Heart
Homeschool veteran Faithe Thomas,
in Homeschooling God’s Gifted Children
( bit.ly/GodsGiftedChildren) (for which
I was honored to write the foreword),
categorizes;the;various;bents;of;children
into gifts of the heart, soul, mind, and
strength.
Loving the Lord with your heart can
take;on;many;forms.;“The;heart;is;the;seat
of the emotions and the basis of all human expression. Conversation, relationships, outward expression toward others;
all;begin;in;the;heart,”;writes;Thomas.
Among the gifts of the heart, she lists:
creativity, hospitality, mercy, evangelism,
and writing. Esteeming others and loving
one another are to be highly valued and
encouraged as ways to love the Lord with
your heart.
Soul
“You do not have a soul. You are a soul;
you have;a;body.”;While;misattributed;to
C.S. Lewis and debated as Gnosticism,
this statement (more appropriately at-
tributed to George MacDonald in refer-
ence to a statement by William Walsh-
am How from Plain Words to Children,
published around 18763) does indeed
point to the fact that body and soul are
distinct from one another, regardless of
how intertwined they may be. Loving the
Lord;with;your;soul;includes;things;like
intercession, faith, and shepherding. De-
nying self (including legitimate needs of
the;body;and;lusts;of;the;flesh);is;also;in
view.;Teaching;thankfulness,;praise,;and
continual prayer should be a part of our
discipleship of our children.
Mind
It is not necessary to eschew academics
simply;because;we;emphasize;the;need
to love the Lord with our minds. In fact,
loving the Lord with our minds means
that we go to the source of wisdom to
learn how we should approach academic
subjects. There is a definitive truth to
most subjects, something that should
point;us;toward;God,;rather;than;make
Him irrelevant.
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing;
but the honour of kings is to search out
a matter” (Proverbs 25: 2). “And I gave
my heart to seek and search out wisdom
concerning all things that are done under
heaven: this sore travail hath God given to
the sons of man to be exercised therewith”
(Ecclesiastes 1: 13).
God wants us to love Him with our
minds by searching out the things which
He has hidden for His own glory. In doing
so, we remember that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. It is because
we;fear;Him;that;we;“seek;and;search;out
wisdom;concerning;all;things,”;and;like-wise we turn to Him for truth.
Wisdom comes in stages, beginning
with;knowledge;or;the;“grammar”;of;a
subject. For language learning, (whether
our native tongue or otherwise) grammar
consists of coding/decoding the symbols
of the respective alphabet and the sounds
each represent; conjugation of verbs; subject cases; sentence structure; etc. For
math, we start with numbers, counting,
order, and place value; the symbols that
represent addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; math sentences. In
higher math, we learn more symbols. In
science we learn how to name things, how
to measure, how to identify, and how to
make;a;hypothesis;and;test;it.;All;of;these
are;the;foundational;building;blocks;of
the subjects to which they belong.
Knowledge;is;not;quite;wisdom;and
has;a;tendency;to;puff;up;( 1;Corinthians
8: 1).;To;knowledge;we;must;add;under-
standing, which is the relationship of the
