You know, there was probably a time in my life when my kids were really little back in the late 1980's when I thought that because I home schooled my children, they would be less inclined to do unlawful, sinful things.  I thought of homeschooling as a kind of insulation from the world's evils.  I had grown up with siblings who had gotten in trouble with the law and done a lot of rebellious things.  I had been rebellious in my college years, and I just didn't want that for my children.  I didn't want them to be influenced by the things I was exposed to growing up.  So I thought, well, if I homeschool them, they won't be as inclined to be as rotten as I was growing up.

But then, a startling thing occured:  my children grew and became these interesting little creatures with minds and wills of their very own.  Go figure.  Here I was, making sure I molded and shaped them into the little Christian people I just knew God wanted them to be.  Well, let's rephrase that -- I pushed and pulled and prodded them into being the very best Christian person they could possibly be.  But amazingly they still managed to have their own mind, will and emotions!

Last week I heard on the news that a homeschooled 18-year old shot and killed the parents of his homeschooled 14-year-old girlfriend because her parents did not approve of them being together.  They had been out all night and naturally the parents wanted to visit with this young man about their rules, and also, I imagine, wanted him to understand that they did not approve of his relationship with their daughter. 

But instead of having a nice chat with the young man, he simply shot them both.  Point blank.  In the head.  The father at the door and the mother sitting on a chair with a blanket over her legs in the early morning hours. 

Apparently, the young lady in quesion and young man who killed her parents, had been sneaking off together during homeschool support group meetings and youth group outings.  They had blogs and screen names and had sent questionable pictures to each other over the Internet.  At one point, according to the news reports, her parents had cut off her internet services so that she would not interact with this young man.

I don't know all the details.  None of us do.  But I couldn't help but be broken hearted for these parents.  They had given their lives to homeschooling all their children, only to be dead at the hands of another child whose family had homeschooled him.  I couldn't help but wonder what these families must be going through right now.

If these children had been raised without Christ in their lives --maybe -- just maybe -- I could maybe understand it.  But not really.

But from all the accounts I've read, these were Christian families, with Christian values, going to a Christian church. 

They were doing a lot of things right -- so what made things go so horribly wrong?  What possibly could they have done differently?

Probably nothing because just like God, we do not have control over our children's mind, will and emotions.  Oh, we can make sure we are getting all the good stuff in there -- but it is up to our children to decide whether or not they will serve the God of their parents. 

One talk show psychiatrist was saying that this young man killed because he was a sheltered homeschooler who didn't know how to deal with loss, so that's why he killed this youngster's parents.

I was outraged!  This woman's comments put homeschooling back into the dark ages when people thought we lived in caves and killed our meat with clubs!  Naturally, I  fired off an e-mail informing the talk-show host that homsechooling does not create murderers any more than public schooling does, and that my children were tax-paying contributing members of society, and that I fully expected my underage children to be so as well.

As I have grown up with my children, I have come to learn that homeschooling is not insurance that our children won't make mistakes.  (Thus the title of this blog.)  Homeschooling should be done out of obedience to God.  And if we do everything we are supposed to do, then the results are up to Him and our children. 

That's not to say that I don't think our homeschooled kids don't have an enormous advantage over their public schooled peers when it comes to being given many great opportunities for learning how to think or in shaping them to be Godly in character and to walk in integrity.  But I think we need to not be so proud and arrogant as to think that because our kids our homeschooled that they won't encounter the same kinds of emotions and temptations all other kids do.

Teens are going to try us.  They are going to want to blog and Instant Message and text message and use cell phones and all kinds of technologies to communicate.  We as parents need to be savvy, too, and know all the kinds of ways our kids can come up with to sneak behind our backs.  We need to recognize that they are fallible and capable of doing wrong, and help them find ways to avoid it.  We need to keep our eyes and ears open.  There shouldn't be anywhere in our homes where our kids can go and "hide" from us for long periods of time.  They need to know we are right there, around the corner, or even breathing down their necks.  I'm not talking about being so controlling they can't breath -- but close!  (That's one of the reasons I'm a huge proponent of small houses!  It keeps us all together where we can keep an eye out for one another!)

Sure, kids need some quiet time alone.  But we as parents have got to be more attentive than ever before.  There are too many ways for the dark side of our culture to come into our homes and influence our children.  And we need to be vigilant in keeping those things at bay. 

Actually, living in a cave and killing our meat with a club -- that sounds like a pretty good idea these days!