Above This Valley
A bonfire burned brightly in the midst of our circle on a cold October night. I sat on a bale of hay beside my best friend. A young man across from us strummed a guitar. Fifteen or so others, girls in long denim skirts and guys in oversized jackets, laughed and talked in the flickering shadows. The laughter was infectious, the talk bright and optimistic.
I know that many young people these days are immoral and irreverent, that the demons of despair and addiction drive many to their deaths every day, that our culture is caught in a destructive tailspin. But as I sat in the midst of that merry band of homeschool graduates, twenty-somethings who’d not lost the sweetness of youth, I found it hard to believe.
Why homeschooling? Why now? The reality is that our culture is literally Hell-bent. There are many resistant, of course. Cultural trends have yet to play themselves out completely. But the movement of our culture is toward a total collapse.
Parents choose to homeschool for many reasons. They’ve seen that children are vulnerable and the world is full of wolves, that little ones were designed to stay under their parents’ protection until they’ve grown into maturity. They’ve dared hope that their children won’t follow the suicidal paths of our culture in thought, deed, or outlook. Led by the Spirit of God, some parents have recognized the traps in our culture and gone one step further: they’ve realized that, the world go where it may, we are not bound to go with it.
In the World, But…
And so homeschool parents set about creating a different world for their children. A world where life is unified, not fractured by family/ school/church divisions. A world where God is honored. A world where siblings are to be loved, parents respected, and standards upheld. It’s a world above the smog of youth culture and humanistic philosophy, a place where the air is sweeter and bonfires still flicker on simple joys.
Every one of us sees the world through a special lens—a worldview— and few things influence it more than our upbringing. The way we are raised affects the way we think and make decisions, the ideals we uphold, the things we consider good and beautiful. It undergirds or undermines our trust in God.
“Escapism!” cry the critics. They’re right. Homeschoolers are escapists. Like Joseph fleeing from Potiphar’s wife, we do what we can to escape from sin and destruction. We are running from warped views of sexuality that bring confusion, disease, abandonment, and heartbreak. We are running from a divorce rate that has nearly made the word “marriage” meaningless. We are running from rebellion, lies, and “me too” materialism. We are running from a pop culture that values conformity and discourages thought.
God help us—I wish more could escape.
A Peculiar People
I am not a homeschool supremacist. In the past, schools played a valuable role in our world. For some, they still do, particularly in the realm of higher education. I believe that God is using teachers and students around the world. But I know, from the evidence of my eyes, ears, and spirit, that God is calling a generation to come out. Parents choose to homeschool for many reasons—but chief among them is the voice of the Spirit saying, “Come and be apart.” It is no coincidence that so many homeschooling parents are strong spiritual leaders. Homeschooling, for many of us, is not just a choice. It’s a calling.
Why homeschooling? Why now? The reality is that our culture is literally Hell-bent. There are many resistant, of course. Cultural trends have yet to play themselves out completely. But the movement of our culture is toward a total collapse. As we pull out the moral underpinnings of society, we pull out the props of humanity itself. All that makes us human is lost; theimago Deiis defaced.
is defaced. I am not a fatalist. God works miracles and turns tides; He always has. But throughout history, He has worked by calling certain ones out. God took Israel out of the nations around them and gave them an entirely new context in which to live and raise their children. He called the Gentiles out of their cultures to become a “a royal priesthood, a holy nation”—to live “in the world but not of it.” Change came to Europe in the Middle Ages when the Reformers broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. Change has come, important change, through many an Abraham who has become a stranger in his own world.
If our children are going to stand against the tide of the world—even, perhaps, to turn it back—they need the strong foundation that comes of growing up on a mountain. They will never see the valley clearly if they are not first removed from it.
Wise as Serpents, Yet…
“You can’t shelter your children forever,” the concerned tell us. “They have to learn about evil sooner or later.” And again, they’re right. Homeschooling may create a healthier subculture, but it will never eradicate sin. Yes, our children will have to learn about evil. They can hardly walk down a public street without seeing it. One day they will face it in their own hearts, and only God will be great enough to save them. But they will first learn about evil by their parents’, not their peers’, side. They will face it with their feet on a solid foundation. They will look at it from the arms of a shepherd, not the sticky floor of a movie theatre.
When little ones first learn to walk, it’s while clinging to the hands of their parents. We don’t teach babies to swim by throwing them into a pool. Why do millions believe that their children will develop a solid moral footing when they’re left to process evil for the first time on their own?
I pray that more children will learn about unwed mothers because their parents are mentoring one. That they will learn about poverty in a soup kitchen while Daddy serves a homeless man. That if the damage caused by immorality touches their lives, it will be the anger and grief on their mother’s face they remember most. I pray that as our generations grow to adulthood, they will not be overcome by evil, but will overcome evil with good.
God has called thousands of families to remove their children from the permeation of modern culture: the humanistic teachings of schools, the folly of following peers, and the immoral pressures of youth culture and Hollywood. He has called them to teach their children His ways, to raise them on a mountaintop where the air is clearer. He has called them to teach their children that good is good and bad is bad, that we were made in the image of God but fell through sin. He has called them to live out grace alongside their children.
“Ah!” cry the hopeful. “It’s perfection!”
Hardly. I was six years old when my father decided that he would homeschool his children. At the time, he had four daughters. Today, he has ten daughters and two sons. We don’t fit the stereotype of the perfect homeschooling family. Life has been full of upheaval, and sometimes of confusion. Life above the valley is not all beautiful vistas and peaceful, star-filled nights. It can be cold and harsh up there. Sometimes it storms. We’re often on the move—there are always new peaks to climb. We have not yet and will not ever “arrive.”
Yet, imperfect and faulty as our lives may be, I am still grateful for my father’s decision all those years ago. I am not of the valley, and I don’t breathe valley air. There are poisons in the world that have not ever reached me. Children who are raised in such a separate place will approach the valley with a new—and ideally more objective—perspective. They will have some ability to see through the smog. They will recognize poison in the atmosphere and sound the alarm where they can, and be better equipped to help those who are living in the valley.
That All the Nations of the World Might Be Blessed
Ultimately, God has not called us out simply that we might stay out. He has called us out so that we may go back in with the heart of rescuers and eyes full of light. My upbringing was a gift to me, as the upbringing you give your children is a gift to them. Like all of God’s gifts, it comes with responsibility. As I look at my friends, I see homeschool graduates who know what a family is and why it should be valued. I see young women who have embraced femininity and who desire that their men should lead. I see young men with chivalrous hearts who will serve God faithfully. I see people who can operate cross-generationally, who love good and loathe evil, whose world is not the murky shade of grey so many of their peers must try to muddle through.
I know that God has called us to this.
I pray that He will use us.
©2009 Homeschooling Today magazine, Nehemiah Four, LLC