Hello to all PAACH homeschooling families. I enjoyed getting to meet many of you at the PAACH convention and getting to take the time to talk with many of you about your homeschool journey.

Following Valentine’s Day, Easter, and with the end of the school year passing, I have been thinking a lot about love, and how much we as people desire to receive and give love. There are all types of love that we experience on an everyday basis. We love our spouse, kids, parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, and even our pets. We especially love God who gave us all the above to love. He put these relationships in our path to show his love.

Our love for God is not the same as our spouse, and the love of our spouse is not the same as the love for our kids and other family members. “We love because he (God) first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. There is no greater love than God’s as he gave us his son to save us for our sins and gave this as a gift for eternal life. It is like getting that love letter and gift on Valentine’s Day, but it is way better than flowers or a box of chocolates. He gifted us a way to eternal life and to be with him forever with the Bible as our love letter, and we get to celebrate this at Easter. The Bible articulates how much he loves us repeatedly.

God even explains to us what love is. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own ways’ it is not irritable or resentful’ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1Cor 13:4-7) This reminds me of what love is and what I should teach my children the true meaning of love. Love is not just an emotion that grows in sin or lust but that it reflects God. It also should not be wasted on worldly things but should be for God and the people that he gave you to share it with.

Everyone expresses love in different forms. God shows it in the Bible as well. The Bible has many examples of affection. There is being physical (God’s arms open wide), serving others (Jesus washing feet), gift giving (Gospel), and many more. We should be reflections of this love to our spouse and children. The beauty of homeschooling is that we get to teach our children this. We can teach them and show them how to model the patient, kind, humble, polite, tolerant, joyful, and truthful love described in 1 Corinthians.

As your school comes to end, the PAACH board desires for you lean on God and His Word, and to know that you have a community of homeschool believers that are here to help and support you during the summer months. We also desire to help you disciple your children by providing encouragement, wisdom, and resources that will enable you to be Godly parents who lead your children towards Christ. We pray that your family learns together, grows together with others in community, and glorifies Christ in everything you do. You are chosen to be a part of his family.

Carlos Gonzalez
PAACH Vice President