The Care of Our Children’s Souls

I am a homeschool mom to four children between the ages of four and nine. However, this is not a post discussing how you should or should not educate your children. It doesn’t matter whether you choose homeschooling or public school or private education. We all love our children. We are all striving to do what we think is best for them.

No matter how we educate, the choices we make as parents are the same. We must choose what will be a priority in the life of our child. We must choose where we put our time and money and effort.

As a former high school English teacher and now a teacher of four little ones, I often get into discussions about education with other parents. As we talk, we usually find ourselves pondering one question: What is the most important part of education?

It is the socialization? Or the academics? How important is homework? What about after-school activities? Are their minds being stretched? Are their limbs being stretched? Should they be involved in something musical? And what about summer camps? Online classes? How much homework is too much?

It was in the middle of one of these conversations with a dear friend that I heard the rumblings of the Holy Spirit stirring in my heart.

What about the stretching of their spirits? What about their souls?

I reflected on the schoolwork list on my refrigerator. How many times in the last week had we skipped our Bible verses but made sure we did our math? I had dropped a Bible unit when I felt our schedule was too full, but we made sure to do our handwriting every day. And what about Sunday school? How many Sundays did we skip church while making sure we were at gymnastics on Tuesdays and ballet on Fridays?

And then one of my friends remarked that she had been letting her son skip youth group when his homework load got too heavy. I didn’t judge her. I don’t have children of that age yet. Instead I silently sat and thought. I was starting to move in that direction myself. My priorities were getting skewed.

I realized:

I’d forgotten what the most important thing is, and if I was forgetting, other parents probably were too. The most important thing, above all else, is the future of our children’s souls. If they are average at math and never participate in a music recital and don’t make a single free-throw, but they love the Lord and know where they will be spending eternity, I have accomplished my most important job.

Of course this goes beyond the education of my children. It stretches into my own life. I am so concerned about the shape of my physical body. Am I half as concerned about the shape of my faith? I can’t get to my devotions, but I made sure to check my email three times today. I don’t let a text message slide by without replying, yet I have gone the whole day without talking to the Lord. I run around my house at night to get my last 400 steps on my FitBit, but I am too tired to mumble a prayer before turning out the light.

It’s incredibly hard. There are only so many hours in the day. How can we use them all wisely?

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that as parents, we must not forget what we have been commanded to do. Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV) reminds us to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” In Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (NKJV) we are instructed that his commandments should always be on our hearts. “You shall teach them diligently to your children,” he says. And we are told in Proverbs 3:1 (NKJV), “My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart.”

Parenthood is hard. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know someone who does. And I know he is far more worried about my child’s relationship with him than he is about the activities with which I have filled their days.

Wendi Kitsteiner is a former city girl now living on a farm in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee with her husband and four young children. She is passionate about the causes of infertility, adoption, and keeping it real as a mom. You can follow her at flakymn.blogspot.com or becauseofisaac.org.

Photograph © Pan Xiaozhen, used with permission