Choose Love

As you know, the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

The times, they are a changin. I mean, I can't count how many ways the world is different than it was just since I was in college...and that wasn't even a decade ago! The world is getting more liberal by the day and it's scary.

I'm currently in the throes of choosing a preschool for the twins for next year. I know they're only going to be three but I feel really sure that it's a good move for us personally. No, I'm not homeschooling even though I'm a teacher AND a Christian...shocking, I know. Anyway, in less than a year they will be "students" of someone, some nice preschool teacher. It will only be a few hours a day, two days a week, which is really no big deal. But it feels like a gateway. To me, it feels like this is just the first small step in my releasing them into the hands of the world. Because next year it's two days a week, then the year after that it's three days a week, and then they're in kindergarten and they will actually see me for a lesser amount of time per day than they see their teacher. So far, Joe and I have been in control of almost 100% of their formative years. Those years aren't over yet but next year will be the first time that we're introducing a new "teacher" and authority figure into their lives. Not to mention the influence of other children, other children's parents and older sibling, and the mixed teachings that they may all receive and talk about in the presence of my kids. Oh heaven, I have to check my pulse just thinking about it.

In getting advice from other parents we respect, a few of them have told us that choose to send their kids off to school with a few short, simple, but very important go-to rules or mantras to focus on. Things like "Have fun, learn something, and treat others with respect" or "Think for yourself, be caring, and be responsible." Which I think is a really great strategy and I'm still working on my most important school rules for them but it's got me thinking what if I could send them into LIFE with one giant lesson that I wanted them to grasp it would just be to choose love. Choose to love people even when you disagree with them, dislike them, or don't roll with the same crowd as them. It really is a choice, and a choice that's easier made when it's practiced and it becomes a natural response rather than something you have to force yourself to do.

I hate when Christian parents keep their kids home when their high schools do a Day of Silence (which is a active day of protest against the harassment and bullying of lesbian and gay students). As if to say, there is just no way my child will stand in support of the clearly sinful lifestyle choices of their peers. It kills me. Have we become so closed minded to, so afraid of, so put off by what we see as sin that we can't even let our kids get anywhere near it? Now don't get me wrong, I understand what the Bible says about homosexuality and I believe the Bible is truth. But I also know my Jesus. I know how he behaved and what he chose and who he hung out with and there is NO WAY he would have stayed home from school that day. He would have chosen love. Can we teach our kids to abstain from judgement even when we disagree with others and just choose to love them because they're God's children too?

I come from a long line of very racist people on both sides of my family. "Black jokes" were a pretty regular pastime where I came from and I never could have dark-skinned friends without an extra dose of suspicion and unmerited judgement from my father.

One time in high school I began to befriend a boy who was quite a loner and through many conversations he admitted to me that he was a cutter and struggled with some serious depression. Of course, being the shallow blonde chick that I was in high school, I had no idea what to do with such information (the deepest thing I struggled with at the time was where in my bedroom to place my next Hanson poster), so I came home and asked my parents what to do and how to help this kid. I was instructed to stay away from him, lest he corrupt me with his trench coat style and menacing ways.

People, I didn't stand a chance.

I have GOT to give my kids a chance. I'll spend all of the years they are in my care trying to teach them that Jesus is the ultimate authority in our lives and what he says is wrong, is wrong. And what he says is right, is right. That ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And that it was for LOVE that Christ spread his arms and died for those sins of mine and theirs and others. We will not agree with the life choices of others (and please don't think that I'm implying that skin color or homosexuality or depression are life choices). But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And that means that we will serve the gay goth kid in the same way that we serve the home schooled girl with braids.

So go ahead world, get liberal. See if we care. WATCH us care.