Part of the series Questions For Home Education
Written by Léo Gaumont, published on 2014-09-22.
This one is bound to hurt a little!
Our world view is shaped by everything we have experienced, whether true or false. We tend to trust what we have come to believe as true and may even defend ourselves when presented with opposing thoughts. This series is meant to challenge your world view.
Bible Reference: Prov. 19:21
Only God knows the answer to that question!
If we have focussed our attention on the eternal, we need to remind ourselves that that includes both the present and the future. We cannot predict where our children will end up, even if we have, to the best of our knowledge, done all that was required of us. Since there are no perfect parents, we can predict with certainty that there are no perfect children, perfectly following God’s will in their perfect careers and lives. Although it is a proven fact that home educated students do fair better in jobs and careers when compared to the average, it is foolish of us to expect perfect results of these imperfect children. Good results we should strive for but we are not always rewarded with what we expect. Every child has a mind of his/her own. Things can and do go wrong. What if they do?
Much as we may be tempted to blame ourselves for our children’s failures, those failures are usually more a matter of living in a sinful world than our having neglected to prepare them. Actually, we have all neglected to properly prepare our children because we are still in the process of learning ourselves. I personally believe that if we were given a chance to raise our children over again, we would all change at least some of the methods and techniques we employed. Sorry, we don’t get that chance, unless we help our children do a better job of raising their children than we did with them, and then, they will go ahead and invent brand new ways of failing their children, while we watch in dismay at how crazy this world really is!
Shocked that I would suggest things could go wrong? Wondering how you can cover their sin? Only Jesus has that ability! Busy trying to look good for the world? Sorry, it will not be the world who has the final say and we can hide nothing from Him. Best to be real, genuine, human in all our frailties. Nobody has a phenomenal family! Those that claim so are usually lying, if not to themselves, than to those who just might be able to learn and be encouraged by openly sharing the truth. We can only help others when we are willing to share with them, from our negative experiences as well as from the good ones.
What am I saying? Home education does offer a better chance of better results than sending them to be trained by strangers in Caesar’s system, but there is no guarantee, written or implied. Bad things do happen to good people, just as they do to bad people. However, preparing our children to be followers of Christ and citizens/servants within His Kingdom will at least prepare them for the inevitable bad time. Training and teaching them within the world’s failed system will only encourage failure with the potential disappointment of separation from God. Look for God’s accreditation and certification rather than man’s. It may not look normal, but normal is what we should all be striving to rise up above.