One of the most important duties God has entrusted to parents is discipling their children to love and obey Him.
The foundational passage of Scripture to support this claim comes from Deuteronomy chapter six:
“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” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV).
These words came from the mouth of an old and concerned Moses to God’s people entering the promised land–he was pleading with them not to forsake the Lord and not to become like the pagan nations around them. Though spoken thousands of years ago, this charge to believing parents is just as relevant today. The flow of the passage is clear: behold the one true God, hide His commands in your heart, and then teach them diligently to your children. And don’t just do this from 10-11:30am on Sunday morning. You are to teach them to love and obey the one true God at all times and in all places.
If the command on Christian parents is to train their children in the ways of the Lord everywhere and all the time, then the formal education of our children (what we’ve now labeled as “school”) should not depart from aligning with biblical truth.
Here is a major issue Christian parents must face: the curricula within the public education system not only depart from the truths of the Bible, but stand in staunch opposition to them. The true and living God is replaced with atheism. Creation is replaced by Darwinian evolution. Glorifying God as man’s chief end is replaced with the glorification and gratification of self.
Christian parents, therefore, ought to remove their children from the public school system and do everything they can to ensure the little souls entrusted to their care are discipled in a biblical worldview. For many, this means either home education or some form of Christian schooling.
Usually, state governments will do nothing but encourage parents to place their children in the godless public school system. In Arizona, however, the Lord’s providence has given parents a program that goes against the grain. The Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) provides funding to assist Arizona parents in educating their children outside the public school system, including private Christian education and homeschooling.
Is ESA an explicitly Christian initiative? No, the idea is more about giving parents the freedom to choose how their children will be educated. But as believers, we should take full advantage of this freedom to better obey and serve the Lord.
Christian parents should care about preserving ESA. The reasoning is simple: we are to disciple/educate our children to love the Lord and obey His Word. If the government creates a program that actually makes this easier and not harder, we should do what we can to keep it. So when we hear of things like ballot initiatives designed to subtly dismantle ESA, we need to be equipped and informed to oppose it.
Stand with us at Red State Reform as we fight to preserve ESA and help Christian parents teach their children to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
