The Space Between

or Seeking Christ

Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash

We were on the road this weekend for a child’s extracurricular activity, something that always makes me feel a bit weird in relation to other homeschoolers in the Charlotte Mason community.  I have been thinking a lot lately about the choices we make as families—how sometimes we find ourselves feeling at odds, for whatever reason, with the community at large. Maybe we are feeling inadequate as a teacher, a leader, or as a friend. Maybe our extra-curriculars have separated us from our original community. Maybe a special need has created a chasm of understanding yet to be filled.

I’m pretty sure we all experience it in some way, at some time, this cognitive dissonance with the educating world around us. But we continue on the potentially lonely way, anyways, because we are born persons who have made commitments and have convictions. The longer I am in this home educating thing, the more I am confident that there is more than one way to make this method work for your family. In certain seasons, you might be teaching embroidery to littles who absorb your every example with heady excitement only to find yourself three seasons later donating all that floss and fabric to the goodwill because you need to make that one extra shelf work for your fourth child’s growing rock collection—or, heaven forbid, their extra medical supplies. It is a constant give and take in which love of one another comes first. There will always be one more book to read, that one handicraft that never quite made the list, that one subject yet to cover. But I was reminded of something so very important this morning as we studied the way in which Paul approached the Corinthian church. He was a very educated and privileged man. He could have come at the church from many different angles. However, the angle he chose was this: to know nothing except Christ and him crucified.”

In all times, the ones where everything feels right and the ones where everything feels off, this is the thing that we as parent-educators should cling to. To know Christ and him crucified. We might have higher level degrees but unless they help us point our children to Christ and Him crucified, they are wasted. We might have the most life-skill knowledge of anyone we know but unless that helps point our children to Christ and Him crucified, those skills are being wasted. We might have half the Bible memorized but unless we are using those verses to help lead our children to Christ and Him Crucified, what are we even doing with ourselves?

On the flip side, our kids might not be able to read at grade level, but if they know Christ and Him Crucified, then everything will be ok. They might not have read any Shakespeare ever, but if they know Christ and Him Crucified then there’s always tomorrow. They might not have any idea how to do a great number of things that other people know how to do, but if they know Christ and Him Crucified, we can rest in the Holy Spirit’s promise to never let them go.

Does this mean that we should not care or work hard on the education we give our kids? Of course not. The fact is that Paul was always learning and teaching many things. When he said to the Corinthians, that all he wanted to know was Christ, he was trying to make a point. RC Sproul says that “Paul was saying that in all of his teaching, in all of his preaching, in all of his missionary activity, the central point of importance was the cross. In effect, this teacher was saying to his students, “You might forget other things that I teach you, but don’t ever forget the cross, because it was on the cross, through the cross, and by the cross that our Savior performed His work of redemption and gathered His people for eternity.’”

Charlotte Mason makes a very similar point about learning and teaching in Home Education (p. 95) when she says, “But we hold that all education is divine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above... that the culmination of all education is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection.”

It is easy to feel like the odd man out if our focus is on non-eternal differences, but in Christ, we strive side-by-side for things eternal. We are pursuing the same end-goal, even if our daily choices are far from each other. Even apart, we strive together.

Cara Williams 2023