A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
Proverbs 22:1

Today is historic for the Ramos Family.  Our two oldest boys started their first day of school.  Prior to this, they were homeschool students at the Ramos School for boys under the leadership of the world’s best teacher–their mom.  Homeschooling is something that Judy and I agreed on early in our relationship.  Both of us have a background and tremendous interest in education and spent many hours talking about the philosophy we would take when the time came to grow our family.  When we first began to contemplate the topic, homeschooling was not as popular or common as it seems to be today.  It took time for us to explore the pros and cons of each educational approach: homeschooling, Adventist Education, high-ranking public schools.

In the end, the value that society places on knowledge pressures many parents towards imbalance and an unscriptural approach to learning.  Homeschooling places huge demands on the teaching parent that make real education a tremendous challenge.  Additionally, in the homeschool environment, fear always lingers regarding the child’s social development and the parent’s qualifications to do a job that others are professionally trained and qualified to do.

Fortunately, in our experience, the boys had the privilege of learning from a highly intelligent and well-equipped teacher known to them as their mom.

Even in moments when Judy may have doubted herself, I was always fully convinced that the best educator in the lives of our boys was, has been, and always will be their first and best teacher–their mother.  No one in this world has captured their hearts more than she has.  No one else has thought about, wrestled with, and even obsessed over their development more than their mother.

I am eternally thankful for the investment that Judy has made in the lives of our boys.  Some call her a stay-at-home mom.  I call her an artist who works, not with clay or paint to create pots or paintings.  She’s an artist of a different kind.  She is one who shapes, works, presses, molds, and fashions life and character.  And in shaping the lives of these young boys, she has literally shaped the course of world history.  For, whatever positive impact they make–large or small–it will be because one brilliant mother who could have been anything she wanted be and done everything she wanted to do, decided to take on the world’s most difficult job.

We owe so much to our teachers.  We owe so much to our parents.  We owe everything we’ve got to the parents who make the education of their children their top priority and in their homes impart more than just knowledge, but wisdom instead.

As Manu and Micah move on to the next phase of their educational experience, I am thankful that Judy emptied herself to fully prepare them for what’s ahead.  Our prayer as parents is that God’s grace will make up where our many deficiencies have interfered with His plans in their lives.  Manu & Micah, as you meet achievement and success, my prayer is that you’ll forever remember this: wisdom — the right use of knowledge and ability is true power and more valuable than everything else combined (Prov. 22:1).

Even now, put your fingerprints all over God’s great world as your mother has placed her prints all over your lives!