Christian Unschooling: Between the Lines
I’ll start with the lines.
We all know that God is always present. We might be aware of Him. He may be the foundation of our lives. But that doesn’t mean we always acknowledge Him. In secret, we pray and do all those spiritual things that for some obscure reason we’re not always willing to tell others about. It can be like we are living two lives. The private one, where we know we belong to God and can do nothing without Him, and the public one, where everyone would have a hard time knowing we’re Christians.
From day one as a blogger, I wrote about my faith, not afraid to share my thoughts, experiences and gratitude for everything God does for me. It was okay to write about spiritual things. It felt safe because my first blog was a Catholic one among many.
But my unschooling blog?
For many years, I didn’t mix faith and unschooling. God never made an appearance in my stories. Then one day, I realised I was writing about Him between the lines. I was using passive verbs instead of active ones:
“Our kids have been given gifts that they have to use. These gifts are part of their missions.”
Where did our kids’ gifts come from? And their missions? From God, of course. And when I write about unconditional love and forgiveness, whose example am I following? And what about trust? Then there’s the value and dignity of every person, free will, and self-giving love.
Even though I didn’t always come out and say it, I knew our unschooling lives were built on a foundation of faith.
Writing between the lines felt safe. There was no danger of offending my non-Christian readers. I didn’t want to scare them away. I needed the security of having lots of followers.
It took me a while, but one day, I realised that I was using my God-given gifts to avoid writing about God. Without God, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have my family. I wouldn’t be unschooling. I wouldn’t experience Love.
Love: that’s my favourite topic. Love is everything.
Years ago, I never would have imagined being a Christian, an unschooler, an author, a blogger, a podcaster, and a newsletter creator.
Unexpected things happen when we give our lives to God, don’t they? As St John Paul II said, life becomes a wonderful adventure. A wonderful unschooling adventure.
