We have just come through another holiday season, and for most typical American families the economic reality will hit when the credit card statements arrive in January. To some, this will seem an ironic time to write an article about the blessing of living on one income!

I was a business major at Furman University, with a concentration in economics. Professors constantly threw around the one-liner -- we live in a two-income economy -- while discussing the economic realities of American life. And that was twenty-five years ago! The economy has certainly not become more family-friendly in the last two or three decades. With the proliferation of women in the work force, most Americans just assume a mother has to work outside the home for families to make it financially.

When people talk about the disadvantages, or limiting factors, of homeschooling, they usually get around to discussing the challenges of living on one income. The majority of homeschoolers do live on one income. Not only do they live on one income, but their families are usually larger than the average American family with 2.1 children and most of us bear the burden of paying taxes that support public schools while simultaneously funding our own homeschools. Plus, many homeschooling families tithe—meaning they actually live on 90% of one income.

How is it, then, that homeschooling families are thriving, when the world tells us we should be drowning? Why is the homeschooling movement growing significantly, when political pundits prophesied that the one-income issue would eventually halt the growth of homeschooling?

I think the answer is multi-faceted. When we seek to please God, He blesses and His blessing can mitigate a lot of negative factors. Also, faith is a powerful force that allows us to live above our circumstances and beyond our natural abilities and resources. For instance, Hebrews 11:32-35 tells us.

And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

Daily, thousands of families are homeschooling by faith. With God's help, they are figuring out how to do the seemingly impossible: raise great kids on one income without the help of public schools.

The Two-Income Trap
I love it when the world corroborates the principles espoused in Scripture. Earlier this year, Basic Books released a book by Elizabeth Warren (Harvard law professor) and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, entitled The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke.

Although I don't agree with many of the authors' conclusions, I found the book to be a fascinating expose on the financial state of the American family. This book has a chapter entitled "Mom, The All-Purpose Safety Net". In it, the authors say this:

For middle-class families, the most important part of the safety net for generations has been the stay-at-home mom. Today's wisdom holds that a couple that sends both spouses into the workforce is better off economically. They may be stressed out, they may feel guilty about sending their kids to day care, and they may have too little time for each other, but the one piece of good news that the family can count on is that they are more financially secure! Stability and protection -- delicious ideas for the modern family—and exactly what everyone knows a second income provides. But what if it doesn't? What if the modern two-earner couple is actually more vulnerable than the traditional single-breadwinner family? (page 58)

This is powerful stuff. I'm sure there are other secular books out there that have raised some of these same issues. But here are two working women extolling the economic virtues of living on one income. This book debunks the modern myth that somehow women are cheating their families (and themselves) by not working outside the home. Later in the book, the authors state: "If you would prefer to have a parent at home full-time but were afraid that it would be too risky economically, then don't worry. The idea that it takes two incomes to be financially secure is dangerously wrongheaded" (page 152, emphasis mine).

Warren and Tyagi also point out that by the 1990s the marriages of working wives were forty percent more likely to end in divorce than marriages with stay-at-home wives. Living on one income not only makes more sense financially, it is better for the quality and the survival of family life.

I don't want to leave a discussion of this book without telling you about two financial traps we miss by homeschooling. The authors hammer home the point that parents are having to buy houses they can't afford to locate in good public school districts. The same house in different districts can vary substantially in cost. Homeschoolers can buy the same house for the lower price. That can represent a huge financial saving.

The second trap is by far more startling and surprising to me. On page 39 of The Two-Income Trap, the authors cite a study that indicates "The annual cost for a four-year-old to attend a child care center in an urban area is more than double the price of college tuition in fifteen states." My conclusion (certainly not the conclusion of the authors): Homeschool your preschoolers!

The Blessing of Limitations
I have been homeschooling now for twenty years. This fact amazes me when I recall the statement I enjoyed making adamantly when I was in high school and college: "There are two things I will never do -- have kids or teach." So I have spent most of my adult life teaching my own children at home!

Homeschooling has been one of the greatest blessings of my life, and I hope of my children's lives. (All three are wonderfully capable young adults with a vibrant love for Christ.) I love homeschooling. I write about it; I speak about it; I lobby for it; I emphatically believe in it. This does not mean that homeschooling has been easy. I have had days that I have wanted to quit. I have had days that I have felt personally limited. I have felt boxed in at times. I am an extreme extrovert—and there have been days, especially in the early years, that I was just plain lonely.

It was during one of those days that I "happened" to be listening to Joni Earickson Tada on the radio. She was discussing Philippians 1:12-14:

But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

I will never forget Joni's message that day. She pointed out what the passage said: Paul's chains, his imprisonment, resulted in the furtherance, the advancement, of the gospel. Then she said that she viewed her wheelchair the same way -- as a type of prison. And, yet, she prayed with Paul that her limitations would result in the furtherance of the gospel.

I have never viewed limitations in the same way since that day. Since then, I have prayed hundreds of times that God would take my limitations (my shortcomings and my circumstances) and use them to somehow further His kingdom.

Being financially limited can cause some great things to happen in our lives and in our families' lives.

1. Financial constraints force us to choose wisely -- whether we are buying curriculum or Christmas presents, planning vacations, or choosing extra-curricular activities for the children.

2. Financial limitations cause families to work together as teams. We live in an extremely individualistic society where everyone tends to go his own way and do his own thing. Unlimited finances can fund this type of lifestyle. Fathers and mothers can afford to pursue their own interests and hobbies -- and often these interests are not mutual and don't include the children. On the other hand, limited finances force a family to work together and often the resulting choices enhance a spirit of teamwork and togetherness.

3. Limited finances keep our children from being spoiled. Also, by example, we teach them the importance of making wise choices.

4. Financial limitations can keep us focused spiritually. "So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (II Corinthians 4: 18)

5. When we choose to homeschool and to live on one income, we freely choose to limit ourselves financially. We demonstrate powerfully to our children, on a daily basis, that we value them more than we value things.

One day the widow of one of Elisha's fellow prophets came to Elisha and cried out to him, "My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves."

"What can I do to help you?" Elisha asked. "Tell me, what do you have in the house?"

"Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil," she replied.

And Elisha said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting the jars aside as they are filled."

So she did as she was told. Her sons brought many jars to her, and she filled one after another. Soon every container was full to the brim! "Bring me another jar," she said to one of her sons.

"There aren't any more!" he told her.

And then the olive oil stopped flowing. When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, "Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and there will be enough money left over to support you and your sons."

What a remarkable story. What a remarkable, compassionate God! How desperate this woman must have felt, knowing that her sons were about to be taken into slavery to pay off her debt. That same God who met the widow's needs has not changed. He is here today to meet our needs.

We can learn valuable lessons from this woman.

1. God hears our cries, just as Elisha heard the widow's cry.

2. Oftentimes, He asks us to take inventory of our resources. Elisha asked the widow, "Tell me, what do you have in the house?" In Matthew 15:34, Jesus asks the disciples, when confronted with the hungry multitude, "How many loaves do you have?"

God isn't asking the widow or the disciples what they have because He needs to know—He asks because they need to know. They need to understand the depth of their need, and they need to articulate it to God.

3. Then, God often uses the very meager resources we offer Him as the springboard for providing abundantly beyond all that we could ask or think. God multiplied the widow's oil to such an extent that the widow was able to sell it, pay her debts, keep her sons, and support them. Jesus multiplied the bread and fish, fed thousands, and had baskets left over.

Do you feel inadequate to handle all that homeschooling requires? Do you lack the resources to buy the curriculum that you need? Are you faced with debt, or more mouths to feed than you can possibly accommodate?

Take stock of what you have and don't have. Be honest about your limitations. Then take your needs to God. Cry out to Him. Offer Him the cup of oil or loaf of bread you do have. Then watch as He miraculously takes your very inadequate resources and multiplies them to meet your needs, allowing you to minister to those around you. God is faithful and able. You can count on it.

Copyright, 2004. The Old Schoolhouse© Magazine.

Zan Tyler is the Homeschool Resource and Media Consultant for Broadman and Holman Publishers and Homeschool Editor for LifeWay Christian Resources, on the Web at www.lifeway.com/homeschool. She and her husband, Joe, have three children and have been homeschooling since 1984.