Torch, Winter 1978

6 people. An investment in anything other than God's Word and people will be destroyed in time. They are trimmings and not the main ingredient. Have you checked your investments lately? The average Christian family places high value on the physical: medical care, food, shelter, clothing, comforts. We value our social lives: toys, games, T.V., sports, recreation, concerts. We highly value stimulating our mental capacities: literature, education, encyclopedias, periodicals. These are certainly the many good things God has given us to enjoy, the trimmings of life. But will they last? Mark 8:36, 37 asks, "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole [temporal] world and lose his own [eternal] soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" The answer is obvious, he has gained nothing and lost everything. In light of this we can see that if we are to train our children God's way, we need to place the primary emphasis on a child's eternal spirit, that is, the part of a person that is spiritually dead until born again. It is through the spirit that we respond to God and obey His Word.What are you doing to develop and train your child's eternal spirit around God's thoughts and God's ways? This must be our first educational goal. Step 3-Family Character The third inherent concept in the word "train" is "to create a hunger or thirst o·r an appetite." Family character builds family appetite. Character is what you are in secret, not necessarily what you say or do in public. A person's values and priorities are empty and meaningless if they are not supported by character. Character is the glue that gives priorities and values strength, purpose and stability. Character is best taught and caught in the classroom of the home. Character can either be negative or positive. So it is that parents by their own character either embalm or excite their children's appetite for the things of God. The appetites of a parent will generally determine the appetites of the children. What kind of appetites are being created in your home? Are you developing a hunger for sports, materialism, sensuality, intellectualism, or a hunger for God's thoughts and God's ways? God is looking for parents who will commit themselves to making their homes a place where children will be exposed to God's very best-to His ideal. Anything that would dilute God's best or poison our children's spiritual appetites should be eliminated. WHERE DOES THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL FIT IN? The home is God's primary educational agency. Therefore, the Christian school must be a servant to the family, an extension of the home, an arm of the parent. The Christian school is the only educational vehicle that can consistently fulfill the Biblical command to develop a child's spirit around God's thoughts and God's ways. The government school is handicapped in training the total child. Government education can train a mind and a body, but by law cannot touch a child's spirit God's way. Therefore, it is impossible for the government school to educate the total child around God's priorities, values and character. The Christian schoo_l is the only educational institution that can adequately teach and support the Biblical pattern of "line upon line, precept upon precept." It is the only institution where God's Word becomes the ultimate standard of truth, the sole source of wisdom and understanding and the sieve through which all other knowledge is filtered. The Christian school is the only consistent educational institution that can adequately support the Christian family in their educational responsibility of building a child's spirit around the character of Christ, building a child's mind around the thoughts of Christ bnd building a \_ child's body around the ways and responses of Christ. I have often heard the argument that children must be exposed to the world and its system to understand a nd relate to real life. I believe it is worthy to note that the one person who understood and related to the world more perfectly than anyone else was Jesus Christ. If the Christian home and the servant of that home, the Christian school, are motivated to teach Christ's thoughts and Christ's ways through a curriculum centered around obedience to God and Christ's own character qualities, what better preparation and training can be given to prepare a child to relate maturely to the world around him? Take a good look at your family. Have you added all the trimmings to your sandwich but forgotten the most essential ingredient: a Christian home supported by a Christian school, building Christian students around the person of Jesus Christ? Don't eat your sandwich with all the good things and forget the hamburger. Reu. Wheeler is pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Xenia, Ohio Pastor Wheeler is also Chairman of the Board of Education of the Xenia Christian Day School.