“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in love, in faith and in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12
That verse hung on my wall when I was a teenager. It really moved me and was always such an encouragement when friends of mine made fun of me for what I believed or how I acted differently than them.
This morning in church, this verse was brought up again, but it spoke to my heart for a completely different reason. I immediately thought of all the homeschoolers who get made fun of or put down for the choices that they make to educate at home. We get all the remarks. All the put downs. Some people genuinely think what we are doing is wrong and will scar our kids. Others just don’t understand and so they don’t know what to say. No one ever told them “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
I’m here to encourage you… and allow me to take some liberties with this verse for a moment please?
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you homeschool, but set an example for the believers (and non believers!), in love of the Lord, in Faith in our Father and purity from what the world has to offer.
I hope every time you read 1 Timothy 4:12, you see it in another light. That it doesn’t just have to pertain to the young. It can apply to those who have to stand up for themselves in the face of adversity.
Homeschooling isn’t a sprint. It may have an end, when our kids graduate high school, but it is a long and slow marathon of which we race absolutely no one. We aren’t competing against the traditional school, we aren’t racing against other homeschoolers, we’re running slow and steady along side the ONE who cares more for our kid’s education than we do.
So in the words of a wise Captain …. let’s boldly go where no homeschoolers have gone before… (and now I’ve exposed myself as a trekkie.)
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