#86 - Modeling Trust in God for Your Children: God Cares, So Cast Your Cares

In this episode, Jesús and Monica discuss the importance of relationships, both horizontal (with others) and vertical (with God). Parents have the opportunity to model reliance on God by receiving God’s care. Parenting is a continuous learning journey, listen and be encouraged, so that you can model casting your cares on God to your children. 

#HomeschoolUnlocked #ParentingWithPurpose #CastYourCares #FaithAndFamily #BuildingRelationships 

https://1lnk.page/MonicaAviles

Transcript

Welcome to the Homeschool Unlocked podcast, the show that helps parents see homeschooling as a unique opportunity. So forget fear. You can inspire.

You can guide your child. Homeschool Unlocked. It's not school, it's life.

Well, my love, if you don't mind, I'd love to introduce us this week. Can I do that? I would love that. So my name is Jesus Aviles, and I am one of a dynamic duo here.

I'm next to my queen, Monica Aviles. Together, we've homeschooled for 20 years, and all we're looking to do is just to give you all that love. And so today, my love, can we have a conversation about relationships? Definitely.

Whether you homeschool or not, if you're a parent, you got relationships happening. And sweetie, I think I might've just cut right to the chase to talk about relationships. Normally, you open up with some sort of like fancy trivia question thing.

You got one of those today? I do. I actually wanted to ask you if you could tell me what important American document was signed yesterday, which was September 17th, back in 1787. 1787, 1787.

1776, I know, was independence. Yeah. I'm gonna roll with the Constitution.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. That's what I'm talking about, sweetie. That's right.

So September 17th, the delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the final draft of the U.S. Constitution. Yes. So yesterday was Constitution Day.

Happy belated Constitution Day. Oh, that makes sense. That's why they call it Constitution Day.

I didn't know that. Well, thank you, my love. I mean, listen, for any of you that have listened to our podcast, you go back to the last two seasons, we usually opened up with like jokes.

I always horrifically bombed at trying to answer them, but this little thing where it's like true, false, fill in the blank, I'm actually doing pretty well. You really are. I got a pretty good streak here.

You are, you're definitely doing well. Yeah. And I mean, just like this document lays the foundation for how the relationship is between the people and the government, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're gonna be talking about relationships that you have at home. Yeah, so, I mean, when you think of relationships, you have the horizontal relationships, right? With other people, right? Just think of yourself standing up in horizontal relationships, and then you have this vertical relationship, right? You and God, right? And so we know that an extension of your relationship vertical, it impacts your relationships horizontally, right? And so, you know, if you don't mind, my queen, I'd love to talk about it just a little bit, but I wanna give it some context, right? So earlier today, or earlier this, yeah, earlier today? Yes, earlier today, I had

the great opportunity to just step into one of the high schools in our county. They kind of opened the doors, thank the Lord for FCA, kind of opening the doors for opportunities just to step in front of kids with the word.

And so what we dove into was the first book of Peter. Now, what I had told them was, hey, listen, I'm gonna talk to you about the entire book of Peter. It's only five chapters.

I had recommended to them, you know, people are gonna speak to you about the word all the time. You need to read it for yourself. So that was the first thing I kind of told this particular group, right? Again, I'm talking to them about this vertical relationship.

And so I start off and I said, I want everybody to go into chapter five. Chapter five, verse six and seven, right? And I said, listen, you may find it odd for me to start in the back, but this is what I believe the Lord is telling you, right? And so if you don't mind, can I read that? Yeah, you know what? And sometimes that's exactly, you know, as parents, that really does inform our daily decisions is the end. We start with parenting.

We don't necessarily know what we're doing because we're learning, we're growing, right? With your first child, you've never had a child before, you're learning. But you have this picture of what you want your child to enjoy, what you want your relationship with your child to be. So you're starting with the end in mind.

So kind of like you're going here to the end of this book. There's something there at the end that you wanna highlight because it, I guess, it maybe informs the whole letter. Like it impacts the whole letter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's the conclusion, right? So, you know, the apostle Peter is just wrapping it up. But before I read it, you had made a comment that your first kid, and I was just thinking, oh, you know, the families that may listen to this may have multiple kids.

And then you would think that that second kid would be easier, but it's really your first second kid. That's true. And then when you hit that third one, and everybody's looking at you, then you're like, oh, you got this.

It's actually your first third kid. And so all of a sudden, you got a couple kids down the row and people look at you like you got it all. Yeah, I mean, we have six kids.

But the reality is, is when Geronimo was born, he was our first six kid. And we never knew how to handle a kid with five other ones. Just like Joelle, we didn't know how to handle a kid with four other ones.

And so, you know, we're all constantly growing and sharing. And so, you know, it's, yeah. I mean, even you may not know, let's say you have with your youngest, you know how it is to kind of juggle things with multiple kids that are already alive.

But you don't know how it is to juggle it with multiple kids that are older. Because every time you have a new child, the other ones are still growing and getting older. So that's a whole new dynamic.

So yeah, definitely always learning. So we're always learning. We're always learning.

And so let me go into this horizontal relationship that I had a chance to share, right? So I jump into 1 Peter chapter five. And then I say, guys, I'm gonna read to you verse six and seven because it kind of lays out the points I wanted to make in front of them. And this is a school in the county where we live in.

The school has a little under 2,000 kids. And this particular day, we're about 200 kids. We're looking at about 10% of the population.

So, you know, the place is pretty packed. And so I start off by reading verse six and seven. It says here, humble yourselves.

Therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him because he cares about you. All right, so I kind of read that to him. And I looked at him.

I said, hey guys, I want you to hear the Lord saying this to you. I want you to hear it because it's going to frame everything we talk about today. And what I wanted them to hear is the Lord say to them, I care, so give me your cares, right? I care, so give me your cares.

Again, we're talking about horizontal and vertical relationships. At this particular point, I'm wanting these kids to understand who is listening, who is there to care for them. Now, parents, one of the things we love to talk about here at Homeschool Unlocked is this unique opportunity for relationships that could only be found in the homeschool setting.

Now, it's tough. I mean, I've been a part of the public school system for close to 20 years. I'm accustomed to parents sending me students, me doing the very best that I possibly can with my team of whomevers, and then I give the child back to the parent, and the parent has to actually spend some time undoing some things maybe that the parent and the family didn't want.

And so that energy being spent undoing something that we've tried to work into this particular child for sixth grade, I mean, for six hours, may exhaust some of the time you have to actually build genuine relationships because it does take energy to undo things, right? And so all of a sudden, coming back to this, we're in First Peter, I say to them, I care, right, this is the Lord speaking to them, I care, so give me your cares. Again, this is a room full of high schoolers, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th graders. And so then we dive into a little bit, and I kind of give them another tool, another tool in terms of a frame of understanding.

I said, when you read the word, right, because the first thing I told them, hey, listen, no matter what anyone says to you about the word, you need to read it yourself. Number one, check. Number two, I said to them, the word that you're reading, it cannot mean something to you that it didn't mean to that audience, right? Because God's word's eternal.

In this particular case, when he is, when Paul, when Paul is speaking to these people who have been dispersed by this attacking Roman empire, you need to understand that you fit in that storyline, right? You can't start talking about, you know, hey, my life is gonna be great, if in here, it's just not talking about that, right? So I kind of, you know, brought them back to Peter. I said, understand this. So then I bring them back.

I talked to them about Peter one. And in chapter one, we understand very clearly that this is Peter speaking to dispersed people abroad, right, in the Northern part of Rome, these people are dispersed. And I explained to the kids why these folks are dispersed, right? You're talking about Emperor Nero putting Christians in the Colosseum.

You got lions involved. You got Christians being put on stakes, being used as torches, being lit up. So this is what's happening in this particular moment.

And the Lord is speaking to these people because they're suffering. And they're suffering because they believe, right? And so what is the Lord asking you to do in those moments? So then I look to the students and I talk about the then and there. And then now I bring it back to the here and now, just very subtly, I say, any of you guys, because of your beliefs, pushed to the side, overlooked, maybe some verbally abused, right? So this is where the stories connect.

This is where the then and there applies to the here and now. And so, okay, I got some buy-in. Anyway, I do a couple of different points.

And then I slide over. I slide over because parents, you need to listen to this parents. Are you ready? If you hear me turning the pages is because I got the Bible in front of me, right? And so when I am talking to those students, there are three things that are operating in this particular age range.

Kids are asking themselves, who am I? They're asking themselves, where do I belong? And they're asking themselves, what difference can I make? Those three questions are tied to their identity, their belonging, and their purpose. These kids are having these questions now. So I kind of just look into the crowd.

I start walking a little bit. I said, and anyone have questions tied to who they are? Got some that rose their hand. Okay, I went to the other place.

And anyone asked themselves, where do I belong? Other kids, more kids rose their hand. I got to the third question. Anybody here ever asked themselves, what's my purpose? What difference am I gonna make? Right, so all of a sudden, I got a lot of kids raising their hand and said, okay, well, you know what's great? Because the Lord is saying, I care, give me your cares.

He's about to answer these three very fundamental items right here in this particular letter, right? While speaking to people who are suffering from being believers, right? Risking death. And so I just jumped into 1 Peter 2 9. It says here, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, right? So hey, your identity, but you're a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood.

I said, priesthoods are people that speak to God, right? Priests speak to God on people's behalf. I said, you are believers made so that you can speak to others, bring the word. I said, a chosen, a holy nation, you've been set apart.

You ask who you are? You're God's, you're new. You're not part of these masses, right? You are people for his possession. Find your identity here.

Next, where do you belong? Man, you're a chosen race, a holy nation. I mean, this is where you belong. I mean, no need to kind of just bounce around.

This is where you belong. Now I'm gonna finish reading that verse nine because that verse nine kind of goes into the purpose, right? So at the end of that verse nine, right? But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession. Are you ready for the purpose? So that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into the marvelous light.

Listen, your purpose is to bring light into the world. I said, in this school right here in this moment, there's no place brighter. Now, when we break and you go eat some pizza and you scatter across the school, now you bring light to other places.

So for those of you that wonder who you are, where you belong and what's your purpose, God is saying, I care, give me your care. So he's defining the most fundamental things. So parents, parents with kids, parents with kids that are adolescents.

Hey, listen, we wanna build these relationships horizontal. And then when I tell you, when you walk your kid through this, you will build bridges horizontally as you just direct their eyes vertically. I just, I had asked Monica if I could just, if I could share, you know, what I kind of just walked some kids through today, believing that, you know, our homeschool unlock community, you know, they need just refreshing.

And reviewing the word always does that. That's right, cause you know, no matter what setting you're in, you wanna remember that the weight, that the load is not on your shoulders, right? Our kids, even homeschooling, they know that the only perfect parent that they have is God. And so taking that time to remind your students, whether that they're at home, whether it's maybe a sports team, right? You homeschool, but your kids are on a sports team or, you know, just teens in general, you had the opportunity to go speak to some teens in a different setting.

Well, you know what? They still need to hear this message because they're constantly being bombarded. In the absence of hearing this message, it's not that there is no message. They're definitely getting a message.

They're definitely, I mean, everyone is trying to speak to them. Influence them, you know, sway them, impact them. And so being able to impact them with this message of this, whatever care you have is not on your shoulders.

It's on God's shoulders. That's such a relief that they can go and then share that with their friends because they're not alone there. They may feel harassed.

They may feel like they, you know, they're out there alone. They may feel like they're under a lot of pressure. They have a lot of things that they're trying to make sure that are on par, on point.

They're dressed, they're this, they're that. I'm so glad that you got a chance to remind them of the freedom that they have because they are not carrying the load of their cares. Now, you had mentioned something about their shoulders unable to carry the weight.

I actually said that to them because you say it a lot. You say it a lot. Actually, very funny, I'll say two things.

Number one, what I told them was, hey guys, you feel that weight because that last verse five in that chapter, in that verse, chapter five, verse six through seven, in other translations, it says, cast your cares or cast your anxieties on him. So anytime anyone is gonna talk about anxieties, you can go straight to that verse because God says, give me those anxieties. Give me your worries, give me your cares.

And so I said to them, I said, listen, your shoulders aren't meant to carry that weight. This is why God is letting you, reminding you, give it to him. So you gotta give it to him.

The whole concept of humble yourself, right? And so the second thing is what's super interesting is, my love, do you know when my alarm goes off, what song is played? Yes, it's a Carlos Vives song. It's a Carlos Vives song. Fruta Fresca.

Fruta Fresca, correct. And so I set the alarm because they were like, hey, listen, man, you only got 15 minutes. So my alarm started going off when I had 13 minutes.

And so I hear it, and so I know I got two minutes, so I pull it out. And I said, oh man, I got my alarm on, but this is the wife, this is my song for my queen. So then I actually put it on the mic, and I do a little dance, and some people were like, oh, ooh.

And so then I paused, and I just got back to talking, talking about the Lord. But my love, I will say, the hard work you do at home allows me to prep, and not only do the work at the church, but in all those settings, and you're wonderful. I love you, honey, and I think that you're absolutely wonderful.

It's a joy to be encouraging our listeners, because we want you to do this in God's strength. That's right. We want you to be confident.

You know, if you fall, you get right back up, right? You take the opportunity, you learn from it. It's a fail forward, it's not a loss, it's a learn. And whatever you're doing at home, when you're modeling that to your kids, they're going to take that and share that with their friends, right? It just becomes a way of life.

It becomes an attitude. So Homeschool Unlocked family, continue with the attitude of, I am cared for, I cast all my cares on him. Remember, my love, it's not school, it's life.

Love you guys. Thank you for spending time with us today. Check out our link below and subscribe to our podcast.

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Because remember, Homeschool Unlocked, it's not school, it's life.