The Man in the Mirror
Dad's Corner
December 8, 2015 | by
By guest author Kirk Smith
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
There is no secret formula to homeschooling success. It would be nice if there were. One reason for this lack of specificity is that God will have no other gods before Him, even His own principles. This is why we are to seek God above all else. Yes, we read books. Yes, we listen to podcasts. Yes, we go to conventions.
These things, however, are not an end in themselves. Instead, they are designed to point us to Jesus.
When we constantly gaze upon Jesus through the reading of His Word, prayer, preaching, teaching, and meditation, several things happen.
First, Jesus Christ is truth as He proclaimed in John 14:6. When we look at Him, it acts as a mirror to our lives. Unlike people’s opinion of us or even our own self-awareness, He is a perfect mirror, which accurately reveals various flaws, unbiblical perspectives and conduct that have found residence in our lives.
These scars, personality idiosyncrasies, and sinful patterns in turn prompt us parents to raise our children in a certain manner. Raising our children out of our own scars can lead to future difficulties, and the negative pattern continues into the next generation.
Just as with our physical imperfections, we are easily embarrassed or ashamed when these flaws come to the light.
Because many have been raised with conditional love, they think because they have these shortcomings, God doesn’t love them anymore. The devil wants to blind us to the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). In order to survive this unmerited condemnation, our pride tries to deny or minimize the things that the Holy Spirit is trying to show us. The problem is, this doesn’t change the reality. We have these issues, and they affect how we see and act, sometimes motivating us to make mountains out of molehills or make real mountains into small molehills.
The good news is that God doesn’t leave us in this place of emotional and spiritual vulnerability but rather uses this knowledge as part of the progression that leads to wholeness. Gazing upon God causes us to be supernaturally “transformed” into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit. We start to see more like He sees and act more like He would have us act. Rather than having our children try to make up for our unmet needs, we give them over to God, asking Him to train them as He would.
Every one of us homeschooling parents wants our children to be well adjusted. We want them to relate properly to God and others. While this is ultimately the result of God’s grace, we must understand that God will use us parents, not exclusively but predominantly, to see that this happens.
This is a heavy responsibility under whose weight I have felt myself buckle at various seasons in my children’s lives. I don’t want to pass on my “junk” to my kids; therefore, it is incumbent upon me to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Fortunately, God gives us the recipe. We are simply to seek His kingdom and person first, knowing that when we do that, we will more clearly see the man in the mirror and thereby be transformed into the likeness of the Son of Man.
About the Author: Kirk Smith
Kirk Smith serves as Executive Director of Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE). He lives with his wife Joely in Bone Gap, Illinois, where they homeschool their 11 children. You can read more about them here.
This article was originally posted on the ICHE Blog and is shared with permission.