She Rambles On...

I realize the past two posts that I have just written may have seemed like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth. On the one hand I say that I'm going to take the church to the world...I'm going to BE the church. And on the other, I say that I'm homeschooling my kids this year!

When Kev candidated for a church position awhile back, he was asked his opinion on this hot topic: "Public school, Christian school, or homeschool?" And his answer was: "Yes! Yes to all!"

He went to our area's largest Christian school for his entire enducation, and it was as really positive experience for him. We know of many others who went to Christian school who absolutely hated their experience AND gave away their virginity, had abortions, and smoked a whole whack of weirdness after practice. I went to a public school my whole life, it was where my faith became my own, and it was a really positive experience for me. I know of others who say their years of public highschool were the most horrible years of their life. And this year, for a plethora of reasons, we are choosing to homeschool Kaden, and it's been a really positive experience for us. I know of others who have tried it and hated it, others who will NEVER try it, and still others who feel a very clear calling to educate their children via a different route.

All options can be really great...and all options can be really horrible - on a whole HOST of levels.

And it's a really personal decision to make between families and the Lord.
I will never say that I know what I'm going to do all the way up through the 12th grade. I will always say that I'm taking it year by year. And we may even find - because of the different personalities and needs of our children - that we have one doing one thing with another doing something else.

I think the point is to be always striving to do what we feel the Lord may be asking us to do. For us, for this year anyway the option to homeschool has helped in our fight to maintain simplicity, it's given me one more year to dictate my own life's schedule, and with both my work and our ministry involving many evenings and funky days, it gives me my days to be with my kids.

Who knows what the future will hold? But I DO know that I want my kids in on being the church to the world around us. I want them to make friends at the library, on the playground, and with the little girl across the street. I often find that it's much easier for little kids to create genuine relationships with no alterior motives, anyway. I think that we can actually learn much from our children.

Do we protect them? Yes. Do we teach them about the evils in the world? For sure. But, can they learn to view relationships through the Lord's eyes and see their little friends the way that He would see them? They sure can, and I think that they often do a better job at it than we do. We see someone who might be a bad influence or who might teach them a swear word. They see a new friend who loves legos as much as they do. Hmn. What would Jesus see and do, I wonder?

A delicate balance and a tricky dance, for sure. A decision up for a whole host of speculation and judgment. But I don't think God ever intended for us to ONLY hang out with people that are just like us and to live in the safety of our own little bubbles forever. He sure didn't.