Our Answer (Part 3 of 3)

   We knew we wanted a heavy Christian emphasis on our children’s education, so our next step was to investigate private schools in the area. They were crazy expensive; some were as high as $32,000.00 a year for kindergarten! I knew this would result in me going back to work full time to pay for it, but I was willing to look into whatever option God may be leading us toward. The only problem with that was every time I completely stilled myself before the Lord, I knew He was calling me to stay at home full time with my son who was just turning three. I even had a nagging feeling the past 3 1/2 months that I should have not taken on the part time job at the local YMCA, so I could focus on being a better mom and wife. Even in the midst of that thought, we chugged along making phone calls, looking over the budget, and even going to a local private school open house. The school and staff were amazing. They gave us a tour, the kids loved the kindergarten classroom, and the teacher was a dream. They talked much of the Lord and how they emphasize Christ in the school and activities.

  However, something else was brewing. I left that day with a complete knowledge that we could do this at home, and somehow we could do it better. This was a confusing feeling. I had several education classes in college, but neither my husband nor myself have professional teaching experience. All I can say was God has been drawing our hearts home, metaphorically and physically. That next week was Ash Wednesday. For Lent, I decided to eliminate meat from my diet, to dump junk food (for the most part), and completely surrender this to God. (Meaning, not badgering Matt every five minutes about giving me an answer.) I bit my tongue, prayed for him to come to me with his decision, and prayed it was the same as mine. God truly is a compassionate Lord and knew that that I was about to chew my tongue off. Therefore, He thankfully did not make me wait long. The next morning Matt stuck his head in the bathroom while I was showering and said something like, “You know we should home school this year, and we could always send the kids to school at some point; it’s not like we have to do it forever. You are going to be at home with Fisher anyway, so you might as well. I just got through reading this book on Tim Tiebow and he was home schooled. It looks like it worked out for him.”

  Words could not describe my elation! We were on the same page, and we had finally made a decision. I stopped filling out financial aid paperwork. I stopped scouring the Internet for mommy jobs. I became the first person on the planet to attend a Dave Ramsey conference, come home, and quit my part time job. (Turns out we were still wasting enough money each month to justify this.) Then, I started directing my energies toward home school research. Which by the way is CRAZY! There are so many resources out there that I have already put myself on a break. The bottom line is, pray without ceasing about all things, especially your child’s education. “Do not be normal. Normal is broke!” (Ha, see I learned something from Dave. ) But seriously, normal is of this world. Christians are aliens on earth, and we are supposed to be acting weird and marching to a different beat. Again, it may be different for your family. Just make sure you are seeking God’s will and not basing your decisions on what you think you can accomplish with your own gifts and abilities. God's plan is to display his awesome power through imperfect people.

  In addition, God could have told me right away what to do. However, the process was a pivotal learning experience. That is life. It is a journey of day-to-day steps that lead us into a walk throughout our lives. He is showing me how to find him and find joy along the journey.

Contrary to Public Opinion... (Part 2 of 3)

When moving to Nashville we focused on crime rate in areas of town, location to my husband’s employer, location to the church plant, and public school ranking according to a few websites and test scores. A friend and local public school teacher advised me the good schools were the ones where teachers cared. Then she named them off. We found one on her list with a rental property in our price range. We viewed this as a fall back, so if God was leading us into public school, we would be happy with the school choice. I started the process of applying for the lottery drawing for a magnet school, but I had a nagging feeling like God was telling me it was a waste of time and energy as he had other plans for us. This was relieving as it narrowed down the possibilities a great deal, but we still had no idea where he was leading us. We were leaning towards public school at this point, since that was all we had ever experienced.

My husband and I had a similar thought when this all began that went something like this, "we went to public school and turned out fine”. But did we really? His desires in school were to have fun and to do just enough work to pass. I wanted to do as well as I could academically, provided I did not have to study or do more than an hour of homework a day. So I took whatever grades that effort yielded. We mostly focused on popularity and our groups of friends. I would go as far as saying that school was 75% socialization and 25% academics. The gap widened
further by the time we were in high school.

Socialization is an important part of life, but my children already go to play groups, the YMCA, church, and have a large extended family. For this reason, socialization was not on my list of concerns. However, the impact that teachers and children would possibly have on my children in a negative way was a growing concern. Matt and I want to lead our children down straight paths to God. I do not feel like exposure to alternative religious and moral beliefs is good for my 5 year old, as it would be taking a step backwards from our family goals. We do not have a desire to raise happy, freethinking children. Of course, I want my children to have a joyful childhood; we do not strive to dominate over them. Rather, the opposite is true in that we want to nurture and care for them in a loving and simple environment. Matt and I have a goal of raising Christian adults who are world changers for kingdom of heaven.

Academics are very important to us as well. We want our children to have early exposure to foreign language, the arts, as well as standard subjects. Tennessee does not have a great record of accomplishment for public school education. In fact, we are among the lowest five in the country for test scores. Now, I can feel parents of public schoolers blood pressure rising at this point, so let me say that what is right for one family is completely different for another. However, at this point Matt and I knew public school was out, for now anyway.