Beware the morale sucker, otherwise known as media reports on this election. As soon as I see or read one story, I read another and another until my hope for my children is utterly extinguished. It’s just under two weeks before this election. What can I do?
I can turn off the news on television and stop reading it on the Internet. I know what I need to know to vote. I can put that time to better use:
Praying, with my family, for our nation.
Caring for my family.
Working on our business.
My election challenge: spend more time praying with our family for this election than I spend listening to news about it. We have resolved to unite as a family and pray daily, at least 30 minutes, through the election. Prayer is our greatest weapon.
There is a dirty secret of bad news: the message behind it is you can’t do anything unless big government holds your hand from cradle to grave and tells you whether you get to live to go into the cradle and when you will go to the grave.
God told me something better. We’ve schooled our children ten years and run our own business eight years. In that time, I learned lots of things WE CAN do.
WE CAN teach our children to read and their math facts.
More importantly, WE CAN teach them to know, love, and serve God in this world and to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.
WE CAN raise our own food, preserve it, and cook it. And WE CAN share it with others in need.
WE CAN shift our business when needed. And WE CAN sometimes use our talents to help causes we believe in.
WE CAN solve most of our own problems better, cheaper, and faster with a little help from our friends than if we wait on government to do it for us.
WE CAN’T do those things if we grow discouraged and quit. How do the tough get going when the going is rough?
WE CAN remember the brave souls before us and follow their examples. As homeschoolers, we’ve studied the Bible and history together, as a family just after breakfast, the last ten years.
We just finished the Maccabean revolt under the tyranny of Antiochus. It offers great life lessons on how to respond to attacks against religious freedom. One response by the family of Judas Maccabeus is to organize a revolt. When one son of the Maccabean family died in their battle for freedom, another took his place. Another response is to hold fast to faith, as Hannah and her seven sons did while they were brutally martyred for their beliefs. WE CAN teach our children both these responses and others.
In 312, Constantine faced a battle against his greatest enemy, Maxentius. He saw a vision of the Chi Rho symbol (a monogram of Christ) and the words, “In this sign, conquer.” The Chi Rho was used on his banner, and he won the battle. After he became a Christian, he issued the Edict of Milan — which was the first time Christians could practice their faith in a supportive country.
In the 15th Century, a Scottish freedom fighter, William Wallace, led a rebellion against British rule. The Scottish commoners united to help him overthrow the banner of tyranny. Though Wallace was martyred, he planted the seeds that helped Robert Bruce later win Scottish freedom. The movie Braveheart had a memorable closing as before Wallace was brutally executed, he cried, “Freedom!” We don’t know if he really said that, but we do know his torture was far worse than the movie portrayed and that as Wallace went up the scaffold, he asked for his Psalter (book of Psalms) to be held so he could see it.
Under the prayerful leadership of George Washington, our colonial troops weathered the deprivations of Valley Forge and won a battle for freedom from British rule.
Though it was historic fiction, in The Patriot, the movie’s climax has a battle almost being lost. Mel Gibson sees the colonial flag, grabs it, and runs back into battle. The troops see him heading back into the melee, ready to fight once more. More and more return to stand and fight for their freedom.
This is where we are now. Regardless of who wins the election, God already won the ultimate battle. He does want us to stand under His sign. One of the greatest evils our culture now perpetrates is the holocaust otherwise known as abortion. Had I lived in World War II, I would have stood against the Nazis and for the Jewish victims. In the 21st century, the 4,000 innocent babies killed every single day in the United States cry for justice, and we must answer that cry.
In the words of Joshua, our family will serve the Lord. In my words, I hope and pray other families join us. I especially pray that Christian homeschool families rally together and surge back to what could be the most important battlefield of our lives. If we can’t stand for life, where do we stand? What can we do?
WE CAN pray.
WE CAN support life.
WE CAN vote for life and an end to the travesty of abortion.
WE CAN AND MUST stand for the Lord — not just on Sunday mornings at church but in all parts of our lives.
WE WILL teach our children by our example more than we will ever teach them with our words.
“I CAN do all things through Christ Jesus who gives me strength” — Philippians 4:13.
“Whatever you do for one of the least of these you also do for me” — Matthew 25:40.
