Monthly Archives: July 2025

What Value

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Deep down in your heart of hearts, what is your salvation truly worth to you? It is one thing to have a verbal answer for someone, but that is why I said “deep down.” We can easily lie to ourselves and give someone the “right answer.” 

Maybe the only real way to answer that question is to look at the real fruit of your life. Are you spiritually hungry? Do you love the Word and wouldn’t miss a morning in it because that time is precious? Do you love your time of worship because of your relationship with the God of the universe Who is worthy of your praise and adoration? Do you have a deep passion to disciple your children in the Lord? Are you determined to have family Bible time daily as you seek to inspire a love for your Savior in your children? 

If you are not engaged with this series and have little desire to reach the lost around you, please evaluate how deeply you value a relationship with Christ. The more of a heart for Christ we have, the more passionate we will be for the things our Lord is passionate about. 

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).  Not only was that His mission, He was willing to suffer the wrath of God and die a cruel death to purchase us. Are we motivated?

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A Recent Example

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Just last week I spent the morning with three guys as they dug a ten-foot-deep hole in our front yard to fix the sewer. After they finished, I asked the foreman, who had spent 30 years working for the company, when he would retire. Then I asked, “What then? When you die, are you going to Heaven or hell?” The foreman said he didn’t know and didn’t care. I asked him why he didn’t care. He said he wasn’t willing to change the way he is living. His two workers quickly agreed. His honesty really struck and saddened me.

Yet, how many professing Christians don’t have that same level of honesty? Perhaps instead of ‘honesty,’ the word should be ‘commitment’? The man was committed to his way of life. We are to be committed to our Savior’s way of life: “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Jesus was totally devoted to living to please the Father and reach the lost.

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Next Little Step

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I hope you now have the love and concern for others as to where they are going to spend eternity – heaven or hell, or if not, are praying daily for it. Have you begun practicing catching men’s eyes and smiling and giving a friendly nod? Please, please begin this simple, non-threatening step. If this isn’t now normal for you keep at it until it is. 

Next, begin a habit of looking for something about him that catches your eye, something you could compliment him for or comment on. At this point you need not say anything, just be more observant. I find it quite easy. It could be he has a cute or well-behaved child with him, there is something interesting printed on his shirt, he’s quite tall, he says something in a deep voice, he has a well groomed or full beard, he is loading his pickup with project-related materials, he’s walking with crutches or wearing a cast…. There are endless hints about a person that give a slight view into their life that might lead to a conversation. 

“thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:18b).

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How to Begin

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To begin caring from the heart for those who are going to hell, pray something like this, “Lord, give me a deep love and burden for those who don’t know You and are headed for hell.”  Pray this often. Pray it when you go to bed, when you wake up in the night, when you have Bible time and even include it when asking God to bless your food at meals. “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). 

Next, is crazy simple. The goal is to learn to be at ease acknowledging men you don’t know. When out, simply greet them with eye contact and a smile. Many men that you encounter won’t make eye contact but be looking for it. If they do, give him a slight smile and a simple nod. There doesn’t even have to be a word spoken. Keep it up until it is automatic and comfortable. Consider asking your wife to hold you accountable by asking how it is going when you have been out. 

“And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:21).

The Productivity Key

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For many homeschooling families who take a summer break from school, planning for the next academic year is now in process. During our 30 years of homeschooling, I was often asked how I managed to homeschool, be a wife and mother of a large family, and take care of my home. It was a simple answer – a schedule! That was was the mechanism the Lord directed me to use for budgeting my time. It was the greatest practical blessing He gave me to enable fulfillment of the responsibilities He put into my life.

Some would say that the structure of a schedule is too confining. However, in reality the schedule gives freedom. This mom shares her experience with a schedule by describing the benefits she finds in structure versus the negative consequences of a free-spirited lifestyle:

“There will be such freedom once you implement the schedule you’ve decided is best for your family and that the Lord has led you to! It’s easy to listen to the lie from the enemy that just winging it is actually easier, that you’ll have more freedom that way, and that being proactive in your parenting, schooling, and daily life is more work. Really, I’ve found that it’s far harder to REACT all day than to PLAN your routine and rest in it. You’ll have a billion fewer decisions to make, which brings peace, enjoyment of your children, rest in the good things you’re able to teach, and a sense of accomplishment in what you’re able to do in a day.”

A schedule is one of the best ways you have to achieve homeschooling goals and feel encouraged by what you are doing. Perhaps the number-one discourager of homeschooling moms is not accomplishing school and also getting behind in other tasks. A schedule sets aside time for the priorities the Lord has placed into your life.

A schedule is a slave to help you. It is not a slave driver that you are required to obey. You use your schedules to allow you to follow the Lord’s direction for your days. However, when He brings interruptions into your schedule, that schedule helps you deal with them. You know what you can skip and what’s most crucial to your day.

A schedule helps maintain a meek and quiet spirit. There are rewards and consequences built into a schedule that allow you not to be angry with the child who doesn’t apply himself to his task. Instead, you can let the natural consequences take effect and do the work of disciplining and training. For example, math time is in the schedule but your child dawdles that time away. Therefore, he misses playtime, which is also in the schedule later in the day, in order to do his math work. In addition, a schedule should have reward-type activities that, without a schedule, a mom might tell her children they will do when they have time – but that day never arrives. 

One final benefit of a schedule I want to highlight has to do with your summer break from school. I wonder how many reading this article are doing school work through the summer, not by choice, but rather because they haven’t yet completed their year’s worth of work. A schedule freed our family from that tyranny by enabling us to complete all our school work through our normal school year. Then, if we wanted to do any school in the summer, it was bonus work and not necessary-to-finish-the-year work.

I have only scratched the surface of the benefits a schedule can bring to a homeschooling mom and her family. It is my hope and prayer that you will see what a schedule can do for you and choose now to begin planning your schedule for the upcoming school year. If you need help with scheduling, our book Managers of Their Homes will give you step-by-step directions and a scheduling kit to direct you through the scheduling process. If you have used a schedule in the past but have gotten off track, may I encourage you to once again pick up your scheduling pieces and prayerfully plan your schedule. 

Scheduling keeps you obediently following the Lord Jesus. Titus 2:4-5 tells you to love your husband, love your children, and be a keeper at home. For homeschooling moms, you have the added calling to homeschool your children. Your schedule helps you make sure your time usage is lined up with your calling. 

Wide Road

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I was visiting with a guy at church who asked how my week was. I shared my excitement over how many people I had a spiritual discussion with. I asked him if he shares Christ with others when he is out. He said, “No. I’m an introvert.” 

I wonder how many of the first disciples were introverts. Jesus chose a bunch of fisherman who were out in boats away from people, not shopkeepers from the marketplace. Likely those fishermen would have thought of themselves as introverts. I doubt the Lord considers being an introvert a justification for not sharing.

Why is it that most Christians aren’t sharing their faith when they are out? (I know that is a generalization. But look at the fruit or absence of it.) Are they embarrassed about the Lord? I doubt it. Is it because they wish they hadn’t made a profession of faith? I doubt it. Is it because they don’t know what to say? Possibly, but still I doubt it. If someone felt strongly about doing it, they would prepare. 

I’m convinced that people don’t share, because they have no real concern for other’s souls. It is possible (hopefully not), that love and concern for others is not there. 

If one considered that on average most people are headed for hell. “…for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13), they would be motivated. 

I plead with you to develop the mindset that the people you meet are headed for hell. Have enough compassion for them to learn how to engage them simply and efficiently. My brothers, there is such joy ahead.