Homeschooling parents have daily opportunities to teach their children a crucial concept that the citizens of the world desperately need. Each person needs to know the simple—and profound—truth that “God made me.” That truth reveals to us that He is the Maker and we are the made.
Only a wise and powerful Being could make us amazing people. The fact that He made us tells us that He understands us better than we understand ourselves, and that brings comfort. The fact that He made us also tells us that He knows how we should live. In His Word, He has revealed that to us. When we take those truths deeply into our hearts, they bring comfort, too.
Our children live in a world with expectations that do not fit every child. For example, the world may say that every child must excel in academics or sports or both, but that doesn’t make it true. “All men are created equal.” That is true. But we are not all created the same. Neither is one person inferior or superior to another. The knowledge that God made us assures us that we have great value and that every other person has great value.
Homeschooling allows us to teach our children to love people from different nations. One way to learn to love others is by learning their stories.
Take time to teach your children to listen. While they are young, you will certainly need to guide their listening in order to protect them from evil influences. However, learning to listen and learning to show respect for each person are important life skills. After all, all of those fascinating people are people God created in His image and whom Jesus died to save. We just don’t know from the outside what other people feel or what they need. We don’t know their joys or their pain. Only God sees us clearly. Only He sees others clearly. Praise Him because He loves all of us anyway. God is kind to give us other people who do let us inside. We learn a lot that way.
The oftentimes beautiful story of American history has pages that are ugly. We need to know about these pages. We also need to know about what Americans have done to change course and to bring about the freedoms our founding fathers envisioned.
By taking time to read about or listen to the stories of people past and present, we will better understand their struggles and their triumphs. We can appreciate what others have overcome and aim to be peacemakers and shining lights.
Homeschooling parents can also find many opportunities to discuss justice with their children while they study literature and history. Reading aloud is a wonderful way to talk about justice, simply by applying God’s principles of justice to real events in history and to fictional people and events in literature.