A Friday Morning Rant

This may be a rather soap boxy post, a little preachy, but it’s something that bothers me and if I can’t get up on my soap box on my own blog, then what’s the point, right? So, there, consider yourself forewarned…

My concern is Christian families who don’t raise their children in church. Parents who profess they believe in God, they may pray every day--perhaps in their head as they’re laying down in bed at night--but for one reason or another they themselves have fallen away from church, disillusioned with organized religion, blaming any and every negative aspect of man-made doctrine. And I can understand all of that, with everything from greed and abuse and downright thievery being seen in churches since the beginning of, well, church. You know why? Because churches are run by…men, people, imperfect people who are greedy and abusive and power hungry. People are particularly good at ruining things for, sadly, other people.

So you don’t want to raise your kids in church because, supposedly, you don’t want them exposed to the abuse and greediness and other flaws of organized religion, or maybe you don’t agree with certain aspects of ‘religious law’, or even more popular, you don’t want to be bothered with the so-called hypocrites that fill our church pews every Sunday morning. Fine. I get that. But then, what are you doing to teach your children about God and about faith? If you believe in God and you have the gift of faith, what are you doing to share that gift, to pass it along to your kids? Because, for the life of me, in the ugliness of this world today, I don’t know how anyone could possibly cope day to day without some level of faith in something better, something bigger, and I couldn’t possibly deny my child that foundation to build his life on.

Now, I completely understand the movement towards homeschooling. Believe me, if it wouldn’t be an all out battle with Michael every morning to sit down and do his class work, I would be right in line to sign him up for cyber school. We’ve not had the best experiences with public school, starting as early as enrolling him in preschool and every year thereafter. And that’s a giant, giant understatement. If I am disillusioned with anything in this world, it’s the public school system! But, my son is an only child who absolutely needs the interaction of other kids and people besides just me and if I could afford to send him to a private Christian school, I would in a heartbeat! Summers run particularly long in our house because Michael is easily bored and there aren’t any kids on our street for him to play with, so he takes his boredom out on me and the dogs, and any miscellaneous items laying about that he can smash into a million pieces. And as much as he claims to not like school, he does love the social aspect and the independence from me that it gives him. (And I like having the house to myself for a few hours a day as well!) Plus, anyone who knows me, knows I’m crazy overprotective when it comes to Michael, and I would love more than anything to shelter him from the violence and drugs that pour through our school system.

So I truly do understand why parents today don’t want to send their children to public school and keep them home instead. But, they still have them homeschooled. Why? Because the government requires it? Because you can’t get through life without some sort of education? But when you don’t want to take your kids to church, you don’t bother to instill in them any kind of faith. You don’t teach them about God, about salvation, why? How can you claim to believe in God and yet keep that belief from your children? How do you think they’re going to learn? Is it any wonder the world is the way it is because we’re too lazy and too full of excuses to teach our children there is something bigger, there is something better to believe in? How is the world going to get any better if we keep turning our backs on the One who created it?

Pictures of the day--Yesterday morning I took Tucker for a walk and saw two fantastic fairy rings. I was so excited, I wanted to run home and get my camera but it was time for the babies' feeding, plus I had cleaning to do and a shower to take, the other birds needed their time out for the morning...I figured it could wait until after lunch. After all, it was a week day--most folks are out working in the world and not planning to mow down their fairy rings on a Thursday morning, right? Ugh! Not! I did get a shot of the one, but sure enough, the nicer of the two had indeed gotten mowed....darn my luck!! I was so disappointed--the other mushrooms were clustered beautifully and the ring was much clearer. I did take a shot of where the ring had been...and I imagined some sadly disheartened little fairies, mad their mushrooms had been chopped into a million little pieces, stupid mowers!! Drat!!