Convention Corner: Why We Do What We Do

I’ve recently taken an interest in the post-exilic prophets. It is both a saddening and encouraging time in the history of God’s people. A passage from Nehemiah struck me particularly as it applies to home education and what motivates us to give our children a Christ-centered upbringing.

Nehemiah was an exile who served King Artaxerxes in the Persian capital of Susa. When he received a report that the walls of Jerusalem were completely broken down, he sought permission to go rebuild them. God moved the heart of the king to allow him to go. Nehemiah led the rebuilding project and became the governor of Judah for a time. The people experienced a great spiritual revival during this period and rededicated themselves to following God’s Law in every aspect.

Eventually, Nehemiah returned to his duties in Susa. After about a decade, he returned to Jerusalem to find the people in shambles once again. They were working on the Sabbath, not giving the Levites their due portions, not offering the proper sacrifices, and marrying among the people of the land. While these are all bad, the last transgression came with a striking statement from Nehemiah.

In Nehemiah 13, the prophet says, “In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.”

A casual reader might wonder why it was a big deal that the children could not speak the language of Judah. This is because it meant that they could not read the law of God for themselves. They could not understand the teaching of the priests. This language barrier meant that fathers and mothers were not ensuring that their children grew up to worship the one true God. They were not following the mandate of Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Part of why we choose to educate our children in our homes is to follow the Deuteronomy mandate. We want to talk about God and His ways when we sit in our house, when we walk along the road, when we lie down, and when we rise up. We want our children to “speak the language” of Christianity.

A recent Pew Research study showed that 8 in 10 Americans could correctly identify Moses, David, and Abraham. That’s pretty good. But it also showed that only 1 in 5 Americans could correctly identify that Protestantism teaches that salvation is through faith alone.

If you are like our family, you want your children to have a deep, rich, and vibrant understanding of Scripture and its impact on their lives. Coming to the CHAP convention lets us gather to support each other in that endeavor. It’s so encouraging to know that there are indeed thousands of families out there with the same goal in child-rearing. Come and be refreshed in the presence of like-minded believers who “speak your language.”