I love clocks. If you were to visit my home, you’d see all sorts of clocks in almost every room of the house. Some of these clocks chime, others ding, some play music, others have a swinging pendulum, while still others display the barometric pressure and humidity levels. (Since I have to adjust the time on each so they all don’t go off at one time, my husband jokes that we have different time zones in various parts of the house!) A number of years ago, I added a cuckoo clock to my clock menagerie; it was something I had wanted for quite some time.
Now cuckoo clocks defy modernity. This one was many years old and didn’t need batteries or electricity. Imagine that! It runs on the principle of two weights attached to a chain that allows the clock to keep time and make its cuckoo sound on the hour and half hour so long as you keep the chains pulled. One pull on each chain lasts for days.
This vintage clock was an auction item I won at the local Community Pregnancy Center fundraising dinner. It had been donated by one CPC supporter. So, when I had some difficulty in making it operate correctly, I didn’t have the benefit of a store to call for assistance in setting it up. Through trial and error, it eventually worked, but not before I was sure I had permanently ruined it six or seven times!
The lesson here: this clock was so well made that despite my ineptitude and impatience, it worked as its designer intended. A corollary lesson for homeschooling parents: your children are so well made that, despite your initial ineptitude and impatience, they can thrive and learn in the homeschooling environment, even if you are a novice rookie.
Many homeschooling parents feel that they might damage their children irrevocably or mar them in such a way that their futures will be forever compromised. Some even keep them in or return them to a public school setting for fear of “doing damage.” However, viewed from a biblical perspective, just the opposite is the case. Keeping them in an environment where the holy fear of the Lord is not the basis and emphasis of all subjects taught, is among the most deceitful and harmful of situations thrust upon children.
Like the craftsman who produced my prize cuckoo clock, the Creator, Designer, Sustainer, and Redeemer of your children constructed His creatures (your kids among them) with the capacity to withstand the bumps and mishaps from operator errorI
The Kingdom-Driven Family 