Home Educating with Contentment: A Grace that Oils the Way

Home education is generally for the long-haul and contentment is a grace that oils the way. Some of us genuinely have our dream job. All we wanted to do when we were growing up was to marry, have babies and then look after them. Others of us did not enter into home educating quite so willingly! Contentment is not an automatic consequence of choosing a certain path. Mothers often make great sacrifices to stay home and take on the bulk of educating children and I think we need to acknowledge that some ladies feel this more keenly than others.

 

If we are convinced that we should be home educating our children but struggle with actually liking what we are doing then we have a wonderful precedent in none other than the Apostle Paul who had to learn contentment.

 

‘…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.’ (Philippians 4:11-12)

Paul did not automatically have godly reactions to every situation. Learning contentment was a process and perhaps for some of us, educating our children is the anvil upon which the Lord fashions our contented hearts.

 

I recognise that part of the way that I strive to find contentment in what I do is by reflecting on the bigger picture and I want to share some of the bigger picture with you because if we are mothers who are learning to be contented as we stay home to raise our children then our heart’s attitude towards our work has far wider repercussions than the immediate blessing to our little ones.

 

Feminism is an attack on the categories that God has created and defined. God created Adam and Eve “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) and he created Eve to be a “helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18). Of course, when God speaks, there is always a pushback and never has this pushback been so obvious as in our generation where not only have the roles of male and female been ignored and pushed to one side, but the very categories of male and female are being robbed of their meaning.

The lie has taken hold that mothers who make home the centre of their activity are bored, lazy, without ambition, soft in the head and domineered by tyrannical husbands who refuse to allow them to go into workplace. However, every mother who refuses to buy into the lie of feminism and who insists by her contented manner and her actions that God’s way is good is a constant reminder and witness to the world and the church that God’s design for the family is a standard that cannot be ignored.

 

Have you ever noticed that once one liberal position has been normalised then the next position becomes grounds for attack? In my lifetime the Church of England marked the ordination of female vicars in 1992, allowed the remarriage of divorcees in 2002 and started pushing for the blessing of “same sex marriages” in 2024. I wonder whether we would be quite where we are today if the feminists had not won the first battle and women had been content with their God-assigned portion.

 

The godly husband who wants his children to receive a Christian education at home does not want to make his wife miserable! If our husband loves us, he does not want to think that he might be causing us sadness or dissatisfaction. It is hard for a husband to think biblically about how to lead his family and how his children are to be educated if his wife’s discontent plays into the matter and fear of upsetting her clouds his decision-making.

 

Surely if we love the Lord, we also want our husband to be led by the Lord through Scripture. We do not want to make biblical decision-making difficult for him by complaining and grumbling so much that he believes he cannot please both God and his wife!

 

Our children will, of course, make their own decisions about family, parenting and education. However, will they not remember our attitude towards staying home and might this not factor into their decision-making? If we are learning contentment in our homes than this could well have an impact on whether our daughters choose to stay home and raise our grandchildren.

 

Our discontented hearts cause us to lose a great deal of time. How often do we allow thoughts of discontent to run through our mind, effectively squandering the capacities of the mind God has given us? Think about it: our minds are active all day long. What fruit do they bring forth? Perhaps we are clearing up the breakfast bowls AGAIN! Our hands are active but our thoughts are complaining. In fact, we mentally complain so much about our task that when we come to sit down with our children, we have worked ourself into a bad mood! Washing up with a contented heart means we are putting our thoughts and meditations to good use. We improve those few minutes for the Lord.

 

There are probably very few people who will express appreciation and approval for all the unseen work of a mother in her home. If we are content to mop floors unnoticed then this is evidence that God’s approval is of far higher importance than the applause of the world. We have a heavenly father who is audience to every nappy we change and every page of maths we mark. He sees the heart with which the task is completed.

 

We are human after all. The most motivated, home-educating mother will have days when she does not want to get out of bed and complete the tasks assigned to her lot. However, the contented mother who works faithfully and quietly behind the scenes is part of the salt that preserves our society from utter decay. The truth is that we can grit our teeth and push on with our task, full of resentment over what we have been called to do or we can ask God to help us delight in our portion, since contentment is a grace that oils the way.