Growing Conviction:
I would like to begin by saying that this isn’t a case against public schools, or a distaste for working mothers and fathers, nor is this an attempt to persuade every family to homeschool. Rather, this is my testimony of how God has worked in my husband’s and my life to allow our experiences as working parents to marry our family’s Biblical convictions to homeschool our children.
Believe it or not, I actually spent over 10 years of my career happily teaching in public schools. While I enjoyed and still enjoy teaching children, I also often found myself too exhausted from my workday to give my family the best version of me. Here I was pouring my heart and soul into the lives of hundreds of young children yet I was coming home on a daily basis too tired to offer my own little ones the same energy and enthusiasm I carried at work. I felt as though I was not physically and mentally able to invest in my children to my fullest potential after a long workday because I was simply drained. It was through this experience that the Lord began to work in my husband and me to discern what the next step in our lives would be to raise our children to the best of our abilities and to fulfill our personal Biblical convictions as parents.
Walking in Conviction:
So what exactly does the Word of God command in reference to parents teaching their children? When we look at Ephesians 6:4, we see that fathers are told to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. To bring up a child in the instruction of the Lord is to teach him or her to love God and to obey His commands. This is articulated well in Deuteronomy 6:1-7 when the Israelites are instructed to keep the commands and laws of God and to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Israelites are then further instructed to impress the commands and laws of God upon their children. They are to talk about them when they are at home, on the road, going to sleep, and waking up, implying that parents are to use every moment possible to teach their children the things of God. These are the things that are good, pure, honest and true. Apart from God, no one can know these things.
We hear time and time again how children are like sponges, soaking up everything they see and hear in the world around them. I witness this when my 3-year-old daughter calls me “Sue Khang,” my maiden name and now a sentiment that only my husband uses when speaking to me. I witness this when my daughters, only 3 years old and 7 years old, beg and plead to put on makeup after watching my Sunday morning routine. They are watching, listening, and mimicking every detail of their world. One day, our children will take all they have seen, heard, and learned inside and outside of the home and choose who and what they will become and what they will believe. Unless parents, the primary teachers of their children, disciple their children in the way of the Lord, they will not know how to choose what is of God over choosing what is of the world.
With the knowledge of God’s command for parents and our experience as busy working-parents, my husband and I knew that we could and had to do better as followers of Christ. The only way I could see myself able to fulfill my Biblical convictions as a parent was to take on the roll of full-time educator to my own children. The secularized view of topics such as history, science, and even God and man that many Christian children are learning outside of the home affects them more than we realize. Yet, we are commanded by Scripture to “…destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). Our children will be in constant battle with the ideologies of this world, therefore we as parents must teach them how to see the world through a Biblical lens so that they will not become captive to the false ideologies of man. One of the goals of my husband and I as Christian homeschool parents is to teach our children to take every book they read, every lecture they hear, every thought they have, and make it captive to the obedience of Christ.
Moving Upon Conviction:
While some parents may be able to balance sending their children to school and faithfully teaching their children in the way that God has commanded, my husband and I were finding that we were falling short of the standard we set for our family based on our convictions from the Word of God. Working full-time stripped us of much of our time and energy to consistently disciple our children. Drastic changes, and tough changes if I am being really honest, needed to be made so that our children could receive from us what God has commanded of us.
Throughout the tough decisions my husband and I made to get our family where we are today, we constantly reminded ourselves that the time frame for which our children have left to live with us in our home is relatively short yet it contains the most formative years in our children’s lives. It is critical for parents to become actively involved in the lives of their young children as they are beginning to already form their worldview and are at their most impressionable stage of life. Parents have been granted such a unique position by God to have the authority and influence over their children. We must grab a hold of this short window of opportunity to disciple our children, for the teaching of the commands and laws of God have the power to affect all that the future entails for our children.
Sue Yang (BS, Toccoa Falls College) is a wife to Tswv David Yang and a mother to two beautiful daughters. She has served in the public school district as an educator for over 10 years. She has recently transitioned to homeschool her two daughters. Tswv David and Sue play a critical role in building and cultivating a family centered ministry for Covenant City Church's ministry to young people.
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