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"Fathers... bring your children up in the nurture and teaching of the Lord." Eph. 6:4
Now and then people wonder out loud to us why CHEC uses the "C" as the first letter in the acronym. When I was interviewed on Focus on the Family last summer, I told the listening audience that it was not just a good education that I wanted for my children, but a Christian education.
After years of education in a secular university, I discovered that education can not be value-neutral. All education will be based on some basic, faith principles relating to things like God, our origin, human nature and ethics. And if you look carefully, I think you will find that some educational institutions will be predominantly humanist, based on a humanist worldview, while others will be basically Christian, and still others will be based on some other world religion. Over the years my wife and I have struggled with what is a good Christian education, especially as God has given us the responsibility of raising our own children. This came into play when we attended our first home schooling conferences and selected our first curriculum for Daniel and Emily. I would like to share some of the things we have learned.
1. When we speak of a Christian education, we want to lay down a basic foundation under all learning. This foundation is built out of the most basic and important biblical principles. The cornerstone of that foundation is God and His absolute truth revealed to us in the Bible. One of the first questions that our children learned to answer was "Who made you?" Our children must learn about the God who created them and who takes care of them in His all-wise and sovereign providence. Of course, there are more building blocks in this biblical foundation, such as the problem of sin and the marvelous salvation found in the atoning work of Jesus.
2. If these principles are foundational to our children's learning, then we want to teach them as foundational. We are working to lay this firm foundation by impressing on our children the importance of these principles, teaching them to our children with consistency and repetition especially during their early, formative years. If man's chief purpose is to glorify God and God is to be important and central in our lives, then our children should regularly encounter Him in their school subjects, their reading, their entertainment, indeed in all aspects of their training.
3. Finally, I have learned that it is important to teach these principles to the hearts of our children. It is not always easy to do this especially when we are working hard to get all of those academic subjects into their little minds. But there is nothing I desire more than for my children to know Jesus and truly love Him with all of their little hearts. Therefore, it is not just home education that is so dearly needed for the future of our children and our nation. The foundations of future generations will be built on Christian home education. CHEC is developing an exciting vision for future involvement in this important mission. As God provides, the Foundations for the Future program will increase our ability to further this vision and lay a firm foundation for our children and our children's children.
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