Love Based Learning

Last fall when I was, you know… pondering the meaning of life… I landed on LOVE. Love, love, LOVE!!

I’ve continued to think about that, and shape my days and purpose around that. LOVE. It’s seems a bit broad at times. And yet it makes a pretty good guide as to what is worthwhile and what is not.

1 Cor 16:14 “Do everything in love.”

1 Cor 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

So, I can do all kinds of things with my life! But if ANY of them is done without love, then I’m like a clanging cymbal. Whoa. That’s harsh. Listening to nothing but a cymbal clanging in your ear all day long would be painful, annoying, and maddening.

I don’t wanna be that.

Aaaaannnyyyway, all this talk about love (mostly just in my head, of course) has me thinking about this…

What would LEARNING based in LOVE look like?

I have no answers. It’s just been on my mind.

Education is complicated here where we live. In some ways the options are endless. In other ways the options feel very little. And when I need to consider the best options each year for each of my four children, it’s got me thinking a lot about education. And what is the point of education? What kind of education do I want my kids to have? What do I want it to look like?

I’m starting to form some answers to those questions. Starting to consider the future. But as I do, I have this question floating in my head… of how is LOVE involved in LEARNING?

If we start to educate at home (a peek into my future), I definitely don’t want it to be like a clanging cymbal. I want it to be dripping in love. The love of God. The love of a mother. The love for a life together at home. The love of learning new things. The love of creating.

I think it can happen.

I think I’d like to try.