Trinitas Blog

Over the past couple of posts, I have attempted to define biblical correction and to show that God requires it of us. Not only does he require adults to correct ourselves with His word as the standard, but also, He requires us to correct our children, “to put them right,” according to the standard found only in God’s word. Seems like a slam dunk, right? Well, maybe not exactly.

If your children sometimes bristle at correction, or they listen attentively and then go on doing what they were doing, or they give you a thousand excuses for why their behavior was justified and never want to own up to any wrongdoing, or they are compliant when you are near but behave like the devil when you are away, then read on.

In our last blog post, we talked about what correction of children is and touched on a few reasons why it is no longer common. This week, we’ll dig a little deeper into what biblical correction is as we seek answers to why this correction is so important.

We’ve all seen it. You’re in the checkout line at the grocery store when you hear a child arguing with his mother in the line ahead of you. He wants some candy, a toy, a drink, or who knows what? His mother doesn’t want him to have it, so she begins with a flat “No.” He balks, stomps his foot, whines. Mom redirects, “Look at this nice cereal Mommy is buying for you.” His whines become wails. Mom ignores. He falls to his knees, wailing louder now. Mom quickly drops to his level and begins to speak sweetly in an attempt to reason with him, “Honey, this is not the way we behave in public; you are causing quite a scene. Get up, now.” He throws himself face-down and begins thrashing his arms and legs, wailing all the while. Mom rises, grabs the item her child wants off the shelf and thrusts it into his hands. If she acknowledges you at all, she likely says, “He usually doesn’t act like this; he’s just hungry (or tired, sleepy, out of his routine, having a bad day, mourning the loss of a stuffed animal, et cetera).”

Being in the Christian education business, one of the things I hear often from Christian parents is, We send our children to non-Christian schools so they can be salt and light to the lost children and teachers. Yikes! I want to suggest to those parents that they’re asking something nearly impossible of their young ones. In fact, if your Christian children are in a secular school, here are three reasons to get them out of there before they lose their faith.

One distinguishing mark of God’s people should be thankfulness. Over and over again in Scripture we are exhorted to be thankful. James, our Lord’s brother, says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” God has given us all that we have, all that we need, so it is only right that we should be eternally grateful to the One who has given us every good and every perfect gift, indeed, every thing.

The following is adapted from an address delivered at the Annual Parent-Board Forum by Pastor Jon Mark Olesky on September 9, 2024, at Trinitas Christian School.

Parents interested in bringing their children to Trinitas Christian School are often asked “What do you want for your children before you shoot them out into the world? What’s your greatest aim and desire for them as they move toward adulthood?” Questions like these and others like “Do my desires for my children align with God’s desires for my children? or “What is God’s will for my child’s life?” are worthwhile not only when beginning at Trinitas but also repeatedly as our children mature. As I hope we would all agree, helping our children do the will of God is the ultimate purpose of Christian parenting.

We continue our classical parents series this week, discussing how parents who choose a classical Christian education for their children are dedicated. The first week we established that classical parents have to be dedicated to going against the status quo in education because cCe is so different from the education most of us are most familiar with. Last week parent participation was the topic. Classical parents are dedicated to participating in their children’s education, and they are invited and encouraged to do just that in cCe schools. This week we will close out the series for now by discussing the most important of three ways classical parents are dedicated: they are dedicated to the role of the Scriptures in the education of their children.

Last week we started a series about classical parents. The word we used to describe parents who choose classical Christian education for their children is dedicated. In the first installment, we said classical parents are dedicated in at least three distinct ways, and we explored the first way: classical parents are dedicated in the way they buck the system, or go against the grain of modern, progressive education. This week we begin to get to the heart of classical parents as we discuss how they are dedicated to participating in their children’s education.