The Mini van door slid open as my six year old climbed in. His eyes filed with tears as he embraced me, his safe place.
“School isn’t fun Mom. I don’t have any friends. I asked my teacher what our weekly Bible verse was, and she said we didn’t have one. I WANT one Mom!”
Covering my eyes with my sunglasses, as to not let him see the tears filling my eyes, I asked him to buckle up. We would talk about this at home. I needed time to ask the Lord how to handle this. My flesh wanted to call his former Christian school, and beg his teacher to take him back. I will pay double, just please get him back in a comfortable environment.
I was furious with myself. Did I hear the Lord wrong? Is this not his will for our child to attend public school?
Preparing dinner I was stopped in my tracks. He spoke clear to my spirit:
Just because it’s my will, doesn’t mean it’s always completely comfortable. I’m stretching your family.
Life can be exhaustively uncomfortable if we let it.
I learned in that moment, that the reason it wasn’t comfortable for me was the simple fact that I didn’t trust his word. When we question his nature, fear has the right to fill our minds. Christian families in public schools are meant to be a light. When you go from a comfortable, God fearing environment into the world you get a bit shell shocked.
What if there were no Christian families in public schools? No tiny little lights popping up in the darkness?
Although I know this transition will not be easy, if we pulled him out now we would be shaping how he views Christianity. We would be teaching him one important lie, that I believe is in most Godly peoples minds:
If it isn’t comfortable for you, it must be wrong. Don’t stretch yourself. Stay comfortable, stay in places and mind sets that you know already. Anything else is scary, and you may fail.
The fact is that we placed our children in public education for it to be our mission field. This is not for everyone, but we know that if we stick this out, his Glory will shine.
As followers of Jesus often he calls us to do things that are not comfortable, or rather not familiar to us. But when we make the choice to step out into what he has commanded, we always grow. And in the end it is always good.
It has also pushed us to be more diligent in teaching our children bible verses. Praying together, and reading the bible as a family before bed time. It hit home with me that that is OUR responsibility, not a teachers.
His most important education is in the home. How our children respond to life’s situations is a direct result of what they soak up at home.
Are we providing enough living water for them to soak up, so that as they go out into the world it drips from place to place, creating a river of his presence?
Or are we simply giving them enough to hold in, soon to dry out… just to be replaced by another object they will cling to to get their fill?
I’ve pledged to our son to do a weekly bible verse, and at the end of the week just like his old school, he will have to say the verse, and he can choose a treat out of a treasure box.
Here is our first few verses to work on:
