Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Shooting in Connecticut - This is not why I home school my kids

By now we've all heard about the tragedy that has hit Connecticut earlier today. The deaths of so many innocent children - kindergarten children - just sitting in their classroom is almost too much to wrap one's mind around.

In response there has been a fury of Facebook and other social media debates- gun debates, debates about God and debates about funding for mental illness. And debates about public school .

The word "homeschooling" is being tossed around as a last ditch hope.

And as much as I love our homeschooling experience and as much as I would love to see a revival of the homeschooling movement- this bothers me. It bothers me because homeschooling isn't a last ditch hope- where your kids will be safe from the evils of the world. Homeschooling isn't the equivalent of locking them up in a bubble wrapped life.

Homeschooling is a blessing to our family because I am able to spend so much wonderful time with my kids and because they are able to spend so much time together - playing and being kids.Homeschooling is a blessing to our family because of how we are able to finally find the time to instill the values we want for our children, finally have the time to be the parents we envisioned we would be before kids came along. We also spend less time disciplining and more time loving on our children because we make realistic routines for them that are consistent yet flexible (sometimes we just need a rest or reset time!). It has been so much more for our family than we had ever imagined it could be.

But it will not protect your children from evil. Mass shootings at shopping centers, movie theaters and busy streets will still happen.

We are vulnerable because there is evil in the world. And there will continue to be evil in the world until Christ returns. Today I spoke with a friend about evil. How funny it is that we can all see evil as an entity-and  speak about it without talking about where it comes from. It seems rare that Satan is mentioned- people continually question what is God doing allowing this suffering but don't want to talk about Satan. In fact in the gallup poll links you can see that more people believe in God than even believe in Satan! How is this possible?

http://www.gallup.com/poll/7858/devil-demographic-details.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/23470/Who-Believes-God-Who-Doesnt.aspx

That baffles my mind- what do we know about God except what the Bible teaches us- and if we use the Bible as our reference how can we not believe in Satan?

Don't pull your children out of public school because you are afraid. Pull them out because you want more time to love on them and enjoy them when they are still young. Pull them out because you know you as a parent *CAN* give them the education they need- an education that extends past the three R's and includes

I've found this free e-book to be helpful to start a Bible study about suffering . http://www.ucg.org/booklet/why-does-god-allow-suffering/

I love to see our homeschooling community growing- there are more classes, groups, opportunities, field trips than even a couple of years ago when we started on this journey- but I don't believe in living our lives based on fear. We cannot fear society. We must do our part - take a stand- protest the gun legislation, fight for funding for mental illness and choose our priorities wisely - investing in our children and their well being.