clearly and draw from a deep well of knowledge and understanding. I am called by my true God to give life to their appetites, values, traditions, and work habits. I am called by my powerful God to give life to their own visions for how God might use them in His kingdom work, and even how He might use them to shape history by building in their homes another generation of godly children. I am called by the living God to give life to my children.

Being a life-giving mother truly encompasses all that is about me and stretches all that is within me. It uses all of my gifts. It pushes me to depend on God for unanswerable questions. It expands my ability to be unselfish. It requires the best I have to give in every area. But it blesses me with showers of undeserved and generous love given by my children, and fills me with a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

As I traveled throughout the U.S. this past year, I was struck with how tired and weary and discouraged many of the home schooling mothers were. Indeed, this task of nurturing, discipling and educating my children at home is more demanding than I ever could have imagined. Yet, I know it is God’s best for my family. I have such a renewed desire to refresh and encourage these precious mothers to help them understand how strategic every day of their work at home is. They are building for the next generation a righteous leadership whose hearts are devoted to God. If children are not trained and loved and nurtured and protected in their own homes, by their very own parents, then who is there to give them the life they so long for in their hearts, that we as mothers are designed by God to give? No one else can do for them what God designed you to do.

I believe we all, as home schooling moms, need the constant renewing of our vision for being life-giving mothers for our children. That is what will sustain us through the difficult times so that we are able finish the race God has laid before us. And not just finish by falling over the line in exhaustion, but by finishing confident and strong! I want to cross that line, hear the cheers, and then listen to the great stories in heaven of countless children whose lives were shaped by faithful, life-giving moms who gave their lives for their children. I want to hear your story, and rejoice with you to see the fruit of life given to your children.

Practical Home Schooling Issue #39

Let’s talk personalities for a minute. You’ve probably noticed each of your children has one. And if your family is anything like ours, you’ve probably noticed there is a wide variety of personality in your children. One boy is building forts on the hill, one is building websites in the den, and one is building castles in his mind. One girl is playing mommy in her bedroom, one is playing Juliet through the banister rails, and one is playing Olympic archer in the backyard. If all our children had the same personality, child-raising would be easy. But God doesn’t want it to be easy: He wants it to be fun!

We’ve studied personality type for many years around our house. We all speak the language of one particular personality theory (MBTI) which has helped us, adults and children alike, understand and appreciate our God-designed differences. What I want you to see in this short column, though, is one small aspect of personality that can really help you find the fun that God wants you to have in child-raising. I can guarantee your children will remember it for the rest of their lives!

These are my own personality labels (no psycho-techie talk), but let’s just say there are two kinds of people in the world; those who are “time” oriented, and those who are “experience” oriented. Those who orient to life based on time need predictability and order. They don’t like surprises. Those who orient to life based on experience love surprises. They need to live with their options open.

My experience has been that most us as active, in-control home schooling parents feel the need to try to live an orderly, scheduled life. The pressure to get the school work completed, to go to lessons and classes, to keep the house straight, to get the chores done, and to fit a little recreation in there, too, drives us to live with a “time” orientation. Even if, as parents, we are “experience” oriented, life forces us, and our children, into the time mode.

Here’s the problem. Younger children (14 and under) need a healthy dose of both kinds of orientation in order to help them differentiate what will become their own personality. They may exhibit signs of one or the other, but it takes both time and experience before they will decide as they come into young adulthood what they really are. But the problem is that they get a lot of emphasis on orienting to “time” in a home school, but not nearly enough emphasis on orienting to “experience.” All year long you’re “tying up loose ends,” which is a time orientation. But you need to balance that with a liberal dose of “loosening up tied ends.” You need to just experience life, not always control it.

And that’s where summer comes in! It’s the time to really flex those unused personality muscles of experience for the benefit of your children. If you are naturally experience oriented, it’ll be easy and you’ll love it. If you’re naturally time oriented, it won’t be as easy, and in fact it might be uncomfortable for you, but you’ll love it even so. Here are a few suggestions for giving your children a summer of learning to orient to experience.

GO AND STOP DAY

Pile everyone into the car (or the home school bus) and just take out on the roads around your town. Whenever someone says, “Stop! I want to see that,” you stop and experience that thing. Then you get back in the car and GO until there is another STOP. No preplanning or itinerary allowed.

FLASHLIGHT TAG

Buy everyone a good flashlight and play flashlight tag some evening. Make up your own rules. Hiding behind bushes in the dark was a memorable experience for our kids (we paired younger children with older).

KIDS RULE DAY

No, this is not kids “rebel” day, but just a day when you let your children set the agenda. Sit down in the morning and let them decide what the family will do, eat, talk about, and such. You’re still in authority, but they’re in control.

LARK & WHIM DAY

“Is there anything you’ve ever wanted to do but just didn’t feel you could?” Ask that question and see if it leads to a spontaneous experience. Let your imagination go and see where it leads.

MOVIE MARATHON

If you’re house is like ours, watching a movie is a “big deal.” A movie marathon would be totally out of character. But it would make a great memory. So get several of the best family movies, spread out the bedrolls, pop the corn, pour the soft drinks, and tube out. Your kids will think you’re great.

GO FOR IT!

We analyze everything to death around our house. Analysis-paralysis has kept us from boldly going where we’ve never gone before more than once. So, this summer, we’ll talk about doing something outside our comfort zone that will open up new experiences; climbing a mountain, meeting someone famous, making a CD.

If you need permission to step outside the boundaries of your time-oriented life to explore some experiences, then go ahead; it’s okay. Trying to keep all your loose ends tied up eventually just ties you up in knots. And your children get all knotted up in the process. So, for their sakes, use this summer to loosen up some of those tied ends. Your children will be more balanced because of it, and you’ll have more fun as a parent…just what God intended. You can’t lose when you start to loose.

Practical Home Schooling Issue #41

Were it in my power to name this generation, I would lean toward something like “The Age of Acceleration.” Compare any area of life now to what life was like 40 years ago. It is hard to find deceleration anywhere. Media, sports, churches, movies, shops, restaurants, books, cars, you name it every major area of our culture has accelerated, and we’re all trying to keep up.

And, yes, even home schooling is succumbing to the spirit of the age. After 20 years of slow and steady growth, fueled mostly by families choosing to home school out of spiritual conviction, it is rapidly becoming an “industry” and a “market” accelerating up the growth curve fueled by families looking for an educational and social fix. The predominant, emerging educational model seems based on the presumption that it is easier to prove that your children do a lot to learn, than it is to prove that they learn a lot from what they do. (Read that again, I think it might be profound.)

In that environment, we will all, regardless of the educational model we follow, at some time begin to feel under pressure to over commit. You’ll know it when you feel obliged to pour out a litany of tasks, goals, activities and events when your neighbor asks, “What is it you really do all day?” You’ll find yourself doing a little bit more, taking a few more lessons, scheduling more classes in the support group co-op, getting involved in one more sport activity (just one?), doing more at church, volunteering for more ministry. It’s the nature of the age, sure, but that’s just the easy explanation. The hard part is realizing that it is what happens when we lose sight of what our lives are really about from God’s perspective.

God did not design us to be Energizer bunnies who just keep going and going and going until one day the battery runs dry. Sally and I have been encouraged this year to go in a different direction, energized by Paul’s simple admonition to the Thessalonian church. He told them to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands.” He was telling them to slow down, to avoid getting caught up in the culture around them, and to be different. He goes on to say that it will be a part of their testimony for Christ. Burned-out, busy Christian families are not a good testimony of God’s grace and peace.

With a busy home schooling household, an expanding ministry to Christian parents, a stopping-point house for friends and family passing through Colorado, and a new church just started and growing, it feels like the throttle of our life is glued to the floor right now. If we don’t learn to decelerate like the Thessalonians, we’ll either run out of gas, or crash and burn. That is why we are “making it our ambition” this year to do whatever we need to do as a family to find the “quiet life” that Paul envisioned. After all, how can we “be still and know that I am God” if we are always moving?

There is no formula for getting to the “quiet life” just walking in the Spirit and keeping the goal in view. However, there are some familiar principles and proverbs we try to keep in mind that might help you put the brakes on life if you are beginning to feel the acceleration of culture in your family.

“Redeem the time.” You cannot “save” one second of time; you can only redeem it. I am surgically attached to my Day-Timer, and yet I know that over-emphasis on time management can become a bondage. Every minute of your day is already in slavery to the world until you make a conscious decision to “redeem” it, to buy it out of slavery and set it free for God’s use. Trying to save or manage unredeemed time only leads me into slavery to it. I fall back often on a proverb that expresses the human-divine nature of our relationship with time: “The mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.”

“Number my days.” We are constantly stepping back from the daily immersion in the details of living to look at the bigger picture of life. Sally once had a dream in which God took her far up into space until the earth was just a ball, and He showed her how trivial many of her worries and concerns were in relation to eternity with Him. When we stop to consider how very few are the days we have on earth to build for an eternity with God, we are always motivated to use them more wisely. However, numbering our days does not come naturally. It is a practice that God needs to “teach us” because we won’t learn it from the culture or from life.

“This one thing I do.” Paul had a single purpose of mind. Through much practice, we are learning to limit our priorities in life, and trying to focus on the few things that are the most important. It was life-changing for us as parents to realize that it is not our responsibility to make our children “happy” by making sure they do everything the world says they are entitled to do as children. Rather, it is our responsibility to make them “mature” by focusing on godly priorities. That one realization helps us focus our family commitments on what God says is most important, not the world.

If you think about it, home schooling is one of the few areas in our culture that, by its nature, has the potential to provide the kind of witness that Paul envisioned. Few others in American Christian culture are able to ambitiously pursue the “quiet life” like home schooling families. Too often, though, too many find themselves in the slipstream of the rapidly accelerating Mac truck of culture. It feels nice to not have to think about driving, so they let go of the wheel, sit back, and let culture just pull them along. If that has happened to you, WAKE UP! Grab hold of the wheel of your life and steer your way back to a safer speed in the slow lane. It may be the most important spiritual decision you’ll make as a family, and a powerful witness to many others along the road. Perhaps that, and not just the education, is why God will bless Christian home schooling.

Practical Home Schooling Issue #40

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Discipleship is inseparable from the word of God. Though he doesn’t use the term “discipleship” in Deuteronomy 6, Moses describes the process of discipleship within a family. It starts with the parents, with the word of God on their hearts. The simple fact is that you cannot pass on to your children’s hearts what is not already on your own heart.

In light of New Testament teaching, we understand that discipleship is the process through which one person influences another person to become like Christ. It is a spiritual relationship in which the student (your child) becomes like the teacher (you). In the same way that Paul told others to “imitate me” as he modeled Christ, you are giving your child an example to follow as you “bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Just as it was with Moses, the word of God is the “textbook” for that relationship and for everything that is “of the Lord.”

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the word of God is living and active, that it is not just words on a page, or instructions in an owner’s manual. It pierces your child’s life physically and spiritually. More than that, though, it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  Without the word of God intersecting every area of your life at home and your relationship with your children, you cannot really say that you are discipling your children. Home discipleship, in essence, is the work of Gods word in your home in and through your family. There are at least three ways you need to be sure the living and active word of God is defining discipleship in your home.

Bible Devotions

It is certainly good if you are committed to a family devotional time. God wants you to set aside time for him every day to read his word, talk and pray. You need that input to be a living representative of Gods life to your children, and your children need it to be fed spiritually so they can grow into a strong relationship with God. A family devotional time is great, but even better is a family devotional life. If the only real exposure to God’s truth your child receives during the day is the few minutes you spend in a devotional time as a family, then there is very little discipleship going on. God’s model for families is a devotional life in which God’s word is discussed and applied, and God’s help is sought, at every point throughout the day and night.

In God’s design, if you are devoted to Him, then all time is devotional time. And, as a parent, you are called by God to infect your children with that devotion. That is what He meant in Deuteronomy 6:6-7  ”His word is first on your heart, and then passed on to your children’s hearts. God didn’t mean that should happen only four times a day, either, that phrase is a Hebrew idiom that means there is no time when it shouldn’t be happening! It means to do it all the time. Devotion is not just a time, it’s a life.

Bible Study

Most parents start off with the right desire for Bible study (I want my children to know God’s word), but they inadvertently set the wrong goal (I need to be sure my children know all about the Bible). While Bible knowledge is a good thing, the primary purpose of Bible study for your children is not simply to pour knowledge about the Bible into their brains. Spiritual maturity is not measured by how much a person knows about the Bible, but by how well one lives out what he knows. Facts alone will never make a person mature, not even facts about the Bible. When Paul said, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies,” he was affirming that knowledge, apart from maturity, can even lead to pride.

God’s truth is found primarily in ideas that change lives, such as the law of love, not in bare facts divorced from the ideas that give them meaning. That is why Jesus spoke so often in parables; he wanted his hearers to get the “idea.” Your real purpose in teaching your children to study the Bible is to show them that they can acquire wisdom and understanding from God’s word for living a godly life. They need to know that God can speak to them through the words of Scripture. They need to see that God’s truth is consistent, reliable, trustworthy, effective, and makes sense. Children can learn the Bible but not love it; but they cannot love the Bible and not learn it!

Because our goal is to instill in our children a heart-deep and lasting love for the word of God, we avoid materials that would turn the “living and active”. Bible into a spirit-deadening workbook exercise or academic assignment. We look for the kinds of resources that let us naturally integrate God’s word into every part of our daily lives; family devotions, Bible reading and study, Bible memory, discussions about life and current events, disciplinary instruction, prayers, Scripture songs, history studies, doctrinal discussions, and so on. Just as we try to create a “devotional lifestyle,” we also create a “biblical lifestyle” in which the Bible is central to everything we do, everyone we meet, and every decision we make. We want our children see a Bible that intersects and brings meaning to every facet of their young lives. Biblical Worldview

Finally, we help our children take the step of integrating the Bible truths that they are hearing, learning and seeing into real life; their life. If we give them a love for God’s word, but fail to show them that it makes sense of their lives, all we have done is given them a good Bible education. Until it is “living and active” in them, the goal of discipleship is not complete.

We help them to see how God’s word, and those who lived it, has changed history for the better. We want them to know and understand the great ideas of life from the Bible that have given mankind freedom and dignity. We want them to know the lives of great men and women who have followed the Word. We want them to see the logic and reasonableness of a Christian worldview.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Proverbs 1:7

If you understand the biblical need to nurture and disciple your children at home “to help them long for God and live for Him” then it is a very short step to educating them at home to help them learn for Him. If you have a biblical mandate to influence your child’s spirit and heart, it would make no sense that God really meant that you should let someone else influence their mind. God didn’t just forget to include school in His biblical family plan; it was not needed because He created the home. It follows that the logical next step is to educate your children at home.

But it is at this point that many families, wanting to do the right thing, choose the wrong way. Rather than trusting that God has designed the home to be a complete living and learning environment, they try to retrofit the institutional classroom model into it. But a home is not a school! God designed the home, man designed the school; they were never meant to fit together. Only in the home, just as God designed it, can you shepherd your children’s spirits, shape their hearts, and strengthen their minds all at once. God did not leave anything out of the home that your children would need.

Solomon intimates that connection when he asserts that the “fear of the Lord”, is the beginning of knowledge. True learning begins with the spirit and the heart, not just with the mind. A godly mind comes from a godly or God-directed spirit and heart. You cannot separate that relationship. It is clear that Solomon believed that parents were the ones charged with giving children the “wisdom and discipline”, that will guide their search for “knowledge”. Over and over in the first chapters of Proverbs, Solomon reinforces that relationship by admonishing his son to “treasure my commandments within you,” and to “not forget my teaching.”

The question, of course, is what should that home education look like. If God designed the home to meet all of a child’s developmental needs up to the time when they leave to start a new home, then education should be the natural activity of the Christian home. For many home schooling families, though, the tyranny of textbooks and the rigid rule of school have stolen the joy of home schooling. Rather than finding freedom, they are held captive by the impersonal formality and constant demands of structured curricula, enslaved by methods designed for human institutions, not for the home. ut it doesn’t have to be that way.

In our book (page 3), Educating the WholeHearted Child, we share our own journey to making our home a warm, vibrant place where our children would love to learn as freely and as naturally as they love to play. We show you how to use real books and real life to stimulate real learning. Our WholeHearted Learning Model gives you a way to look at everything you do with your children at home. It is a biblical, discipleship-based, commonsense, relational approach to educating your children at home that works. But it’s a different way of life.

Building Mental Muscles

It’s always hard to switch paradigms, and when all we’ve known as a culture is the classroom model, switching to a relational, home-centered model of learning can test our confidence. The most common concern is usually whether average parents can do “enough” to really educate their child.  “How will I know if my children know everything they need to know?” That concern does not originate from Scripture, but rather from a culture obsessed with measuring learning. But the truest measure of learning is not what a child knows at any one time relative to what other children know; it is whether or not that child is growing stronger in all of the most important learning skills. We like to call them “mental muscles.”

Just as children have varying physical abilities, they also have varying mental abilities. Some children will be naturally stronger than others, but we do not insist on measuring and comparing all children’s arm muscles. Neither should we compare and judge all children on the basis of one or two mental muscles. The goal should be to exercise all of a child’s mental muscles so they will enter adulthood with a strong mind, with the desire (will) and the ability (skill) to learn whatever is necessary, whatever the situation. Performing well in comparison to other children in an artificial classroom setting is no indication that a child will perform well in real life in comparison to other adults.

The goal of education is not to raise a child who does well on the tests of secular educators, but to raise a child who does well on the tests of real life. When they need to research an issue, they will have the discipline and ability to find and analyze relevant information. When they need to present an argument, they will know how to use language persuasively. When mediating a problem at church, they will know how to apply wisdom and find a creative solution. Knowledge is natural fruit of growing stronger mental muscles, not the other way around.

And what are the mental muscles? Certainly there are more than the ones we have identified in our book, but we have found seven that we think are critical to mental strength: Habits;  the ability to instinctively act upon common duties or tasks without being told.

• Appetites:  The ability to discern and desire what is excellent and worthy.

• Language:  The ability to clearly articulate and communicate ideas and beliefs.

• Creativity:  The ability to reflect the image and glory of God in all that one does.

• Curiosity:  The ability to question, to seek out knowledge, and to keep learning.

• Reason:  The ability to think clearly and logically about ideas, decisions and life.

• Wisdom:  The ability to apply spiritual insight and discernment in any situation.

So, start with the spirit and the heart, and the mind will follow. And in the end, you will have not only a “well-educated” child, but, even better, the confidence that you have raised a wholehearted child.