For Such A Time As This: FPEA 2009

Here they are - on the way to the Home School Convention for 2009!

This year marked our 12th home school convention. I love it! I know I have written about that before, so you probably hope I won't write it again. I can't help it. I truly love this weekend.

I become quite selfish over this particular weekend of the year. I hold on to it, save pennies for it, and in general can not even talk about not going. I know that it isn't all about me, but this is the "reward" that I look forward to all year long!

I love that my husband wants to go to convention every year almost as much as I do, I love that my kids attend convention with us now, I love to see them interact with their friends (more pictures of that later), I love to see my older ones sitting in seminars, listening to the speakers, I love to sit out by the pool at night and watch my little ones swim and play with kids they just met, and I love that I have awesome parents who come to the convention to watch out for my little ones and then pay for the hotel room! I know how blessed I am.

This year the theme of the convention was "Leadership." At least that is the theme that God gave to Stan and me. I'm not sure if the coordinators of the convention meant for that to be the theme or not. I am guessing not. However, each and every one of the past twelve years, no exceptions, God has given us a theme for our upcoming year. Now that we are "veteran" home schoolers, (do you know they call you a veteran after only two years?), we don't attend very many vendor workshops or anything like that. We did have our teens attend the SAT prep seminar, but I don't go there looking for curriculum. I have what I like, I know my kids and I know how they learn.

If I have determined anything in twelve years it is this: what you use to home school your children is not nearly as important and why you home school your children.

Let me explain that statement. Your materials are important, sure. However, home school curriculum has become big business! You can walk into the convention hall and buy really good, high quality curriculum all day long! It is all good, but I can promise you that a really great math curriculum will not keep you going when the going gets tough! The only thing that will keep you going when the going gets tough is if you know why you do what you do, and Who has called you to do what you do.

Now when I attend convention, I am there more for the why of it all. I scope out speakers like Doug Phillips from Vision Forum (www.visionforum.com) and Mark Hamby from Lamplighter Press, and Jeff Myers from Passing the Baton International. These are the men that are willing to lay it all out there and tell the truth in love. The truth I heard from these three men this year was unanimous. Almost as if they got together to plan their seminars. Here's what they said:

No one in our culture today is raising leaders!

The state of our government proves it, the state of businesses in America proves it, the state of schools in America proves it! No one knows how to lead. We are at the point in our society where the majority of kids are being raised by single, working mothers --fathers are not even there! And the mothers who are raising Americas kids were themselves raised by the generation of women who decided to pursue a career outside of the home instead of raising their own children as their moms had done. Feminism is America is rampant and out of control, being a lady is not popular!

These are tough truths, but they are truths nonetheless, and I am thankful that there are still men who are willing to say it and that there are still traditional families who are willing to hear it!

Scripture tells us at the very end of the Old Testament that if the hearts of the fathers are not turned towards their children, God will come and smite the land with a curse.

Malachi 4:6 "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."

Do we dare doubt that He has done exactly as He promised? However, there is hope. In Luke we learn that the hearts of the fathers will turn back to their children to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Luke 1:17 "It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Overwhelmingly, this weekend, the message was that the hearts of the fathers are being turned back to their children. The home school movement that is sweeping our country is no doubt the movement of God turning the hearts of the fathers back to their children, and the disobedient to an attitude of righteousness. Friends, I can think of no better place to be than part of a movement of God to prepare His people for the Lord.

It is not easy, it is not always fun, but after more than a decade I can promise you that it is always worth it!

The message that Stan and I walked away with this weekend is that America's best hope for revival rests with the leaders of the next generation. We are the ones training our children to lead, and as the dad, he especially has the responsibility to lead his family in Truth.

Every day, everything I do centers around my children's relationship with Jesus Christ and their ability to communicate that. If they grow into adults with strong character who can clearly communicate what they believe and who have the ability and desire to lead others in Truth, I will be satisfied. If my daughters grow up and their heart's desire is to marry and raise my grandchildren to love the Lord, I will be blessed indeed. If my sons grow up into warriors for Jesus Christ, willing to sacrifice everything for Him and for their wives and children and if they are the spiritual leaders of their households and love their wives as Christ loved the church and if their hearts are turned towards my grandchildren, I will be a satisfied old lady.

If you are not a home schooler and you are reading this, please don't hear me say that it is not possible for you to train your children to lead. It is possible, and you can do it - but, it will be many, many times more difficult if they are immersed in an environment that has removed God as the foundation. It is so much easier to believe a lie when Truth is totally removed from the equation. If you choose not to home school your children, then you have to be extremely diligent in knowing what they are being told and exposed to day in and day out, and you have to know how and be willing to counteract that. The attacks on the Gospel are getting darker and more sinister. The enemy knows his time is short.

I may have more to say later as Stan and I navigate the many materials we brought about about raising up leaders and spiritually leading the family in righteousness. For now I want to leave you with a few more pictures - these are especially good if you worry that home schooled children are "unsocialized" or don't get to have any fun!