The "No Limits Pledge"

"I hereby solemnly swear to stop holding myself back.

I will no longer see limitations, and only see opportunities.

The bad and unfair things that happen to me are actually gifts that allow me to grow as a person.

I can do and be anything I want to.

I have complete control over my life.

There are no limits to what I can do and become."

Thanks to Sara Morgan, founder of "No Limits" and author of the profoundly insightful book by the same title.

"Wellness of the Soul"

Based on the hymn “It is well with my soul” by Horatio Spafford, 1873 

We live in a time when “wellness” is a buzzword. Wellness of body, wellness of mind, wellness in our emotions, wellness in our finances, relationships, almost any area of life is addressed by whether or not we are “well” in that regard. As Christians, it is the constant daily judgment call as to whether we are walking in each of these areas according to God’s will and direction, whether we are allowing Christ to dwell in us fully so that every one of these areas is under His control and producing the fruit that He desires in us. (Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom…”) Obviously the best outcome would be that every single area of our lives as Believers are indeed governed by His loving grace and His holy standards of righteousness so that we daily learn to walk with Him more fully and become conformed to the image of Jesus. Under those circumstances, we would say that all of those areas are “well”, that they are just as they should be, and that we can be content with how our lives are progressing.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that we are seldom in such a state that every area of our lives is indeed in such a state of wellness. Oh, we might be generally at peace, or for the most part functioning without serious turmoil or trauma…but to say that we are completely well in every area would be a reach. Horatio Spafford knew what this was like. Mr. Spafford lost his home and his considerable business holdings during the Chicago fire of 1871, and had set about making plans to rebuild his business and home. In 1873, he sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him on a ship bound for England, with the plan to follow them a short time later. On November 22, 1873, the ship that Mrs. Spafford and the girls traveled on sank at sea, and of the family only Mrs. Spafford survived…all four of the daughters drowned. While traveling to England to meet his bereaved wife, Horatio Spafford penned the words to the well-known hymn, “It is well with my soul”. But let’s back up for a second. This man had just suffered loss on nearly every side. He was, by all standards, NOT in a state of “wellness”! He was in deep grief over losing his only four children, he had lost his home by fire, he was re-building his business, he was under immense emotional stress, probably lacking sleep and, like most people experiencing grief and hardship, not eating quite normally. All of these things add up to one very “NOT-well” individual…and yet he wrote “It is well with my soul”.

Do we see the point here? He didn’t lie to himself and say it was well with everything in the world, while he was going through tragedy after tragedy. He didn’t suggest that his unfathomable losses were of little consequence or that they were minor setbacks rather than major hardships. He recognized the situation for the painful challenge that it was, yet in the midst of it he said it was well with his SOUL. He lost his home. His business. His livelihood. His children. Possibly his physical health. And yet he said that it was well with his soul.

We do not always live in the midst of peace. Our world is rife with discord. Troubles abound; wars rage; sickness ravages with no regard for the young or old, the good or the evil; crime is rampant; natural disasters occur without warning, and we as Believers in Jesus often look upward and wonder when will there be relief from the hardships that life throws at us? At such times it makes sense that we would struggle. Definitely, when troubles come we do not see peace in our surroundings. This makes sense. But what about when we ARE at peace? What about those times when life seems to be rolling along like a song and we really don’t have much to be upset about? Either way, it is well. But not because of any momentary lack of struggle or strife in our lives. Jesus said in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” It may or may not be well with the peace of the world, but it is well with our soul in the midst of whatever peace we live within…or without.

I said my final goodbye to my Dad on December 13th, 1997. I felt like someone had cut off both of my legs, I was so lost after his passing. Never did I know such extreme grief until the loss of our six month old son on October 25th, 2006. Again, my grief was so overwhelming that at times I feared I would suffocate under the sheer weight of it…and at other times I wished I would. The loss was so intense that I couldn’t see how life could ever be right again. Oh, I knew life would “go on”, but deep in my heart I believed that nothing in my world would ever again be beautiful and bright and lovely…my pain blinded me to any hope of goodness , or to the love of a gracious God who was carrying me through every moment of that grievous time. I had always said, “I can handle just about any trial that comes my way, I could trust God and bear up under whatever hardship comes, as long as nothing ever happens to one of my children. Losing a child would do me in.” Now suddenly I was in the midst of the greatest pain and deepest fear I had ever considered, and I was lost. Ask anyone who knew me at that time, I was definitely not well. I was an emotional train wreck. I wasn’t eating, I couldn’t sleep, my ability to focus on even small tasks was severely compromised. I was forgetful and depressed. I fled every church service I tried to attend because even the mention of a baby or the sound of an infant in the congregation would reduce me to tearful sobbing. My husband and I were utterly broken. Horatio Spafford would have understood perfectly. I can imagine that he would have sat quietly, tears likely spilling down his own face, taken our hands and said something like “Let us pray together, for my heart knows the very same pain that yours does.” Sorrow. Grief. Suffering. Loss. They rip our hearts out and cause us to feel decidedly NOT well. And yet…”it is well with my SOUL”, Horatio Spafford said. Paul said in Philippians 4:12-13 “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” My emotions may flail about searching for relief, my mind may cry out for the blessedness of sleep to restore strength and clarity of thought, my body may ache with fatigue and tension, my heart continue to beat even though I cannot see how it possibly can wracked as it is with spasms of pain…yet my SOUL lives outside of these realms where pain attacks. My soul is with Christ in Heavenly places, and His Spirit lives in the deepest recesses of my heart no matter how heavy that heart may feel to me. Christ in me…”the hope of glory”, Paul wrote to the Colossians (1:27). Me in Christ…the safety and assurance of my place in the Father’s house! Paul reminded the Ephesians (2:6) that our Father loved us so much, even when we were lost and dead in sin, that He saved us through His grace “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…”. That is the TRUTH: no matter what sorrow befalls me, no matter how severe or how devastating any grief may be…it is well with my SOUL.

Satan asked the Lord to allow him to sift Peter like wheat. Now, I grew up in farmland and I know what wheat sifting looks like. I don’t entertain even the slightest notion that it is something I would want to have done to ME! Stripping the chaff, tossing the wheat kernels in order to free them of any debris, passing them through the machines designed to remove everything that is not supposed to be there and leave only the clean grains…can we see the picture here? Satan asked to do all of that to Peter. He asked to be allowed to take Peter through the wringer. To strip away his outer shell, the walls around himself that kept Peter safe from the external confrontations the world might bring. To toss him, mix him up, spin him around, pour him out again, throw him into the air, and ultimately lay him quietly in the cool darkness. Jesus didn’t tell Peter, “Hey, but don’t worry, I would never let that old bugger get a hold of you,” or “Now don’t fret, this won’t hurt a bit”.

Jesus told Peter that He had PRAYED for him. Now, tell me Peter didn’t shake in his sandals at hearing THAT! Jesus the Messiah, having walked on water, healed who knows how many sick people, raised more than one person from the dead, calmed a storm with nothing more than a verbal command…He told Peter, “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:32). In other words, Jesus had no intention of stopping Satan from doing exactly what he had asked to do…he would be permitted to sift Peter. Jesus knew that all that would preserve Peter would be the power of God Himself, and so He prayed for His disciple. He trusted His Father yet again to handle things as He saw fit, knowing that His way was always the best way, that He loved Peter more than anyone else ever could, and that the very best that He could do was to place Peter firmly into His Father’s loving hands. Peter was held in those mighty hands through every trial he ever faced, right up through his own crucifixion upside-down…he was never out of the Father’s powerful grasp. Satan sifted him, all right. Pulverized him. Beat him, taunted him, stole his sleep, tormented his mind and dealt out agony to his flesh. But again the TRUTH…it was well with Peter’s SOUL, even as he hung dying, crucified for his faith. Satan DOES attack. He does “buffet” us, as a storm blowing against a mountainside or a gust of freezing rain lashing at a rock face. He throws every negative thing at us that he can, seeking to destroy us to our very core. Don’t ever think that the devil is just a little red guy with horns and a pitchfork, running around poking at us on occasion and trying to get us to make little mistakes. He is no such little thing. He does not seek to bother or bug us, to just annoy us with his frustrating antics. No. Please remember that Satan was once an angel in the Heavenlies, acquainted with the greatness of God and well-versed in the many ways that God’s creation can be damaged, scarred, and ultimately destroyed. THAT is what he wants to do. Peter himself taught that “the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”, and that we must “resist him, steadfast in the faith…” (1Peter 5:8,9). We may not find ourselves crucified upside-down like Peter was, but we do face attacks of various kinds. Perhaps God will allow Satan to inflict us with an illness, bring about an injury, send discouragement or turmoil or some other hardship our way, not because He doesn’t love us but because those trials draw us closer to Him as we look to Him as our source of all comfort. He knows what we are made of and where our strength comes from, (“For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14) but do we? Do we see our weaknesses? The places where we need to give more attention to God’s designs and more effort to seek out His plans for us? Do we rest fully in His care without trying to manipulate things our own way? Even if we think we do all those things just right, God may exercise His right, in His good judgment and as a loving Father, to allow Satan to sift us like wheat just as he did Peter. If that happens – WHEN that happens – can we see that even when Satan buffets, even when we are under direct attack, it is well…with our SOUL? Or even when trials come that have nothing to do with a demonic attack, but are just part of daily life here on this big blue ball hurtling through space. Sometimes we can’t tell which it is, the hand of Satan, or just ordinary human struggle. When the law of gravity comes into play and we simply fall. Even THEN, it is well with my soul.

By now some folks might be thinking, “Yeah, that’s great to SAY, but when the chips are down and the buffalo’s empty, how in the world are we supposed to make that REAL? How do we actually make that a TRUTH and not just a platitude in our lives?” It is not up to us to do anything at all except for one thing, and that is to realize that we can do nothing at all. Sound like circular reasoning? Follow Horatio Spafford into the third verse of his hymn: “For Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed His own blood for my soul”! Hear me now. It is not up to us to “make anything well”. Did you hear me? Let me say it again: “IT IS NOT UP TO US TO MAKE ANYTHING WELL”. It is not up to me to make my soul well, it is up to the Father who keeps my soul safe to keep it well. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that I have no responsibility to seek God, to follow His Word, to look to Jesus as my example, etc. Of course those are all things that we as Believers should always be doing. But even so, those things do not now, nor did they ever, earn our salvation or buy God’s grace like a cheap reward for following the rules. In our state of sin we were helpless to save ourselves. In our state of salvation, we are helpless to preserve ourselves. God’s grace alone draws us to Himself, plants faith in our hearts to believe His promises, and extends mercy through the shed blood of His Son who gave His own life in order to restore us to fellowship with the Father. Jude verse 24 speaks of “Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy…”. God is able to keep safe what He has placed in us, namely His own Spirit. But you might say, “Yes, but then what if the Father chooses NOT to draw us to Himself?? How fair and loving is THAT? We would have no choice, we couldn’t come to Him no matter what! We would be lost through no fault of our own!” But that would not be true. God desires that all men come to repentance and to know and love Him as their Father (2Peter 3:9). He acts accordingly, by His wisdom and boundless love for mankind as His treasured creation. There is no unfairness in God, not sarcasm, no desire to trick us. It is not up to us to make anything happen, but it IS up to us to respond when the Spirit of God calls us to turn to Him. Christ regards us in our helpless estate. God sees our frame and He knows that we are dust (Psalm 103:14). He strengthens us according to His own Word, which is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). HE does the work…all we have to do is accept it and walk in it. Accept. Walk. Accept more. Keep walking. Keep accepting. Keep walking.

But sometimes we still think we need more to go on. We are, after all, rational, intelligent human beings who demand answers to questions and would like reasons for the things we are supposed to do. We deserve answers, don’t we? Well…no, not really. Just ask Job. God is not obligated to tell us anything, but I think He had fun revealing the end of His plan to John in the solitude of Patmos just so we could one day read “the rest of the story”. How this all wraps up is no mystery. There is no need to sit in puzzlement, because God told us what was going to happen and what to expect as the end of history unfolds. Why do we have hope? How can we possibly hold on when we are at our wit’s end and we see nothing good coming our way? Horatio Spafford must have asked some of these very same questions in some moments, but he knew where to look for the answers. He knew the rest of the story. He knew that God did not leave us in the dark, asking us to blindly trust Him or to just assume that everything would somehow work out. No, Horatio read the Book and received strength to carry him through. “Oh Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll”, he wrote. There was no question that the day would come, just a plea for it to come quickly! Roll those clouds back, Lord, and please don’t wait very long! “The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend…”. Okay…the clouds roll back, trumpets heard everywhere, and down comes the Lord Himself! Isaiah, during his vision of God’s throne, fell on his face and cried out, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts”(Isaiah 6:5)…and yet God’s people will see Jesus coming in the clouds and rejoice at His coming! No “woe is me”, but “Yes! Come, Lord Jesus!” THAT is the hope! Face-to-face fellowship, seeing Him in His glory and being able to marvel at His appearance! Being completely restored, no broken bonds, nothing left undone or incomplete, no pain, no sorrow, no more being sifted like wheat! It’s DONE! Here He comes, I’m in the family, let’s go! THAT is the hope He holds out to us. THAT is why we can say “It is well with my soul” in the midst of all these other things that WILL happen until He appears.

“It is well with my Soul” by Horatio Spafford, 1873


When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.


Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.


Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and hath shed his own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)


My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Refrain)


And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
even so, it is well with my soul.
(Refrain)

"According to Court Records…"

"From this it is clear how much more cruel the pen may be than the sword."
~Robert Burton, 1621

We live in the information age…actually, we have been living in the information age for quite a while, and in many ways the availability of information is nothing short of miraculous. Researchers are able to compile data and compare studies that lead to effective treatments for disease, saving countless lives. Satellites circle the earth and warn the inhabitants of our fair planet of dangerous storms and weather systems, again preventing needless injury or loss of life. On a smaller, but possibly even more meaningful scale, parents remain in daily contact with their children who are away at school, husbands and wives retain bonds of closeness even when work or other duties place physical distance between them, and lifelong friends stay united by writing letters and emails, placing phone calls, and of course by sending the constantly-sought-after “perfect greeting card”. Our lives are made richer and vastly more satisfying through the simple ability to communicate information to each other.

But there is a dark side to communication as well. Just as there is the opportunity for information to benefit the masses, there is also the chance of information being misused or mishandled to someone’s very great harm. Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” The Greek playwright Euripedes obviously had similar thoughts clear back around 406 B.C. when he wrote, "The tongue is mightier than the blade." Neither of these two men would have been surprised at the slash and stab techniques used by most newspapers in our modern culture, because they both obviously understood the immense force wielded by the written word…whether or not those words be truthful. That’s the proverbial fly in the ointment of media reporting: the truth is no longer the point. The truth used to be the point, somewhere back in time when the hearts of men and women were purely noble and no one would have dared to dream of spreading malicious stories about someone else purely for personal or professional gain. Yes, back in such a time a newspaper would have been used to report…well, to report news. You know, important world events, stories of local heroes saving the day, celebrated births and mournful passings, helpful financial information, and of course the comics! But that was then, and this is now...and things have definitely changed.

“Reliable sources say…”, “Our information indicates…”, “Investigators have discovered…”, and “It seems apparent…” are all phrases commonly used in press reports to gloss over the fact that much of what they report are actually unfounded, unsupported, downright fabricated statements that should never be allowed in a public forum. Such statements often border on groundless rumor-mongering at best, and outright slander at worst. The winner of the “Hide Behind Semantics” prize would be this lead-in: “According to court records…”,which leads the reader to believe that since what they are about to read is part of an official court record, it can be assumed to be true. Unfortunately all this actually means is that the statement was made in a courtroom…it has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the accuracy of the statement itself. As a matter of fact, Prosecutors and law enforcement officers have immunity when speaking on the record in court, and cannot he held liable for statements they make which may not be true. Evidently the threat of a perjury charge for lying in court only applies to the defense and to civilian witnesses, not to the prosecution.

Now, one may wonder, “What’s the big deal?”. After all, whatever is written about an individual, even in a big-city newspaper or tabloid, is just something someone else wrote, so why should it make any difference? Shouldn’t we all just go on living our lives and “doing what we do” regardless of anyone else’s opinion? Wouldn’t it be best to just ignore whatever the media spews forth about us and just assume that everyone else in the world will also see it for the garbage that it is and not lend any credence to it? Perhaps we should rely on the childhood adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? Unfortunately, the sad fact is that words can and do often cause irreperable damage to people’s lives. Ask someone whose personal life is laid bare for the world to see when they are charged with a crime, just how much damage inaccurate newspaper reporting can cause. (Not convicted of a crime, but simply charged…but that’s another article altogether.) Ask the family member of a political candidate who suddenly has no privacy whatsoever, even though they are not the individual running for office. Or ask the individual who brings a complaint against the judicial or law enforcement system and then becomes the target of a public “investigation” because they had the courage to address a failure within the legal system. The list is long of citizens whose personal and professional lives, reputations, families, and futures have been placed at risk or destroyed altogether by careless, factless statements published in public newspapers.

The Legal Information Institute states that, “despite popular misunderstanding the right to freedom of the press guaranteed by the first amendment is not very different from the right to freedom of speech. It allows an individual to express themselves through publication and dissemination. It is part of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. It does not afford members of the media any special rights or privileges not afforded to citizens in general.” Interesting. One has to wonder how it is that the media is permitted to photograph defendants in a courtroom, publish unsubstantiated accusations against a defendant, and even disseminate private information purely for the purpose of “interest or entertainment”, without risk of charges of slander or invasion of privacy. Not to mention that a private citizen pulling out a camera to photograph anyone in a courtroom is subject to criminal charges themselves. Clearly there is a difference in the privilege of free speech enjoyed by the media as opposed to that of ordinary citizens.There is power wielded by the press that the average citizen simply does not possess…power to inform, to educate, and to destroy, depending on how that power is used.

Personally, I see immense value in newspapers, especially for those who keep birds as pets! Newspaper is also superb for washing windows, mulching a vegetable garden, locating dates and times of yard and garage sales, and starting a fire on a cold winter’s night. Once in a while I may actually read one first.

“Innocent until proven guilty”…the lie

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 11, states: "Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which they have had all the guarantees necessary for their defense."

Unfortunately, though this is a noble and admirable concept designed to protect citizens from unjust prosecution and incarceration, it is not always conformed to in truth by the law enforcement and judicial powers-that-be in our nation today. How is this whole system supposed to work? Ideally, when it is alleged that an individual has committed a crime, the burden of proving that allegation rests upon the Prosecution. Here enters the idea of being “innocent until proven guilty”. It must be proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendant did indeed commit the crime of which they stand accused. The Prosecution has the privilege of presenting their case first, and then the defendant is permitted to present his/her defense. The defendant may employ a wide variety of evidence and call witnesses to testify in order to contradict the Prosecution's accusation. The defendant then has the right to have a jury decide their fate, based on all of the evidence presented. In a perfect world, the truly guilty would be proven so and the truly innocent would go free. In the "gray areas", there would be cases where a crime was committed but it was perhaps a lesser crime than the defendant was charged with...but that would be in a perfect world, in which we certainly do not live.

In this less-than-perfect world in which we live, the scenario may look something like this:

An individual is suspected of committing a crime, so the District Attorney files a charge. The defendant will appear for arraignment on the charge, at which time they will plead either “guilty” or “not guilty” and bail may be set. If the defendant cannot pay the required bail amount, they will be remanded to jail where they will then sit until their case is decided one way or another. Here is where it gets interesting! You might think the Prosecution has already done a great deal of investigation in order to ascertain that there is support for a criminal charge against the poor sap who is now stressing out in a tiny little jail cell, but in actual fact at this point the investigation has barely begun. Did you catch that? They just started. They have decided that the defendant did indeed commit a crime, and now they are going to go find the "evidence" they need to prove their case. So in fact, the defendant is NOT "innocent until proven guilty" at all...they are already presumed to be guilty as sin and will sit incarcerated for months oreven years while the wheels of justice slowly turn.

In San Diego County, 94% of felony charges result in either a conviction at trial or the defendant agreeing to "plead guilty" in exchange for a sentence they can tolerate. For example, to someone facing a serious charge carrying the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence, signing a plea to a lesser charge and serving perhaps only a few years sounds pretty good…even if they are innocent, and especially if they have already been sitting in county jail for a long period of time. This is how people who may truly be innocent end up with felony convictions, parole headaches, and the social stigma of having pled guilty to a crime.

Thus, the U.S. now has the highest incarceration rate and the highest documented jail and prison population in the world. I suspect that’s largely because the judicial system has forgotten that citizens are to be believed to be innocent until and unless it can be unequivocally proven that they are guilty of a crime. To date, this author personally knows of more than ten private citizens who waited for more than two years for their cases to even come to trial...and one is still awaiting trial three years after the date of arrest.

The wheels of justice turn slowly indeed...and sometimes they fall off altogether.

Public education… "right" or "requirement"?

Say the words “public education” out loud, especially in a room full of parents of school-aged children, and you will see reactions as varied as the colors of a sunset. Some faces will light up with thankfulness that for at least nine months out of the year, the kiddos are out of the house and under some other assumingly-competent adult’s supervision for at least six hours of every day. Other faces will sort of crinkle inward in thought as the owner of said face ponders the deeper questions of, “which school is the best for little Johnny”, and “is public school the best or should I fork out the money for private school?”. Still others will drag out their carefully concealed soapboxes to shout forth the wondrous benefits and life-changing blessings of home or independent schooling, while another camp will simply roll their eyes toward the ceiling in a doleful look that conveys, “Oh boy, here we go again…did I even bring my soapbox with me? Or do I even care to argue this point yet again?”.

So, while the arrows fly and the wounded fall, the issue of the “best” way to educate our children remains hotly debated. At stake is not only the education of our precious offspring, but also our precious reputations as parents because, if we are honest about it, part of our concern with the entire matter is that we be seen as responsible, loving parents who make wise choices for our children and do whatever is the absolute best for them. We not only want Little Johnny to be able to read “see Spot run” right on time with all the other first-graders, we want little Johnny to have the opportunity to prove his superiority in the gene pool by mastering his multiplication tables by the age of six and moving on to high school algebra long before he graduates from the sixth grade. Of course, if he is also reciting Shakespeare and designing hot new video game programs in junior high, that would be a bonus, too…anything to make us look like intelligent, well-rounded parents providing every opportunity for our children’s education. If Little Johnny manages to convince our peers that we have some particular mastery in the art of parenting due to his personal achievements, that’s just a bonus feather in our cap.

Thankfully, here in America Little Johnny will have every opportunity to acquire at least a basic education. In past centuries, his opportunities would have lay at the mercy of whether his parent’s income was sufficient to pay for private schooling or tutoring, but today Little Johnny is blessed to have the American Education Association in his corner, assuring that he not miss out on vital learning. Thank goodness. He will be presented with phonics lessons that will help him to learn to read proficiently; math lessons that will help him to manage numbers, budgeting, and balancing a checkbook; writing skills that will enable him to fill out job applications or write captivating articles as a journalist; not to mention the time-honored skills of simply showing up on time for classes, following directions, turning in assignments on time without excuses, listening and paying attention (hopefully), and respect for authority. But wait! There’s more! Little Johnny’s blessings of public education do not stop there! Oh no, he has only begun to learn.

Next on Little Johnny’s educational agenda will be a class called “Boundaries of Parental Authority”. This is where he will learn all about what his parents are and are not allowed to do in their practices of raising him to adulthood. He will come away understanding that no, he does not have to do what his parents tell him to do if he does not agree with their directives, because he is entitled to his own opinions and the creative expression thereof and it is actually “abusive” of his parents to attempt to channel his personal beliefs in a direction that complements their own. He will learn that attempts by his parents to admonish or punish him for misbehavior or breaking of rules can be considered to be “controlling” or “harsh”, and thus he merely has to threaten to alert the authorities and he will get his way. But still the blessing of public education does not end…

Next on the agenda is “Realistic Sexual Expectations” class. Never mind that Little Johnny may only be in the third grade at this point, it is deemed necessary that he learn very early on exactly how to express himself sexually in a manner that avoids disease transmission and/or personal injury. He will be instructed, with the help of plaster models and donated supplies, in the fine art of applying a condom just in case he finds himself in the position of enjoying a sexual encounter (which seems like an odd activity for a third-grader to stumble across, but hey, “preparation” is one of the keys to safe sex, right?). He will be given contact information for such organizations as Planned Parenthood and advised that he may speak with a counselor at any time without his parents being informed about the conversation. Thank goodness such counseling is available from the learned elite who have a personal vested interest in Little Johnny’s physical and emotional well-being! Without such resources he would likely have to fall back on discussing such weighty matters with…egads…his parents. Remember, those individuals who care for him every day, feed him, remind him to take his bath, make sure that he washes behind his ears, and who will bear the cost of his decisions – whether wise or unwise – throughout the span of his juvenile years until he is an adult? They remain responsible for him even as others take liberties to share their opinions and agendas with Little Johnny outside of Mom and/or Dad’s earshot. Parenting isn’t for sissies, it never has been. But these days there is a “defensive mode” associated with raising children that did not exist prior to public schools overstepping their bounds from the arena of providing a basic intellectual education to shaping the morals, behavior, and personal philosophies of our nation’s young…with or without the blessing of our nation’s parents.

So, is public education as a concept incorrigibly corrupt and in need of being taken out with this week’s trash? Certainly not. In many areas of the world today, even a basic education is beyond the reach of average citizens due to prohibitive cost or geographical barriers. Children in such societies may reach adulthood barely able to read at all, and equipped for only the most menial of employment with little to no hope of future advancement or opportunities for enrichment. In some societies, only the social or economic elite receive any educational opportunities whatsoever, causing a wide chasm between the lower, uneducated classes and the upper, wealthy classes. Essentially, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer because of a simple lack of educational avenues for common citizens to expand their own horizons.

In the U.S., public schools were founded in order to break the cycle of ignorance and to afford all children the opportunity to acquire at least a basic education that would equip them for life as an adult. (It can be argued that a K-12 education does not afford such ability in and of itself, but that a college degree is now required for someone to truly be ready for successful life in American culture. The discussion of the necessity of a college education is an interesting one, but is beyond the scope of this writing.) Thankfully, all American children are eligible for entry into public school, so no child in this fair land need approach adulthood illiterate or unable to balance a checkbook. Billions of tax dollars each year support our country’s public school system, in addition to the countless levies and fund-raisers routinely held to cover the cost of items that somehow slip through the cracks…things like textbooks, computers, writing materials, and those really important plaster models for the students to practice on.

Well, what’s the problem, then? It sounds like the system is working as well as can be expected in this modern age and we don’t have too much to complain about, right? Not until you try to exercise your right to not have your child educated in the public school system. Unfortunately, what was once offered as a privilege has now become a requirement about which parents have little choice other than to place their children in costly private schools wherein they might (emphasis on “might”) have more say in the curriculum and teacher/student influence. Many families choose home-based education either independently or through distance learning programs offered at all grade/age levels. Depending on individual state laws, even where home schooling is permitted, parents are often forced to comply with a state-approved curriculum mirroring the very materials to which they are trying to avoid their children’s exposure. They also may be forced to document the same number of hours spent by their children in studying various subjects throughout the day as compared to their public school peers, even though the same amount of time is not required to teach a classroom of one or two or three as opposed to teaching a classroom of thirty or more students. The reasoning behind these requirements is quite simple: The raising and educating of our children is deemed to be beyond the expertise of the average parent, tasks which we cannot safely tend to on our own without government interference regulating the ways in which we care for our own families. The U. S. government believes that they are ultimately responsible for our children, hence they should make the decisions that influence the moral and intellectual development of each child. In a sense, the government has stepped into the role of “parent” by usurping parental authority in the home and placing requirements on American families that could result in having children removed from the home and/or parents facing criminal charges if those requirements are not met. At some point “Big Brother” became “Big Daddy” when no one was looking, and Americans seem to be stuck with this new branch in the family tree.

The solution to this moral/educational conundrum just might seem to be beyond the reach of parents as we ponder the question of, “What the heck do I do now?”. But fear not…the answer is simple! All that is needed is for the U.S. government to step back and accept that they have no business interfering in American families, the National Education Association needs to stop treating parents like idiots who only know how to produce children but who are incapable of raising them, and the basic responsibility of educating and providing for children should be restored without question to their parents…not Planned Parenthood, not the local school board, and certainly not the U.S. government. Sound a bit simplistic? Perhaps. But remember that “freedom” is a principle upon which our nation was founded. It seems reasonable that such principles should remain the bedrock upon which we build a strong and independent country, comprised of citizens who have learned how to think for themselves and who are well established in nurturing families who give stability and security to their ventures. One need only look at the failures of government policy and practices to realize that entrusting them to be the ultimate authority regarding our children’s futures might not be the grandest of ideas.

Personally, I believe that public education is ultimately a blessing in that it ensures that no American child is forced to miss out completely on at least a basic education. But it seems to me that we are witnessing a situation of “the good being the enemy of the best”. Parents should have the final say regarding the education of their own children. Period.

After all, this is Amerika…oops, I mean America…right?