Proverbs 22:6

Start children off on the way they should go,
    and even when they are old they will not turn from it.- NIV

 This scripture has bothered me all my life.

My dad pastored our church for most of our growing up and I can't tell you how many people came through the doors, and asked for prayer for salvation for their children.

"I raised them right. We were in church regularly. Proverbs 22:6 says that if you bring up your child right they well serve God. Why aren't my kids in church?"

I have heard many attempted explanations:

• This scripture isn't a promise. It's just a general guideline.
• This scripture isn't talking about salvation, but careers. Maybe manners too. 
• This scripture means they will eventually come back to God. 

But honestly, none of these explanations fit with the definitions of the words in the original. It simply isn't what it says.

This scripture says that if you raise a child right he will never leave the right path.

So why do so many children raised "right" backslide?

As an adult I have researched education and its history in this country for use making decisions for my own children. What I have learned makes me flat mad and so sad I nearly cry whenever I think about it.

At the founding of this country the law required every parent to make sure each child had an education. It did not dictate any method or place for that education. In some colonies it did provide for the leaders of each community to pick a teacher for the poor, but the parents had to come up with the tuition. Honestly though, churches filled in the gap and considered it as much an part of their ministry to educate the poor as to feed them.

Then came Horace Mann and the Great Industrialists. These men believed in evolution, atheism, socialism and the implication that because they were richer, they were more evolved, superior. They believed they had the right- Nay! Responsibility!- to institute an educational system that would control the general (inferior) populace and make them fitting workers for their factories. Every aspect of society would be sculpted in the image of a factory, with every citizen controlled to serve the elite.

These men used their great wealth to get laws passed requiring every child to attend the schools they were founding (they did foot the bill for many years).

And how did the parents react? They took this as an attempt at enslavement, and attempt to remove our freedoms, especially our religious freedom. They understood that you can't mess with a child's head without messing with religion. It's not possible. ALL education is religious. In the end, the industrialists and their government patsies made a deal with the protestant churches that they would use a protestant Bible and prayers in these schools in order to convert the Catholic children. In this way the church sold out to Satan to win the battle of converting those they considered lost. Those who still resisted had the the police to force their children into the new government schools at gun point.

Since that time the Supreme Court has ruled that parents have the inherent right to send their children to the school of their choice as long as they pay for it (while still paying for the atheist, socialist, government schools). They have also ruled in every state that homeschooling is legal.

Yet, the result is that we have had 4-6 generations of children educated in the government schools.

"What is taught in the classroom will be the government in the next generation." -Abraham Lincoln

 And we wonder why every generation of our government gets more and more socialist, less and less Godly.

And back to Proverbs 22:6

So back to those parents of my youth and beyond.

"I raised them right. We were in church regularly. Proverbs 22:6 says that if you bring up your child right they well serve God. Why aren't my kids in church?"

Maybe "raising them right" means more than having them make sheep out of clothespins and cotton-balls for an hour each week.

"We can not continue to send our children to Rome for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans." -Bro Voddie Bauchman. 

Most (80%) of Christian American  parents send their children to a God-free education in a system that holds the government to be the most powerful entity in the universe, and then they are surprised and dismayed when their children choose a God-free life, looking to the government to supply all their needs.

Surveys say these children are deciding there is no God as young as 11, just pretending they believe different until they become adults and have the freedom to choose for themselves.

Ephesians 6 says "Parents, don't frustrate your children to anger, but raise them in the culture and education of the Lord." 

Did you know homeschool graduates serve God at far higher percentages than children educated anywhere else?

"Using a sample size of 9,369 18-to 38-year-olds who were churched while growing up, the Gen2 Survey collected data on Millennials’ educational backgrounds, worldviews, and religious beliefs. The study found that individuals who were homeschooled, attended church regularly, and had good relationships with their parents were most likely to remain involved in the Christian faith.

“Having a strong relationship with the child’s mother and father, attending church as a child, and years homeschooled were all clearly positively associated with Millennials’ basic Christian orthodoxy, broader biblical beliefs, Christian behaviors (e.g., attending church, keeping sex in marriage, prayer, not using pornography), satisfaction in life, civic and community involvement, and having beliefs similar to one’s parents,” Ray stated.
"87% of study participants who were homeschooled said they have strong Christian beliefs. Conversely, Millennials who were enrolled in public schools or private Christian schools were more likely to walk away from the faith later in life.

“Number of years in Christian school and number of years in public school were negatively associated with most of the adult beliefs and behaviors just mentioned,” Ray explained.

Please read the whole article here

Please go read these scriptures

God's design is for children to be educated by their parents with Him infused into every aspect of that education. Even when a parent needs to use a private school or tutor, that school or tutor must be teaching the same God the parent believes. ANYTHING ELSE is NOT the "education of the Lord" and will "frustrate our children to anger," driving them from the church.

And this is why I post such inflammatory pro- homeschool stuff on Facebook and here. I weep at the thought of your (random reader I may or may not have ever actually talked to) children going to hell. It makes me sick to my stomach to look at my many friend's profiles and see the pictures of your children cheerfully going off to the local "Atheist Sunday School." I cry because I know the day is coming when you will turn to me and ask "I raised them right. We were in church regularly. Proverbs 22:6 says that if you bring up your child right they well serve God. Why aren't my kids in church?" 

And what am I supposed to say then? "I told you so?"

My heart breaks for you and for your family.