Praise God! Your Kids are Home Sweet Home!
Cain and Abel were born into a family. Their parents were Adam and Eve.
Isaac was born into a family. His parents were Abraham and Sarah.
Jacob and Esau were born into a family. Their parents were Isaac and Rebekah.
I was born into a family. My parents were Charles and Evelyn Boyd. I could go on and on . . .
In Exodus 20:12, God told children how to treat their parents.
Honor your father and your mother,
that your days may be prolonged
in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
Exodus 20:12
In Deuteronomy 11:18-19, God told parents when and where to train their children.
You shall therefore impress
these words of mine on your heart and on your soul . . .
You shall teach them to your sons,
talking of them when you sit in your house
and when you walk along the road
and when you lie down
and when you rise up.
Deuteronomy 11:18-19
The sitting and the lying down and the rising up happen at Home Sweet Home. How blessed is every child who has a Home Sweet Home with loving parents, devoted to their well-being.
I believe that with my whole heart. You can imagine my shock and anguish when I read the following statement in a recent USA Today article about issues related to children going back to school — or not — this fall. The article attributed the statement to the American Academy of Pediatricians. I then found the exact quote on the AAP website. It was part of their recommendations for what schools should do this fall. I don’t have permission to quote it and I don’t want to ask. Let me paraphrase it for you.
When we establish policies to stop the spread of COVID-19 in schools, we must balance those policies against the harms we know happen when children are kept at home. We know that keeping children at home harms children, adolescents, families, and the community.
Trust me. I have paraphrased this very carefully.
Children are not born into schools. Children are born into families. That was God’s idea. Family is the safe place that God planned for children and adolescents.
Any physician who takes care of children should know that. Can people mess that up? Sure, they can. Is every home an inherently harmful place for children, adolescents, and families? No way. Thank you for homeschooling your children.
For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness before God.
1 Corinthians 3:19
You are so correct that children are born into families and the family is the best place for them to learn, grow, and mature. God knew what He was doing when He created the first institution: a family.