I know homeschoolers who used the excuse that the "Spiritual life" of the children was more important than academics in their homeschooling.
I was disturbed one time when a young person who was homeschooled was reading something I wrote in my own handwriting, which was cursive, and said; "I can't read this." My handwriting was not bad at all they just were not used to penmanship.
I am convinced diligence and training in excellence go hand in hand with Spiritual maturity. When we teach children to "practice until they have done their best" we are training them to be diligent in all things including their Spiritual walk with Christ.
Diligence is not something that is merely taught, it is also practiced in the very early stages of a child's development. The best piano players were those who started when they were four years old before they chose for themselves.
Children need structure and intense practice at their work in order to grow into responsible hard-working adults.
We have a phrase in our culture that grates on my nerves every time I hear it; "that person is a workaholic never taking time to play."
This "play" mentality has ruined our culture. When we love our work we don't feel a need to play. Play and enjoyment is our work. We can choose to enjoy whatever job we are doing, even the most menial jobs can be enjoyable when we do our best and love the outcome more than we need prestige.
The idea that play has as much value as work is not Biblical and certainly not mature.
Rest is important, to take a break one day a week to allow our bodies to rejuvenate is far different from wearing ourselves out playing, creating nothing except temporary feelings of glee. The feelings only last as long as the play continues and as long as someone can boast about the play to others.
I remember Catholics who didn't believe in working on Sundays would wash their cars and say; "its not work as long as we enjoy it. In other words, they believe in the "Christian Sabbath" of resting on a particular day but found ways around it by calling the work fun. It was all so convoluted it seemed silly to me.
There is no Christian sabbath and play is not important and even distracting from what is important.
God never told us we needed to play, He did tell us to rest. Play is not restful, in fact very often it is competitive, useless and exhausting.
1 Corinthians 13:11-12
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."
There is nothing more satisfying to me than spending a day getting something worthwhile done and resting at the end of the day looking back at the accomplishment. When we enjoy working and accomplishing we have no need for play.
When we work hard at something work will not be work but will be our enjoyment. We don't even have a need to boast about it, just knowing something was accomplished and perhaps pleased God that we did it well is enough for us.
In the matter of homeschooling, it is vitally important that children learn to practice over and over again to become excellent at what they are learning, it carries them through the rest of their lives with the mentality of excellence in everything they do and especially excellence in their walk with Christ. if they choose to follow Him..
Colossians 3:23
"23 Whatever you do, do your work [a]heartily, as for the Lord and not for people,"
Ephesians 4:28
"28 The one who steals must no longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need."
John 6:27
"27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Proverbs 12:11
"11 One who works his land will have plenty of bread,
But one who pursues worthless things lacks sense."
There are many more verses that extol the virtues of hard work that produce something one can enjoy for a long time and that perhaps bless others. There are no passages that describe the importance of playing, not one single one.
Playing may not be considered a sin in our culture but childishness is a lack of maturity that minimizes our spiritual and emotional growth.
Genesis 2:15
"15 Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it."
Before the fall mankind loved his work, it was his enjoyment.
Thank you Karebear for bringing this topic to my attention in the chat. I have thought of this many times and your chat encouraged me to write about it here.
