I am a mom to a now 7 year old son. He is wonderful in my eyes, but certainly not without fault. Yet I must admit- I have no intention of ever home schooling him. (If God should put it on my heart to do so in the future, I will do my best to obey fully, but He has not done so at this point.) I have nothing against homeschooling. I think it a very wise decision for some kids. I think it a wise choice for some moms (or dads.) I see many benefits of it. A Christian home-schooling parent can make teaching Jesus' love to a child a great priority. This is not a bad thing! I'm not one that is going to say homeschooled children are not socialized enough. Some are. Some are not. Isn't this true in all facets of life?
I have several friends (ok, more like close aquaintances -since I don't run in the homeschooling-friends circle, we simply haven't had opportunity to truly become good friends) that homeschool their children and they feel it is the right choice. Wonderful. If they feel they are following God's call for their lives, then who am I to judge or disparage that? I am glad they are following God's plan for them. However, I am so sick and tired of seeing so many posts, hearing comments, observing insinuations- that children in public schools are horrible. Evil. Bad influences. Only of this world. You know what? Much of that is true! This is indeed a broken world! Jesus said the gate is narrow and few will pass through it. He also said to go forth and make disciples of all men. He didn't command that we keep to our own little bubble, our science control group. If we are living with no resistance from the enemy, then we can know that we are not doing all that God is calling us to. We can expect to be persecuted for our faith. Does that sound like fun? Absolutely not. But if I keep my son home for schooling, he is not out in the world sharing about Jesus.
My son has been called names on the bus, and he doesn't like it- but he handles it extremely well and it affords us an opportunity to talk about forgiveness and loving others that don't deserve our love. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?) Don't get me wrong- the mama bear in me wants to thoroughly shake sense into those that tease my son. But through this, I am growing in my faith to trust God to take care of my son. More importantly, my son has grown. He's shared what he's learned of Jesus with those on his bus- some of which are the very ones that tease him. He has told them that Christmas is not about getting presents, but celebrating the birth of Jesus. Before Easter, he waited to exit the bus so he could finish telling some kids about how Easter wasn't about a bunny but that it is about Jesus' resurrection- His coming back to life. And when, another time, some kids on the bus stood up for my son telling the kid picking on him that no one likes a bully, my then 6 year old son told them all that he loved even the bully because Jesus wants him to love everyone. He continuously invited a classmate to church despite her parents telling her that church was bad. He spoke of it in a way that made her want to go with him.
I don't know what affect, if any, these comments will have on those around my son. God may turn these moments of tiny-seed truth into mighty oaks of righeousness. Or these same kids may ultimately deny Him. I don't know, and it's probably not for me to know in this lifetime. What I do know is that my son is trying to share what he knows of Jesus' love with other kids at those dreaded public schools. He has opportunities to help bring in the harvest that those in a homeschooled environment don't currently have. So please, as a 'public school mom', stop saying how horribly awful and terribly evil kids like my son are simply because they go to school in a public capacity. Please try to focus a bit more on gracing them with christian compassion instead of casting generalized judgements on them.
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