By Their Fruits

How long do you need to teach your children at home before you "officially" become a homeschool family? Like the tests that evaluate a child's academic performance, you can assume homeschooling has arrived at your house when the following are true:

You have more books in your house than groceries.

Your children show up for school in their pajamas.

Your house décor consists of timelines, maps, assorted craft projects, and half-finished science experiments.

Your trips to the library require a laundry basket to hold all the books.

Your refrigerator is perpetually covered in art projects and completed assignments.

Your children think reading history is best achieved while lying on your bed with the family's cats.

Your kitchen pantry holds more school supplies than cooking supplies.

Your children's favorite classmates are their siblings.

Christians, too, have distinct marks that help us gauge whether we are growing more like Christ. In Galatians 5:22 we read of fruits that should be displayed if we are truly following the Lord — love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. As these fruits become more evident in our lives, we can trust the Holy Spirit is working to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). What about your life? Is there fruit that proves you're a follower of Jesus? "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16a).

Lord, thank You for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Let my actions demonstrate Your love not only to my family, but also to the world. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Comments(6 comments)

Aldy D 09/13/2010 13:42:00

that's true. My house look like this. And is true that we reflect our fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Thanks God because He tranform us and teachs us through His Word.

LISA J 09/13/2011 06:58:34

What a blessing it is to be able to home school our children! I have thanked God everyday since my daughter started homeschooling. She is now excited to start her classes and her confidence has grown so much. Which is so much different than when she was in public school. It has been 7 years homeschooling now. I feel she is truly become a better student and truly enjoys school now. Thank you Alpha Omega! We love the Monarch program wish we would have used it sooner. We mostly used the Lifepac system the entire time and it was great for transistion from public school. Now that she is a Senior and planning Online classes for college we went with Monarch and it has been great!

KIMBERLY D 09/13/2011 09:52:14

Thanks for the confirmation. We're official !!!! :_)

TRISTA J 09/13/2012 13:16:33

I am surprised not to read any comments about how difficult it is to display the \"fruits\" to others, especially under the (sometimes) burden of homeschooling. The children often display the fruits of homeschooling; physically in the home with their projects-as-home-decor, socially in their confidence and sense of purpose, academically in their mastery of subjects and easy application of knowledge, and in their communities where they are active members etc, etc. But I find it hard to personally display the real fruits in Galatians 5:22 and I wonder if anyone interacting with me outside of a church setting and without any prior knowledge of my faith would know \"by my fruits\" that I follow the Lord? I am sure that out in the world I look like just another harried housewife going about my busy day and I am not exactly overflowing with love, joy and peace when I am usually working on little sleep and lots of coffee! I hope I am wrong, but I also doubt that my children would describe me most days as displaying gentleness, meekness and temperance. I guess I am lucky that I am a work in progress, my children are very forgiving, and God\'s mercies are infinite and new every morning! Thank you Lord!

TABITHA J 09/13/2012 16:57:53

I am sure that we will have a lot of library books when we start homeschooling. My husband and I go to the library a lot.

TANYA P 09/15/2012 05:42:31

thanks for the resurance that others houses are has booked up has mine.the other day when my son was doing algerbra i remenbered our 1st day of homeschool 4 years ago. when as a 4th grader he couldnt divide or mulitiply. some times over the years i felt like i couldnt possibly be doing a good enough job, was he learning enough? hes first algerbra quiz grade of 100 resured me yesterday thank you so much alpha omega! you made my homeschool possible. this was the 1st place i found help and advice so many years ago.


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