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Homeschool Helps
by Mike McHugh
My wife and I are just beginning our fifteenth year as home educators. On many occasions over this period of time, we have had people remark that they could not help but notice how different our children’s attitudes and behavior were compared to other youngsters. In most cases, thankfully, these remarks were intended to be complimentary, for any young person today who is respectful of authority, polite, and well spoken is bound to get noticed, as well as complimented. Sad to say, such a child is indeed a rare treasure in our modern post-Christian culture.
How ironic it is that so many Christian parents refuse to seriously consider the alternative of home education because they are fearful that their children will grow up to be "different". Somewhere along the path of life such parents have bought into the worldly notion that the ultimate goal of child training is to enable children to fit in to society. In contrast to this thinking stands the biblical view which teaches that God’s children are called to be world changers, those who overcome, salt that has savor, and dare I say it, peculiar people zealous of good works! How easy it is for Christians to forget that in a fallen world made dark by sin, God’s redeemed children should stand out as they let their light shine before men.
Christian home school parents, therefore, must determine by the grace of God to raise extraordinary children who have the strength of character to live as strangers and pilgrims in this present world. The pressures and temptations that confront young people in the twenty-first century are so significant that parents have no other choice but to train their children to be radically opposed to the spirit of the age in which they live. By radical, I mean students who are taught not to be ashamed of the fact that they:
- Don’t watch trash on TV or listen to music that is morally bankrupt
- Don’t wear immodest clothing for the purpose of attracting lustful admiration
- Don’t speak evil of those whom God has placed in authority over them
- Don’t stoop to using obscene, inconsiderate, or blasphemous language
- Don’t compromise their purity or virginity (not to mention their health) for the sake of someone who is so unloving that he/she is not willing to wait until marriage to gain physical intimacy
- Don’t abuse drugs or alcohol just so they can gain the approval of people whose opinions are not worth having
- Don’t believe in the monkey business known as evolution because it is neither valid science nor true religion
Discerning parents will recognize that when it comes to child training, there is no longer room for half measures or compromise with the demands of a world that is increasingly hostile to Christianity. Child training today requires that parents lead their children to the place where they will stand opposed to the forces of secularism and humanism that are seeking to take them and a whole generation captive. If parents truly desire for their children to be free to serve Christ with the whole of their lives, they will take the step of faith into Christian education precisely because it will make their family "different", "peculiar", and, Lord willing, holy! It is, after all, this radical commitment to holiness that will provide parents with the best possible foundation on which to build their children’s lives, …"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:11)
Copyright 2006 Michael J. McHugh
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