With the Winter Games 2014 beckoning, my thoughts drift back to the days when my children were younger (they are now 22 and 19) and we studied the Olympics with the Amanda Bennett Unit Study guide in book format. Not to age myself, but this was pre-internet! Enthralled with the sport and the history of the game, it has only been in the recent years that I have been awed by the spiritual applications to us as homeschool families.
“Citius, Altius, Fortius” or “Faster, Higher, Stronger” became the official Olympic motto in 1894. Based on the words of Dominican Priest, Henri Didon, they were first expressed during the opening ceremony of a school sporting event in 1881. Founder of the Olympic International Committee, Pierre de Coubertin officially adopted them just 13 years later. Fascinating, right, but are you wondering how this apply to yourself as a homeschool Mom? Pierre de Coubertin further elaborated on this motto with the explanation, “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”
Fighting well. Does your homeschool feel like a war zone? Whether math battles, interpersonal relationship struggles or the overwhelming feeling that you cannot do it all and should just quit, does conflict rage all around you? As moms and dads called by God to the higher task of home-educating our children, we must actively remind ourselves that He will strengthen us, IN and FOR the journey. Consider Hebrews 12:1-3, which exhorts us to run with perseverance: to run Faster, Higher, and Stronger than ever before.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (NASB) Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Dear Sister, if you are faltering in this homeschooling journey, stay the course…Set your eyes on Jesus…the Author and Perfecter of your faith. He is faithful. Without Him, my homeschool journey would not have been perfected. Not a perfect journey, rather a perfected and completed journey. I know He will meet you at your deepest need. Consider Him. Do not grow weary and lose heart.
Running the Race,
Deanne
