Sound the Trumpet

On November 20, 1989, the United Nations adopted a treaty titled 'The Convention on the Rights of the Child'. This treaty, which has since been ratified in 193 countries, effectively removed from parents in member countries the right to determine how to raise and educate their children. Only two nations have not ratified this treaty, which would make it the supreme law of their respective lands--Somalia, and the United States. Nevermind the obvious irony of our own nation standing beside another so ravaged by violence and corruption in ANY issue, much less the raising and education of children. The more pressing issue is, where does the United States government stand with regard to this treaty? And what are We the People willing to do to prevent this latest assault on our Constitutional privileges by an international community that does not have our interests in mind? Perhaps you noticed right away that I used the term 'Constitutional privileges' instead of 'Constitutional rights'. This was purposeful. While we are theoretically protected by our Constitution from certain invasions on our persons and property, I am increasingly concerned that resting on the laurels of these 'rights' has made far too many Americans, including Christians, far too complacent. One need only look to recent elections and Supreme Court decisions to realize that a when a citizenry comes to believe it is permanently endowed with certain entitlements and privileges, and looks to government for that endowment, then it becomes easy to abdicate personal responsibility for our choices, leaving it to someone else to pay our bills, decide what truth really is and isn't, and defend the defenseless. Too late, we find that precious freedoms are permanently lost.

Such is the case with treaties such as this 'Convention on the Rights of the Child'. Steady pressure is being exerted by the UN and its surrogates for our legislators to adopt this treaty. Among the many decisions that the convention's ratification would take from parents is the right to educate their children at home. Standing U.S. federal and state laws that allow a parent to homeschool would be rendered immediately null and void, with no redress as national sovereignty is trumped by international law. According to Michael Smith, President of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, "...if Congress ratifies the treaty, it would give the United Nations authority to object to federal and state laws that it thinks violate the treaty and give Congress the power to pass laws to make the country comply with its tenants. This would be one of the most invasive things we could do as far as the sovereignty of our nation."

Would that I had more time and space to present this issue, but I don't. The future of homeschooling hangs in the balance, and I am not overstating the case. Whether we will continue to enjoy this privilege depends on several things--prayer, faith, and action. God knows our deepest needs and desires, and all things are in His hands, but He is also a God who expects His children to speak truth and not be lukewarm in our worship and service to Him. As we pray up, we also need to speak up. This is done not only with words, but with dollars. To start, join the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and its local partner, Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC). For about a hundred dollars a year, you will be linking arms with other homeschooling parents and a network of gifted, faithful attorneys and advocates who work tirelessly to defend our ability to educate our children according to the dictates of conscience. But the work doesn't end there. We the People must pressure our elected officials to represent our God-given parental authority according to the Constitution, and we must not let up. This goes for you homeschooled kids, too. If you wish to be able to educate your own children someday, you are profoundly obligated to do something about it TODAY. While generals like Joshua bravely blew the shofar to alert God's people to threats and call them to battle, it was up to every Israelite to join in the battle and put their faith in God into action. This remains the case today for all of God's people, and for such a time as this have we been called to take up that shofar and sound the alarm for this and future generations. Parents and children both have a stake in this battle, and we must use our voices while we still have them.

"Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain." I'll be a watchman. How about you?

Call me Bob!

I'm inviting everyone who knows me, or even those who don't, to call me Bob from now on. That wouldn't seem so odd, except that I'm not a guy, and my name isn't Robert. It's Mary. So why Bob? That's easy. You see, I've had to spend the last several weeks explaining to virtually everyone I've come into contact with that I am unusually discomBOBulated. Or addled, so maybe I could just as easily change my name to Addy, but I digress. In this, our fifth year of homeschooling, I'm finding myself in the midst of a very challenging time in my life. Not bad, just challenging. With a 9th grader, a 4th grader and a toddler in the family, it's felt as if I'm looking at life through a three-lensed pair of binoculars. Or should I say, trinoculars? Anyway, it's definitely been an adventure. After a couple of quarters with our teenager attending two classes at the high school, we have brought him back home on a full-time basis after watching our family schedule careen like a burned-out Yugo into a time-management abyss. Our ten-year-old has yet to come out of a rather lengthy 'phase' (at least I'm praying it's a phase) of responding to every parental command and request with something spoken in the accent of Mr. Toad of the 'Wind in the Willows'. And for the past three nights I've gone sleepless, between a flare-up of my frequent migraines and our baby's bout with a particularly nasty stomach bug. On top of this, I'm hip-deep in a wonderful but time-and-labor intensive online organic bath and body business and international Gospel ministry that requires more than a few late nights of internet correspondence and website work. And you know what? I'm thankful for all of it! But I have not exactly been the picture of the organized and efficient superwoman. That's okay, as long as I remember I'm neither obligated, nor by any sane standard allowed, to be that superwoman. I mean really, what business do I have pretending to have it all together when one child is in braces and getting his driver's permit, one is not sure from one day to the next whether he wants to be a stand-up comedian or an international spy, and one is just learning the difference between his high chair and a potty?! Just the thought of pulling off the perfection sham is enough to send me straight to a fainting couch with a case of the vapors. So, aside from consuming extra multi-vitamins and learning to operate on the sleeping schedule of a barn owl, what's a gal with a zillion things to do, to do? It's simple. She takes a deep breath, looks to God for the grace to both prioritize and have a bit of a giggle at herself, and pares down the must-do list. It's not all that 'must', when you take a minute to really think about it. I cringe when I watch the world, including people I love, run around like gerbils on Prozac pursuing some revved-up version of the American dream, while all that is precious and sacred is frittered away on endless acitivities, work and the building of bigger barns. I can't, thankfully, operate on that kind of adrenaline and the thought of even trying to just grieves me. More than that, for my family's and my own sake I flatly refuse to buy into it. There are too many roses to smell, including the three little boys that God in His grace chose to bless my husband and I with, and I want nothing more than to enjoy strolling among them and watching them bloom in His sweet, perfect time. We're just coming off of a couple of weeks time-out for the holidays, and are looking to the coming quarter as another of the Lord's signature new beginnings. I'm so very grateful for those, and they are His specialty. Last quarter feels a bit more like a distant memory all the time, and the newness of our coming studies and projects is exciting and fresh to everyone in the household. Our two big boys are already studying with zeal to reenact for us Shakespeare's Henry V. I'll be making costumes, red for the British characters, blue for the French, and brown for the bishops. Dad will help them make wooden swords that will lend credence to the most dramatic of war scenes, but thankfully won't actually disembowel anyone. Henry and Charles VI will have glorious golden crowns, courtesy of the neighborhood Burger King. (Oh come on, you must admit that's a brilliant touch!) Our oldest is looking forward to taking on much of his younger brother's history teaching, and in turn that younger brother will be teaching his elder sibling how to draw. I'll welcome the help from both of them, but will no doubt be supervising to make sure no one gets overwhelmed by too much Magna Carta or becomes overly frustrated by the challenges of working with those messy smudgers and charcoal pencils. And best of all, the toddler will always get an A+ and rousing, Elizabethan-style cheers for being so fantastic on the potty! It's not glamorous, but it's my life. And thank you, Lord, for reminding me to slow down and savor it all. It is sweet.