Since my last blog, I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying. Then we took the youth group to Acquire the Fire. It's a Teen Mania ministry from Ron Luce (http://www.acquirethefire.com). We go every year, and it's always awesome. This year was so striking to me. We heard some disturbing statistics, and we really had our hearts pierced with the revelation of how strongly the world fights for the hearts and minds of our teens. I knew it, but I didn't know it. You know? For instance, Viacom owns Nickelodean and MTV and tons of other channels. Their owners have instituted a "cradle to the grave" philosophy of getting people hooked on their ideas of what's cool, so that they can bid for those advertising dollars AND the growing wallets of our teenagers. This generation of students will be the largest and the wealthiest generation the world has ever seen. At the current rate of evangelism, it is projected that in 10-15 years only 4% will be Bible-believing Christians. That's in comparison to the 35% of today.

Can you say, wake up call? Now, we are not hopeless, and we know that the battle has already been won. However, it spurs a desire to take the great commission more seriously. We are implementing that calling into our youth services.

A by-product of that has been my renewed calling to homeschooling. My husband is really onboard as well. We know public school is NOT an option for us. Why would I throw my kids to the wolves? Until they have developed their character and integrity, how can I ask them to fend off ideas, philosophies and attitudes that are contrary to those? It reminds me of WWII when Germany began sending boys up in planes to fight off the enemy. That's what it would boil down to if I sent them off.

So, I took some great advice from some of my commenters. I ordered those cds from www.familymanweb.com. They were awesome. Just what I needed to hear. I highly recommend them. I also implemented my schedule from tips off the www.titus2.com site. I love that site. I scaled down my schedule so that it was not quite so detailed. This has been a BIG help. I will post it in a later blog.

I also defined WHY I'm doing this. It's for their character. And with that in mind, we're doing GREAT! My kids are awesome! They are diligent, obedient, gentle, mannerly, fun, appreciative, honest, and intelligent.

From a scholarly standpoint, they are really just using those Walmart/Sam's Club workbooks. They like them; they're almost finished with them; they're pretty well on the mark for their grade.

Well, this is getting long, and I'm afraid of losing it before finishing it, so I will cover what sent me into panic mode later. I SOOO appreciate all of your comments and support. You were gracious and encouraging. Thank you.

Posted by quietcajun

I am thankful you said what you said about your renewed resolve to homeschool... in light of those statistics and not wanting to throw your children to the "wolves"...

I love the Todd Wilson stuff.... really refreshing material!

Hang in there! Fight the good fight!

Posted by dawilli

So good to hear you're feeling better about things!
Hang in there,
ali