Lifestyle Education through Discipleship is a family discipleship process from and for a Biblical view of God and His world. All learning is for the purpose of knowing God and making Him known through Wisdom. Which is learning from His Word what His perspective is on everything in life, and then walking out our lives in it. For He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
Since everything we teach is from a Christian worldview, we must first have our own minds renewed to that from the worldly and selfish ways of thinking that we have learned and that come naturally. We cannot teach from a Biblical worldview if we don’t have one. As I’ve stated before, this isn’t just what we think, but how we think. It’s the thought processes that affect everything we do and how we do it. This is a paradigm shift. As Romans 12:2 says, a transformation. God’s ways aren’t our ways, and if we don’t see things from His perspective we will not have proper understanding. We will see the same “facts” but interpret them differently. That’s why Wisdom is the principle thing. And we must first get it, before we can operate in it, and help others find it.
We begin by “planting the seeds” of a Biblical worldview in our children – through discipleship. You follow me, as I follow Christ. However we don’t stop there. Teaching from a Biblical worldview is important. We need to teach them what the Scripture says but if we only give them the what, it will be nothing but “head knowledge” of the Word. It is only “the law” and has no essence of life. But the law is the tutor that brings us to Christ, so we must start there. Then we must also educate our children for a Biblical worldview, using that “law” to lead them to “life”.
What’s the difference? I’d liken it to giving them a fish vs. teaching them to fish. They will first “see us fishing” and enjoy the fruits therof. But we are not going to “feed” them forever. That will only make them fat, lazy ingrates. They must learn to feed themselves. They must follow Christ for themselves. We must lead them from what to think to how to think. We teach them how to seek for and dig out Wisdom for themselves. I like what Paul Jehle has to say, that it is not the accumulation of knowledge we seek. That will only make us fat. True growth is the replacement of the old with the new. That is what brings change in our lives that affects everything we do. (paraphrased)
This is transformation. This is when the Spirit brings life and freedom. It is from the Spirit that we follow not the letter of the law, but we gain understanding of the law and its application. It becomes written on our heart, and we are able to put it to work in our lives in a variety of new and different situtations. It is when the Gospel is applied to my life that I am transformed. So too, it is when I seek and find wisdom for myself, that I have internalized it, it becomes mine and I am able to walk in it in freedom.
It is when we have taken our children from “from to for” that they “own” their education and are transformed. Learning becomes life to them. Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge bring freedom. It is then that the seeds we planted have grown to fruitfulness and they are able to reproduce. And that is what discipleship is all about.
