Learning the first things first

I've been away for a while... we've had a lot going on with my little one's birthday and family visiting... plus planning for our first year of homeschooling.

Anyway, a bit after we decided that homeschooling was right for our family, I started doing research on the different styles of homeschooling and created a rough outline of subject and topics we would like to help our children learn. Though I wasn't one hundred percent sure of what would work and how much is too much (I still don't know, and to be honest, I believe we wont know for sure until we actually start), one thing I was sure of, still am, is that our days would start with God's word.

A few weeks after that, a friend told me about Kids of Integrity, which is a great resource and so it was decided: we would use this for our Character Building/Bible/Devotional part of the day. I started planning our days using KOI, I looked through the different lessons and determined we would start with Obedience. It seemed fitting, it felt right, it was logical. Starting the school year, our very first year of homeschooling, by talking about Obedience made so much sense... for me. I was thinking only of myself when I made this decision. I didn't pray about it, I didn't even talk to my husband about it. It will be my first year of helping my kids learn new things, of spending ALL DAY with them, so of course, obedience makes total sense...but God had other plans, I just didn't know it yet. It wasn't until this week, Monday to be specific, that God showed me how much more important, how much better it is to start by discussing God's goodness instead. Start with the first and most important thing.

My first reaction was of hesitation "why wouldn't God want me to help them understand how important it is to obey?" but the longer I sat in the middle of the early morning worship and prayer service we had this week, the more He revealed to me how much more can be accomplished, how much identity and life can be received by focusing on His goodness.

God is good. He is so so good; and in this world we are living in, we don't need a reminder of where we fall short, we need a reminder of how good He is! 

God doesn't want us to obey Him because we have to, He wants obedience to come as a response to how much we love Him, because He loved us first. 

So we are still planning on using KOI, its a great resource, but first, we will spend as much time as we need in understanding and accepting the goodness of our amazing God, which I'm working on right now.

Praying I can have a "lesson plan" ready by the time we start school.

How do you help your children learn about God? What's your main focus?