And that’s a wrap. Kindergarten is done! Our firstborn has completed his first year of real school!
Last summer, we took quite a bit of time talking and praying about which schooling option would be right for our son to start in the fall. Homeschool, Christian private school, public school- these were all options. Now, I’m not advocating that you, dear reader, do one or the other. I’m just sharing the path that we took. I believe that there’s pros and cons to all of the options.
But for us, we felt that public would be the best choice at this time. So we chose it. Even though I was nervous about it. Even though our schools are really great here, I was still nervous. Would he be bullied? Would he make friends? Would he be irreversibly corrupted?
I was anxious. Our son was a little anxious. (Probably not as much as me though!) I was trying not be anxious so that he would not be anxious, but I was still kind of anxious. I was telling myself that God has got it and He gives us wisdom how to make the best choices and this felt like the right way for us, but I was still a little anxious.
He was nervous to leave the friends he had made at preschool and start over. We were both nervous about the enormity of the school and all the rules they had to follow there. But we were excited about the potential of learning and meeting new friends.
Our son awoke one morning and said he had had a dream. He believed that it was from God. (He knows from the Bible and other people’s testimonies that this is a real thing.) He told us that in the dream, there was a river with lots of alligators in it. There were also some big rocks. He and I (his mama) were jumping across the river on the rocks. We made it to the other side! We asked what he thought God was trying to say and he said, “God is telling me that even though there’s some scary parts about starting Kindergarten, Mama and I are going to get to the other side okay.”
The dream had comforted him, but I wonder if God knew that the dream would comfort me even more. I wasn’t always going to be there with him. I couldn’t hold his hand and make everything okay. I couldn’t give him all the answers. But God could. And God was showing us both that He can speak directly to my kids (and get us to the other side of the river safely!) There is no junior Holy Spirit. He is their Comforter and Healer and Teacher just as much as He is mine.
And so we did. We walked into school on the first day. He met some classmates. He met his teachers. He ate lunch in the big cafeteria and played on the playground for recess. I picked him up and he was unharmed. (!) He went back. He learnt to read. He found a BFF (his words, not mine). He worked through conflict. He got in trouble. He developed some more self control. He got a prophetic word for one of his friends. (Seriously, it was amazing- I’ll write more on that another time!) He got gold stars for doing well. He painted and sang and hula-hooped his way right through Kindergarten, and he loved it.
God can speak directly to our children. And God can give us wisdom about the way we are meant to lead them. Should everyone go to public school? No, I don’t think so. Should everyone homeschool? No, I don’t think so either. Will we always go public? I don’t know. But for now, it’s the right step for us and we are grateful for God’s provision through free, public schooling.
It’s important that we hear from God for our kids and not only the voices around us. Yes, we should take wise counsel, but at the end of they day, our choices should be based on what Jesus deems is best for our kids, not our neighbors or our friends or our family or the voice of fear. I am still learning this lesson, but alligators and Kindergarten were two awesome tools that the Lord used to help me understand!
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