As I'm contemplating the end of what I view as my children's formal education at home I am thinking about all the principles and concepts I still need to teach them before I release them to the world.They need discernment skills and wisdom in relationships. I want to caution them in aggressive and unscrupulous women. I need to equip them with skills to survive in this dog eat dog world. (not trying to be negative but there is competition out there) But most of all I want them to be well equipped with a worldview that is rock solid steady, immovable, absolute and deeply embedded.
As much as I believe in protecting our children from outside error and harmful influences I also believe it is vitally important to expose them while still in the home (in due time) to error and teach them how to discern that error correctly and to expose those lies by applying the grid of truth, the Bible.
Since there is nothing new under the sun, this will give them patterns to group error into age old heretical philosophies that started a long time ago. Teaching them to discern and apply the word of truth also gives them the opportunity to "study and show themselves approved unto God." They see first hand that the Word of God is a double edged sword capable of dividing truth from error and is every bit applicable today as it was thousands of years ago.
We had an excellent opportunity this morning to discuss the blatant error of Oprah Winfrey's new church and spiritual teaching classes. A friend passed on the you tube link and I previewed it and then thought it would be excellent to hear what my boys thought of what she had to say.
Click here: YouTube - The Church of Oprah Exposed
We spent several hours afterward discussing the error and the possible reasons that she or anyone could possibly believe in these ridiculous deceptions. They seemed to be out of this world to us but to the undiscerning there is mass appeal.
After viewing the video for the second time I asked them to raise their hands at the first subtle indicator of the New Age philosophy. (a test) They both picked up the first one and just about every one after that. We may go back and study each of these indicators and compare them with the Truth.
One of my mentor friends used to say, "Without Biblical conviction you WILL go the way of culture. (whatever way the wind is blowing in your culture at that time and season)
Viewing this video was an exercise worth it's weight in gold for the opportunity for me to expose my boys to what they will come across in the world. Even if they do not become swayed by it themselves they will need to be prepared to give and answer in due season to someone who is caught in New Age philosophy's clutches. I want them to be prepared enough to be able to witness articulately the way of salvation to someone who is desperately lost even if they do not know it.
This is what I call a REAL high school education!
