I have a garden that does very well when I take care of it. So much work goes into it at the beginning of each summer, but it has to continue. We can till, rake, plant and water to our hearts' content, but if we do not spend the hours weeding between the rows, we have a huge mess and sometimes, we lose what we've planted. I have to admit that some weeds are actually quite pretty. I like to call them "wildflowers", but let's face it. They are still weeds. They are not the plants I wanted in my garden. And, so it goes with our children. We can tell them about Jesus, read Bible stories, take them to church and try to keep them away from the evil influences of the world, but if we send them away from us the rest of the time, you know, the 900 plus hours they spend at school and the time they spend in Sunday school and youth groups later on, we are going to find that our children are overcome by weeds. And, I mean the kind of weeds that if pulled may uproot any "good" we have planted into them. No, we cannot keep them away from everything. We live in a very dark sinful world. There will be times they will make unwise choices as we all do, but home schooling or rather discipling our children will equip them for this life more effectively than any school could.
Another question that my husband and I have asked ourselves is what are the goals for our children? If our goals for them are: to do well in school, to land a good job, to find what their "knack" is or to build self-confidence, etc. then, I believe we are missing the point. Of course, we all want our children to be able to succeed, but our first and most important goal should be to lovingly direct them to their Creator. Whether "Johnny" can read, write and breeze through his math assignments or not will not matter at life's end. Our days are numbered. We were made for eternity, not here. "Here" is going to be gone one day. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism states, "What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." We are here right now for God, not for us. Everything we do now, is preparing us for something far greater. We have a lot of "weeding" to do. We need to start before it's too late for our children. I'd rather start now, while the weeds are small.