Why I Homeschool: It's My Repsonsibility

Disclaimer:  This series of posts is written to tell my story of why I decided to homeschool and what I have learned a long the way. These are my personal feelings and direction the Lord has given to me and my family. That does not mean they are your answers.  I don't want you to feel guilty at all nor that I'm telling you this is the only way. I write it because people have asked for honest answers to why I chose to do this, and I want to be able to be completely open and honest back with them.

A couple of years ago the church released the new handbook, and we had gone to the trainings about it.  They promised us the more we studied it the more we would receive revelation for our callings. Elder Bednar told us that this handbook should also become the handbook for the home. I found that the more I studied it, the more I started getting personal revelation concerning my own family.   I started feeling very strong that it was my responsibility to teach and raise my children. Especially when it comes to the gospel, morals, and spiritual needs.  No other institution could do it better than me. In fact I love this quote by Ezra Taft Benson.

"You are the best teacher. This is the most effective teaching that your children will ever recieve. This is the Lord's way of teaching. The church can not teach like you can. The school cannot. The day center cannot. But you can, and the Lord will sustain. Your children will remember your teachings forever. Mothers, this kind of motherly teaching takes time - lots of time. This is your divine calling."  (Ezra T. Benson)

I had things in the Church handbook and other talks by the prophets and apostles stand out to me.  Emphasizing that is my responsibility to teach my children gospel principles and righteous ways of living.  Paragraphs like the ones below from the church handbook.

Parents have always been commanded to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4; Enos 1:1) and “in light and truth” (D&C 93:40). The First Presidency proclaimed:

“We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.

“We counsel parents and children to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel study and instruction, and wholesome family activities. However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform” (First Presidency letter, Feb. 11, 1999).

Parents have the primary responsibility for helping their children know Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ (see John 17:3). Latter-day Saint fathers and mothers have been commanded to teach gospel doctrines, ordinances, covenants, and ways of righteous living to their children. (seeD&C 68:25–28). 

I started feeling the huge realization that when the day came to stand before God
The problem I was running into was that I felt like I did not have adequate time to be able to do that.  I started feelin

Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less  distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children more time eating together, more time
working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power. - Julie B. Beck

A few years ago, Bishop Stanley Smoot was interviewed by President Spencer W. Kimball. President Kimball asked, “How often do you have family prayer?”

Bishop Smoot answered, “We try to have family prayer twice a day, but we average about once.”

President Kimball answered, “In the past, having family prayer once a day may have been all right. But in the future it will not be enough if we are going to save our families.”

I wonder if having casual and infrequent family home evening will be enough in the future to fortify our children with sufficient moral strength. In the future, infrequent family scripture study may be inadequate to arm our children with the virtue necessary to withstand the moral decay of the environment in which they will live. Where in the world will the children learn chastity, integrity, honesty, and basic human decency if not at home? These values will, of course, be reinforced at church, but parental teaching is more constant. - Elder James E. Faust.

As part of our Heavenly Father’s plan, we were born into families. He established families to bring us happiness, to help us learn correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and to prepare us for eternal life.

Parents have the vital responsibility to help their children prepare to return to Heavenly Father. Parents fulfill this responsibility by teaching their children to follow Jesus Christ and live His gospel.

Parents have a divinely appointed responsibility “to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”; see also Mosiah 4:14–15).

A home with loving and loyal parents is the setting in which the spiritual and physical needs of children are most effectively met. A Christ-centered home offers adults and children a place of defense against sin, refuge from the world, healing from emotional and other pain, and committed, genuine love.