COMMENTS ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Alan and Erica Henry
“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children
...one is roots, the other is wings.”
Hodding Carter
Raising and educating children was never meant to be a simple matter. The task is further complicated when God in His providence allows for a larger family than most. Although the process started for us more than twenty five years ago, at the time of writing most of our seven children are still engaged in study in one way or another and our youngest, Davey-Jo, is a happy and contented eleven year-old at Immanuel Christian School.
The enemy of our souls wants to oppress us in our HOMES, through disharmony first but also by bringing the “world’ and its twisted ideology into our family life. In our home we have endeavoured, with varying degrees of success, to promote the habit of daily personal Bible reading. We also decided early in the piece that we had no need of a television set, while videos and computer games have been over the years a relative luxury. As a result of all this extra time, the Henry children have probably read far too many books and spent far too much time in deep discussion around the dinner table. In such an environment, a focus on academic achievement has been relatively easy to maintain and success at school has been a fairly natural outcome.
The devil also wants your children and mine to be spiritually shallow. We thank God every day that He has placed us in a sound CHURCH, where His Word is honored, where Jesus is lifted up for all to see and where, through a balanced teaching ministry, our children have had loving input from dedicated Christian mentors over the years. Inevitably, each one of them will need to put faith and unbelief, success and failure, ambition and hope into perspective as they struggle with their own personal walk with God. However, we have a clear assurance as parents that they each one “know the Truth, and that the Truth is able to set them free…”
Our children have had a teacher for a father, one who has seen first-hand the harmful influence on our children, directly and indirectly, of the public education system. Standards vary of course but as a general rule, the teaching and reinforcing of traditional Christian values is not a priority in our country’s classrooms. It took little time for us to decide on CHRISTIAN SCHOOLING as the most fitting way to reinforce the core values being taught at church and in the home. It takes rigour, both spiritual and intellectual, to teach a curriculum in a way that honours God. An invaluable foundation is laid, not just in Bible knowledge but, just as importantly, in clear thinking and good work habits. As parents it is hard to fault the dedication and spiritual support our children have experienced over the years, and their teachers have invariably been of the highest caliber.
Looking back, there have been times of weakness and heart-searching, with good and bad decisions made in equal number, but God has been faithful and will surely have the last word. We maintain that our Father in Heaven has not given us these children to mock us and that the work done in our lives through this process is for our own blessing and growth as well as theirs. We have no doubt that in a multitude of ways the real cost of parenthood still lies ahead, since four of our children are old enough now to be called young adults and their lives are poised at the inevitable crossroads arising from a need to make their own decisions about the future. It has been said that God has no grandchildren, so we have taken hope as each of them has come to a loving Father by way of the Cross of Christ and we shall gladly shoulder the burden of prayer for them in our remaining years. Our trust is that God will continue to be faithful and that the genuine commitment they each have made will be met by the same unfathomable grace both their parents have experienced. After all, we have consciously sought to lay a foundation for our children, through HOME, CHURCH and SCHOOL, till they know enough to focus on God without our help and are able in their own right to bear lasting fruit in His kingdom.
Home, church, school: these are the essential legs of the proverbial stool when it comes to raising children for the Kingdom. God is sovereign and we know better than to presume anything about the future but nonetheless we’ve all heard the saying, and it is well worth repeating: God is no man’s debtor. More importantly we are persuaded, as was the apostle Paul, that… HE IS ABLE TO KEEP THAT WHICH WE'VE COMMITTED UNTO HIM AGAINST THAT DAY.