To address or not to address

I've been thinking a lot this week about the big hooplah over the President addressing our children. Just thought I would share some of my thoughts on that. I will be the first to admit that I was initially outraged by it. Why? Because I was being told things like, "No President has dared to do this before..." and "As parents we should be able to control what our children hear when they are in school." Of course the icing on the cake was the list of questions that was being presented to the children to think about while they were listening to him speak and after he was finished. Questions like, "What is the President trying to tell me?" and "What is the President asking me to do?" Of course it was all over Facebook. Conservatives posting polls that the President shouldn't be allowed to speak to their children... Liberals posting that prior Presidents actually did speak to the children but never had to get permission to do it... it all began to make my head spin, and I actually forgot why I was upset about it to begin with!

Then the address to the students came and went... no big deal. I actually read some of what he said, and had no problem with it. And it made me wonder, why are we freaking out about these things? Don't we have much more important things to worry about? It also got me thinking about the reasons why many Conservatives and Christians were in an uproar about this. We don't want Government sticking its nose into our lives... into health care, religion, etc. But why do so many people send their children to public school if they don't want Government involved? It is a Government institution isn't it? I personally, had nothing to worry about, because my children are being homsechooled. This isn't a post to convince everyone that they should homeschool. But it makes you think. Yes I consider myself a Conservative. But it bugs me that so many Conservatives spend so much time complaining about Government getting involved in things... yet they send their children to a Government run institution. Doesn't that seem like a double standard? We are upset because we want to be able to control what our children hear at school. But do we honestly believe we have any control right now over what our children are hearing at school?

I'm not trying to stir up controversy, it just really got me thinking. When did our country become so split? Why are we fighting among ourselves? We talked about this briefly in my Bible study this morning. We don't need terrorists to come and fight us. We're doing a fine enough job fighting on our own. We are no longer a united country. When did we get labeled, "Conservative" and "Liberal"? It really saddens me.

This doesn't mean I'm not going to stick to my moral standards and convictions. I believe what I believe for a reason. But I'm not going to change someone else's mind until I start living out my convictions. We think we're going to change each other's minds about things but all we do is go in circles and bicker amongst ourselves. It's very ineffective. To reach other people they have to see something different in our lives. Not the same bickering they see from every other person. I just feel sometimes I am quick to jump on the Conservative band wagon and get upset over things just because everyone else is and that bugged me.

Maybe that was a ramble, so I apologize. But it was on my mind and I just thought I would share. I'll close with the number one reason I choose to homeschool my children:

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. " Deuteronomy 6:5-9

I can't control what Government chooses to teach my children. I can only control what I teach them. And that is what I have chosen to do!