(Proverbs 27:17 - "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." ESV)

In the process of getting my CDL license so I could drive our Church bus, I found myself in the bus yard of our local school system.  I was grateful that the school system was willing to be a testing/training facility for me to drive a church bus, but I couldn't help but consider the situation.

As a homeschool dad, I have seen that big yellow bus (that is very difficult to parallel park, I discovered) go right by our house and keep on going many, many days.  I have often wondered about the kids on the bus and what they would learn and experience at school on those days.

Sometimes, when I see the yellow bus, I think about why we started homeschooling our oldest about seven years ago.  We really started because we wanted to.  We weren't opposed to the public schools, we just really wanted to teach him at home.  Now we see the obvious problems with public schools, but we really homeschool still because we want to.  We want to control the content.  We want to be in charge of our own family schedule (those buses come early in the morning!) We want to spend time with the kids.  We want them to be able to learn at their own pace and not be accelerated or decelerated by a group.

I know many people accuse homeschool families of thinking that they are "better than everyone else."  Unfortunately, there are some homeschool Pharisees who face that accusation for good reason.  I think most Christian homeschool moms and dads we know humbly that they have a great thing going and they wouldn't trade it for anything. 

While at the school bus office, I saw an artsy, cutesy sign on the wall in a "country" motif (no doubt bought at one of those lame craft shows) that said something like, "If kids didn't go to school every day, then insane asylums would be filled with moms."  Sigh.   The sad thing is that some of those very nice people at the school bus office probably really believe that rubbish.  I know if my wife had seen that sign, she would have said, "I'm so sure!"

While I was there, waiting for hours to take my tests, I had lots of time to think.  Some in the homeschool community might thing I was in the dragon's lair, or at least in the dragon's bus barn.  But the real dragon is so much more complex than that.  The real dragon only needs the self seeking hearts of people to transport them from godliness to worldliness.  It's a short trip. 

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ...