Yesterday I went to the Nashville homeschool curriculum fair and rubbed shoulders, literally, with the scholarly, the eccentric, and the baby-slinging homeschoolers. A friend walked around with me and told me the fascinating story of how her dad and his friends, years earlier, had fought tooth and nail to ensure that homeschooling would be legal in the state of Tennessee. Tennessee, oddly, enough, was a tough state to crack and still requires “home educators” to register with a public school or an unbrella group. Parents, now, like my husband and I, take it for granted that we have several options for educating our children; we do not remember the days in Tennessee when several parents risked jail in order to teach their kids at home.
Today’s sermon was from II Timothy—one of the ways that we protect the gospel is through delegation, committing these things to faithful men. We can’t save it if we bottle it up and put a tight lid on it, protecting it from outside contamination. God gave it to men, and those men gave it to another generation, and so on and so on. Now it’s our turn. We can’t sit around and whine about how the last generation had it wrong—we have work to do.
Last night, after a long day, company dinner, and an impending sinus infection, I started thinking that perhaps I should just stay home and mind my own business (sounds pious), but today’s sermon cleared away the doubts of discouragement. We have what we have because others fought, sacrificed, and won. How can we not press on? It’s like your teammates running half way around the world, handing you the baton, and you sitting down for a break, a permanent one.
We ended the service with this song by Isaac Watts. Do you mean it?
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause
Or blush to speak His name?
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease?
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight, if I would reign
Increase my courage, Lord!
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy word.
Thy saints, in all this glorious war,
Shall conquer, though they die;
They view the triumph from afar,
And seize it with their eye.
[...] A blogger who goes by dgage writing at Redeeming Womanhood writes briefly of her experience at an ev…: Yesterday I went to the Nashville homeschool curriculum fair and rubbed shoulders, literally, with the scholarly, the eccentric, and the baby-slinging homeschoolers. A friend walked around with me and told me the fascinating story of how her dad and his friends, years earlier, had fought tooth and nail to ensure that homeschooling would be legal in the state of Tennessee. Tennessee, oddly, enough, was a tough state to crack and still requires “home educators” to register with a public school or an unbrella group. Parents, now, like my husband and I, take it for granted that we have several options for educating our children; we do not remember the days in Tennessee when several parents risked jail in order to teach their kids at home. [...]
Enjoyed your thoughts and perspective on this subject. I’ve been following the persecution of Christians in Turkey. People are loosing their life for their Christian faith there. It is an Islamic country and the media in that country is saying that Christians are trying to take over their country with Bible literature so they are trying to do everything to stamp it out.
I read an interesting quote that says,
“Representing more than 150 million Christians in 114 countries, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has noted a direct correlation between disinformation about religious minorities and religious persecution.” (http://www.christianpersecution.info/news/media-bias-fans-anti-christian-sentiment-in-turkey/)
About homeschooling and our faith, I think we can help protect our rights today by representing the truth well and also by keeping people informed, rather than staying quiet. I believe that is how I can best take part in preserving my freedoms for future generations! (That, and don’t vote for Hillary Clinton!) :0