Speaking Life Into Your Homeschool {Day 1}

Welcome to my newest 5-day series: Speaking Life Into Your Homeschool. My heart behind this series is to share a little bit of my story along with encouragement, a little humor, and most of all – some practical biblical advice. I believe this is an area that every single homeschooling parent can benefit from as none of us are exempt from speaking harshly. However, I know that if you are here, right now, reading this, your desire is to speak words of life into your homeschool. Come with me, on this 5-day journey to explore ways to honor God, love our children, and speak words of life and God’s blessing into our homeschools!

What is Speaking Life?

Speaking life is simply speaking the promises and “living” words that come from the Bible. Jesus said in John 6:63, “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” And those of us who are Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God – inspired by the Holy Spirit – in written form. So when we begin to speak His word over anything in our life, we begin to produce faith where there is fear – love where there is hate – joy where there is sadness. And the list of the blessings when we speak God’s Word of life are limitless.

Why Speak Life?

Since I first started homeschooling our daughter, I noticed an unwanted “teacher” trying to show up in our school. And no, it wasn’t a neighbor, friend, or family member. It was my mouth. Yes. My mouth.

Why would I call my mouth a teacher? Simply because as parents, the example we set for our children teaches them more about life than anything else during those precious years of development. And that goes double for those of us who homeschool as we are truly the most predominant influence in their lives as we have the blessed opportunity to spend every day with our children. While being home with AND homeschooling your child is one of the most wonderful things a mother can experience, it can also, if not handled carefully also be a dangerous thing. Let’s take a look at what I mean.

The bible tells us in James 3:

⁸ But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness! ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.

Ouch! I cannot count the times that I have said things that did not honor God. And as sad as it may be, I cannot tell you how many times I have spoken unkind words to each one of my children out of frustration over the past 11 1/2 years of being a mother. Does it mean I do not love my children? NO! Does it mean I am a horrible mother? No. However, it does mean that my heart continually needs the type of cleansing that can only be found in Jesus Christ. It means that today, more than ever, I need to speak the Word of God into my heart, mind, family, and homeschool.

Right away when we read James 3:8-10, it only confirms what most adults already know – it is not easy to speak words of life 100 percent of the time. Although that is true, what is also true is the simple fact that we serve a mighty God who tells us in Matthew 19:26 that, “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'”

Those of us who believe God’s Word know that if He says it is possible – then it is possible. Does that mean we’ll overcome negative speaking overnight? No. But what it does mean is that we are able to make daily choices that will eventually lead to complete victory in this area of our life!

Family Devotional

My husband Michael and I also wrote a family devotional that teaches young families how to incorporate positive confessions (from the Bible) into their every day life that will change the course of their thinking. You can learn more about our book here.

If you are looking for some good family scripture lists, come take a peek at our page of FREE printable confession lists at Learning to Speak Life™.

Learning to Speak Life Podcast

Tomorrow, we will talk about the importance of recognizing our need to change in this area of our life! See you then.