Relationship = Resources

Businesses call it networking; churches call it fellowship; the Bible calls it “bearing one another’s burdens”; and home schoolers call it Co-op. As you probably do, I frequently get the question: “If you don’t know it, how can you teach it?” After the obvious answer (“I like to learn, too.”), my second answer is: Co-op.

When we first moved to this little west Texas town in the middle of nowhere, we were the only home schooling family for 40 miles. However, after the first year, and after people got over the initial shock, I started getting questions about what we did for school and how we did it. I found myself sitting down with several families and talking to them about home education, the laws in Texas and how they could get started. By year two, we were one of 3 families who home schooled.

Our little Co-op started in our house on Friday’s when I started doing “classes” in various subjects to which the other home schooling families were invited. My first and simple rule was: “A parent must accompany their children and learn, too.” Because they were all just starting out, I did most of the teaching, but as we went along I encouraged the other parents to share their knowledge and talents with our group as well. We went on several field trips together and did a little “program” at the local Baptist Church. By the next year, we had grown to 5 families.

Due to the relationships our group had built in the community, the local Methodist Church offered us its empty classrooms to use for our Co-op. Now we meet there every Monday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each parent offers something to the group. One parent teaches Geography to the younger ones; one helps prepare our potluck lunch and cleans up afterward; one is teaching spelling and vocabulary because she loves words and I teach writing and geometry. Over the last 2 years, our kids have had opportunities to learn Ballroom Dancing, Biology, Football, Grass Identification, Horseback Riding, and Music. All this because we came together to “bear one another’s burdens.”

Opportunities to learn new things don’t just stop at our Monday Co-op. Because of the friendships we have made there, my girls have been blessed with opportunities beyond anything that I could have provided. My daughter, Deanna, is very interested in training horses; and because of our relationship with the Kinford family (www.2lazy4u.us) in our group, she is able to pursue that every day. She was even given a horse because of her faithfulness in helping Bob with his horses. Now she thinks that working with horses is something that she wants to pursue as a career.

During our years here, we have been active in our church and community. Due to the friendships we have made and the people we have met, our kids have been able to discover some of their God given talents and develop them more fully. Another local church, Pueblo del Familia Christiana, offered our group and opportunity to learn to play musical instruments and form a Worship team. We took them up on their offer and go to their church every Monday evening so that we can learn the keyboard, drums, guitar and bass guitar. Sometimes we have so much fun just making music, that it will be 9 p.m. before we realize it. An added bonus is that we get to practice a little of our Spanish while we work with them.

We don’t have to know it to teach it, folks. We just have to be faithful to share our knowledge and talents with others. In doing so, we realize a great spiritual truth: what goes around comes around. All we have to do is open our eyes and take the opportunities as we find them. The first step is joining or starting a Co-op. Pray about how you can help bear each other’s burdens. Then the next time someone asks “How can you teach that?”, you can confidently reply “I don’t.”

Lord, help us to see the resources that you bring to us because of relationship. Help us to know how to encourage and help others and be a resource in their efforts to educate their children.

Gal 6:2
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.


Mat 7:12
Therefore, all things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, so also you should do to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Gal 6:7
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man may sow, that he also will reap.

Mat 22:37 - 39
And Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." Deut. 6:5
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Lev. 19:18