Hello! My name is Tom McGuire. I’m a Christian, who happens to be a homeschooler at the age of seventeen. I have the Master as my Teacher.
I’ve been homeschooled all of my school-aged life. It began when my mom wasn’t keen on my riding with high-schoolers on the school bus at five years of age. She had heard about homeschooling before, and thought she would give it a try. Apparently that decision paid off, as I’m now entering my Senior year in high school. So through this whole process, the Master has remained my one and only Teacher.
I’ve been raised in a Christian household. Our family went to church (semi) regularly, and I had a good foundation of morals and standards. When I was around ten, I started getting involved with our local Awana program at Old North Church, but I never really made an effort to memorize all the verses in a timely fashion. Admittedly, I just saw it as a cool place to hang out every Wednesday night with my buddies. I can’t say I realized it at the time, but the Master was my Teacher.
After a few years of years of “tasting” different churches, and going many weeks without attending a service, I told my parents that we should settle down and simply go to Old North. It was nice and close (which helps when you have eight children in the family), and me and my siblings had been involved with Awana and other programs at Old North. Since that time, I’ve been attending Old North much more regularly with my family, and I doubt it’s by chance that our lives have improved since we made that committment.
Last September, our family began Community Bible Study, which really inspired me to dig into the Word of God much more than I ever had in previous years. For most of the CBS season, which stretched from September until May, I also played guitar and led worship for the homeschool students. During that same time, David Ketter has also been mentoring me more and more, looking up Bible verses together and discussing different topics. His words of encouragement in the tough times, and simply just being there when I needed him, were literally a God-send. I simply would not be in the state I am today without the Master’s teaching through David.
God has taught me over the months that you need to fully rely on Him — nothing else matters. You can have the coolest car, the most CDs, the prettiest girlfriend (or cutest boyfriend, depending on your gender)… but do those things matter eternally, or are we just trying to look good? We need to make God look good. We need to lay down the material things of this world and give Him all the glory, especially since there’s absolutely no way we could possibly repay Him for what He has done for us.
Now let’s fast-forward to today. I’m starting my sixth year as a Leader in Training at Awana this September. I’m eagerly anticipating Community Bible Study in the fall. I’m helping out with the middle-school ministry at Old North. The time has also come to start thinking about college, and I’m heavily considering going into some type of youth ministry since. I’m still praying hard about that, and I trust God will light the path I should travel.
I’ll leave you with one last thought. This (relatively) short biography about me is an account of how richly God has blessed me and my family. Throughout my whole life — and stretching infinitely before my physical birth and beyond physical death — God has been there and will be there, every step of the way. And the same is true for everyone. Will you be receptive to Him? Will you obey? Will you let the Master be your Teacher?
