Hey Mama Monday: Do Christian Kids Belong in Public School?

It may seem tempting some days. Why not send the kids on the public school bus and have the whole day (and the house!) to yourself? Or head off to a job where you can earn some respect and increase the family budget. Wouldn’t that be nice?

But . . . wait a minute. Your children are your most valuable treasure. Entrusted to you by God. And just like the servants in Matthew 25, someday you will give an account for how you cared for that treasure the Lord gave you.

Did you carefully choose curriculum that honors God, while tracing His guiding hand through history and creation? Or did you send your children off to be educated in a place where God is completely ignored—or worse, mocked?

Did you fill your children’s minds with stories of faithful Christian heroes of the past, providing examples for them to strive toward? Or did you send them off to be surrounded by constant talk of the latest R-rated movie and the new popular singer’s immoral behavior?

Did you patiently work to develop godly character in your little ones by your faithful example and gentle correction when needed? Or did you send them to be instructed by those who have neither time nor motivation to work on character since they’re planning for the next big test?

Did you nurture Godly adult influences and peer friendships in their middle school years? Or did you forget Proverbs 13:20 that says, “He that walketh with the wise shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed”?

Did you dedicate crucial hours training your teens to know truth and equipping them to be ready to defend it in their adult years? Or did you send them to a place where the majority of their time was spent listening to faulty statements designed to destroy their young faith?

Oh, I’ve heard the argument: “Christian kids need to be missionaries on their campuses! How will we reach this generation if we don’t send our Christian kids to convert the lost?”

The latest statistics show that up to 70 percent of students raised in Christian homes are leaving the faith after high school. Who’s doing the converting?

We never send missionaries who are not fully equipped, mature, and well-trained into dangerous mission fields. By all means we should encourage Godly Christian teachers to serve in public schools and stand for truth. But children and most teens are not ready for that. And the statistics prove it.

There is a reason God said, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Psalm 22:6). Children must be trained in the ways of the Lord Jesus. They don’t learn it by osmosis. They must be fully equipped with the armor of God and our obligation to train them is not completed until the child is grown. How can that training happen if most of their waking hours are spent drinking in the anti-God philosophies of the public school?

Deuteronomy 6:6-7: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (ESV).

We dare not be like the unfaithful servant who ignored the treasure entrusted to him by his Master. We dare not send our children off to public school to be “educated” in the ways of the world. We are called to cultivate and develop and nurture and train our children so that they are “fully equipped” and ready to be used wherever God calls them. And that doesn’t happen without our intentional, daily effort as homeschooling parents.

The path is not easy; sacrifices are required. But there is no better investment in your child’s eternal destiny than homeschooling. And some day, may the Lord say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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