Like I mentioned in my one of my last posts, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the gathering of Israel.
Ever since beginning homeschooling almost a year ago, and especially over the past couple of months, I have felt the Lord moving me and impressing upon me to strengthen my family and my children spiritually and to spend time on what matters most. I have felt inspired and impressed to prepare our hearts and home for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
I don’t seem to post much about the details of the intellectual side (math, science, history, language arts) of our homeschool. Don’t take this to mean that we don’t spend time on those things. We do, everyday. I want my children to learn all of those things.
I guess it’s just that it those subjects aren’t separated/segregated from our central focus, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t have strictly secular learning in our homeschool. The spiritual and secular are woven together.
I’ve been amazed at how the gospel is woven into all of the subjects -even math. Math has been helping my boys, especially, to strengthen their connection with God and to seek and receive personal revelation. Perhaps I’ll write more about that on another post.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ enriches and enlarges all other aspects of education and I’ve felt more and more inspired to continually make this the central focus of our home and homeschool (which aren’t actually separate).
I have felt impressed to focus particularly on a few specific things…increasing our ability to receive and act upon personal revelation, learning for ourselves, and living our personal missions that we were sent to this Earth fulfill. Of course all three of these things overlap and are intertwined and all three are helping us to prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
I’ve written about the first two things a few times. I’ll link those at the bottom of this post.
In regards to fulfilling our personal missions, a few days ago, I remembered this worldwide devotional for youth that President and Sister Nelson gave in 2018 where they invited the youth to enlist in the youth battalion of the Lord to help gather Israel.
I decided to watch it with my kids this morning. My oldest, Landon, will be turning 11 in October and next January he will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and able to go to the temple to participate in baptisms for the dead and so he’s only 9 months away from being considered one of the youth.
“My dear young brothers and sisters, these surely are the latter days, and the Lord is hastening His work to gather Israel. That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty. And if you choose to, if you want to, you can be a big part of it. You can be a big part of something big, something grand, something majestic!” (Russell M. Nelson)
As we sang along with the closing song, Hope of Israel, I couldn’t help but get emotional as I thought about my role as a mother at this time on the Earth today. I am raising members of the Hope of Israel, Zion’s army, children of the promised day.
The thought of this fills me with deep gratitude, excitement, humility, and responsibility.
Increasing our ability to receive and act upon personal revelation
Homeschool Journey: Educating our Hearts
True Education is Between a Child’s Soul and God
Nourish Your Heart and Hear Him
Learning for ourselves
This was such beautifully written, Shelly. I love how you have been impressed upon to bring a focus on personal revelation, learning for yourselves and living your personal missions into your homeschooling. These are all such powerful focuses that your church encourages. Your post, and the talk that you linked too, has inspired me to think about how I can also apply them to my own life and that of my children. I particularly love the idea of personal revelation. I don’t believe that it is something that I have encountered outside of your church, but I find the idea of it so powerful and empowering in our relationships with God. You’ve given me so much to think on, thank you!
I truly am grateful to know about and be able to receive personal revelation. God loves each of us and desires to communicate with us, lead, and guide us.