Everything Under the Son

I am terrified. Terrified of the worldliness that I see all around me. Terrified of what the future may hold for my babies. Yes, I know they will not be babies forever, but let's face it, they will ALWAYS be my babies!

Today, as Natalie and I were driving to the store to pick up some groceries, I saw something that really alarmed me. Walking down the side of the road were three young boys. No, that isn't the alarming part...hang with me. As we slowed down to drive carefully around them, the youngest, who couldn't have been a day older that 7, decided to wave a not-so-friendly hello with his middle finger! I could not believe my eyes! My first reaction was, "Lord, please don't let Natalie see this." He answered my prayer. But then, as we drove on, I thought about so many things. I was terrified by what I saw!

I thought about how hard it is to be a parent. How hard it is to teach what is right and wrong...and even harder to teach the concept of "love the sinner, not the sin" to a four year old. (Quite honestly, this one is hard no matter what your age!) I thought about how difficult it will be to let her start school...homeschooling has always been an option, and on days like today, it is looking mighty good! I thought about the challenges that come with being called to live in the world but not be of the world. It's hard, y'all.

I guess what I have decided is that she is going to learn about the world, but I want her to do so with a filter. I want everything she sees, hears, and does to go through that filter. I want that filter to be God's Word. I want to fill her heart and her mind with God's words, God's teaching, and I want her to use that as the basis for all of her decisions. I want her to love as Christ loves, and I want her to live for Him. I want her to be armed with God's words, His love, His grace, as she lives in this world.

And in deciding this, I have realized that I have a HUGE responsibility to mold that filter. I must set the example and arm myself with God's words. I need to be sure that she understands right from wrong, and that she knows what it looks like to love others like Christ calls us to. I want to do the right thing. I want to prepare her to live her life running full throttle towards Jesus, and reaching out to take as many people with her as she can.

And when I think about that responsibility, I am terrified.



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On a side note, I have story I want to record here so that I never forget.

Natalie's Bible Class teacher shared with me tonight a beautiful thing that Natalie said in class. They were talking about Lazarus and how he was raised from the dead. She said that they were talking about death and how Jesus had performed a miracle. She told me that Natalie then piped up saying, "I have a brother and a sister who died." Then Teacher S told her, "Yes Natalie, and someday you will get to see them again in Heaven." Natalie's response was priceless...she said, "Yes. That's the happiest day of my life already!"

And then I wept. Her filter for death is that it is sad on earth, but the glorious crossover into Heaven! What a happy day it will be when we are all in Heaven together, Amen?!

Amen! It is terrifying! I love your description of the kind of the filter you want to create for your kids. God has put homeschooling on my heart. I certainly would never have thought it was a road I would take, but at this point feel convicted to do so. I enjoy and am blessed by all you have to say.

I love that child! She is always thinking in God's terms and God has given her the 2 parents that will guide her well and take His lead.
Teacher Traci

You are great parents and you have already put in place one of the best filters, the knowledge of God. Keep following his guidance and your children will continue to learn what to filter on their own. It is terrifying but your children have wonderful parents.

You realize you sound just like mom right? ALWAYS be your babies...I've heard that one before!

Oh'it is so terrifying. Especially, being in the schools, I get to see first hand how this world has changed and it is so scary! We all wish our kids could stay in the bubble of our home forever! Butyour right... God is our filter! Thankfully!

How precious! I know I would've cried too! That Natalie says some of the sweetest things. She seems very spiritually aware for her age.

We chose to homeschool ours for many of the same reasons you listed. It has really been a blessing so far. We've found the the time spent with our sweet little ones to be an added bonus of home schooling. The joys of seeing them learn and grow and getting to be so much a part of shaping who they become and what they learn about life.... Priceless.

I've become convinced, based on what I see on my favorite techie websites, that the big challenge to kids growing up today is the militant atheism being pushed from every angle -- God taken out of the schools, students can't bring a Bible to school or wear a cross, the mantras that "Intelligent Design is IDiotic and unscientific" and "Creationists are stupid anti-science bigots", Evolution pushed as fact from every magazine and TV show and school textbook (let me make it clear that "Variation on a theme" is indeed fact, and Biblical, but the large-scale, upward change type of Evolution is a house of cards -- looks factual when presented in fancy graphics, but is devoid of reality; the problem is that the atheists say "Evolution is Fact", meaning the large-scale version, and then trot out examples of the small-scale variation as "proof", and our kids buy into that thinking).

I used to think it'd be okay to send kids to public school so long as your district is full of Christian teachers and you keep your eyes open, but very few Christians (teachers, or otherwise) are clued into this ever persistent push, and don't consider the issue important, and the text books are filled with the push also, not just in the chapter on Evolution in the Biology textbook.

I think it's time for Christians to retake Science and the culture for our kids' sake, and that means shielding them from the onslaught when possible (avoid mainstream textbooks, etc), and teaching them to deflect the onslaught when you can't avoid it (visiting the science museums, watching nature programs, reading the Dinosaur panel on the side of the Happy Meal bag from McD's, etc).

I know you and the Mister are better versed in this issue than most, but I felt compelled to throw out this reminder.