Experiences, Events, and Expressions
The Derr Family
Our Story
Russ & I met right after I graduated from Covenant College. I just moved to Texas, starting my first teaching job, living close to my brother. Russ was a handsome soldier in the Army. He caught my eye the first time we met at church; he was playing the guitar in the worship band. We started to hang out instantly, along with the other "singles" at the church. Our relationship grew quickly. We married the following summer (July 11). With the trend of doing things quickly, we had Rachel the following summer (July 20). Seth and Sarah entered the scene 2 1/2 years later (Dec. 1). The Lord has taken us from Texas to Florida, back to Texas, and now we are in Tennessee.
We have chosen to follow Christ, both as individuals and as a family. While we often fail , it is our desire to serve the Lord in all we do & say.
We choose to educate our children at home. This was a desire birthed in my mind while observing homeschool families in my college years. After teaching in public school, Rachel attending public school (one year), and years of reading and observing families, we came to our decision. Now, I can't imagine it any other way!
Yes, I know God has called us to be "salt and light" in our dark world. However, I believe that is for those who have the "salt" in them, salt that has not lost its flavor and is not contaminated. Mark 9:50 "Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." 1 Corinthians 15:33 says "Bad company corrupts good character." That's salt that's contaminated!
We don't send our soldiers into battle without years of training. Likewise, why would I send my children into a spiritual battle without proper training? We don't send missionaries into the mission field without training either. Not only that, but the missionaries we send into the mission field are adults! Yet, do we really think our children are prepared for the "mission field" they'll face at school?
We have chosen to follow Christ, both as individuals and as a family. While we often fail , it is our desire to serve the Lord in all we do & say.
We choose to educate our children at home. This was a desire birthed in my mind while observing homeschool families in my college years. After teaching in public school, Rachel attending public school (one year), and years of reading and observing families, we came to our decision. Now, I can't imagine it any other way!
Yes, I know God has called us to be "salt and light" in our dark world. However, I believe that is for those who have the "salt" in them, salt that has not lost its flavor and is not contaminated. Mark 9:50 "Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." 1 Corinthians 15:33 says "Bad company corrupts good character." That's salt that's contaminated!
We don't send our soldiers into battle without years of training. Likewise, why would I send my children into a spiritual battle without proper training? We don't send missionaries into the mission field without training either. Not only that, but the missionaries we send into the mission field are adults! Yet, do we really think our children are prepared for the "mission field" they'll face at school?
Those who work with counterfeit money train by studying the "real" thing. They don't study real money side-by-side with counterfeit. No, they learn every facet of genuine money. Then, when they see a counterfeit (which comes in many forms), they will instantly recognize it is not genuine. I believe this is the same with raising children. They must become engrained in what is real, in genuine Biblical truth. And, I don't think that happens by the time a child is 5 or 6. I don't believe my children can adequately learn "genuine" truth while spending the majority of their time living in a counterfeit world!
Did you know that the average child spends a total of 16,000 hours in school but only approximately 1,600 hours in church? I've also heard many times the statistic that within four years of graduation, about 88% of graduates will leave the church, usually never returning. Why? It only seems obvious that the environment where the child spends most of his time will have a greater influence on his life.....for eternity! Who did God command to train our children? The government? A secular institution? An institution that denies the Bible as the foundation of all truth, that denies God as Creator of all? I may be an "odd ball" to many in our society and even in many churches, but I take God's commands seriously. I think the outcome (88% of young adults walking away from church) of sending our children off to allow someone else to train them for the majority of their wakeful hours is risk I won't take. Christian parents must think about their children's future....think about their eternity. I ask myself, am I really doing all I can to train my children in the Lord, to fill them with the salt through the Bible, to protect them from Satan's lies and schemes, and to prepare them to be effective disciples for the Lord?
So, am I sheltering my children? Absolutely! Is that not my role as a parent? Is that not what God does for us, His children? Psalm 61:4 says, "Let me dwell in Your tent forever; Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings." Deuteronomy 33:12 says, "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him, who shelters him all the day long; and he shall dwell between His shoulders." I'm so thankful God wants to be and is my shelter!
Am I isolating my children? You betcha! Probably not in the sense that most think when they hear the word "isolate" though. I love the way Ken Ham explained it in an article in The Homeschool Magazine: "Whatever you do, you are isolating your kids. If children are in public school, they are being isolated; they are being isolated from being trained in a Christian environment with a Christian worldview.....I am isolating them from certain evil influences until they are filled with the salt and are mature enough to understand these influences. I am isolating them from peer pressure that might drag them down." (Spring 2007 issue of The Homeschool Magazine, Article Titled "The Question of Sheltering - A talk with Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis") So, yes, I am isolating my children from the evils of this world. But, I am also insulating them by training them to protect themselves from the world while living in the world.
I know my "story" might sound like I'm judgmental for those who do not homeschool. That is not my intention. Rather, it is simply my desire to enlighten readers of the deep seeded convictions which lead us to educate our children at home.
Besides, this is my blog....thus my opinion! ;-)
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them."
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, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 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."
Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.