train them up

Good Morning Friends and Readers! Happy Sunday to ALL of you!

"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice
and be glad in it."
Psalms 118:24

A delightful day indeed! I wanted to share with you a little inspiration that came my way by a powerful speaker. God uses people to touch our lives in ways that can be powerful in a setting that we didn't expect to be touched.

Deuteronomy 6:7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

My conversation with this person started off as a discussion about school starting. He was belittling the public school system. I do understand the thoughts behind his disparage of the public schools, I also believe that as a society as a whole we have come to rely on the schools to educate our children, teach them values, etc. In fact, in many homes children spend more time with there teacher than with either of their parents in an average week.

In fact this was the case in my very own family. My older kids were 10, 14, and 16 before I was able to be a stay at thome mom. When they were small there were times I was working 60-80 hours a week to provide what society considers "normal". I figure that for about 10 years my kids were lucky to get about 3 hours a day with me between work, school, and sports/after school activities.

As we were talking I mentioned that we place too much responsibility on schools to "train up" our children (Proverbs 22:6) We also rely on childcare providers the same way. We as parents do very little of the actual parenting.

This guy was going on and on about how schools are failing our children. Even when I mentioned parental responsibility, he was not listening. He lamented about the state of our schools~ it was then that I realized this man had been sent to me by God to help me recognize and be thankful for where I am at this point in life.

I am eagerly looking forward to sending my children back to school. I know that they will be instructed in the mundane things like punctuation, grammer, who fought in the war of independence, and why b+g(x)g+b= z (OK I am still not sure how that happens LOL). My children's teachers are there not to be my children's primary teachers. They are there to suppliment and enhance my teaching of my children. This is true for academics, social skills, and values that children learn at school.

Today, when the sun rose and I was able to sit with my daughter as she asked for the blessing on her oatmeal, as I was able to help her take her bowl to the kitchen and rinse it out, take the clothe and wipe down her placemat, as I was able to be there with her and talk to her, I realized that what is truly glorious about this day God made, is that I have the opportunity to be my children's teacher and train them up in the way of the LORD.