“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:37-40
“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…” 1 John 5:3
At the beginning of the current school year, I began homeschooling my son, who is a sophomore in high school. He is still enrolled in math and science at the public high school, and we are grateful for that. My reasons for homeschooling him are numerous and personal, and I don’t see the need to go into them. The point is, I’m doing what I and my son feel is best for him. (I chuckle when people begin to ask me questions about homeschooling, and then, as if to really get me, they ask, ‘but what does he think of being homeschooled?') The fact is, he begged me to do it!
We’re both ecstatic with how things are going, and I wish I’d started sooner. That’s why I’m thrilled to see the following article in The Christian Post which reveals how home-schooled children excel as adults:
It gives the results of a survey taken by individuals aged 15-34 who have been homeschooled seven or more years of their K-12 education.
This article does much to redeem homeschooling from the rampant misinformation that exists, most of it promulgated by people who have never truly met a homeschooler and have never explored homeschooling for themselves. I’ve had educated adults who should know better "tsk tsk" the fact that they saw a homeschooled kid out “skateboarding” one day (so we must condemn all homeschoolers? Maybe he was taking his recess!)
The most common response I’ve gotten from people since beginning homeschooling is “what about his socialization?” As if being thrown into an institution which you cannot leave until 2 or 3:30 each day where kids bully, swear and do all sorts of rude and ill-mannered things to other children and their teachers is the ideal setting for socialization! My son, having attended Christian and public schools up until now, is quite socialized. He has a job and goes to youth group and a Monday night Bible study and many of his friends are those he’s made outside of high school. And if we’re honest, we have to admit that sometimes “socialization” with the peer group can be a detriment when reaching high school age, where peer pressure to date and drink can come on pretty strong.
For those who have been and will be homeschooled in entirety, the world is full of amazing home school social groups. A mom who is beginning the schooling of her fourth child comes to mind. She is completely plugged in to a terrific home school group at her church, numbering in the hundreds. They go on field trips, enroll in sports at the YMCA, celebrate birthdays and holidays together and on and on. They are just as active, if not more, than kids in regular schools.
The Christian Post article does not ignore the question of socialization. It found that “most (70 percent)” respondents “disagreed with the common criticism of home education that children have too few opportunities for socialization with other children and went as far as to claim that they had plenty of opportunities for socializing with other children. Only 10.7 percent claimed that the criticism was most certainly the case in their situation.”
Two who responded negatively to their home school socialization said, “[I was] so different from others my age and [felt] somewhat awkward” and “I feel I could have had more social interaction.” But the same can be said for those taught in a public school as well! Ask any student in any grade if they’ve ever felt awkward or that they didn’t fit in, and I bet most will answer "yes." Especially at the high school level, many students feel like they don't fit in and wish they were more “popular,” meaning they wish they had more friends. Hasn’t conformity been a recurring problem in the schools, primarily for those who don’t conform but also for those who lose their individuality or cave in to peer pressure when they do?
My point here is to praise the positives of homeschooling and lift it up as a truly viable, sophisticated and creative choice in today’s world of computers and community home school groups. It is mind-boggling to see just how many resources there are, from computer classroom programs, to charter programs that combine with home-schooling, and great curriculums (many with a Christian worldview, like the world history one I’m using).
I can also create my own curriculum: My son wanted to read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair so we did. He wants to be a missionary so we added a Bible class. I have a degree in Journalism and experience in writing, so I’ve been able to customize an English/creative writing program. He’s participated in team sports in all of his previous phy ed classes, so now we can mix it up with bowling, power-walking with the pedometer and biking and golfing in the Spring. This Wednesday he’ll be downhill skiing.
Homeschooling is one of the coolest things I’ve ever had the privilege of experiencing. In this day and age, the options and approaches are limitless. It’s not for everyone or for every child. (My oldest is in college and was never homeschooled.) But homeschooling is the perfect choice for some and it’s time for the goofy mythology and wacky rumors surrounding it to go. Hopefully as more articles like this one in The Christian Post come to the fore homeschooling will gain the universal respect it deserves.
"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6
Diets, finance, self-improvement, spiritual growth, getting organized, and time management; all of these are at this moment making the lists of people’s New Year’s resolutions. But perhaps I can save some time, paper and frustration, and pare it down to this:
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33
Does that mean we don’t seek advice in books, or see a doctor or set up a meeting with a financial advisor? No. The point is, are we hiring and seeking and reading and listening to everyone except God? God can definitely speak, encourage and teach us through others. But God must be first in our lives, not the time management and diet books and health club memberships, and certainly not secular books on “success.” I mean, how do we know if the time management the book is recommending is the same time management God is recommending? We must bring everything back to the Bible and God to test whether it is True and Right for us, regardless of what the “experts” say, and even regardless of what other Christian advice-givers say.
That being said, I took a look at what’s currently on the New York Times Best Seller List to get an indication of where folks are putting their resolve. The first two books on the hardcover business best-seller list are “Superfreakonomics” in which “a scholar and a journalist apply economic thinking to everything” and “Outliers,” which supposedly explains “why some people succeed—it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent.”
I wonder, is it really beneficial to apply economic thinking to everything? And why would a rational, thinking human being believe in something like luck over something historically, experientially and Biblically proven: God? Are people really so quick to scoff at a belief in the Bible (of which there are more written historical copies than copies of Plato’s "Republic") yet take seriously the superstition of luck?
Of the bestselling advice books, I was amazed to find that five out of the top ten deal with food and cooking! It does tie in to the importance the Bible places on fellowship and breaking bread together, and which God-instilled in every one of us, whether we realize it or not.
A book taking an incredulous 4th place on the advice bestseller list is “The 4-Hour Workweek.” The Times said this is about “reconstructing your life so that it’s not all about work.” I haven’t read the book, but I did go to it’s website and found the following testimonial: “From mini-retirements to outsourcing your life, it’s all here.” The website shows pictures of what looks like a student of the eight-minute ab workout practicing Eastern arts, along with pictures of men skydiving, downhill skiing, night-clubbing, and a relaxed woman getting a massage. Some of the things we’ll learn, based on the book’s table of contents is: How to burn $1,000,000 a night, cultivate selective ignorance, the art of refusal, and a way to calculate our dream lifestyle. There are several sections under the heading of “Income Autopilot” wherein we’ll find and trust “the Muse.” As for the section on outsourcing one’s life through “geoarbitrage,” I honestly have no idea. But I have a hunch that the person we outsource our life to is anyone but God.
Another book on the list caught my eye. It’s “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” by Tucker Max. The Times describes this book as “Life as a self-absorbed, drunken womanizer.” This title has been on the New York Times paperback non-fiction bestseller list for 116 weeks! At $15.95 a pop!
Then there are the books that many believers like to read, one after the other, as a replacement for reading their Bible. I know people who love to read things like “The Love Dare,” “The Five Love Languages,” “Eat, Pray and Love” and Joel Osteen books because they feel this is spiritual food. Yet these books, due to their seemingly religious nature, need to especially be tested against what Scripture says. “Eat, Pray, Love,” for instance, is about “A writer’s yearlong journey in search of self (which) takes her to Italy, India and Indonesia.” When I see any book that has the words “in search of self” I drop it and run, fast! I spent 38 years “in search of myself,” only to find that it wasn’t finding myself that was needed, it was losing myself! And that was done through Jesus Christ and Him alone.
That’s why I read my Bible and why it is the first and final authority in my life. Because without it, I enter into the slippery slope of finding myself again, in all it’s self-important self-focus. The journey and adventure of being born again is that self-searching finally ends. Isn’t that the liberation we’re all searching for--Freedom from Us?
That’s my prayer for anyone tempted to make yet another list of resolutions--that self, with all its independent self-striving, ends where a belief in and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior begins. In Him is where our resolve needs to be. In Him alone is our Victory. He can be found, along with New Life, in His Word; not only the bestselling book of all time, but the book that actually delivers!
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 16-17
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16
Finding Christ was finally knowing why, in the Apostle Paul’s words, I didn’t do what I wanted to do and instead did what I didn’t want to do. Finding Christ meant facing my sin and brokenness for the first time. In fact, it meant learning that I even had sin and brokenness to begin with! Christ was the Light out of the ever encroaching darkness I’d been blindly trying to claw myself out of day after day, only to go deeper into the abyss.
Christ’s gift of Himself to me was and continues to be this: liberation from my own self-centeredness. I have the Sword of Jesus that cuts through every deceit and lie: lies conjured up by Satan, myself and the world that try to fool me into thinking I am independently good and resourceful when I’m not. I never realized any of this until Jesus cut through the façade.
Jesus must upset our human delusion of peace and goodness with the real deal: His peace and goodness. When God was finally able to bring me to a place where I said to God, “Bring it on,” He did. It wasn’t pretty, you know, seeing my sin for the first time and realizing I wasn’t a good person after all. But Oh the freedom in that!
See, Jesus alone is goodness and He brings His goodness to me! Jesus alone is peace and He came to bring His peace in all circumstances to me! But in order for any of that to become Truth in my life, I had to first come to the Cross in the realization and repentance of my sin and in the acceptance of Jesus and His redemption. It is at the Cross where I died my first death and was born again.
Jesus came to earth and died so we, too, can die to our blind, frustrated selves and be reborn as babes. True peace on earth is only to be had through Jesus—even in the midst of war, tragedy, disease, and whatever life dishes out--because Jesus Himself is our peace (Ephesians 2:14).
“He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.” Micah 5:4-5
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, 'Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.' In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.'” John 3:1-3
“But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:21
“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” Revelation 21:5
“He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. “ Revelation 21:6
