I often speak and write about nurturing our children’s gifts, talents, and passions—about encouraging their success. Homeschooling offers the unique opportunity to tailor our children’s education to their own personal bents. We don’t have to follow the standard scope and sequence designed for a typical student. The cookie-cutter mentality is often why students leave high school and college not knowing what they are going to do with their lives. They spend so much time focusing on that which is not their area of giftedness that they have no time to develop or even discover their true strengths and passions.
As homeschool moms, we can be used by God to help our children find and hone the gifts He has given them. If we can discover these gifts early and ask God to bring opportunities that will enable our children to develop skill and proficiency in their interests, they will become experts by the time they are ready to step on the path of success to which God has called them. But how do we do this?
Four ways to encourage success
- Give your children a godly worldview—a view that speaks to the fact that they are special and unique creations of God, given a particular purpose for being here on earth. Begin regular discussions about this with your children. Allow this truth to transform their thinking about their lives so they will begin to walk in faith.
- Encourage your children’s special interests when they arise. Pray for and seek out opportunities for your children to develop these interests, gifts, talents and passions. Never allow a lack of funds to keep you from offering these opportunities to your children. Pray about them and see what God will do. If the opportunities are God’s will, He will provide. Remember that God is Yahweh Yireh, our Provider!
- Cooperate with the Holy Spirit by patiently encouraging your children as they pursue their talents, knowing it will require a sacrifice of time and energy on your part. Sometimes God will move your child in a different direction. Allow him to make this change, even if you’ve dedicated a lot of time and energy to a particular interest.
- Teach your children to walk with God. This is the most valuable thing we can do to help our children find the path God has set forth for them. Knowing the still, small voice of God and learning to be obedient to that voice will enable our children to live in the center of His will, bearing fruit in their lives. Focus on helping them grow strong in their faith, and you will be on the road to encouraging success in your children.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
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