The calling.

I have been reading through homeschool blogs and have read so many stories of mom's saying they were called to homeschool. I feel the same. It is truly a calling. Before there were reasons and research, there was a heart call. It happened for me in the worst of the winter. I was in day two of my Beth Moore Breaking Free, bible study homework. A study about changing your line; about generations.
As I read through the lines of Kings, in 2 Chronicles 26 through 28, it hit me suddenly. I felt like God was saying.... prepare, get ready to homeschool. It was an answer to the prayers of my heart... for my children to always know that they are loved, that they would always know God, and that they would choose Him back.
The scripture unraveled in my mind like this....

2 Chronicles 26:4-5 (King Uzziah) ~ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.
2 Chronicles 26:16~ But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. (An act reserved only for consecrated priests.)

2 Chronicles 27:2 (King Jotham)~ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done, but unlike him he did not enter the temple of the LORD. The people, however, continued their corrupt practices.
2 Chronicles 27:6~ Jotham grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God.

2 Chronicles 27:9-28:3 (King Ahaz)~ Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. And Ahaz his son succeeded him as king.
Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David, his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made cast idols for worshiping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

For me it was clear that King Uzziah messed up and his son who succeeded him, King Jotham, chose to keep this as a humbling example. He made a choice to remember and change it- to stay humble and steadfast before God. But as for Jotham's son, King Ahaz, why on earth did he walk away from God in entirety? The parallel for King Jotham's life answered this question....

2 Kings 15:34,35 (King Jotham)~ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple of the LORD.
*all parenthesis mine

It occurred to me then that Ahaz fell because he was immersed in a culture in opposition to the LORD God. His father followed God closely at home, but it made little impact on his young life.

In all this my mindset was changing. That I needed to not only follow God but to build his precepts into my children's lives. They will have to make their own choices but I am responsible for giving to them any wisdom that God has showed me. I want them to see the truth first, at home. My heart is for the best for them. The best that I know how, and only with God's strength, I will take on this new adventure. I choose to guard their little hearts and minds, and God is in control of the rest....