The Homeschooling Conference

Our family attended a homeschooling conference for the last two days. The children went off to their own min-vacation Bible Camp and the husband and I attended workshops and browsed the Exhibition Hall.

I hadn't intended to go this year. I have all the curriculum I need for the next six months (or more!). But the husband wanted to go, the kids wanted to "stay in the hotel with the waterslide" so I said, O.K. I didn't expect to get much from the conference itself. I thought it might be a nice min-vacation.

Steve and Teri Maxwell hosted the conference and after hearing the opening address, I attended almost every session of theirs I could.

Teri Maxwell answered a prayer I hadn't quite articulated to myself. I was sick of homeschooling. I was sick of my children. In spite of recent efforts to spiff up the house, I was mightily sick of it, too. My struggles with the children were nearly never-ending; their squabbles with each other were exhausting. "Getting" them to do school involved a lot of yelling and threatening, and even, pounding on the table. It was exhausting. It was wrong. I wanted to chuck them into school and forget all about it for a while, which, by the by, and for many reasons, is not a realistic option for us. They addressed that longing right up front, in the first talk.

The Maxwells do not speak to the nuts and bolts of homeschooling but to the issues of the heart. They are, for those unfamiliar with them, what I suppose you could call conservative protestant Christians. Ultra-conservative, actually, in my world. But each of them is also humble, honest about their struggles, and non-judgemental.

I wanted to talk to Teri several times on Friday, but, in looking at her speaking times, I realised her schedule was very heavy that day. And as I thought about it, I knew what she would say: "Read your Bible everyday and get back into an obedient relationship with the Lord." It's something she stressed in every session and it is, absolutely, the way to begin to effect the changes that need to happen in my life.

But that's not all she would have said, I'm sure. Teri has developed practical materials to help homeschooling moms: Managers of Their Homes, of which I've heard a great deal from excited, enthusiastic and grateful voices, is her work, as is Managers of Their Chores, and A Meek and Quiet Spirit. I bought all three. I considered trying to speak with her on Saturday, but by then, my despair had passed. You could say, she and the rest of her family had already ministered to me.

I loved her. She questions, she studies, and then she wants a practical way to implement what she needs to do, or, as she said, it doesn't get done. That is me! At first, I had dismissed her because she has a strong husband, committed to leading his wife and family in the ways of the Lord, and mine is different.* But I realised that was simply an excuse on my part. I can still hold up my end of my relationship with God: read my Bible, be obedient and pray. That is all I truly need to do, for now. The Lord will lead me to the rest as He sees fit. Whether that means I'll be wearing my hair and dresses long and baking my own bread, I don't know. It doesn't matter right now. Right now, I must get acquainted with the Lord, again.

So, God gave my husband the desire to attend the conference and I went because he wanted me to go. The Lord has a plan for us. And I shall follow.

*Steve Maxwell also planted seeds in my husband's spirit which give me further cause for hope, but I'm not comfortable talking about him.