346 | Embrace Your True Calling (Sean Allen)
Show Notes:
Everything, and I mean everything that is right and true is under assault today. For instance, we've moved far beyond questioning whether a woman's rightful place is in the home rearing her children. Today, the world and all her emissaries of confusion question whether such a thing as a woman even exists. For decades we've been told that women are just as capable as men, no matter the field, no matter the task. Predictably (and at the same time inconceivably) we are told today that men are just as capable as women to the point that they may also become pregnant and bear children. This upsidedownedness came as a direct result of our collective failure to not only recognize but appreciate the wisdom and beauty of God's respective callings in each of our lives. We each have unique, precisely crafted roles. It is true we may choose not to fill them; but we do so at our own peril. This episode is a call to embrace and, just as importantly, give thanks for how God made us and who he calls us to be.
ABOUT SEAN
Sean Allen is the founder of The Well Ordered Homeschool, husband to his beautiful bride Caroline and a proud father of eight. He has a bachelor of fine arts in graphic design and is passionate about creating materials to assist parents in the incredibly challenging, yet surpassingly beautiful, work of schooling and training their children at home.
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Show Transcript:
Sean Allen Hello and welcome to another installment of The Homeschool Solutions Show. My name is Sean Allen and I am one of the many hosts that we have on the podcast. Each week you'll hear from one of us as we talk about this busy and blessed season of educating our children at home. And while the title of the podcast is Homeschool Solutions, it should come as no surprise to you that we do not have the answer to every question related to homeschooling. However, it is our hope that each episode will encourage you to look upward and seek the counsel and direction of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, as we endeavor to train our children in the way they should go. We're so glad that you decided to join us today. Let's dive into today's episode.
Well. Hello, everyone. Welcome again to another episode of The Homeschool Solutions Podcast. My name is Sean Allen, and I will be your host for today. I want to thank you for joining us today and for taking time out of your busy, busy schedules to spend a little bit of time with us. We're very grateful for it.
As I already mentioned, this is The Homeschool Solutions Podcast. I hope that you find some solutions in today's episode. I feel like out of all of the speakers who are on this podcast, I probably offer the fewest solutions. That's how I feel. I hope that's not the case, but I feel like a number of the other ladies—probably all of them, actually—provide so many excellent solutions. And yet here I am. I view myself as the resident cheerleader. I'm just here to encourage you and to spur you on. I hope you find that valuable. Obviously, I'm the only male voice on the podcast, and so I have a slightly unique perspective. And anyway, I feel like that's my passion and my job, and I'm going to try to do the best that I can at that.
So if you don't know who I am or if you're just hearing me for the first time, again, my name is Sean Allen. I live with my lovely, lovely wife in Missouri with our eight beautiful children. And we just had our firstborn son go off to college here just about a month or two ago. So we're experiencing that for the first time. And then we have children from him on down to soon-to-be two years here in December. A little two-year-old boy. So we're raising the whole gamut here. And we've got everybody in between. And you know what? It is terrifying. It is heartachingly difficult. It is beautiful. It's wonderful. It's all of those things wrapped up into one incredible bundle.
And I think most of you who are hearing the sound of my voice know exactly what I'm talking about. And you know what? All that being said. I wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes I feel like it's going to kill me. I feel like this lifestyle that we've chosen— running all these businesses, and trying to fix up a farmhouse that was built in 1897, and homeschooling eight—well, seven children now—and providing support to our son off at college, and so many other things. I could just go on and on and on and on. Doing all of that at once, I feel like it's going to kill me. And probably one day it will. But it's all right. It's worth it. It's worth it. We wouldn't have it any other way.
I think you all most of you all would definitely agree. And if you don't agree, keep listening to this podcast because we're going to try to convince you that you just need to hang in there and stick it out. It's so hard, yet so rewarding. There are few things more rewarding in this life that you could do than to stay home with your children and to be with them, to be around them. And I know that they're needy, and I know that they whine, and I know that they make messes, and I know that they don't understand the value of property or of your time or of your private space or of anything like that. They don't understand those things. And as adult human beings, we have particular needs that they do not understand. And they're going to try to draw all of your emotional energy and your physical energy, all that you will allow them to anyway.
But nevertheless, nevertheless, there is no better road to go. And you will find it more fulfilling, more rewarding, more beautiful, more inspiring than you ever thought possible if you stick it out. And so that's why I'm here, just to remind you of that. I know you know all these things. You've seen these things. You've experienced these things in the course of your day-to-day life with your children. You've seen that spark of beauty and you've seen the look on your child's face when it's time to cuddle up on the couch and read a book. You've seen the look of delight in them when you have praised them or rewarded them for doing something that was in accordance or that was consistent with the standard that you set up in your home and 500,000 other things that I don't have time to go through right now. You've seen all that. You've experienced it. You've seen the ups and the downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs, and so keep at it.
And the purpose of today's podcast is to warn you a little bit of something that I think that you're already aware of. But I just want to add my voice to the fray in warning you and yet again, encouraging you to stay the course. My heart is a little bit heavy when I think about some of the things that we're going to talk about today, because— not that they haven't been going on for quite some time now, but I think that this movement that we're going to discuss today is gaining a lot of traction and a lot of steam. And it will not stop until you or I or all of us together do not exist anymore, or to the point where we are such an inconsequential group of individuals that we don't have a voice or we don't have any freedoms or a right to direct our children's education as we determine its best.
And so it's bad enough when you have individuals who will openly criticize the form of education that you've chosen to engage in, namely educating your children at home. There's many people— there's fewer and fewer people, by the way, but there are still people out there who criticize it. And it's probably the hardest when it's family members. There's fewer and fewer of these people. I don't know if you've recognized this, but you go out and about, and when people discover that you're homeschooling your children, they perhaps will have also homeschooled their children at one point in time. Maybe they're actively homeschooling them now, or they gave it a shot earlier in their child's life or they know someone. There's a friend, a family member or what have you who has homeschooled or is now homeschooling. And I am finding it more and more frequent wherein these individuals have a favorable view on homeschooling. That's wonderful. That's so encouraging.
But the prevailing winds of thought in society at large does not generally understand why you're doing what you're doing. And I want to ask you, do you understand why you're doing what you're doing? Because the days that we now live in and the days that are soon to come will require that you know exactly why you're doing what you're doing. Because let me issue this warning. This episode is going to be full of warnings. If you do not have a very clear understanding of why you're doing what you're doing, you will not survive. You're not going to make it. Let me go further than that.
If you and I—all of the individuals who are listening to this now and all of the individuals who are currently engaged in home education—do not get a firm handle on why we're doing what we're doing—I'm not saying all of us, but the majority of us—if we do not get a firm handle on why we're doing what we're doing, our movement will not survive. Let me take it a little step further. If you and I, as fathers, as mothers, as husbands and wives, if we do not get a handle on why we're doing what we're doing, our children will not survive. What I mean is they will not continue in this way that you are now currently walking in.
And so what is the point exactly? So you're homeschooling your children and that's wonderful and praiseworthy. And again, I want to thank you for doing that. But if you cannot get your children themselves to homeschool their children, exactly what is the point? Now, I'm not saying that it's all for nothing. I'm not saying that there aren't things that you've passed on that will not benefit and bless your children long and for the rest of their lives. And I'm not saying that they wouldn't have been better off if you didn't homeschool them. I'm not saying that at all. But for the continuance of this movement and the continuance of your right to do what you're doing, if we do not get very, very intimate with the just reasons as to why we're doing what we're doing, we won't make it. We're not going to survive.
Okay. Let me let me give you a case in point here. So the arguments against homeschooling, those have been around for a very, very long time. And certainly you'll find that many people in the public education sphere are adamantly opposed to what you're doing. Not all of them. Not all of them, but many of them are. I think that's where you'll find most of the most hardened arguments against home education is in the sphere of public education. I'm not saying that all public school teachers are opposed to homeschooling, but there are a lot of people in public school teacher unions and in public school boards— some of the higher-ups are the movers and shakers in those movements who vehemently oppose this model of teaching.
What they don't understand that it's not—well, maybe they actually do understand it very well, and this is why they're so vehemently opposed to it—is that it's not merely a model of education. It's a model of raising your children. It's a model of raising and rearing your children: the flesh of your flesh and the bone of your bone. The blood of your blood. That which came forth from you. That which you gave birth to. That which is a part of you and will always be a part of you. This is perhaps precisely why they so urgently oppose what you're doing is because they don't want you to retake control over the rearing of your children. They want to take charge of that.
And they think that they know better than you do and what is best for them and the clear path forward that they have for them, which is not forward but clearly backward. It's not a progression. It's not a rise upwards. It's a digression. It's a movement downwards. And we all know that. Most of us know that. And so some of you out there who are listening to this may have thought to yourself, "Well, I'm bringing them home because I don't like the quality of education that they're getting at public school." Fine, fine. That's fine. But you're going to have to do better than that if you want to survive.
You know, Jesus said this a lot: "Those of you who have ears to hear let him hear." And I'm going to say the same thing to you. Not that I'm trying to— I'm certainly not trying to fill his shoes here. But what I mean by that is that it would be very easy for you to analyze and criticize and critique precisely what I'm saying here and to call it into question. But I think those of you who know are going to hear me and know what I'm talking about. I'm not saying that every person who ever pulled their child out of public school for educational purposes found themselves incapable of staying the course and did not make it to the end or did not cross the finish line. I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is that those of us who do know, those of us who know precisely why this movement exists, why it was begun from the beginning and has continued throughout the ages and still exists and abides today— those are the individuals who are maintaining and sustaining the right and the privilege of home education at all. And so those individuals are providing the opportunity for a husband or for a mother or a father to say to themselves, "You know what? I don't like the quality of education that I'm getting at the public school. I'm going to pull them home.".
But if that was the only reason why mothers and fathers were pulling their children out of school, there would be no home education. There would be no reason for this movement to exist. It would not have a sufficient degree of strength in order to survive. But the reason why this movement exists is because it has its roots in heaven. The reason why this movement exists in the first place is because God willed it so. Because he said that there should be such an abiding love between a mother and her children and a father and his children that this right and this privilege should never be taken away from them, and they should be afforded the opportunity to raise those children as they see fit.
And if that means that they bring them home, then so be it. Actually, that is—at present—that is the supreme model for raising and rearing a child. There is nothing superior to it at this point in time. And so that's the reason why this exists, because God willed it so. And this is the reason why there are certain individuals who will, as I said earlier, vehemently oppose this movement and will stop at nothing to see it eradicated from off the face of the earth. Now, you may say, "Oh, Sean, come on now. There are more homeschoolers in America than there ever have been.".
You know, I think that this last go round with the pandemic has shown us that there is nothing sacred, folks. There is nothing that is higher—at least in the minds of the elite—than the elites' right to rend from us rights and things that we take for granted. This is the one thing that I learned from it, at least. Among the many things that I learned, this is one lesson that I took is that there is nothing too high. There is nothing too sacred. Not that they could—in this instance—take from us the right to homeschool for reason of the pandemic, because obviously schools were shut down and so that increased participation at the homeschool level. But I'm telling you that we are certainly not immune, not in the least. If they deem it necessary, they will find a way.
Now we pray God that that not be the case. And we pray to him that he will defend us and that he will fight our battles for us, if that ever comes to be. But what I'm telling you right now is that it is our job to be very, very clear about who we are as fathers and as mothers, as teachers in our homes. To be very, very clear about that. That if we are not clear about it, we do not deserve to be able to raise our children at home. And so we need to show our Heavenly Father that not only are we grateful for this. As hard as it is, and as much tears as we shed, and as much hair as we pull out, and as many words as we exchange with each other at times, that we are so thankful that we can do this.
It's not because it's leisurely. It's not because it's fun. It doesn't gain to us or attract to us a lot of attention or influence, I guess you would say. It's not because it raises our reputations in the eyes of those who are round about us. It has nothing to do with that. It's a question of how much do you love your children? And if you really love your children, you would stop at nothing to be able to obtain the best possible opportunities for them. And in homeschooling, we find that those opportunities, they're many and varied. The horizon is so broad, so much broader than it would be otherwise.
And so because we have a love for our children, we beg heaven for the continuance of this opportunity. But this opportunity will not abide if we don't know why we're doing it in the first place. So when people begin to show a lack of gratitude like we're seeing in our nation today— and it's not that they're beginning. It's been going on for quite some time. When they show a lack of gratitude for the freedom of religion— when you see that, you will find that conditions that are favorable towards a freedom of religion will soon contract and retreat.
When you find that there's a people who have a lack of gratitude for the rights and privileges that they enjoy to raise their children or rear their children according to the dictates of their conscience, you will find a contraction or a retreat of those rights and privileges. And so whoever it is out there that's listening to me, I'm just urging you: get very clear about who you are.
And let me take it a step further because what we're finding in this late hour in the history of the world in which we live, what we're finding is that your very biology— and there are also spiritual connotations here, but your very biology is under question. You see, before, as the argument went—and it's been going on for at least 100 years, but certainly it gained a lot of steam in the in the 60s— see, the way that the argument went was that, you know, what defined you? Or what— no, actually, we weren't there just yet. It was more a question of where do you derive your value from? What makes you valuable? What makes you a contributor to society?
And when we began to explore and to oftentimes redefine what it meant to be a valuable member of society as a woman, we began to explore all kinds of different options that were available or made available on an increasing scale in society at large. And so there was this discussion about should you really be a keeper at home? Should you really have to change diapers and wipes snotty noses and sweep the floor and cook food and keep a house? Is that really where you find your value?
I mean, wouldn't you feel more appreciated, wouldn't you feel more fulfilled if you stepped outside the home and climbed the corporate ladder just like you see your husband doing, just like you see all of these other privileged men out there doing, earning their bread by the sweat of their brow? What can't you do that, too? Why can't you be a contributor to the family in precisely the same way that your husband is a contributor to the family?
Well, friends, I think that we've learned by sad experience that there are multiple spheres of responsibility in the family unit. And when one sphere is vacated—seeing as how there are two predominant spheres when it comes to husbands and wives—when one sphere is vacated, then there's nobody there to fill it. So you have two individuals attempting to fill a singular sphere. The other sphere does not disappear. It's just empty. Or it is neglected at the very least. And somehow this is progress.
And so the siren call of progression or of advancement in the corporate world or in the work world at large was too strong of a call, and so many of our mothers heard that call and went to it with all their might. They did the best they could. Now, it's not all for nothing because there is a love there. Obviously, there is a form of provision that's being made, but you've tilted the scale too far in one direction. So that was the question that was posed early on. Is that what makes you valuable? And wouldn't you like to be as valuable as your husband is valuable?
Fast forward to today and we're beginning to ask questions such as, are you even a woman? What is a woman? What does it mean to be a woman? Can anybody actually define what a woman is? Can a man be a woman? Can a man have a baby? And so on and so forth. These things are, at face value, ridiculous in the extreme. And yet there are more and more people who are bold and brazen enough to stand before you and to confidently state that these things are so, that a man can become pregnant, that a man can have a baby, and that there are no distinctions any longer in the genders.
As we have already erased and eradicated the distinctions in the roles between genders, how much further of a step is it to erase gender altogether? Do you see what I'm driving at? Because we showed a lack of gratitude for the beauty with which God designed the various roles that make up the human family, we showed a lack of gratitude, and we found that the rights and privileges that attach to those roles became contracted and were on the retreat to the point where they're almost nonexistent.
Now you can choose. Listen, listen. I'm not saying that you don't have the right to choose. And I'm also not saying that there aren't circumstances in which the husband and the wife, they've both got to work outside the home. But I want to ask you a question, if that's you, if that's you, if you're the one that you find yourself working outside of the home, your husband has a job, you have a job— I want you to be honest with yourself. Do you have to do that? Some of you will say yes. I think most of you—if you're really honest with yourself—the answer is no. You don't absolutely have to do that.
The next question after that is, if you don't absolutely have to do that, then what is the cost? What is the cost of you continuing to fill or to continue to labor in the same sphere that was designed for your husband to labor in? Now, again, I'm not suggesting that there are not unique circumstances, especially in the society in which we live today, because we've totally reordered the structure of our society, and it's made it more and more necessary at times for women to step outside the sphere of their homes. But exactly what is it that is so unglamorous about the home?
Here's the second question: why does it have to be glamorous at all? I rather doubt that your husband feels as if what he does is terribly glamorous. You see, there are certain inescapable truisms that were established at the fall of our forefathers. When God said that men had to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, he meant it. What he meant was that it was going to be difficult, it was going to be grueling, and it was going to be not terribly glamorous. I'm sure you could find exceptions to that rule, but I would really question. Not everything is as it seems from the outside looking in. And you may think that there are individuals that just have the sweetest jobs and just have it so easy and they're just coasting through life. But you know what? You don't really know. What I rather suspect is that most, if not all men find that laboring for their families is incredibly difficult.
And so back to your sphere—because I want to be very I want to be very direct with that—what is so unglamorous about that? Do you find that work difficult? Of course. Just as difficult as what your husband is doing. You know something else? Just as necessary. Just as important. You need both of those things for your family to really function the way that God intended it to. And if you are ungrateful for that arrangement—that thing that he designed, that thing that he looked at and said that it was very good—if you're ungrateful for that, what you will find is that it becomes more and more difficult for you to return to that arrangement.
You may be sitting there to yourself and saying, "You know what? I've got this friend or I know this person, or I'm no longer homeschooling for these reasons, and I took on a job and it's just not possible." And it may look very impossible right now. But I want to ask you, have you become ungrateful for that privilege that you once had to raise and to educate your children at home? And for those of you who are now currently homeschooling, don't ever take this for granted. No, it's not glamorous. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And yet it is in God's eyes.
If you could take a moment or you can take a number of opportunities when you have alone time in the morning, maybe during your devotions, close your eyes and say a prayer and thank God that you could do what you're doing, and then just listen. And perhaps he will whisper to you how he sees you with what you're doing, how he sees you and your little brood there in your home, your child or your two children or your three children or your ten children, or however many it is. How does he see you? And the beauty that he sees? That's glamorous. That's true glamor. I don't know if that's the right word for it. That's true holiness.
And so what else do you need? What more do you need? Do you need any more reasons? Do you need any more convincing? To God, this is among the choicest treasures. This is more valuable than any degree of celebrity or wealth or political influence that you can think of. The fact that you are free to do this and that you are doing this. Because let me tell you something: there are so many people who have been so ungrateful for so long about the fact that they are a woman or that they are a man or that they are a mother or that they're a father. They've been so ungrateful for so long that they are these things that God has taken it from them. They live in a society where they're surrounded by people who are telling them that it means nothing to be a mother. It means nothing to be a woman. And they are trapped. And even if they wanted to, to go back to the original design and plan and purpose that God had for their family, they couldn't do it because they're blinded. They're ungrateful. Let's not let that happen to us. As difficult as it is, let us lift our heads up and thank God that we can live this incredibly difficult and burdensome and glorious life because it is beautiful beyond compare.
And so here's another question. There are there are evidences—very clear evidences, in my mind—that you were designed for a very particular task. You don't have to look very far. It's not really hard. Men cannot have babies. They can't. They cannot get pregnant. It is unthinkable that I would even have to state that here on this podcast. And I hope that that does not burn you down, for me having to state that. I trust that everyone who's listening to this agrees with me. But you can. As a woman, you can become pregnant. You can carry a child for nine months. For those nine months, you are literally sacrificing your body so that another child may live. And once the child is born, that sacrifice is just beginning.
And no man can carry a child. No man can give birth to a child. So here is your— here is, perhaps, your first sure sign that you were designed for a very particular kind of work. Now, obviously, there are women who have not been able or who cannot get pregnant, who cannot bear a child. Nevertheless, God made us this way, and that is the exception to the rule. And even those women who have not been able to become pregnant or to bring a child into the world still possess this very unique longing to have a child and to raise a child in a particular way. You see, why a woman— this is me— I hope you'll forgive me here. But knowing that, why a woman would recognize those facts, those very stubborn facts of biology that God created and designed from the beginning and placed within you, how she could know that and turn from that and choose a life in another sphere that is not her own is beyond me. I don't understand it.
You see, you are privileged. You are privileged. There was not another— there was no man who could carry the Lord Jesus in his womb, for he has no womb. He's incapable of doing what Mary did. And yet God honored her above all women in order to carry his son in her womb and give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ, from which all generations of mankind have been unspeakably blessed. And you have that very unique and peculiar capability, that privilege of being able to do that. It is a sign. It is an indication. It's an unmistakable hint that you were designed for a very particular kind of life. And why you would reject that is is beyond me. It really, really is.
You see, when you embrace it, when you recognize it for what it is, and when you allow God to teach you and to increase your understanding as to why He made you so, then you can begin to rejoice in it. Then you can begin to truly embrace it, and you can become the person that you were always intended to become. Not just for your soul's sake, but for the sake of the souls of your children. And when you're thankful for that, when you live a life of gratitude, it is unmistakable to those who are around you. Your children are going to pick up on it. You say, "I'm glad that I am who I am. I'm glad that I am a woman. Nobody can take that away from me. I am glad that I am a mother.".
And I don't care if you have biological children or you have children that you adopted or that you're homeschooling somebody else's children—I'm sure some of you are out there doing that, too. You have such a heart for children that you said, I'm going to homeschool my children, and then I'm going to take these other two children over here for my friend who is in a situation in life where she's incapable of homeschooling her children, I'm going to school them. You have such a heart for children. You embrace that and you rejoice in it. And it is— not only is it unmistakably obvious, it's infectious.
And you want to know something? There are— most of these women who are out here who are questioning their role in society, their proper role, and if there is any other sphere outside of climbing the corporate ladder or making a bunch of money at some job out there or fulfilling themselves in that way, they don't have any better examples. You know, their mother paved for that road for them. And their friends are walking that path, and everybody on TV is telling them, "This is what you've got to do." And all the movies that they watch, it's constantly dumping this toxic nonsense down their throats. And it's because society as a whole has turned from the blessing of these very well defined and distinguished roles. They are distinguished.
There is a there is an honor reserved for that woman who truly embraces the role that God established for her from the beginning. And while others look on and say that it's menial at best and that it's a degradation to who she is as a person, she knows better. She knows that she is a queen in her home. She knows that there is nothing, not all of the praise in the world could compare to a day wherein she knows that she is benefitting and blessing her children forever. Nothing can compare to that. So ridicule her all you want. Deride her all you want. Try to convince her that remaining single or— I don't even know because I don't really— I hate to dabble in these things, but remaining single and spitting in the face of men and having it your away and enjoying your friends and your life and yourself just becoming this selfish monster of a person is the best way forward.
Let them come as they will. You'll never be able to convince that woman who has truly peered into the face of holiness and recognized that this is what my Creator intended for me to be. When you see that, when you catch a glimpse of that, you're changed forever. Does it matter what anybody else says anymore? It does not matter. They don't know. They don't know. They didn't design these roles. They're not your creator. They didn't fearfully and wonderfully make you. But he did.
It seems to me that the further we go on in human history, the more distant we get from that truth. And we can't let it happen. We're in a war for truth. We're in a war for truth. It's amazing that we live in a day wherein people are trying to convince us that men can have babies, for example, that children can choose their gender at will, that these precious little children that abide in your womb are effectively worthless. Nothing but a bundle of trash to be cast aside on a whim. We live in a world where up is down and right is wrong and wrong is right. And on and on it goes.
And those who will continue to imbibe in this kind of toxic nonsense are intended for the fire. They will not survive. This will not long abide, and God cannot abide any threat to the holiness that is the human family, the Christian family, that family which he established from the beginning and the portrait of holiness that is found there. And if you and I will remain committed to that portrait, if you and I will remain thankful every day that he made it that way, and if we will embrace our roles and do our utmost to fulfill that calling that he has placed in your heart and my heart, that image never will pass away. And we will enjoy those privileges for the rest of our lives. And we will live to see our children enjoy those privileges for their lives as well.
But if it ever comes to the place or to the point in which there are fewer and fewer of us, there are so few of us that acknowledge this and who are willing to uphold this. Nevertheless, we know where our reward is. We know who has helped us. We know who has sustained us and we know who will say to us in the end, "Well done, good and faithful servant." But we will do our utmost. We will do everything that is in our power. And it's not just because it's right. It's because this love that we have for our children is sourced from Jesus Christ himself. And we can do no other. We can absolutely do no other.
You know what? I've gone on a little long today. I hope that I haven't wearied you. There's so much more that could be said. Just do not give up. Do not give up. Do not allow the flag to trail. What you're doing is so important. I do not have the words. I do not possess the power of speech to sufficiently communicate to you just how important what you are doing is for me, but most importantly, for your children. And you've got to keep at it.
It's the strangest thing. It is the strangest thing. Just reading books to your children, smiling at them, laughing with them, going on impromptu picnics, and having impromptu tea parties, talking with them, peering deep into their eyes, helping them with their math, going out on a bike ride, having devotions, listening to beautiful music, looking at beautiful paintings and beautiful art and a hundred other things. It seems so small. And yet these are the greatest of things. There are few things more important. Actually, I don't know if there's anything more important. It's right on par with the most important things in the world. It doesn't look like much at times, but it is. It's a whole lot. It's more than perhaps you and I can even fathom at this point in time. But let's just keep a hold of that vision. Let's do that together.
Thank you so much for your time. And I do truly pray that God continues to bless you and your home, that He revives this vision if it's not already there. And I know that it trails and it wanes at times. It does in our home as well. And we have to have the Lord sweep back in by the power of His Spirit and encourage us once again. And we're so thankful that he does. But we're human. And just keep at it, folks. Just keep doing what you're doing. Thank you for listening today. And I hope to be able to talk to you again soon. Bye for now.
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