Several years ago my husband and I were praying about what to do with one of our sons who was uncoordinated. Three of my children learned physical skills easily while the other child took forever to learn them. Learning how to ride a bike took just a few days of practice for most of my kids, but months of practice for this one son.
We put him into soccer, and that was disastrous. Nobody would ever kick the ball to him, so how was he supposed to improve? He was so frustrated; you could see the frustration all over his face.
So we pulled him out of soccer after one season, even though his brothers have continued to do various team sports and have loved every minute of it.
I advise homeschool parents to pray about the weaknesses of their children. God knows the exact answer to your prayer. You might not come up with it yourself unless you ask God. For our family, the answer was a Christian karate place nearby. The students quote Scripture as they do their poses. Both my husband and I felt a supernatural peace about signing up our son.
A year later, I had a son who was physically fit and had control over his body movements. It was a miracle. We are now in his third year.
A homeschool mom recently walked up to my son and asked him if he liked karate. I tried to change the subject. My son had never thought to question whether he was supposed to go to karate or not. He hadn’t thought of being rebellious to fight what his parents knew was the right thing for him. The homeschool mom didn’t realize that children don’t rule.
Any activity that you sign your kids up for that is making up for a weakness will not be the favorite activity of your children. That’s because that activity comes hard for them. But if it’s what God wants you to be doing, it will strengthen those very weaknesses so that for the rest of that child’s life, he will not struggle in that area as much.
And if you’ve prayed about it and have a supernatural peace and joy in your soul about that activity and are in complete agreement with your husband, move forward and do it. Your child will come to expect that it’s a part of his life.
Tags: Homeschooling, karate, PE, sports
