Day 750 of 1000
I received mixed reviews from my family on my post about Christian’s 18th Birthday. Lorena and Kelly loved it, but I received a stern lecture on grace and humility from Christian. He is not so keen that people know his age nor does he advertise his accomplishments. I am pretty sure he is right and I am letting pride get the best of me. I am sorry.
Still, there are not so many opportunities for homeschool kids to get accolades for academic achievement. It is not like the kids sent to government schools for warehousing in a Lord of the Flies style social settings so their mothers, at least the ones who are not forced to work for a living, can get their “me” time at their yoga class and their lattes at Starbucks. There are selfies that need to be posted on Facebook and Instagram and kids get in the way of finding time and the right venue for just the right picture. In the meantime, much effort is expended to provide accolade opportunities in the name of building self-esteem in badly socialized kids who are often not so accomplished at either learning or doing.
So, I am really going to try to back it off a bunch, work on my humility, and not be too prideful–at least until (and if) the kids graduate. Even then, I will try to keep it brief.
By homeschooling you’re missing out on praise and bragging opportunities every public school kid receives in the form of report cards, grandparent’s day at school, graduations, GPA, honor rolls, teacher parent conferences, sports teams (and all the recognition opportunities) test scores, spelling bees, geography bees, math bowls, AP classes, honor societies, and on and on! Since when do homeschoolers fail if they are not humble? We are tired of apologizing for our kids success, and think every one else should stop apologizing too! If you’re kid is SuperSmart, we want to hear about it! Your post about Christian seemed just a recitation of facts, not a brag-fest! We know several thing about him you didn’t mention, but could have really bragged about! Although Christian is right about most other things, in this he’s wrong!
Brag on!
Thank you Audrey! We feel the same way about your kids! You and your family know exactly how it is. The thing that is interesting to me is that I think it would be possible for LOTS of kids to do this sort of thing if they just had parents who would pay attention to them in the right way. Sometimes it only seems special in the sense that other people did not make the effort and less because of our own abilities and efforts. I say that not to diminish what Christian (or your kids, or Kelly, or our homeschool friends, the Larsons, or any of many others) has done because he has worked very hard, but to recognize that these are gifts from God for which we are responsible and others might have done the same if they had the chance.
I appreciate your response, Ken. I love the parable of the talents. While it was using money as the example, I don’t think it is an accident that the translation uses the word “talent”. The wise stewards were both praised and rewarded for the investment of their talents. Praise is not the problem, pride is. When praise causes us to bow in humility before God, recognizing His generosity in giving us gifts, the praise has served its purpose. The purpose of investing our talents is not even for what it produces (the # fold), but the relationships the investment brings us into – in the parable the stewards were made rulers – lots of relationship there.
That is a very astute comment Gene. One of the things we talk about with our kids is that there is no honor in being brilliant in and of itself, because that came from God. The reality is that if God gives us brilliance (or any other talent), then we are responsible for it. It is the very least we can do to make the best use of that talent possible in doing the will of God.
I really never thought of the relationship thing with respect to talents given us by God. I need to think about it more because it really rings true and has huge implications.
Paul was a chosen vessel by God to stand before some very specific people in representation of God because of the kind of man he was, or the man he was designed to be. One of the most unique things about our lives that has eternal implications is the list of people we have stood before and what the result of that encounter was. It kind of takes my breath away to think about it and how all of that trickles (or deluges) through. I think God gives us the talents and passions He has in order to put us in front of a unique and perhaps specific list of people.