Home Archery Class

Our pediatrician's office operates like a clinic: there are a number of doctors, and you can't always be sure which one you're going to wind up with. This is not proper way to conduct a medical practice, but there isn't any local alternative.

At one such visit, with one such pediatrician on staff, we mentioned on the way out the door that we home school. (We really dislike that term 'home school' because it accepts the 'school' construct as normative; but it is so generally used and the public psyche is so school oriented that it is rather difficult to avoid.) "Well," he said, with a look and a tone half composed of admiration for our undertaking, and half of wonder that we could conceive of something so idiotic, "that's good. But that's definitely a calling. Homeschooling isn't for everyone."

Are we called to homeschool?

Are you called to homeschool?

'Homeschooling' is definitely a calling, I agree. And those who haven't been called to do it should not attempt it. So how do you know if you are called?

One of my previous employers made the offhand comment that I am always trying to drag the Bible into the middle of everything. I replied that is because the Bible is in the middle of everything.
So let's look at the scriptures.

Psalm 127 says:
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.

What does a warrior do with an arrow? He puts it to the string, draws the bow, and shoots it at a target. He purposefully selects a particular target (or, it may be, a particular target has selected him), and he does his best to strike that target with his arrow. It's not a game, it is a struggle, a fight, a battle. He isn't shooting to win a contest, or a trophy, or honor. It's deadly serious and it has a real outcome of some kind.

When that warrior goes into battle, however many arrows he happens to have, will he hand his arrows over to another warrior? Will he leave his arrows lying around and enter the field of battle unarmed and unsure of who will even use his arrows?

Folks, we are in a battle. It is just as real as any battle that ever took place on a field with arrows or muskets or whatever you wish. In fact, it's actually much more real because all of those battles are only eruptions boiling over out of the battle I am speaking of. And if you have children, God has given them to you for a reason. He has given them to you for you to point in the right direction and let them fly straight at the enemy, our enemy; the enemy of God, the enemy of all mankind.

And it ain't gonna happen at school.
OK, yes, it is hypothetically possible that maybe, just maybe, if you send your children to school there might just maybe be some warrior there who will pick up your arrows (your children) and use them more skillfully than you could've. Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while. But even if that happens you will have squandered your heritage, your reward, your chance to get into the fight and make a difference. You will have disobeyed the orders from your Commander.

And let's be realistic here: the chances of that happening are mighty slim. Much much slimmer than the pig that's grubbing around for the occasional acorn. You'd be better off wasting your family's resources playing the lottery.

You only have just so much chance on this and then it is gone forever.

Are you called to keep your children at home? Well, look around you. Do you hear the pitter patter of little feet? Have you heard it there around you? Do you have children? If you do, you are called to raise them yourself at home and not to shamefully leave them in the hands of strangers and hirelings to direct wherever they wish – if they even care enough to direct them at all. And if they do, they might even direct them straight at you...

Don't give away your heritage from the LORD. Don't leave your reward lying around for others to spend. Don't leave your arrows lying around where even the enemy can pick them up and use them...raise your own children at home.


For the Bible tells you so.