I’m just getting back from a little 3 day weekend vacation. We went out to some condos in the woods and let the kids swim. It was nice. They couldn’t get the wifi to work and there wasn’t much to do. It was pretty great. I did a lot of dreaming but I didn’t really write anything down. I also skipped all of my usual reading, I didn’t even do a Bible study. I still prayed at night when I woke up from my dreams. Even with no wifi and no study time I still can’t make it without talking to God all the time.
I did notice a cool thing about my life that God has always done for me. I’m sure it has something to do with His plans for my life. In the pool my daughter spoke to exactly one adult who she doesn’t know. The woman turned out to be a teacher and told my daughter a few things about her life. I just listened and smiled mostly and let them talk. But the information came in useful later on as I was listening in on her conversation.
I was sitting next to the pool waiting on the big kids to finish swimming and this same woman got out in the pool. She was the only person talking in the whole place, I didn’t listen in just to be nosey. But she began explaining all the good things about public schools. She talked about how underserved children were when they didn’t have access to all of those resources. And almost in the same breathe she accidentally discussed what was wrong with the public schools as well. Her main problem was parenting. Parents don’t teach children all of the things they used to teach them when there was a 2 parent family and one stayed home with the kids.
She went on to talk about the things her parents taught her that helped her in school and how so many struggling kids are simply missing that information. If you go back and teach it to them at a later age it fills in the learning gaps quickly and they do well. She was trying to advocate for the value of all the resources of the public school system. But she accidentally advocated for the opposite. And she was right, parent involvement is proven to be more important in education than resources. And mentoring kids who slipped through the cracks will catch them up. Some people feel convicted and those are the awesome people. Others feel like attacking you, those are the ones that have a few demons.
It’s like that with everything. Righteousness convicts sin all by itself. People love to tell everyone to stop judging them before anyone says a word because they recognize righteousness and would like to keep from facing it. But one day Jesus, the Righteousness of God lived out in a human life will judge us all. We are judged because of hate, it’s our own hate that wishes to avoid judgement. His goodness judges us and our goodness when we walk the way He walked judges others. Paul said, ‘do you not know that you will judge angels?’ Jesus tells us of people judging each other on the day of final judgement. Jesus tells us that our forgiveness causes people to be forgiven. Our love can cover over sins because when we love we take on His image, His nature and we walk in His plan.
No one ever preaches the words of Jesus, ‘do not resist an evil person’. But when we walk in those words we are one with the Father and Son. His words not mine. And as I seek Him, I keep noticing things like this that play out in front of me. The teacher I overheard talking seemed like a lovely woman who cared about children. But listening to her talk, I didn’t learn her opinions. I heard both sides of an argument and the conviction that righteousness brings. Not only the conviction but the freedom that I feel when I walk in the way that Jesus gave me to walk. No one’s actions or words can ever judge me when I know that my own heart is right. That’s not about homeschool, it’s about living the way Jesus tells us to.
I pray that we will all grow in our righteous living! May you and I walk the way Jesus teaches us to walk both in the scripture and by the living Word, Jesus Christ. He didn’t teach us words, He is the Word of God made flesh to teach us how to apply it in real life. I pray that you would seek to live like Him, He is the door, He is the gate, to enter the spiritual world apart from Him is wrong. But to enter in by Him is righteousness! May your righteousness be powerful and bold! May your righteousness convict the world into turning from any other way of life and may God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 