Our choice to homeschool our family has given me a front seat to relive all the worst school-age moments of my life on repeat every day- I'm talking about math class. Yet, I have been developing a new appreciation for mathematics- the process and the order of it all. I've even learned some tricks that would've greatly improved my life, had I learned them 25 years earlier. Now that I'm working on educating our 3rd Kindergartner I've got an idea of the process it'll take to get him ready for next years math, and then the next years and the next years. First we start with learning the numerals- that is foundational. Then we can learn about adding, when that's mastered we'll go onto subtracting, we'll dabble in skip counting and then move onto multiplication, then division. Eventually we'll get into the crazy stuff, fractions and algebra and geometry and so on and so forth until finally he'll be a bonafide mathematician (maybe.) But the point is, it's a series of steps. You work on one concept and when you understand that, you're ready to add more.

This is what came to my mind as I reflected again on the verses we read on Wednesday- 2 Peter 1:3-15. We start with a foundation of faith. Once we have that we supplement it with virtue, then we supplement virtue with knowledge, we supplement knowledge with self-control, then steadfastness, then godliness, then brotherly affection and then finally love. Our faith is important- but it is the first step and it can't be the farthest we go on our journey. We need to improve our faith with all the characteristics listed in these verses. Work on one, and when you've got that, take another step and work on the next one. Otherwise your faith will only be as strong as your math skills if you only ever learned your numerals.