When The Holy Spirit Takes Over Your Homeschool

ByJamerrill Stewart Published On: Updated On:

When The Holy Spirit Takes Over Your Homeschool.

And just so you don’t start thinking I’m sister-super-Christian, let me start this post by saying when I woke up this morning I almost said “ugh,” but I didn’t. The very next words that popped up in my spirit were “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I went with that, because focusing on a power verse is how I navigate through my days. To be honest though it was almost 8:30 a.m., far beyond my joyous early morning routine, and my #GoodMorningGirls was already out the window. I could tell by the quiet in the house that 4 out of 5 children were still sleeping. Zion, our 8-year-old, was up playing Wii {yes, we have a Wii that the older children can play for 30 minutes if they get up early, do their morning routine and complete their Bible reading.}

You see tackle football has shown up and thrown us off our groove a bit. We haven’t been getting home until after 8 p.m., which is our family’s usual bedtime. We didn’t eat dinner together until 9 p.m. the night before. I’m not complaining. Football is one of the activities our family has chosen to participate in {hub’s is a football guy} and it only lasts about 9 weeks.  We don’t do back-to-back year round sports, or run from thing-to-thing as a rule, yet here we are.

Now you want to know how the Holy Spirit swept us off our feet?  O.k., we’re almost there.  You see I had my plan on how we’d redeem the day. Lately, I’ve just been writing our day out on the dry erase board because each day has been so different.

Here was my plan, with the hours we had left in our day:

  • Quick breakfast followed by 30 minutes of Bible time
  • Older children work on their work-boxes {For today: Reading, Math, Writing}
  • Younger children light table-work
  • Mom, work on repainting mudroom
  • Light afternoon pick up
  • Ken Ham/AIG DVD’s during afternoon rest time
  • Football rush…dinner…gear on…ready…huff-puff…out the door
For the most part the last three to-do’s of my plan went as planned.  It’s the 1st 1/2 of the day that God messed with. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it.   Jadin brought our big basket of bibles out and set them on the table.  {Believe me folks, after the rapture there will be plenty of bibles to be found at our house.}  We read our bibles individually and during read aloud time, and I’m all about creative ways to get more Jesus into your day.  Meal time devotions are new to us and they’ve been time consuming.  It’s a worth while time pursuit and I always feel strengthened as a family when we spend this time together.
Sadly, some days we’ve skipped meal time devotions because I’ve felt rushed, like we just don’t have the time.  When I grow up though I’m going to be Ann Voskamp, or she can become my godmother or something, and we’ll faithfully do devotions at every.single.meal. {Read this post of Ann’s, One Habit that Radically Changes a Family, and tell me if it doesn’t make you just want to literally chew every page of the Bible – chomp, chomp, chomp} My goal for now has been to get in family bible reading after one meal per day.  I’m praying that one day we can devour the Word after each meal.
We’ll get there.
And this is where Holy Spirit showed up, right in-between the sticky oatmeal dishes and my dry erase board plans for the day.  With baby Liam quietly napping, and the two younger children content to play beside me, the boys and I started where we left off in the book of John.  Then Jadin started asking all about Jesus being prophesied in the old testament.  Next we were in the book of Isaiah.  Zion mentioned Job, and with pages turning, we were hunting in Job.  In our discussion Enoch came up, and we quickly searched to see what verse it was exactly in Genesis that said:
“Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” Genesis 5:24
It had been about an hour at this point.  I stopped to read a few bible stories to Gabriel and Naomi from their children’s bible. Naomi asked several endearing questions like “does Jesus love bad guys too,” which the Holy Spirit gently weaved us through talking about loving our enemies. We read about Elijah and Elisha, which led to a discussion on false gods and next we sizzled awhile as we contemplated chariots of fire.  As you can see we were everywhere in the Word and friends, it was good.  Jadin dearly expressed a desire to read through the book of Job in his personal reading time.  I encouraged him that the “plan” that I had him on was just a spring-board, and that anytime he felt led to another part of the Word he was free to move onto that book.  Then Zion brought up Esther and we somehow got on the topic of standing up for the truth.
As we breezed through various books in the Bible, as questions came and answers were discussed, I was full of the joy of the Lord.  I said Lord, I want more of this.  Long story short we read, searched, dug deep and fellowshipped as a family in God’s Word for 3 hours.  It was 2 p.m. when we stopped.  

Not a math book was cracked or a pencil lifted this day.  But the Holy Spirit gave us a full day of homeschooling, and I’m hungry for more.  His ways are always better than my ways.  I don’t want to get so weighed down with the business of academics that we miss out on the fullness of God’s Word.  I want more days of priceless study together.  I desire to truly use this gift of time that homeschooling allows to stretch toward God together as a family.

Signature

Similar Posts

15 Comments

  1. I have felt completely led by the Holy Spirit in the matter of homeschool, as well. If it’s one thing God has shown me, it’s not all about books. There is so much more to raising our children. Thanks for posting.

    Reply

  2. Thank you Robin. Yes, we need His leading completely. I’m convinced to completely change our school schedule so that everyday starts with a long bible study w/ plenty of room for Him to led, and move our work boxes to the afternoon….praying for His best and no less! 🙂

    Reply

  3. Wow! I have just started homeschooling our daughter (she’s about to turn 4- so “schooling” is really fun-learning time :)) this year. I love seeing/reading about other mommies using the Bible to teach. It really inspires me. Thank you!

    Reply

  4. Wow! I have just started homeschooling our daughter (she’s about to turn 4- so “schooling” is really fun-learning time :)) this year. I love seeing/reading about other mommies using the Bible to teach. It really inspires me. Thank you! I am now a follower.

    Reply

  5. I LOVE it! We’ve had this happen to us before – we also do bible study time (indepth, outside of morning family devos) at breakfast, and sometimes it just takes off! Like this morning, my eldest wanted to read all of Daniel 3 (and he’s only 6 1/2, so it took a little time!) and it meant everything was late, but I was willing to go where the Spirit led. I also notice the mornings we skip it – I’M a bear! So it is so important, and I whole heartedly agree with your wonderful post! (visiting from Thought Provoking Thursdays)

    Reply

    1. Thank you Lauren. I’d like to spend this Holy Spirit-led time in the Word every morning together. Like you said, more indepth, outside of devotions. We’re still seeking, asking and knocking for more of God around here. Isn’t it wonderful that we can never have too much Jesus? Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  6. Pingback: 2011-2012 Homeschool Year {Our Work in Progress} | Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling: Living the Life of Faith
  7. Pingback: Blogging Year-in-Review & Year End Link-Up! | Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling | Living the Life of Faith

  8. Today was our first day homeschooling in over a year. I homeschooled my daughter, Makayla, for first grade but had a difficult time because we were living with my parents and my Dad didn’t like the mess or the idea of homeschooling or my radical life with Jesus for that matter…but he will come to the Father by His love, and that is another matter. 😉
    Thank you for your blog and all the time you put into it. You inspire me with what you do and your aspirations. Your realness and transparency. Your heart and following of our lovely Friend.
    Bless you and your family this year and I look forward to homeschooling together.

    Reply

    1. Yeah, Mandy–welcome back to Homeschooling! It’s wonderful that Jesus has brought everything back around for your family. Thank you for your kind words, friends. Let me know if I can do anything for you!

      Reply
  9. Pingback: Our Homeschool Life Schedule with Free Downloads {& BFF Linkup!} | Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling | Living the Life of Faith

  10. THANK YOU!!! I love this!! What a blessing you are! I love your blog and your whole approach to life and letting the Holy Spirit guide you. I wish we were neighbors, I feel like I just met a kindred spirit! May the Lord bless you as you trust Him and walk with Him.

    Reply

  11. I love Holy Spirit-Led Homeschooling. We have had the Holy Spirit take us in unplanned directions more times than I can count. Right now we are studying current events and the state of our nation more than anything. My oldest boys are really interested in the military and recent wars, etc., and the Lord has brought books to us that cover these things from the perspective of Christian generals and a terrorist who is now a Christian, etc. I had no idea we would be studying those things this year. I’ve had a hard time even getting so far as the Middle Ages. We studied Genesis for about a year, then got stuck in Ancient Civilizations for a couple of years. I finally started on the Middle Ages, and then my boys started wanting to know about current events. So the Lord helped me to know what to study so they would get the right perspective. I love how He leads us!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *