Seek the Lord in Schooling!

I have a new bloggy friend! Everyone, meet Alicia!

For this first Seek the Lord in Schooling Saturday (Alicia's idea), I am going to cheat, and post my blog that was published yesterday on Revelife. I encourage you to visit it over there, because those people are not shy with their comments. It's amazing what some people will say to a stranger they've never met and will (most likely) never come face-to-face with!

Anyway, here's the post. It's kind of a summation of the public school decision, most of which you've already heard:

The Rest of the Story

Some time ago, I was studying and I came across I Peter 2:12, which says: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Among the pagans.

The life of the American Evangelical Christian isn’t exactly set up to “live such good lives among the pagans.” Around the pagans, maybe. In front of the pagans. Parallel to the pagans. But certainly not among.

In fact, as a practicing Evangelical, I don’t really know any pagans. I see pagans – on my way to church and Bible study. I know OF pagans. I see them on TV, they talk about them on that Christian radio station I listen to. I hear the stories about what’s going on in the public schools... But in terms of living a good life among them, I am failing. I Peter 2:12 – and its context – convicts me.

So, God sent us to public school. How do we know it was God? Well, for one thing, we were chosen. Literally. We are in a magnet school that randomly accepted 11 new students out of more than 100 applications. I’d applied so that we’d have a “backup” option if homeschool or private school didn’t work out for us. (We are NEVER chosen for anything.) Another reason: For about 8 years, God has had us directly involved with a ministry that takes the Gospel to public school campuses. To not take advantage of the opportunity to get our hands dirty in the mission field we’ve been supporting for 8 years would be, well, hypocritical. There are more, but I’m trying to keep this brief.

It is very tempting for a parent to feel like the one part of our lives we’re allowed to keep under our control is our child. We have a “responsibility” to keep them “safe” and to “bring them up in the way they should go.” Sure. But I was trying to think of Biblical examples where God asked the parents’ permission before carrying out his plan, and I came up short. Eve? Abraham? Jacob? Moses’s mother? Hannah? Mary?

What kind of Christian am I if I can’t trust God to work out His plan in the life of my family, if we are seeking to serve Him? How big do I truly believe God is if I don’t think He can protect my child in a public school – especially if all signs point to that being His plan for us?

The night before the first day of school, our family was reading some books together. One of the books said something silly about a snowman living in the heart of every child. The amazing 5-year-old that I have on loan from God said, “What? Snowman in your heart? No mom, Jesus in your heart.”

I don’t know what God has in store for our future, but I know that, for now, He doesn’t want that heart to shine brightly in a place that is already light. Within two weeks of school starting, Jesus’s compassionate little girl became the only friend to a girl confined to a wheelchair – an opportunity she would not have had, if we’d chosen to keep her to ourselves. Every day, she gives a hug to the crossing guard and shares her stickers and coins for ice cream on Wednesdays – without mom & dad suggesting it.

I’m not worried about what the school is going to do to her. I’m excited about what God is going to do through her.

Among the pagans.