The Concrete
My dad taught me there are four ingredients to concrete. Sand, rocks, cement and water. My dad grew up in Indiana and his father was a sea wall builder. They would build sea walls around Sylvan Lake with beautiful round rocks and would work quickly to carefully place rocks and pour concrete to build sea walls. He knew a lot about concrete.
The Forms
If you have ever gone on a housebuilding mission trip, renovated your house, built a new house, or worked with concrete, you know the importance of setting the forms. Forms aren’t that pretty to look at. Forms are wooden planks, laid down horizontally, with stakes holding them in place. The forms serve an important role to set the boundaries and edges for concrete to be poured. Often engineers and concrete workers spend a long time preparing the forms, making sure they are level, square, lined up properly, and in the right places. Once the forms are set it is time to pour the concrete. Depending on how much concrete you need, you might have cement trucks, portable mixers or wheelbarrows, you begin to pour the concrete into the forms. The forms keep the concrete in place, setting boundaries and building a strong foundation. Once poured and set, you wait for the concrete to dry and harden.
The Homeschool Advantage
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This scripture isn't just a suggestion; it's a blueprint for parenting. Homeschooling gives us as parents the chance to be architects of our children's future, molding them with care, understanding their unique needs, and guiding them in their faith and learning. Just like setting the forms for a house, we can set the forms for our children and tailor education to fit each child, to build on their strengths, set boundaries, and integrate critical components of their education; like faith, scripture, ethics, character, and morals. Setting the forms and boundaries in our children’s lives can be hard, sometimes back breaking work, that leaves us exhausted at the end of the day!
When I first started serving in the church I was a junior high director, and I saw the long term affects of what happens when these “forms” aren’t set right. I’ve seen firsthand the struggles of children who come from shaky, poorly set, or cracked foundations—academically, morally, and spiritually. Occasionally it felt like we had to use a jackhammer to break apart some of the foundations that these students were building their lives on.
Homeschooling is the construction of a sacred trust - a chance to lay down a foundation in a child that will last their whole life. As a homeschool dad, I’ve seen the fruits of this labor in my family and in the families of so many others who have embraced this journey. As Jesus reminds us, the house that is built on the rock will last! I want to encourage you to continue to labor in this most important work! Setting frames, ensuring boundaries, pouring lasting and strong foundations in your children’s lives is hard work, but the blessing of seeing your children’s lives being built on a good foundation will last forever!
by Mike Sedgwick, HCS School Board Secretary