You Ask Me Why?…

… I send my children to the Christian school?

Well, now, that’s a good question. I know what you’re thinking. The public schools have just as good facilities and teachers as the Christian schools, and sometimes even better. So, why all this fuss and bother of setting up a separate school system? Why not teach the children religion at home or at church or at Sunday school?

But, you see, you’ve asked me something that gets right to the core of the meaning of life. If Christian schools meant simply tacking on a prayer each day, or an extra course in Bible study, they wouldn’t be worth all the time and expense.

I send my children to the Christian school because I believe that all of life is religion, God is at the center of everything. He made all things, He guides and controls them, and He demands that we, His creatures, honor Him as Lord and Savior in everything we do.

Of course that includes our studying, as well as our everyday work. It includes every part of life, without exception. It means that I can’t be satisfied with submitting my children to Christian training at home and church only. As a parent, I’m responsible for those thirty important hours that they spend each week in school. Some of the most significant training of my children takes place in the school atmosphere. How can I leave God out of the picture here?

But, you say, what’s the difference if my child studies arithmetic, history, or literature in a public school or a Christian school?

Much. I want my child to learn, from his earliest years, that all of life belongs to God and was made for Him.

In science, I want him to know that he is studying God’s laws for the universe.

In history, I want him to see the unfolding of God’s plan for the ages and the redemption of His people.

In literature, I want him to test other writers by Christian standards so that he will appreciate what is good and true and beautiful, and discern what is false or dishonoring to God.

In civics, I want him to know that true government is ordained of God and requires our loyalty and support. I want him to learn the principles of honesty, decency, cooperation, and fair play because these are rules that God has set up for the ordering of our life together.

All of this is a big order. It can’t be accomplished in fifteen or thirty minutes a day. It takes everything we’ve got to instill in the hearts of our children that true fear of the Lord, which is “the beginning of all wisdom.”

Moses said it thousands of years ago. He told the people of Israel then how to bring up their children—God’s covenant children. This is how he said it:

“Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

And he shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates.” (Deut. 11:18-20)

This means Christian education—in all of life.

Expensive? Yes, of course. We pay our full share of taxes for the public schools, and we support our Christian schools in addition to this. But we count it a privilege to have this wonderful opportunity, in a land of freedom, to dedicate ourselves and our children entirely to God.