S9 E9 | Designed for Destiny: Help Your Child Find His Purpose (Jeannie Fulbright)
Show Notes:
Your child was designed for a purpose and given everything they need to fulfill that purpose. God has a specific plan and a unique will for their lives. Our job as homeschoolers is not to map out their route, but to help them discover the path God created before the foundations of the earth for them to walk. On that path, they will use the unique gifts, talents, skills, interests, and passions God developed in them. Only there will they find true fulfillment and peace in their vocation. In this talk, Jeannie will share why and how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in leading your children into their designed destiny, while releasing our need to control and direction and lean into God’s plan and purposes instead.
About Jeannie
Jeannie Fulbright, a 24-year veteran homeschooler, is the author of the #1 best-selling, multi award-winning Apologia Young Explorer science series: Exploring Creation with Astronomy, Chemistry and Physics, Botany, Zoology, and Anatomy & Physiology. She is also the author of the action-packed historical time travel book series Rumble Tumbles Through Time, as well as preschool science books and activity kits, the Charlotte Mason Heirloom Planner, and many high-quality Charlotte Mason based products. Jeannie and her husband Jeff became empty nesters in 2019. All four of their children all went to the University of Georgia on scholarship (homeschooling works!). For more than 20 years Jeannie has traveled around the country speaking to homeschoolers at conventions, covering a plethora of topics from Charlotte Mason to marriage and prayer.
Connect
Jeannie Fulbright | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | TikTok | Pinterest | Website
Homeschooling.mom | Instagram | Website
Subscribe to our YouTube channel | YouTube
Thank you to our sponsors!
Medi-Share: an affordable Christian alternative to traditional health insurance
Tuttle Twins: children’s books to help you teach your kids how the world really works
Have you joined us at one of the Great Homeschool Conventions? We hope to see you there!
For more encouragement on your homeschooling journey, visit the Homeschooling.mom site, and tune in to our sister podcast The Homeschool Solutions Show.
Show Transcript:
Jeannie Fulbright Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Show, a podcast that is all things Charlotte Mason and her tried and true philosophy of education designed to help you homeschool with more confidence, joy and success. It is our hope that you'll find golden nuggets that will transform the way you think and the way you homeschool. I'm your host, author of the bestselling Charlotte Mason science curriculum, Jeannie Fulbright, and I am so glad you joined me today.
Here's a riddle for you parents: Homeschoolers love them. Enemies of freedom hate them. What are they? It's the Tuttle Twins books. With millions of copies sold, the Tuttle Twins helps you teach your kids about entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, the Golden Rule, and more. Get a discounted set of books with free workbooks today at TuttleTwins.com/Homeschool. That's TuttleTwins.com/Homeschool. And now on to today's show.
Hey, homeschooler. Thank you for joining me today. I'm excited about this podcast because I think it is such an important thing for homeschoolers to understand from the outset, to relieve their fears of anything they're concerned about in their homeschooling, and to understand what God's plan and purpose is for your child, and how He is the one who will fulfill His purposes for our children. This podcast is called "Divine Destiny: How to Help Your Children Discover Their Purpose." Let's begin with one of my favorite Scriptures, one you've probably heard a million times, but I just want to talk about it a little bit. And that's Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance." This is an incredible spiritual truth. God has already prepared in advance the work, the vocation that our children will do for Him, for His purposes. Whether they're in ministry or not, when our children are walking in God's purposes for them, they are glorifying Him and they are doing what He made them to do. The word "workmanship" here is the Greek word "poema," and that's where we get the word "poem" or "poetry." And so it's essentially saying we are God's poetry. I love the New Living Translation. And I'm just going to read the New Living Translation, but I'm going to insert "your children" into this, "For [your children] are God's masterpieces. He has created them anew in Christ Jesus so they can do the good things He planned for them long ago." He has plans for your children, and the burden of your children's future is not on you, but it's God's burden and our child's responsibility to walk in the gifts and talents He has given them.
The word "talent" comes from the Greek word that once meant money, but was eventually shaped into a word that defined our natural gifts, skills, and abilities, and so our talents. It comes from the parable of the talents, and that parable talks about using what God gave us to glorify Him. And when we operate in our talents, as I mentioned, we bring glory to God and are rewarded with even more. In the parable of the talents, there is a master. The master is going away on a long journey—and that's Jesus ascending into heaven—and he leaves talents for his servants. One is given five talents, one is given two, and one's given one, and he's gone for a very long time. At the end, he comes back and one servant says, "Look, I invested these talents, I worked with these talents, and I doubled the talents." And he made ten. The five talents became ten, the two talents became four, and he said, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in a few things, and I will now put you in charge of many things." And that's the heavenly reward. He talks about this being what the kingdom of God is like. And he says, "Enter into my joy," which is of course going to heaven. But then we get to the one guy who didn't use his talent. He was the one who was given one talent, and he didn't use the talent because he didn't know God. He didn't know his master. He thought his master was not good. He says, "I know you are a hard man." And he didn't trust Him. He didn't trust the way He operated. He didn't trust anything about God. And we all know people like that; we know people who don't like God, who don't trust God, who thinks God is cruel. And this is just like this guy with one talent. And more importantly, he chose not to use the talents God gave him. And in the end he got his just deserts.
So what God is telling us here is actually a spiritual law. We can also see this exact same concept in the book of Mark, where Jesus says, "Does anyone bring in a lamp and put it under a basket or under a bed? Doesn't he set it on a stand? But there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light." So we are a lamp and God has given us gifts, our gifts are like a lamp, and we are to shine forth our gifts that God has given us. We are not to hide them and bury them like the guy with the talent. And Jesus says, "If anyone has ears, let them hear." He went on to say, "Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use it will be measured to you and even more will be added to you. For whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." And we can see this truth in our own lives. When we see someone using the talents that God has given them, we see them develop even more talents. We see them expanding those talents. But when people choose to, out of fear or just not trusting that God is at work, just absolutely not living in the purposes and plans that God has for them, it's almost like they have fewer...like their talents almost just wither away. And it's really sad. And really, God is encouraging us to look at what He's given us and to use it and hone it. And this, as homeschool parents, is what we need to be helping our children discover: who they are, how God created them, and how to discover the talents, the gifts, the passions, the interests, the things that God planned—purposed beforehand—long ago for them to walk in, the good works, the vocation that He plans to use in them to glorify Himself. As they walk in those talents, more will be given to them. And I have to say that homeschooling is the absolute best place for children to develop their talents.
Public school is actually designed to mold children into a specific pattern that is not their own unique design. Before Rockefeller and all the billionaires and the government created the modern education system, children treasured the American dream of finding their destiny and working in a vocation that brought them joy. Benjamin Franklin's dad apprenticed to many different business owners, trying to help him discover what he loved. And he loved reading and writing best of all so printing was his destiny, and he found great joy in being a printer and a writer. The education system is the worst place for a person with a destiny, which is everybody. Every person God created has talents and a purpose, but often God's plan, it's hijacked because of the education system. Not only do children lose interest in learning and discovering new interests and passions, but their time is stolen by the school system. Of the 14 to 16 hours a child has in a day, the morning and afternoon are spent getting ready for school, sitting in a class, attempting to listen to a teacher drone on and on, cramming for tests, filling out worksheets, making their way home. That takes about nine hours of their 14 to 16 hours awake. Nine. And then after that there's eating, and then maybe an activity or sport, and then there's homework, and then there's bedtime, and it's done. Their day is stolen from them. The days are robbed of any time to learn about themselves, to find their interests, their passions, and to hone their talents, to grow into the person God created them to be. They are just trying to get through the week to the weekend where they can finally rest. And believe me, they're not trying to figure out their passions and interests and talents and working hard towards developing them or honing them on the weekend, because they are exhausted from having been on somebody else's schedule. What homeschooling does, it puts children on the fast track to discovering and honing and developing their talents, to finding what interests them, to developing new skills, to growing their brain and their thinking and their character, all the things they need to walk in God's purposes for them.
I remember once I was checking into a hotel and there was a huge conference going on at the hotel, so there was a really, really long— The check-in line was probably an hour long. There were hundreds of people in the line. But years before I had signed up to be a member of the hotel, you know to get points and all that. Well, guess what? I saw one small line over in the far corner, and that was the fast-track lane for people who were members. And so I was able to get checked in within minutes; I didn't have to wait in that hour-long line. And it hit me that this is the actual difference between spending your childhood in the school system and homeschooling. If you don't try in your homeschool to emulate the public schools with their scope and sequence and their schedule, homeschooling will allow God's perfect plan to unfold in your child's life in their early years, and children can actually become very advanced in their chosen path during the high school years. But if they go to an institutional school, that purpose that God has for them will often be delayed. And sometimes—and you know people like this—they never figure out what they love to do. They never figure out what interests them. They can go their whole lives and never walk in the fulfillment of the purposes God has for them, because their brain has been trained to just be obedient to the school system. If your child goes to an institutional school, like public or private school, it doesn't mean they'll never move into God's purposes and plan for them. It's just often delayed. It's a delayed fulfillment.
And that actually happened to me in my own life. I, from a very young age, was an avid writer. I wrote my first book when I was ten years old, and I was writing, writing, constantly writing in my journals and writing stories and constantly writing all through high school. In fact, instead of doing math in my math class, I was writing a book, writing a story. I was constantly writing, writing, writing. And nobody suggested to me that I should pursue writing as a career. I never even thought about making writing my career. All that time I'd been honing writing, I was reading books. I read books so much that I was a little bit strange in that people would be trying to talk to me on the phone and they would say, "Are you reading a book right now?" They knew I was always reading a book because I was just off in another land all the time. And so all of this reading, all of this writing was just part of who I was. But when I went to college, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I took so many different classes trying to figure it out. I ended up taking tons of history courses, tons of psychology courses, tons of science courses. I was originally a pharmacy major, so I took major, very difficult science courses. And I liked science. I did like it. I enjoyed it. I was very— Obviously, as you can tell, I've written a great many science books. God used that in my life, all that pharmacy and all the science courses that I took. He used it later in my life, which turned out for the good. God can use everything and will use everything for the good of those who are called according to His purpose. And so I ended up taking tons of science courses. But then I met my husband and he said, "Let's get married as soon as you graduate." And so I thought, "Oh goodness, I've just been taking class after class and don't even have a plan." Because I decided I didn't want to be a pharmacist after meeting a bunch of pharmacists and they didn't love their job. And I thought, "I don't want a job I don't love." And so I changed my major to psychology, which allowed me to graduate more quickly and get married.
So I was able to graduate within that semester. Changed my major to psychology, added up a bunch of psychology courses, and then I graduated, and so I got married. That was the best decision I ever made, so happy I did that. But then I was still lost in what I wanted to do with my life. Well, thankfully my husband had a job where I didn't have to work. So I was— My husband says I was a stay-at-home mom with no kids, which is what I was. I ended up realizing writing was something I could do as a passion. I did that while I was a stay-at-home mom with no kids. I was writing stories. I was writing books. I was writing pamphlets. I was writing manuals. I was writing the newsletter for my church. I was publishing the publications for my church, you know, helped them put together the little brochures. Back then when you went to church, you got a little brochure every Sunday that had lots of information in it, and I would write articles for the church. And then the Lord just led me eventually to get a master's degree in creative writing. And eventually, after I started homeschooling, I realized that there was no great science curriculum that brought my children joy and used the Charlotte Mason model, and so that's why I created the science books that I wrote, which eventually were published by Apologia. But I didn't write my first book until I was 30 years old. I didn't write my first published book until I was 30 years old. And God worked all that out. I mean, that was exactly His plan for me. I wasn't going to write a book until it was His time for me to do so. But I do feel like if I had known earlier that this was the career I was going to go on, then I would have been fast tracked into that. It would have been different. Of course you know God's plans and purposes are sovereign, and He worked it all out, and He will do that with our children. Even if you have college age children and they still don't know what they want to do. That's okay. God is going to work it out. The key is that our children are attentive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 45 says, "Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done and the plans you have for us. If I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count. Sacrifice and offering, you did not desire, but my ears you have opened." And that's the key, is that our ears, our children's ears must be opened. You see, if God has a plan for you, which He says He does, if He has a plan for your children, He must also have a will for your life, and your child's life. He has a will for their moments, for their days, for their weeks, hours and years. And this is a unique will that is created especially for your child to walk the path God purposes for them. His will for your child is not the same for other children. It's not the same for your other children. It's not the same for the other children that are homeschooling, the children in public school. His will is different and so we must teach our children, and also we must be attentive to His voice. We must have ears that are open that can hear His leading, that can be guided by Him and what we do with our children. And we don't want to emulate and model a public school system which is producing children that leave high school completely unsure of who they are, what they want to do, what their purpose is, they've just been working, working, working to get to that end goal, which is graduation. And then they leave, they're 18 years old and they have no idea who they are. That was me. It was probably many of you. We're trying to get through school and then we went to college. Some of us had some idea, "I want to go pre-law, pre-med." Most of us changed our majors many times as I did. But we can do better as homeschoolers. We can do things differently.
And the fact is, is that God has told us that He will reveal His will to us if we seek Him for it. Colossians 1 says, "Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work." Praying for and asking God to fill you with a knowledge of His will...of His will. He wants us to be filled with the knowledge of His will. We can actually know God's will for our lives. Our children can know God's will for themselves as well, as the same Holy Spirit that speaks to us, speaks to them. Remember, He says, in order to come to Him, we must be like a little child. It's very likely that your children can discern God's voice even better than you, because they are little children. And that's the spirit. That's the attitude. That's the heart that is most attentive to God's voice.
Is there anything worse than spending a lot of money on something you are unhappy with and feeling like you're stuck with it? Well, I do have good news for you. You've probably heard me talking about our sponsor for our podcast, Medi-Share. Members of Medi-Share save up to 50% or more per month on their healthcare costs. They say the typical family saves up to $500 per month. And here's the best part: you can become a member at any time. So that means it isn't too late to switch to a more affordable healthcare option that will save you money and help you sleep better at night. If this is the first time you're hearing about Medi-Share, it's the best alternative to health insurance that allows Christians to share one another's medical bills, offers access to 900,000+ healthcare providers, and has a proven almost 30 year track record. Plus, in addition to saving hundreds per month, telehealth and tele behavioral counseling are included with membership. It literally takes two minutes to see how much you can save. To investigate this for you and your family, go to GreatHomeschoolConventions.com/MediShare.
Romans 12:1-2 says the same thing about knowing God's will. He says, "Therefore, I urge you, brethren, on account of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God." The will of God is not the same for every single person. If that were true, then we wouldn't need to "be not conformed to this world and be transformed by the renewing of our mind." Because we need to be able to test and approve and know, through being transformed by the Holy Spirit, through being brought into a close relationship with God, then we can know the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Paul is saying, God wants to teach us individually what is His good, pleasing and perfect will for our lives. He's asking the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of His will, so that they can please him and bear fruit in the good work that God has purposed for them. And if God has a will, a special, unique will for your child, then our job as homeschoolers is to help our children discover God's will. And as we see in Romans, the most important aspect of that is to lead our children into a close walk with God. That is more important than any academic subject you need to get through this year. We need to lead our children into a walk where they can discern the leading of the Holy Spirit, the voice of the good Shepherd.
In John 10, Jesus says, "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me." We need to help our children to hear His voice. To have their ears opened. That's what our job is as homeschoolers, because then they can be led into the divine curiosity. And we must learn as homeschoolers to temper our will and our agenda and our plans in order to respect our children's curiosities and allow them time and energy to pursue those interests that are igniting in their spirit. And we must believe that these unusual curiosities, these new interests, are the leading of the Holy Spirit. We must believe, as Charlotte Mason said, that God is the supreme educator of our children and that their curiosities are divinely inspired, divinely led by the good Shepherd.
In examining the school system and its measures and methods, Charlotte Mason said, "The divine curiosity, which should have been an equipment for life, hardly survives early school days." It's such a shame and we know it's true, the studies prove it. They show that most children lose their interest in learning by the age of seven. Before then, they were filled with curiosity, filled with interest in learning, interests in everything. They had so many interests. Everything they saw, everything they noticed, everything they read, they wanted to know more about. But what happened at age seven? The school system. But we can do things differently. We must do things completely differently. We must not make ourselves slaves to the education system in our homeschool. We need to release the need to follow their structure, their scope and sequence, their methodologies. We must allow room for the Holy Spirit to do His work in our children, and allow the Holy Spirit to reign in our homeschool. Not our schedules, not our agendas, not our fears and anxieties and worries of our children keeping up with everyone else. We need to release that and trust God. Trust that He has a plan for our children, and if we allow Him control of our homeschool, He will do a better job than we can and a much better job than the school system has ever done, because they are failing our children. They were never designed to give our children a unique education. They were never designed to usher our children into their destinies. They're failing our children because that's what they were designed to do.
God has a plan and purpose for our children. And as homeschoolers, we have this beautiful, unique opportunity to allow God to direct our steps. Our job as homeschoolers is simply this, to cooperate with the leading of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our children's lives, in their moments, in their days, in their weeks, months and years. And in order to do that, we must keep alert to the desires they express. Sometimes we're so busy with our own agenda that we neglect to truly listen to the words coming out of our children's mouths, and how significant they are. Ask the Lord to make your heart soft to the leading of the Holy Spirit in your children's lives. And when they express something, listen and ask questions. Notice the interest that they have, whether new interests or interests that have continued throughout years, and talk to them about those interests and talk to them about possibilities for their future with those interests. And explain to them that God has a plan and purpose for them, and God has good works they're going to walk in, and God designed them, created them, molded them in your womb, and already planned and purposed for them their entire future and the way that they're going to be most fulfilled and happy. And that your job right now, and their job right now is to follow their interests, to develop the skills that come naturally, to hone skills they wish to master. Our job is to listen to their dreams and for them to pay attention to their own dreams. Examine the themes, the things that are similar in your child's interests that keep popping up. The things that they want to do and spend time doing, how are they related to each other? How is this something that God may be honing as a vocation for their future? And in some cases, those interests are just a stepping stone to develop their character as they master those interests.
Whatever it is, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our children. We need to keep our eyes focused, ears open to the Lord, and not let fear and a system of education that's failing our children, that we have been brainwashed to believe is the right way to do it, not let that be our master. We need to let the Holy Spirit be our master. And we need to commit, as it says in Proverbs 16:3, we need to commit our children to the Lord. We need to commit to the Lord our entire homeschool, whatever we do. And the word promises that if we do that, He will establish our plans. And so, even though we may have planned out our entire year, what we're doing, we invested in the curriculum, we invested in all these things, we need to allow the Lord to determine our steps. We need to allow Him— We need to allow freedom in our homeschool for our child to pursue what it is on their hearts. We need to allow more time in our school day to let the Holy Spirit lead. And this is hard for us as homeschool moms because we have so much— We've allowed so much burden to be put on our shoulders to ensure our children are measuring up. But instead of letting that be our guide, we need to release all of that to God, trust that He has a plan and a purpose for our children, trust that He wants the best for them, and that His plan for them is unique. And that yes, it's important to ensure they get all the subjects that they need to continue, but perhaps not spending as much time on a subject as we originally planned. Maybe they're not going to do math every day. We need to allow time for their special interests to be honed, allow the special interests to dominate their school day. Yeah, we need to get the other subjects done, but they do not have to have the same focus that we originally planned.
This requires trust. This requires trust in the Word of God. That everything God says in His Word is true. That we're not in charge. That if we let Him be in charge, He will do a better job. That if we let Him— If we release our children and our homeschool into His hands—we cast our cares on Him—He will take care of it. And He has plans and purposes that He wants to develop in our children. And part of this is not allowing concern over a child's developmental delays or inabilities, to dominate our thoughts and our worries, and not come out of our words or our actions during our homeschool. I made this mistake several times in my homeschool. Sometimes the delay is just a developmental delay that does not need to be a focus. And sometimes a child's lack of development is just not part of God's plan for them. You know, our children do not have to develop at the same rate as everyone else. And no child is designed to be good at everything. That's just not how God made us. He made us to be good at the things that are important to Him, that are important to our purpose. And if we expect our child to be good at every subject, then we're trying to fit our children into the world's standard and the standardized education. And that's not God's plan and purpose.
I remember once I was at a conference years ago in Mississippi, and a lady wanted to speak with me, so I took some time out of the conference schedule to have a little chat with her. And she was very concerned, she had a lot of anxiety, and she said, "I have just this really big problem that I'm really struggling with with my daughter. She's been playing an instrument—" I don't remember what instrument it was. "—She's been playing an instrument for many years since she was a little child, and she has struggled in math. And this past year, we're trying to get her through. We're trying to get her through high school..." And her sophomore year, she failed geometry. She just didn't understand it. She didn't get it. Meanwhile, she's doing the junior symphony orchestra. She's got lots of time, she's focusing her attention on that. And her junior year of high school, she made her retake geometry in a class and had a tutor come every day so she was focused on geometry. And then at the end of that class, she still failed geometry. Nevertheless, she had been asked from the symphony orchestra, not the junior symphony orchestra, but the symphony orchestra of whatever town she was in. I don't even know. She was from Mississippi. But whatever town she was in, they asked her daughter during her senior year if she would come and be a member of the symphony, she would have a seat on the symphony orchestra. And the mom said, "I just don't know if I can let her do that because she hasn't passed geometry." I was astonished because, you know, I've always had this mindset of, you are gifted in the areas God gifted you, and you're not gifted in areas you were never meant to be gifted. And it doesn't matter. It's not important.
In fact, I saw a TikTok the other day, this really funny guy, he says a lot of really short quippy things. And he said, "I'm really glad that I spent so much time learning parallelograms instead of learning how to do taxes. Boy, those parallelograms come in handy almost every day." And I laughed, I thought, "That's exactly right." But I encouraged the mom just that, you know, that's not God's design for her, and we can't force our design or the school systems design into our children. Sometimes a lack of development is just not part of God's plan for them. And sometimes it's just a developmental delay that does not need to be focused on right now. One example is my son. He had dyslexia and dysgraphia and all kinds of other stuff. And I was really concerned because I knew he understood math, he was just had this— I could explain something to him and show him concrete examples, and then he could come up with— When he was in fifth grade he could come up with really complex math equations in his head and do them. But when he saw something on paper, it didn't make any sense to him. When he would try to write out stuff, he wasn't able to write his numbers correctly. He wasn't able to do the math work on the page. And he ended up able to get through high school math. Well, believe it or not, he is now actually working in his giftedness in math. He actually is creating advanced AI technology using sine and cosine graphs and math that is beyond what I consider human normalness. He is absolutely one of the most brilliant math minded people I've ever met. And he has created AI technology that is unique and brand new, that nobody has done and nobody has seen. He has a company that they're starting and it's just brilliant. It's so amazing. Yet here was somebody who struggled finishing his math sheet and making his numbers look correct on the page. But we need to not fear and be anxious about those things because your child is exactly what he or she is supposed to be on this day and this year. They are exactly what God needs them to be. They are exactly what God designed them to be.
Psalm 139 tells us, "For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works. I know this very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body, and all my days were written in your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be." Every single one of your child's days was ordained for him, for her. They were written in God's book before your child was even a twinkle in his daddy's eyes, as they say. All his days were already written. Why do we need to fear and have anxiety and concern over a child's being behind in something? That was already written in God's book, and that's part of God's plan for them. Our job is to focus on the strengths that God has given them. We are not to focus on the areas that aren't yet strong or were never meant to be strong. And here's a word of warning from someone I know who teaches children who have developmental delays and autism—she's got a special education degree—and she really recommends do not run to a specialist when your child is delayed, because labeling a young child is both wrong and destructive, and 1 or 2 or even 4 days of testing cannot tell anyone anything about your child's abilities or lack thereof, and their futures. There's no truth in it, and all it does is it puts your child in a box.
It also causes us to start speaking words over our child, which may not be true. We have to be careful what we say, and be careful what we make a big deal about, especially if it's a delay in learning, or an ability in learning, or a lack of interest in learning. We need to not make a huge deal about things that our children are not strong in, because what that does is it tells our children that the most important thing is this thing they're not strong in. It's a lie that hijacks our children's belief in themselves. And again, their delay may be a strength in their future, as my son's was. We must teach to our children strengths, because those are the gifts and talents that God has given them. And we need to believe God's Word in this because that's part of it. Jeremiah 29:11, everyone's favorite verse, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future, and a hope." Charlotte Mason says, "We understand how ideas emanating from our Lord and Savior, which are of His essence, are the spiritual meat and drink of His believing people." The ideas emanating from our Lord are the spiritual meat and drink of our children. And again, the same Holy Spirit that led you to homeschool, that brought you into relationship with Him, the same Holy Spirit of untold wisdom, the mind of Christ, speaks directly to your children, leads your children, guides them. The Holy Spirit teaches them, inspires them, and gives them idea after idea after idea after idea. And that is your child's spiritual meat and drink. That is the Lord who knows and wants for your child to walk in the unique path he planned for them long, long ago.
Psalm 32:8 says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you." He will instruct our children and teach our children in the way they should go. Sometimes our job is simply to get out of the way of the Holy Spirit, to put down our agenda, and allow God's agenda to take over. "I will counsel you with my eye upon you." He will counsel us and He will counsel our children. Let's put our trust in the word of truth that God has given us, and allow our children room, space, time to allow our children to discover their purpose.
Theologian William Barclay said, "There are two great days in a person's life, the day we are born and the day we discover why." As it says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." God's got great plans for your children, and He called you to homeschool for that purpose, to help them have the space and room to develop into the people that He chose for them to be. Our job is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, to build our children's relationship with God, to develop their character over and above everything else, because that will help them to walk steadily on God's path, and to help them have time to hone their interests, to pursue their passions, to dream their dreams, to invest in the things that they want to pursue, to help them to become excellent in the things they love and want to be excellent in. To give them time to do that and not focus all their time and attention on things they were never meant to be amazing at. Focus on their strengths. That's God's plan and purpose for them. Thank you for listening. As always, if you enjoyed this podcast, it would be such a blessing if you left a review. And please go to my website to learn about all the things that God has inspired me to create for your homeschool. Anytime you email me or message me, I am just excited to hear from you and I hope you all have a blessed week! Thank you so much!
Hey, a couple more things: Do you wish you had a Charlotte Mason mentor? Someone to keep you focused on the things that matter—the Lord, His word, and prayer, and habit-training, and living books, nature study, and, of course, the most neglected thing of all, self-care? Well, I have the perfect mentor for you: the Charlotte Mason heirloom planner. It is much more than a planner. It's a guide and a mentor and a place to chronicle your treasured moments and memories. All the things you want to remember and keep sacred and special from this homeschool journey. Check it out on my website at JeannieFulbright.com, and learn about that and so many of the other Charlotte Mason curriculum and tools that I have created to make your homeschool journey the richest and most fulfilling experience of your life. Thanks again for listening to the Charlotte Mason Show.
If you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast. And while you're there, leave us a review. Tell us what you love about the show. This will help other homeschooling parents like you get connected to our community. And finally, tag us on Instagram @HomeschoolingDotMom, and let us know what you thought of today's episode. And don't forget to check out my friends at Medi-Share because you deserve healthcare. You can trust to learn more about Medi-Share and why over 400,000 Christians have made the switch, go to GreatHomeschoolConvention.com/MediShare.
Have you joined us at one of the Great Homeschool Conventions? I would love for you to come. On my website I have a special coupon code that you can use when you register. The Great Homeschool Conventions are the homeschooling events of the year with amazing speakers, hundreds of workshops to help you homeschool well, and the largest curriculum exhibit halls in the United States. People travel from all over the United States to Missouri, South Carolina, Ohio, California, and Texas to find encouragement, friendship, and curriculum. Be sure to go to my website JeannieFulbright.com for your coupon code. And when you're at the convention, please come by my booth and say "hello" because I love meeting homeschoolers in real life. It's always fun to have new homeschool friends. So thank you so much for listening and I do hope to see you at the convention. Have a blessed rest of the week.
