Heart of Biblically Principled Ed

God’s Word exhorts us to not take our eyes off of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Sometimes, because we have such worthy goals in education, it seems like in our desire to understand teaching by Biblical principles we get so caught up in the mechanics. Perhaps so caught up, that we shift our sight, whether just momentarily or we get all turned around.

May I encourage you today, if your eyes have been wandering, to remember the philosophy behind L.E.D., the internal underlying cause that is the principle of L.E.D. It is not to produce students like (and you
know this is one of my favorite quotes from GACE) "chocolate covered bananas, slick and sweet on the outside, but soft and mushy on the inside", but rather to reach the heart of the child with the gospel of Christ, to bring the child to loving obedience to Christ, to equip him to walk with God and stand for God and share the gospel of God "in a wicked and perverse generation." It is all about internalizing; it’s all about the heart. We want more than shallow learning, that never penetrates deeper than the short term memory.

Many times because of our own education and what we see all around us, even in "Christianity", we see that if we will just "do" the right things it will "be" right. We push to move forward in applying
Biblical principles in education without really internalizing it ourselves. It isn’t the "doing the best we know how", or applying line upon line as we learn that is the problem. It is the *striving* to be the perfect Biblical principles homeschooler, with perfect principled lessons each and every day in each and every subject, – or always feeling that we fall short of that – that will get us down.

But Biblical principles education is not just about going down the
list of getting the method right. It isn’t about stressing over finding one of the 7 foundational principles in every lesson, or checking off all the R’s in the study process. It is about God’s Word being the foundation and lens of all we study. The Word that is sharper and more powerful than a two-edged sword. The Word that will not return without accomplishing what God sends it forth for. The Word that speaks to all of life and learning.

Some of you are secure in what yo are doing, whether little or much
in teaching a principled education. Others of you are striving and frustrated. You want to teach by Biblical principles, but you just can’t wrap your mind around all of it. Perhaps just when you think you’ve got part of it, something else comes up and you think you don’t understand any of it at all. Perhaps you even get tempted to give up.

Be encouraged that reflective learning is for you as much as it is for your children. Your heart needs to be reached, penetrated; you need to be changed internally before it will flow out of you to them. This is a process that cannot be rushed, anymore than we can rush our children’s learning.

We live in a microwave society, where every thing is instant. Wisdom
is not, and cannot be. God is always after our hearts, not our performance. It is faithfulness, in walking in the light we have, from the heart, that He desires, not the striving in the flesh.

Relax dear mama. Seek the Lord with all your heart, and learn and apply, line upon line as He gives you grace. If you don’t look like you think a Biblical principles "school" should, don’t worry about it. That’s never what God intended for you. He just intended for you and your children to be conformed to the image of His dear Son.

edited from an email I wrote in Oct. ’07