I have always loved the lines from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “A Psalm of Life.”
“But to act that each tomorrow
Find us further than today.”
I love to learn something new every day, don’t you? Yesterday I learned the difference between a Shepherd’s Pie and a Cottage Pie. How come it has taken me so long to know the difference?
A Shepherd’s Pie is made with minced lamb whereas a Cottage Pie is made with ground beef. I guess the reason I didn’t know is that growing up in New Zealand we always called it a Shepherd’s Pie because we always cooked with lamb.
I also learned during the weekend that The American Life League estimates that “Using formulas based on the way the birth control pill works, pharmacy experts project that about 14 million chemical abortions occur in the United States each year.” Wow, that bit of information is just about too much to take in. More abortions through the Pill than Clinic abortions!
Anyway, I think it is a good thing to encourage your children to learn something new every day. I think this is more important than making sure your children get through all their lessons each day. They can do them and yet often not remember anything. But if they learn one specific new thing every day, they will become very knowledgeable.
A good idea is to check how everyone is learning in the family at your evening family meal table. When you have sharing time around the table and talk about different questions, every now and then give them this question: “Children, what is something new you learned today?”
Start with the first child and go around each one to ask them one new thing they learned. This is a good way to check if your homeschooling is effective. And don’t leave out you and your husband. Your children love to hear the new thing you have learned too.
We are all learning together. This is true education. It’s for life. It’s learning something new every day. It’s inspiring a joy for learning. An excitement for learning. When you give your children this challenge, they’ll start looking for things to really remember. And you will too.
And even more than learning something new every day is to have the vision to grow a little more in Christ every day. We should never stay the same, but each new day seek to be conformed to the image of God’s dear Son. 1 Timothy 4:15 tells us that we are to immerse ourselves in the teachings of Christ and the Scriptures “so that all may see your progress.” Our progress should be evident in our lives.
Our Christian walk is not a stay-at-the-same-place walk, but a MORE AND MORE walk.
Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth MORE AND MORE unto the perfect day.”
Be blessed to day as you learn something new today.
Love from Nancy Campbell
P.S. More Scriptures to check out: 1 Samuel 7:26; Psalm 92:12-14; Proverbs 4:18; Romans 5:2-6; 8:29; Ephesians 4;11-16; Colossians 2:6, 7; 1 Timothy 4;11-15; Hebrews 6:1; 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2, 3; 2 Peter 1:5-8; and 3:18.
Painting by Simon Glucklich (Polish).