Rush of Fools...

I got my No Greater Joy magazine yesterday. What a breath of fresh air for me. You see, I have had an internal struggle for the 4 years we have lived here. I need encouragment from time to time. *U* It seems we have had, for the most part, until recently, only two choices for social life. None, or else ignore as best as possible fools and try to undo the damage at home.

My Soapbox

Church's don't help. Actually they are the bigger problem. The pressure to hurry up and bustle your kids off to the youth group and Sunday school classes even when you are just a visitor- is ludicrous. I want to say to children and youth workers at churches:

You mean I'm supposed to send my children, unsupervised (by me) to a group of bad mannered, bad-mouthed kids whose own parents can't keep them under control and so therefore gladly send them to you each week? You leave harried, worn out and frazzled thinking you have done a good deed. When actually you have done nothing more than enable the wretchedness of this whole failing system. Parents should train and teach their kids. If you want to do a good deed, train young couples to parent their own kids.

I'm not saying there's not a place for those classes and groups- kids from the neighborhood come in and need someone to teach them if they aren't in believing homes. There is a need for those classes.

But did you ever notice the kids who behave the worst are kids in Church?

Did you ever stop to think that allowing kids to be brainwashed all day at school, peer pressured to death, and then fed junk food and entertained all day with electronics and porn-based lyrics in songs that you don't moderate is not only harmful, but is a waste? Is wrong!? Our society is going to reap the bad fruit of this. Aren't we already?

I think churches don't always have the best of motives for drawing in all those kids to entertain. Kids bring in adults. Adults bring in $$. Cynical? I know. I hate that about myself.

I live in a place where 1/3 of the adults are public school employees.Including the Sunday school teachers, youth workers, Bible study leaders...etc. Where most Christians send their kids to day care, then preschool, then the local government school...inbetween they stuff them full of goodies, buy them everything their eyes lust for, neglect teaching them courtesy or manners (and OH! How that shows!) Then parents congratulate themselves on their kids not being "as bad as so and so's kids" and march them off to youth group to be wined and dined with fun and games and pizza.

We don't do that. We are judged, critizised, and clucked at...I am so weary of that.

We are strict, we believe the Bible, we have goals, vision for our family, and we have standards. Imagine that. But- we are also fun, have alot to do, have a tight family that discusses ideas and we aren't religious. We work hard and we play hard. We discipline and we train. We are sooooo far from perfect, and don't think our kids are any better then anybody else's, but we are on a mission, and see ourselves as missionaries- to our kids.

We realize the children must choose for themselves. But, at home, armed with truth, and given the freedom to learn in an environment free of the world's pressures...they stand a better chance.

I know I sound really defensive...but I just think the hardest part of our whole challenging lifestyle here as believers in this community is other Christians.

I know what direction we are traveling...I won't be moved. I will continue raising my own children and dodging fools. Bad company corrupts good morals, it's true. Sometimes my own kids are the fools, and so we need to pull some weeds in their little gardens, but I'm not sitting around hoping someone else will "fix them". When they are in that condition I don't inflict them on others either.

No, I won't give up, because secretly some of those "other" people have come to me and expressed that they wish they had children "with such nice manners", or they wish their children would "sit quietly", "Not talk back", etc. etc. So even though I take alot of guff off of people around here for the way we raise our kids, I see that others are watching...and learning. People whose children are public disgraces who wonder why nobody will invite them to their home for a meal may give me the dirtiest looks, but I suspect that they secretly wish they knew my "trick".

Here it is for free- I believe the Bible.

Look around. The world system isn't working. If what you are doing isn't working...then why continue? Because it's routine? Familiar? Is that any reason?The world system by the way, has infiltrated the American church- long ago. Not just the American church either.

Those who think the status quo is "just how it is" can visit their kids in jail someday, or raise their grandkids while their parents "dry out" in rehab, or whatever. You reap what you sow. As an individual, a family, a community, and a country. It's looking pretty bad, isn't it? You know it is. I see it, and it bothers me. The whole dilema for me as a mother is, do I try to influence for good at church, or do we get out of there and live our convictions without interference? I know it's wrong to segregate or seperate ourselves, I really do, but I get so discouraged when I see what's going on, and when it effects my own children.

~_________________________________~

Here's a good DVD for parents with boys. We respect Michael Pearl, appreciate his wisdom and the ministry he does with prison inmates. I'm hoping we can minister to kids before they become prison age! *U* I know alot of people don't like Mike Pearl. Whatever. I don't like your humanism, secular lifestyle, and poor manners, but most of all I feel really sorry for your kids.

Please don't leave me nasty comments- I really have to admit I couldn't care less. Really. You go your way and reap what you sow in your field and leave me alone to do the same. In the end we shall see...