I would often say that through homeschooling, I have been given both the opportunity and privilege to become an intentional parent. As I looked back on our 13-year homeschool journey, I have to admit that apart from the hand of the Lord and the instruction from His Word in both our family and homeschooling journey, I would have missed a lot. 

Taking to heart the Lord’s mandate for parents in Deuteronomy 6:4-7, which personally resonated in my heart and so i prayed that I will learn how to apply and model this to our son: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”

In other words, God is so “intentional” in His ways as our ‘Abba’ Father and that’s why He has given this unique instruction for us to “obey”and later on experience the “blessing” at the proper time. 

As I recall our early years of homeschooling, i just cannot help but thank the Lord for ‘homeschooling me first’—humbling and teaching me how to unlearn “old things” that are not pleasing to Him and learn and embrace “new things” that are both pleasing to Him and effective in our homeschooling. 

Seeking Him and His Word early in the morning daily is such a precious discipline/learning for me. I used to start my day with the daily house chores including keeping our home clean and tidy but this got in the way of our homeschooling because all my energies were already exhausted even before I started our homeschooling. To add to that, I saw myself easily irritated and angry because I am tired already. When I cried out to Him for help and asked Him to intervene and make me the kind of godly and intentional parent-teacher He wants me to be for my son Isaiah, then I started to see the positive changes.

Character-focus using our favorite character book, “Achieving True Success” then “Power for True Success” alongside the study of Bible was another valuable learning for me. Doing this daily became our core and the other subjects followed. We were not able to finish the 49 character qualities but learning with my son Attentiveness, Obedience, Diligence, Responsibility, and Truthfulness, to name some and how the different characters of the Bible both in the Old and New Testament have applied/not applied the traits, have transformed us as a family through the years. Learning to address the heart of my son at any given day rather than pushing to finish a lesson is crucial to building the relationship that God wants me to pursue with him, and again I thank the Lord for helping me develop that special relationship/bond with my son even up to now that he is in his college years.

Such a blessing for us to be in a learning environment that will help us to become intentional parents as we follow the Luke 2:52 model, giving us all the same 24/7—not only to help our children grow physically, but to to observe them how they learn and provide various tools for learning and encouraging them to express their learning in various formats, but also to grow spiritually: To love and share Jesus to them and come alongside them, instruct and train them in the way they should go, so even when they are old they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).