I Saw the Angel in the Marble

I awoke to an encouraging message in my inbox this morning and feel like sharing it here because this is one of the places where I share my heart.

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In my book, I Saw the Angel in the Marble, I describe Identity-Directed Homeschoolers by pointing out the two opposing versions of how to think about children. One is to see children as our culture sees them: As blank slates on which will be written all that is necessary for them to become useful citizens. Said another way, children are empty vessels to be filled with all that society has decided is "necessary" so that they will grow up into productive adults.

I would like to suggest a different way of thinking of children: Children are neither blank slates nor empty vessels. Rather every child comes into the world with a fairly complete set of giftings, talents and callings that his Creator wants him to express during his life. One could articulate it this way: "The infant you hold in your arms was created, by God, from the foundation of the world, and in that child God has put all the giftings, talents and callings He wants expressed from this individual so the child is able to serve his generation well." At a point in time, God said, "OK, [insert your child's name]. This is your generation. Go into it and serve it well with what I have already put within you. Then return to Me for a 'Well done, good and faithful servant'."

The reason this is so important is that, should a set of parents realize the truth of this idea, a dramatic change occurs in the way that child is going to be raised.

In the middle decades of the 1800's a new philosophy entered into this country’s intellectual community and it even permeated the halls of government as well. It was a new idea that children were more the responsibility of the State than of their own parents. Therefore the State had a right to determine what children should learn as they grew up. Eventually, the accepted definition of "education" became, "passing the culture from one generation to the next." The culture spoken of here included a well-defined set of academics. All children were to learn the same information. As our culture slowly shifted away from its Judeo-Christian foundation, what children were to learn also shifted—slowly and subtly—but the requirement to "learn it" remained.

Most parents have accepted that their children should be filled up with what society has predetermined needs to be "put into" the child. If, however, that child's parents can accept that the child already contains specific input from his Creator, parents will seek to determine what is "in there", will prioritized what they discover as the child matures, and will spend whatever time and resources are necessary to bring those giftings, callings and talents to maturity.

What do I mean when I use the phrase Identity-Directed? I will put it this way: Each of us has both an internal and an external identity.

First, we have an internal identity. If you are a spiritual person, your internal identity transcends this life, even this world. Christians site their scriptures which say their spiritual identity comes from their having been adopted by The Father.

Second, each of us also has an external identity. This is how a person lives out his life, giving his giftings and talents to his world to serve the generation in which he has been called to live.

The two perspectives—“filling the bucket" or "identity-directed"—are mutually exclusive. Each dictates an entirely different set of experiences during the years our children are growing up.

One says, "Long ago, our society decided what a child should know and learn, and we must be sure these things are what gets put into every child before he or she leaves our home." The other says, "Let's discover this child and give him the time, the resources and the encouragement so that, when he leaves our home, he has become awesome at what God has already put within him to do."

One says, "The highest form of child rearing is to create an employable individual. Everyone already knows what kids need, so just purchase someone's Scope & Sequence, prepackaged curriculum and make the child learn what it contains."

The other says, "Train up a child according to his way, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). This is because he won’t want to depart from it. He won’t experience a mid-life crisis. Why not just help children become skilled in what God has already gifted them to do. Then they will fulfill the scripture, "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; not before ordinary men” (Proverbs 22:29).

Most home schooling parents will give more thought to what they will use to teach a subject then they will give to why they are teaching that subject in the first place--or to why they are teaching it now. They just assume that what was done to them in school is what they should do to their own children. When this goes on for years, children eventually conclude that adults will tell them what is important in life and what they should be learning. Finally, the child will come to believe that what he has a heart to do is not important and he will eventually disconnect from his own heart's purpose. If asked, "What do you want to do in life?" he will say, "I don't know." And he will be telling the truth.

The other response is even gloomier: The child’s very spirit will reject what the parents are trying to do because the gifting cries out to be acknowledged and the child doesn’t know an appropriate way to say, “Hey, somebody, God’s gift is in here, and it needs to be expressed!”

Chris Davis