A Forever Student
To be truly useful to the Kingdom of God, we must never stop focusing on education—being a student of God’s Word, and how it applies to every aspect of our lives.
- Andrea G. Schwartz
Education is often confused with schooling. They are not the same things. Too many people go through twelve-plus years of schooling and fail to be useful to those in their family, social circles, or jobs. Schooling often develops a mindset of compulsion and requirements, rather than a quest for knowledge. For many, education stops at graduation, if not before. To be truly useful to the Kingdom of God, we must never stop focusing on education—being a student of God’s Word, and how it applies to every aspect of our lives. This should be the focus of all education, and if it becomes tedious and irrelevant, it is time to change course.
Many lament the fact that their childhood education was abysmal and very humanistic. The good news is that it is never too late to rectify the situation. A systematic approach of studying through God’s law, with the help of competent guides, can help you achieve the status of a forever student. What’s more, the specific context of your life (and that of your family) should be the starting point of study. After all, if you are going to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ, it might as well begin with the things that occupy your thinking now.
Although initially designed as a woman’s Bible study, the Chalcedon Teacher Training Institute (ctti.org) is a systematic approach of studying through the Commandments of God. Each lesson involves reading a section of the Institutes of Biblical Law, listening to a lecture, and watching a video summary of the highlights of the section. These are followed by questions for thought and discussion—something the whole family can use to examine the applications and implications.
This is a service of the Chalcedon Foundation that is offered at no charge (although donations are always welcomed). Why? Because if we truly want to see true change in our society and culture, it will begin close to home as we all become (or continue to be) forever students.
- Andrea G. Schwartz
Andrea Schwartz is Chalcedon’s family and Christian education advocate, and the author of eight books including: A House for God: Building a Kingdom-Driven Family, The Biblical Trustee Family: Understanding God’s Purpose for Your Household, Empowered: Developing Strong Women for Kingdom Service, Woman of the House: A Mother’s Role in Building a Christian Culture, and The Homeschool Life: Discovering God’s Way to Family-Based Education. She’s also the co-host of the Out of the Question podcast, the Chalcedon podcast, and has an active teaching schedule with women and high schooled students.. She can be reached at [email protected].