Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in in the way with sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1)
When you choose a lifestyle in which you feel like you’re swimming upstream, it’s important to know you’re not alone. For Christian parents, raising our children in a post-Christian culture feels exactly like this. We have convictions about what’s right and biblical for our families, but we can sometimes feel like we’re barely afloat on a leaky raft in a very large ocean.
But having that one friend, or five, or fifty, who have the same convictions and who strive to live them out… it makes all the difference. It often means a long-term commitment to homeschooling over frustration, burnout, or a return to public school.
I live in the Bible Belt, in a small rural town in Texas. We are fortunate to live in an area where homeschooling has been popular for more than 30 years. There are several churches in which the majority of families homeschool their children. Various cooperatives exist to meet the needs and desires of every family and homeschooling philosophy. We also have tutors, hybrids, sports, art, field trips, band, prom, and random gatherings. There’s so much to be involved in that we laugh when someone expresses concern about socialization.
But I know this is not the norm everywhere. I ache for the homeschool mom who doesn’t have a group of friends to encourage each other, to bemoan math lessons once in a while, to share rides to field trips, or to join up for lunch after co-op. I hear from these moms on a weekly basis, desperate to continue homeschooling, but feeling like they are the fundamentalist weirdo in their church or neighborhood.
We need community.
Read my entire blog post for Expository Parenting here.
I write regularly for Expository Parenting ministries, and highly recommend the book by the same name.
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