About Robin

I am Robin Sampson. We have homeschooled for twenty years. I’m an author. We are blessed with eleven children and thirteen grandchildren.

We are not the perfect homeschool family. I am not a super mom that has it all together. Most of my life I have run on a performance treadmill attempting to earn love and acceptance from God and others. The result has been a mess explained below.

You can see my books here. Titles include The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach, What Your Child Needs to Know When, Wisdom: An Internet-Linked Unit Study, A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays, and Ancient History: Adam to Messiah.

My Performance Treadmill

Rebellious Childhood

My childhood was difficult. I was often left alone (due to family illness) and as a result sexually abused for over a decade (from age five).

The shaggy hairstyles, bell-bottoms, rock and roll, make-love-not-war seventies welcomed my rebellious spirit. My life was broken – littered with hurts, failures, and mistakes.

My sweet godly Grandmother was faithful to plant spiritual seeds in me. Each summer I spent time with her I saw Jesus in her love. I longed for a relationship with God and talked to Him often.

Seeking Acceptance in Religion

I became a Christian as a teenager and deeply wanted to follow Christ. But I was full of shame and guilt, enslaved in bondage, unable to accept love and the forgiveness God offered. The treadmill kept me from freedom to enjoy the blessings of God. I married at 17 and had four children in five years. I was determined to raise my children in a Christian home.

In my zeal, I went from the life of a sinner to a religioholic (an alcoholic is preoccupied by alcohol, a workaholic is preoccupied by work, I was preoccupied with legalistic religion). We joined a independent legalistic church and went every time the door was open.

If we missed a service, the guilt would drive me to volunteer for something else. I kept the nursery during church and taught Sunday School. I wasn’t fed much spiritually because I was busy earning love and approval. Artificial rules and regulations sucked the love of God out of our family.

Recycling the Misconceptions

I sincerely thought I was on the right path. I tried to control our family with my lists of Christian rules. Church attendance and Bible studies were duties. My husband was rejected by the church because he drank beer on weekends. After that, he had several affairs; he finally abandoned us and we didn’t see him for 15 years.

I was completely rejected by the church I served. I was told, “I must not have been submissive enough.” It was a small church and I think they were afraid to have a single mother with four children and no income.

I emphasize with the millions of single mothers in America struggling to feed their children every day. I was raising four children without child support for six years.

We slept on mattresses, ate meals off a cardboard box, skipped many meals, and collected soda bottles in ditches to buy medicine. I was desperate to feed my children. I worked waitress jobs and even got a job in a nightclub for a while. The churches we visited were afraid of us or too legalistic for a divorced mother. After a several rejections, I stopped trying to go.

I joined the Orlando Police Academy when I found I the oppturnity to work off-duty jobs for extra income. I was a scrawny 110 lbs but I made it through the academy. I was able to work 80-100 hours a week which I needed to to pay for child care for four.

Six years later I married–not out of love but exhaustion –his time to a man with a very unsavory past, but he promised to take us to church and he did.

We were involved in a mid-size church without all the extreme legalism. I had three more children. I worked hard toward the Proverbs 31 goal and we began homeschooling. Our Homeschool Story is here.

Our family was dysfunctional, as most families are, but I was determined to work hard and protect my children from the evil world.

Externally we appeared to be a godly family, but internally each of us was unraveling.

Passing Down Legalism

I passed down unhealthy habits of performing to earn love and acceptance to my children. Instead of teaching the love of God, I taught them (by actions, not words) how to run on the performance treadmill and jump through behavioral hoops. While I was running on this treadmill I had a judgmental attitude towards anyone who wasn’t on the same treadmill. I was extremely critical of myself and others.

Where is the love of God in that?

Homeschooling brought in new artificial rules and regulations (wearing dresses, baking bread, using the right math program, the number of school hours, etc.). I had new rules to follow–maybe this time I could get it right! I was willing to work hard.

I truly believed I was on the right path, but the fruit proved otherwise. When my children hit their teen-age years they rebelled.

I was in deep denial. My closest friend once told me, “If being in denial was an Olympic sport, you would be a gold medalist!” My formula for coping with the dysfunctional mess went something like this:

Step 1: Denial (Pretend there is no problem or pretend I don’t feel the way I feel)
Step 2: See some of the problem, blame myself, wallow in shame.
Step 3: Work harder, try harder
Step 4: Fail.
Step 5: Blame myself, wallow in shame.
Step 6: Lose it.
Step 7: Blame myself for losing it, wallow in shame. Emotional collapse.

That marriage ended in divorce. My adult children struggle with the consequences of our broken family. Ten years ago I married a man with two daughters and together we had two more children (now 7 and 8 )

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Mat 15:8)

I’ve repented and apologized for those many years that I was wrapped up in this spiritual self-reliance and cheated them of the joy of life in Christ. By God’s grace we are all in different stages of healing.

We Needed Relationship Not Religion

Jesus came to give us Life– it has nothing to do with our ability to perform. The Christian life is dwelling in Him. We need to simply enter His rest and watch the freedom from our mess begin to unfold. As we dwell in Him we become transformed into His image, being changed by His glory. Without the Vine to bring nourishing sap to the branch there can be no fruit.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:2.

I love the way Mike Yaconelli explains this:

Spiritually is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spiritually is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spiritually is not about perfection; it is about connection.

The way of spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spiritually not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws, but because we let go of seeking perfection and instead seek God the One who is present in the tangleness of our lives.

Freedom comes from knowing truth – and the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Freedom does not mean lawlessness. Freedom in Him is freedom from shame and not from responsibility. We have a responsibility to submit. God’s Spirit can do His work only as we yield to Him. Jesus came to show us the love of God; when we yield, that love flows through us.

Our standard of conduct should be holiness (Col. 3:1). We are not without law but we are under “the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2), the law of love (James 2:8), and “the law of liberty” (James 2:12).

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. (Heb 4:1)

In Christ is the storehouse where God has placed all the “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:1–5). Spiritual fruit–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control–beginning with the knowledge of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Getting off the performance treadmill was a long, complicated, and messy process. I had a lot of shame and assumptions to overcome. God took me on this journey to learn of Him through the Hebrew roots of Christianity (which can also turn into legalism if one is out of balance) to prepare me for His plans for me. I got to know Him by dropping preconceived ideas and assumptions. I learned of God’s grace through the wonderful stories in both Testaments.

Not everyone goes this particular route. But no one experiences real spiritual fruit until they have accepted His love.

You will trust God only as much as you love him. And you will love him not because you have studied him; you will love him because you have touched him—in response to his touch…Only if you love will you make that final leap into darkness. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Brennan Manning in Lion and Lamb

I continue dealing with the consequences of my life of sin. It’s a journey and we have come far, but we have far to go.

It’s easy to lose focus and rely on working overtime to please God through our good works and righteous behavior. But we can never do it in our own strength.

At the very root of all Christian life lies the thought that God is to do all - that our work is to give and leave ourselves in His hands, in the confession of utter helplessness and dependence, in the assured confidence that He gives all we need.

The great lack of the Christian life is that, even where we trust Christ, we leave God out of the count. Christ came to bring us to God. Christ lived the life of a man exactly as we have to live it. Christ the Vine points to God the Husbandman. As He trusted God, let us trust God, that everything we ought to be and have, as those who belong to the Vine, will be given us from above. (Andrew Murray, The Secret of God’s Love)

Today my focus is on my relationship with God and teaching my children how much God and I love them.

The rest of the story…I have not listed all my sins nor all my consequences in this post (it would take a book, a very large book) but you get the idea. I still struggle daily, but God reminds me how much He loves me and then I can rest in His strength. He reminds me that He used David, the woman at the well, and even a stubborn donkey, and He can even use me.

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. (Eph 3:17-19)

Are you living in religion instead of resting in a relationship? Take this quiz.

Robin

Related

There Are 23 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Carol :

Hi Robin.

I just wanted to let you know that I posted my first part of my review of HOWTA that you sent me the link to download. You can find it here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ThreeLittleLadies/338060/

I will post more as I go along, maybe section by section. Thanks for letting me do this. I’ve been wanting to read the book, and yet had so much I already own that I haven’t read yet, I probably wouldn’t have gotten to it for a long time. It is a God thing. I am glad that I found your website today.

Carol
Comment by michelle :

Hi, Robin.

I am really looking forward to blogging here. Thank you for providing this for all of us homeschoolers. I have read the faith statement, and I love what it says. I like the standard of God’s Word as a foundation for this blogging community you are starting.

You have been an absolute blessing to my family. I have really enjoyed the materials that your ministry sells. I have sincerely cried as my heart leaped with joy when I read them. You are a blessing from God. Thank you so much!!!!
Pingback by The Magical Rose Garden » Blog Archive » Spotlight on: Heart of Wisdom Blog :

[...] certainly does not “scream at you” as the page loads. However, photo of the site owner, Robin, in the upper right corner caught our eye. She looks like she could be your next door neighbor [...]
Comment by Stephanie Jackson :

Hi Robin,
This is my first time finding your site. I so want to homeschool my children. They are in public school now and doing great with everything, but in my heart I really want them home with me and to be homeschooling them. I don’t have the confidence in myself though and am afraid that I won’t be able to do it, but reading all that I have today is helping me. I know I have to pray for wisdom and I know that the Lord will lead me and guide me. Their ages are 7, 12, and 15. Please pray for us. I will pray for your speedy recovery from your heart surgery. You are so blessed to have such a precious family and to have homeschooled all of these years. Glad I found you.

Stephanie
Comment by Angie :

Robin—your testimony and family is awesome! God has plans for you—you have an obedient heart—you are pliable clay in His hands! I love your blog…I will return!!!
Pingback by Teaching His Ways » Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach :

[...] just wanted to write a THANK YOU to Robin Sampson, author of the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach. I so enjoy using the Bible first method of [...]
Pingback by BlogsWeLuv - Blog Reviews » Blog Archive » 10 Questions with Robin of Heart of Wisdom :

[...] 2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are. About Heart of Wisdom [...]
Comment by Dana Street :

Robin–
I just wanted to let you know that I got your comment on my blog and the heart question. I answered it there.

Hope you and your family are doing well!

Blessings–
Dana
Comment by Laure :

Hi Robin!

I’m so glad I visited this morning. You have a wonderful site here. Looking forward to future visits with you.
Comment by Melissa Gonzales :

I am really feeling like I am being lazy by spending so much time coming up with a mind map, then lesson plans, then daily lesson plans. I am trying to work on this approach for pre-school through 3rd grade. A 4 year plan, creation- noah for pre-k-kindergarten. I just want to know how much time you spent on lesson plans, how you worked it into your day or night. Do you have suggestions for mind mapping-examples or how you use it for lesson planning.
Comment by Rose :

My husband and I are also have a large family, we, too,are blended. Between the 2 of us we have 10 children, and 2 grandchildren, with number 3 due in 3 weeks, and numbers 4&5 due in Sept. No, numbers4&5 are NOT twins, they have 2 different moms.

My step-daughter who has one of the grandchildren plans on home-schooling her when it is time,(she is only 17 months old now), but mom and dad both have learning disabilities, so I more than likely will be the one doing the home-schooling.

Rose’s last blog post..Looking for a Job!
Comment by Lisa :

Hi Robin,
I love your blog, you leave me inspired everytime I read it. May I ask what happened in your first marriage? I am struggling in my marriage with a husband with anger issues. He is not struggling as he doesn’t see what the problem is. We spent months in counseling . . . nothing changed. Nothing will change and I feel stuck in this marriage. Is that what God wants for me?
Comment by Joy :

Hi Robin,

Thank you so much for sharing your story on some other christian’s reactions to your remarriage. I have been divorced for many years and was saved after my divorce. I have a lovely daughter who is currently at ‘normal’ school though I really want to homeschool her. At the moment, though, her father will not allow this. However, I’m still getting discretely prepared because I know that God is the one that has laid it so much on my heart.

I found your website after a supernatural impartation of wisdom at church and am so blessed to see that someone else has a similar heart to mine. I loved the extracts of the heart of wisdom and delight based learning books available on your website and am hoping to purchase the full books as soon as possible.

Also was delighted to find out I wasn’t alone with struggling to create order and beauty in my home!! I have got a copy of one of the books that you recommended, ‘Messie No More’.

Thank you so much for being you.

Blessings,

Joy
Comment by Misty :

Hi there Robin, I think what you and what you are doing is fabulous. I am in the process of building my family site and my blog is there but I LOVE all the information you have for digital scrapbooking and most importantly how your number1 thing is to bring glory to God. You are listed on my links page (Misty’s links) on my site. Don’t feel bad about being towards the bottom (She ROCKS is how it is listed) that just means you went up first. Hope tpo hear from you but if not I will keep reading. Take care and God Bless!
Faithfully Serving Him,
Misty
Pingback by Kerugma » Blog Archive » HOWTA Book Study: Preface :

[...] group while studying the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach (herein referred to as HOWTA) by Robin Sampson. I’d like to share the chapter summaries and things I’ve pondered [...]
Pingback by New York Renovator :

[...] I don’t know Robin. I found her blog while dropping Entrecards. But my heart goes out to her. Robin runs Heart of Wisdom blog and has been stricken with various health problems. She is in the hospital and a friend is making posts to her blog to keep readers up to date. The last post said that Robin is on medicine that is making her very depressed. It said that she had lost her will to live, and she is struggling with possible internal bleeding. Robin is a mom to eleven children and thirteen grandchildren, and she as well as those kids need our prayers. You can read more about Robin here. [...]
Comment by shortone2jesus :

Robin,

You wrote me quite a while back about the Shack and am just now getting through the emails and going through links. Anyway, I really appreciated your review of The Shack. I just got back from a weekend retreat with my church group titled, “To the Shack and Back”. Anyway, thanks for the email. I will bookmark your site and come back often!

Shortone
Comment by missy :

I was blessed by your post. I needed to read this today. I struggle with perfectionism due to my abusive childhood. It is hard to homeschool with that struggle. I have to stay on my knees giving it back to him every day because of the perfectionistic tendencies which want rob me of enjoying my children. Your blog was an encouragement to keep pressing forward in surrendering that false idea of a “perfect homeschool”, “perfect mom”, “perfect….”. God’s hand is on this post. It is an encouragement for the rest of us dysfunctional homeschooling moms so that we can see the beauty in our dysfunction because where we are weak he can be strong, and His glory shines through much more brilliantly. What beauty has come out of your ashes. Thank you for sharing. I have been tremendously encouraged.
Pingback by Blogging 101 » Blog Archive » Twitter Moms & RAMBO: Reach A Mom Blogger Online :

[...] About Robin [...]
Pingback by Will You Tweet Your Christian Homeschool Testimony on Twitter? | The Classical Scholar :

[...] as tweets, which are posts of up to 140 characters in length. Robin Sampson, author of the Heart of Wisdom homeschool blog, has this terrific idea: spark a testimony fire. She’s asking all [...]
Comment by Charles Taylor :

I need to contact someone that can help me clarify somethings before I purchase this curriculam.
Comment by Charles Taylor :

I need to contact someone that can help me clarify some things before I purchase this curriculam.
Comment by katdish :

Wow. Thanks for that, especially that part at the end. So often when you read a story of how someone was far away from God, the assumption at the end is that they are now fully devoted and living a life exempt from struggle and pain. I think’s it’s important to be honest about the fact that we are still wretched sinners, but we strive to become more Christlike out of love and profound gratitude for what He has done for us. Thanks for pointing me here.

In Him,

Kathy Richards (katdish)