Join us for a post from our intern, Kyle: Freedom From the Homeschool Bubble.
Freedom From the Homeschool Bubble
Kyle is about to complete graduate school at Liberty University. He homeschooled all the way through high school. The study guides and curriculum that he used in high school are the very things we carry in our ebookstore. Enrich your homeschoolers’ lives with Literature Guides, Writing Guides, Psychology, Human Development, Career Exploration and more.
If you’re part of the homeschool world, you probably have some familiarity with “the bubble.” You want your children to receive the best education possible, so you tailor your teaching to fit each child’s individual needs. Consciously or unconsciously, you make decisions that affect not only their education but their social, emotional, and spiritual life.
I know because this is what my mom did for me.
Kyle and family
I had the privilege of growing up with some of the most awesome friends and teachers because my homeschool community was the perfect environment for me. In other words, I had an excellent bubble.
The only downside to being inside an excellent bubble is that, in the end, it’s still only a bubble. At some point you discover that the rest of the world isn’t quite so perfect. There are people with different values and different beliefs. There are some people who may not be interested in your individual needs at all. (Shocking isn’t it?)
The bubble is safe, but outside the bubble it can get scary. Growing up is all about moving outside the bubble. Usually that means graduating from high school, going to college, getting a job, getting married, getting a house, and having kids. But you can do all of those things and still live in a bubble. You could do what I did and move from the homeschool bubble to a college that is essentially a larger version of the same bubble. Your bubble can be whatever you make it. Your youth group, your Bible study, or your mom’s group could be a bubble.
Like I said, the bubble is where you feel safe, and safety is a good thing. God can teach you a lot in friendly, comfortable settings, but that knowledge isn’t much use until you take it outside the bubble. You can’t grasp the full value of your knowledge until you’re willing to get your feet wet.
Speaking of getting your feet wet, that’s exactly what Peter had to do before he learned to trust Jesus. It was one thing to listen to Jesus’ teaching on the safety of the mountain, but it was another to step out of his boat onto a lake in the middle of a storm. Even when he found he could walk on top of the water without drowning, he became afraid when he saw how violent the wind and the waves were. Think how he must have felt when Jesus saved him and brought him back to the boat. In that moment Jesus had unmistakably proven everything Peter believed about him.
Have you experienced that “Aha!” moment where you start to doubt what you know about God only to see him prove himself in a remarkable way? I have had a few experiences like that this year. Not only have they helped me to grow in my faith, they have also allowed me to show God’s love to people I never would have interacted with in my own personal bubble.
Although there are times when a comfortable bubble gives us the security we need, that bubble can keep us from growing and acting on our faith. If we let it, the bubble becomes a prison. It’s only when we allow God to burst the bubble that we can experience true freedom.
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Freedom From the Homeschool Bubble