Thanksgiving 2001 • Volume 2, Number 1

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Thank God for Our Adoption

Sometimes fathers are the ones who learn

THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD THINGS I could write about, in which I could encourage, admonish and exhort you to be the father, husband, and adopted son God wants you to be.

I’ll start with that idea of being adopted, thanking God for my oldest child who is as special to me as the two who are biologically mine. Nina is my daughter from Russia adopted just last year as a teenager. And I’ll end by thanking God, as Paul does in Ephesians 1:5 (NIV), that “he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.”

There is something special about adoption because you choose your child. You spend the time, money, and effort to offer to make her your own, forever. But a child as old as Nina has to accept being adopted.

As soon as my wife and I decided to make her our own, along came filings, reports, documents, appointments, travel, costs, and more. No matter the cost, we wanted her to be ours. And she could have refused.

God offers to adopt us in Jesus Christ and we can refuse.

When Nina accepted, a relationship of eternity began—one that all of us are beginning to understand after just one year together. Early on, last Thanksgiving, I wrote her a letter telling her how I was adopted—though in Christ—like her, that I loved her with God’s unconditional love, and that I would be her father forever.

As her father I long to know her, connect with her, to grow close to her. This in spite of our different upbringings in contrasting societies with disparate social backgrounds. This in spite of different languages with different alphabets. This in spite of my having little experience with rearing a teenage girl of my own.

Oh how I long to connect with her!

I believe God longs, too, to connect with us as we go about our daily lives barely giving him the time of day. He is ever waiting to hear from us, to acknowledge him, to seek him, to simply say those words that burst the heart: “Dad!”

Not even, “I love you,” but simply, “Dad!”

“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption,” Paul writes in Romans 8:15-16 (NRSV). ”When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

We can call God “Dad!”

Oh how he longs to connect with us! Just as Nina will grow to fully appreciate what it means to be adopted, to be chosen as our daughter, most of us have yet to truly grasp what it means to be a child of God. More than anything else I call myself a “son of God,” an honor beyond comprehension. A son of God! Just imagine what that means: the creator of the universe chose each of us as his child if only we accept.

All Nina had to do was accept. There were no tests, no conditions, no questions but one: Do you want to be adopted by us? We had already decided, like God, and all she had to do was accept, just like we do.

Oh how all of creation longs for us to accept!

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time,” Paul continues in Romans 8:22-24 (NIV). “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”

I believe few of us truly fathom what it means to be adopted as a son of God. Just think about it. Soak it in. Consider the implications. Grab hold of the promise.

For Nina, I think in her mind I’m just another father, another family, another phase in her life—albeit better, more stable, and more secure. Perhaps we do the same with God. But at some point she will realize the reality, and we will, too.

We will all realize that in spite of ourselves, God has already chosen us to be adopted as sons in Jesus Christ, eagerly waiting for us to accept.

For that choice we can be eternally thankful.

Vincent Alex Brown
vince@brownbaginteractive.com

College Value Questioned

Rising costs increases skepticism

By Vincent Alex Brown

Adapted from Family News in Focus November 1, 2001 issue (www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0018425.html) and HSLDA founder Michael P. Farris’ book, The Homeschooling Father.

“A FATHER’S DUTY TO PROVIDE A SON with training for a career has been replaced with a father’s duty to put his children through college,” laments Home School Legal Defense Association founder Michael Farris in his book, The Homeschooling Father.

Like Farris has for years, parents are now questioning the value of that duty as “the price of a year at college has gone up again...doubling the inflation rate of just about everything else” according to Family News in Focus. “The constantly increasing expense of college tuition raises the question: Is the cost of a college education out-pacing its value?”

Winfield Myers, of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, says even the more expensive college education is still worth the price. "Ultimately, other studies show that even with the tuition rises, college is worth it over the lifetime of the student — if you look at it in pure economic terms."

Dr. Jay Budziszewski, a University of Texas professor of political science, finds another element in favor of a college education. “It's not just an economic premium—for many professions, you can't get the job unless you have that college degree."

A point which Farris concedes, recognizing the necessity of a college education to become a certified professional such as a lawyer, doctor, teacher or accountant. “In the days when this nation was founded, the idea of attending college was clearly tied to the purpose of training for a career. Education solely for the sake of knowledge was pursued only by sons of the very wealthy who had no thought of ever entering the working world,” Farris observes. “I have seen far too many young people turned into a permanent leisure class by their years in college.”

He promotes apprenticeships as an alternative, an idea he backed up by founding Patrick Henry College (www.phc.edu) last year. It is geared toward home school students with apprenticeships as part of every major.

Budziszewski admits there are students who can do very nicely without college, and Glen Ricketts, of the National Association of Scholars, agrees.

"Increasingly, people seem to be opting for something different, particularly in the technical field," Ricketts says. "A lot of male students in particular have discovered they can make a pretty good living without the sheepskin."

But the decisions for or against, or which college, must be weighed carefully.

"The bottom line here: you're about to make one of the most important investments of your life, money aside . . . it is a decision that will influence the rest of your child's life," Myers says.

Look before and beyond that investment, Farris tells fathers. “I do not believe that college should be used as a substitute for a proper education in childhood. Build a base that is deep and wide at home and then use college primarily as preparation for a career. And if there are any legally available alternatives to college for the career path chosen for your child, then by all means seriously pursue those alternatives.”

To help in the decision, the ISI (www.isi.org) publishes the College Guide, a comprehensive evaluation of 110 colleges, including the political atmosphere at each.

The Education Frontier

DOE study profiles home school families

News from WORLD magazine August 18, 2001 issue: www.worldmag.com/world/issue/08-18-01/opening_4.asp.
[HSLDA supports The Washington Times’ number of 1.7 million children (www.hslda.org/docs/news/washingtontimes/200009190.asp) and provides links to the full report and others (www.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200108070.asp).]

ABOUT 850,000 OF AMERICA'S 50 MILLION schoolchildren are being taught at home, according to a major study released by the Education Department.

The reported number of home-schooled kids is still a small minority—1.7 percent of all American children in 1999—but is higher than past figures. A 1996 report estimated 640,000 home-schoolers, which was still higher than the 360,000 children projected by the Census Bureau in 1994.

The typical home school family is not more affluent than non-home schooled, but they tend to be more educated. The vast majority earn less than $50,000 per year, and many earn less than $25,000.

The report said they made their decision for reasons including "being able to give their child a better education at home, for religious reasons, and because of a poor learning environment as school." The telephone survey of 52,278 households found that 88 percent of home-schooled kids live in two-parent homes, compared to 66 percent of other kids. Also, 52 percent of home-schooled families have only one parent in the work force, compared to only 19 percent of the non-home schooled.

"These are families that have one income, and have sacrificed to live on one income," said Home Education Network president Laura Derrick.

Scripturally Speaking

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:4, NIV

This issue of Homeschool Principals is published by Brown Bag Interactive LLC to help dads be the supportive husbands and home school principals their wives need.Like it? Want more? Comments, questions, suggestions? Write vince@brownbaginteractive.com. Visit www.brownbaginteractive.com/homeschool
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