Military Wellness Collective
Military Wellness Collective is made up of four friends — two retired Marines (Joshua and Brian) turned church planters and their wives (Brittany and Kelli)— who have lived life both in uniform and on the home front. Together, we share real stories, hard-earned wisdom, and practical, biblical encouragement to help military members, and their families thrive in every season. Whether you’re navigating deployments, adjusting to life in a new town, or simply seeking hope in the middle of your military journey, our mission is to equip you with truth from God’s Word and tools for a healthy, resilient life.
Military Wellness Collective
EP 45: Public, Private, or Homeschool; Thinking Well About How We Educate Our Children
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School decisions can turn into a pressure cooker fast, especially when you’re raising kids in a military town and everyone has an opinion. We sit down as two couples with different approaches to education and talk about how we’ve made choices without treating our method as a badge of honor. If you’ve felt the tension between homeschooling, public school, private school, or a hybrid model, we want to lower the temperature and raise the clarity.
We start with Scripture, because that’s where the weight actually belongs. Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6 frame a simple, demanding truth: parents have the primary responsibility to teach their children to love the Lord and to shape their lives with wisdom and instruction. That responsibility doesn’t disappear when you drop your kid off at school, and it doesn’t magically get fulfilled because you chose a Christian school or a homeschool curriculum. We also say the quiet part out loud: homeschool doesn’t equal salvation, and neither does any other option.
From there we get practical. Brittany shares the reality of homeschooling military families, including co-ops, high school science labs, and why people underestimate the time it takes. Kelli shares why public school became a meaningful way to serve and stay connected to the community, while still naming the very real dangers and the need for intentional parenting at home. Along the way, we talk about fear versus faith, pride in the Christian parenting world, how spouses can make decisions together without forcing burdens onto one another, and why your family’s choice still has an impact on the city you’re called to love.
If you’re weighing education philosophy like classical education or Charlotte Mason, wrestling with PCS disruptions, or just trying to make a wise school choice without shame, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with another parent who’s deciding right now, and leave a review so more military families can find the show. What specific questions do you want us to answer next?
Connect with us at hello@militarywellnesscollective.com
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Welcome And Why Education Matters
SPEAKER_03Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Military Wellness Collective podcast. My name is Brian O'Day, one of the pastors of Pillar Church in Jacksonville, North Carolina, right outside of Marine Corps based Camp Lejeune. I'm joined by my lovely wife of 22 years, Kelly O'Day.
SPEAKER_01Hey y'all.
SPEAKER_03And our good friends Joshua Brown, military veteran, one of the pastors of Pillar Church at Topsole, North Carolina. Also outside of Marine Corps based Camp Lejeune. And Brittany Brown, his wife of why am I waiting? 23 years. 23 years. Not that it's a competition. We're trying to catch up.
SPEAKER_00You almost do anything. Or no.
SPEAKER_03How many kids do you guys have?
SPEAKER_00We have three children. One son in love, an adult.
SPEAKER_03Child, a son in love. Uh-huh. And a yeah, our oldest daughter married.
SPEAKER_00And a grandbaby soon.
SPEAKER_03And a grandbaby in the oven. Awesome. That's great. Here we are live. Hopefully that's public information.
SPEAKER_04It is there time we must be. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_04We just learned that one.
SPEAKER_02I literally saw vision of our bank account slowly going down as soon as we heard it was a girl.
SPEAKER_03Oh, really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because I didn't feel like we could take a break on the boys.
SPEAKER_02She's like main. Look at all those cute girl things.
SPEAKER_03Join us next episode. But I can't do that. That's not what we're doing next episode, but we should do that sometime.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that on my list.
SPEAKER_03Kelly, we have a few kids.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we have five kids.
SPEAKER_03Five kids.
SPEAKER_01A son in love.
SPEAKER_03Son in love.
SPEAKER_01And three grandchildren.
SPEAKER_03Three grandchildren. Not that it's a competition. No, no. Y'all are beating us there.
SPEAKER_01It's just sweet.
SPEAKER_03We're just gonna catch up. The grandparent life, y'all, is where it's at. Obviously, since we have grandkids that we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00And we're all young grandparents.
SPEAKER_03So our kids are a little older than you know our average, our average listener, right? And so we're we're kind of towards the back end of educating our kids. Y'all are really on the back end. Your oldest or your youngest is nearing the end of his high school years, and our youngest is a little behind that. But anyway, we're gonna talk today. How shall we educate our children? How shall we educate our children? Brittany, you've got a passage open.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03Let's start with scripture. Where are we at?
SPEAKER_00I think of Deuteronomy 6. So this is Old Testament and you know, talking to the Israelites, but Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 starts with Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Deuteronomy 6 And The Parent’s Job
SPEAKER_00You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. So this passage has just been influential in our lives as a family, kind of like a grounding stone. Of course, he's talking to the Israelites, but in the New Testament, Jesus does reference Deuteronomy 6, 5 when in the New Testament, when he says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Here he doesn't say mind because in the Hebrew it conflates that the heart and mind are one. So it it's just we're to be teaching the Lord that about the Lord to our children when we're sitting with them, when we're walking with them. All the time.
SPEAKER_01I like that one because it's uh talking about like just being intentional. No matter what you do. Yes, no matter which choice you make, you're intentional about that with your children and your family.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that no matter what main education source you choose for their formal schooling, you know, their elementary, middle, and high school years, it is your job as a parent to teach them about the love of the Lord and to remember the ways and what he's done for you. Yeah, this is a command.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Good. And so the other one in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter six says to children, obey your parents and to fathers, which can be applied to parents, right? Bring up your children in the wisdom and instruction of the Lord. Don't provoke your children to anger. So there's like some things we're supposed to be teaching our children. There are ways that we should be teaching our children all throughout scripture. This is either explicit or implied kind of throughout scriptures, that parents have the primary responsibility for teaching their children. In our culture and context, there are different ways that we can go about doing that. Right. So kind of the biggest categories are public school, like government-run schools, Christian schools, or other private schools, but a lot of private schools, at least in our area, are Christian schools, and whatever they mean by that, which depends on the school, what they mean by that. That's right. And then there's homeschooling, which is the parents are primarily teaching this the children. And then there's a whole
School Options Without The Pride
SPEAKER_03bunch of hybrids between those things, right? So there are homeschools typically have like cooperatives that get together to do things, and there's what there's a lot of different versions of that. And then there's some hybrids of like university model where the children go to school for two days a week or three days a week, and then they're homeschooled the other couple days a week. So lots of different options here. So let's start just on this episode. I'm sure Joshua will chime in with some interesting things from time to time. I'm gonna try to communicate and ask questions of our ladies because they've spent the most time thinking about these things. And so I'm gonna ask a few questions. And I just want you to see that Brittany and Kelly and our two families have come to some different conclusions of how we do this, and we're still great friends, and we can actually talk about this thing that we we have come to different conclusions about. I don't even know if we're gonna come to any real disagreement, it's just different ways that we have chosen to educate our children.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Even if there is disagreement, uh, we're gonna be friends at the end of this conversation. I am confident with that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03So, Brittany, how have you schooled your children just in those categories we talked about? What has that looked like for your family?
SPEAKER_00For our family? Oh, well, we have a currently 21, 20, and 18-year-old, and we chose to homeschool our family the entire way through. So our kids. So they were homeschooled from preschool, kindergarten age all the way through high school. And Titus will currently finish out his senior year in 2027.
SPEAKER_03So and how have you been involved in that?
SPEAKER_00It very involved, yeah.
SPEAKER_03How's that affected your week to week, day-to-day life?
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's interesting you asked that question because I think as a homeschool mom, what has happened over the years is people have just assumed you have more time. Like, oh, well, you're home all day.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00But I have taken that call on our family's life really intentionally and see that if God has asked me to do this, then I need to make that a priority. And so it has affected our family because a majority of our mornings and afternoons are spent teaching lessons
Brittany’s Homeschool Life And Co-ops
SPEAKER_00or prepping lessons or doing actual school at home, not just leaving them to themselves to do something else. Is that kind of what you're asking?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and then are you have your kids been in a co-op at all?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes. Yes, we've done co-ops pretty much all the way through. We've been involved in things from classical conversations. If people are listening, they might know what that is. We've done the past five years, something different, which was an academic co-op where, which was great for high school. We went, they'd had science and history there. So chemistry, biology. There was a woman who's a dear friend of ours who taught in a private Christian school for I think 15 years for a long time. She taught high school science. So she did all the experiments and lab stuff with them that maybe they wouldn't have gotten here. I did try science experiments. If you ever see one of our children, especially the girls, we have pictures where I have exploded things in our kitchen on accident.
SPEAKER_04Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes it didn't. I love it. So thank shout out to Tiffany. She was sleeping.
SPEAKER_02So I noticed at the beginning of this, you asked her specifically how much it changed her life and everything. For me, in the in a homeschool, when we first started out, I was deemed the quote unquote principal of the school. Meaning I'm there every once in a while, but most of the time when the schooling's happening, I'm at work. And so I was just like the guy that showed up every once in a while. I've been like, So, how was school today? You know? That's not true.
SPEAKER_00Math, you became the math guy. Math is not my strong suit. So you became the math guy.
SPEAKER_02Well, and then it got beyond worried when I was. So it was like, well, I don't know what to do. Then I have to call Kelly.
SPEAKER_03So some days I'm picturing Brittany is, you know, you are running a one-room schoolhouse with your three children, and you're teaching them and they're doing their assignments, but you're moving around and teaching and doing those types of things. Other days were like co-op days, and so we're going and we're gathering with other families while the kids are doing whatever the case is. And you've even like taught in some of the co-op things, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I've taught at most of them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then field trips, uh, extracurricular activities, all the things that you could think of.
SPEAKER_03How has military life like how has military life made that how has it affected that decision?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's interesting you asked that because we were never, I think we mentioned this on a different episode. We were never really on the cycle of PCSing Marine Corps wise than normal families. Well that we see a bulk of the families like summertime.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we were not moving in the summer.
SPEAKER_00No, it was always like mid-school time. So it was very helpful. We chose to follow something that is called a Sabbath school method where you school for six weeks, have a seventh week off, especially through elementary school and middle school. So we schooled year-round. And it was helpful for us as a military family because Joshua's MOS or career job thing that he did, if you don't know what that is. He was gone a lot. And so when he was home, it gave us the opportunities to take those days off and spend them with him. When we PCSed, we didn't really worry about it. I could plan our school year out looking forward to that PCS and take a chunk off and then just have certain books and things we were utilizing and then come back in once we got where we were going and plug into communities and stuff there. So it kept a consistency education-wise. That impacted us because I grew up moving around a lot and from West Coast to different areas, Midwest, East Coast, different things. And the education systems were different, and I saw that as a kid. So it was helpful for us just to have a consistency across the board. But yeah, so but that wasn't the main reason we chose to homeschool.
SPEAKER_03Sorry. Kelly, how have we educated our children?
SPEAKER_01So our children have been public school mostly. Predominantly. Yeah. And we've done Christian private school as well. We've done very, very short stint of homeschooling.
SPEAKER_03We we dabbled in homeschooling because of a ministries situation. Um not even a military displacement. We were displaced for like three months and we homeschooled. We homeschooled for three months, but that was like cheating homeschool. It wasn't real. Well, the school, like the we disenrolled, we had to disenroll because there was so long, it was three months. And so we disenrolled. They gave us it was cheating. Yeah. But anyway.
SPEAKER_01I just say it looked different. Yeah, it's not cheating.
SPEAKER_03So how so what has that looked like in your life? Like, how's that affected your life? How are how our kids have been educated?
SPEAKER_01I feel like we have well one thing, I
Military Moves And Staying Consistent
SPEAKER_01mean, just our particular situation. Our most of our kids have been in a elementary school, middle school, and high school are all in the neighborhood that we live in. So it's been a huge part of just like us being a part of the community there, um, which has been a really cool thing and a really good opportunity when I think about, you know, just our kids going, like how many people we've gotten to know and build relationships with that we still have relationships with, and just how cool God is at like you know, people that maybe move away, but then they reach out, you know, just in that aspect of really getting to know our community. But it has freed me up to teach. But I I actually stayed home for 14 years with our kids of all different ages, but then went back to teaching like five years ago.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, so you you stayed home to run the household, but also most of that time they were like pre-school children in the home. Until they went until our last one went to school, which is so then when our last one went to kindergarten you transitioned.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I have a heart for just I guess just the people in public school. I do teachers and students, and I mean everybody. And so I think I just am so drawn to it in many different ways. So just teaching I mean, I'll probably talk about this more, but I think before our kids went to school, I remember pr starting to pray about homeschooling because I felt like that was gonna be a good choice for us in the military. And I had never I was learning different things about it because I just didn't know much about homeschooling. And we had a great family in Oklahoma that like modeled it well, and but it felt so forced for me. And yeah, I just felt like as I like the more that I prayed about it, it felt forced and not, you know, just I don't know. So we talked about it a lot, I feel like, and decided to do that. But I because I think too, like not everybody has that choice. And so I think my I I have a heart of teaching in public schools, so like my heart is just like there's this whole community of people that you know that's that's what they're gonna do, right? It's not an option.
SPEAKER_03There are there's an in there's a significant portion of the population of our city. Homeschooling is not an option for them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I'm okay with our I mean, to a certain extent, I'm okay with our kids being in that mix, that mix, as long as we are intentional, because it has proven to bring up so many good opportunities to talk about, you know, just all kinds of topics with our kids that you know, because they have they have been exposed. Because I mean, me teaching in public and sending our kids to public school, I absolutely see so many of the dangers and downfalls of public school and how it is hard. And there's been so many days where I'm like, I I know why people don't want their kids to go to public school. I know because I'm there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's interesting. Can
Kelly’s Public School Path And Community
SPEAKER_02I do the inverse of that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would say that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think too, like what you said, you see the dangers from public schooling, and I see the dangers on the homeschooling side when I see parents making the decision to homeschool because they're afraid of what the public system has. Oh, yeah. Instead of, no, I'm walking in faith towards this decision to homeschool because X, Y, and Z.
SPEAKER_01Like, and that's that's such an important distinction to make when you're praying about it and making your decision.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because there's there's dangers on both sides.
SPEAKER_03This is exactly why we wanted to have this conversation because you guys think about it well, and it's interesting. You guys think about the dangers of the path you're choosing, right? And like, okay, so I need to honor God in this decision, knowing that there are some bad versions of what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01And the root of it, some of the, you know, the heat on this topic is pride. Yes. When you think that because we made this decision for our family, that it is the right way and that everyone else should do it, or they don't love God, or they don't love their children. And that is not true. Yeah. And I think I love that just as we've been friends, like we support each other in what we do, and like we can do things differently and know that like that's okay. That's a beautiful picture of you know the body doing different things.
SPEAKER_00And our daughters, our older girls are like very close friends and they were educated differently. Like, I just no, yeah, yeah. It can be really good.
SPEAKER_02Can I throw in the middle ground there of the one there's no one at the table right now that has private schools?
SPEAKER_00No, no, they did a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Just to confuse the conversation.
SPEAKER_02For public school compared to private school.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The same sin shows up in private school. Oh, if you're worried about that and you're like, oh, I'm gonna pay a bunch of money and send my kids to a thing because they'll be protected right and well, and they'll be protected from all these things. Yeah, that's that's a fallacy. That's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00The same for homeschooling. Like, just because you don't send them to the private school, like your children are sinners. Right. And one thing that homeschool doesn't equal salvation. Amen. God confronted me on that very early on in our homeschool. Christian school doesn't equal salvation. Yeah, this is not my children's salvation. My job is to diligently teach them the commands and things of the Lord. This is not gonna save them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm thinking of I love what Kelly said, like as we were it, you were using like this present idea of we're making these decisions. For us, this has been an ongoing decision. With each child, like with each child, with each situation, with honestly, honestly, the culture has been changing in the past 20 years significantly on this. There have been more homeschool cooperative type things created, there's been more hybrid situations created. There's more private schools, private schools are growing. The public school system has more and more challenges to it as those other options avail themselves. So there's been a lot of things. So for us, this is an ongoing conversation. This is not a so I want you to hear it's okay to be in an ongoing conversation as husband and wife about this. It is okay to be constantly thinking through these things. And we just want to speak into this because it's so prevalent. Like every time you move, every time you have a new child, every time you're in a new city with new dynamics and new challenges and new situations, you may be back in this conversation again. So it's June. We we assume most of you have made those decisions for August, but we just want to speak into hey, what are the what are the things we should be thinking about to think about this well? So, Britney, start us off. How did you come to these decisions? Like what are the things you're weighing as you prayerfully consider how to educate your children?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's an interesting question. So Joshua and I both grew up in non-believing homes, educated in the public school system. And so we didn't even really even know there were other options. And like y'all, you met a family in Oklahoma, we met a family in Southern California, and they were this tight-knit family. And that was the first time I heard about homeschooling. And and she really encouraged me to seek the Lord because she said it's not for everybody. You need to seek the Lord and see what this looks like. And the passage in Deuteronomy was something that Joshua and I were reading, and we began. Tatum was three years old, asking the Lord if that was something he would have us to do. So that's really how we came to it. We felt very clearly that God
The Dangers On Every Side
SPEAKER_00was asking us to step out into this endeavor, but I didn't know if I wanted to do it. Like I was like, I don't really want to do this. It's gonna be weird. We had a lot of pushback from our family. But that's kind of how we came to this conclusion to homeschool. And then we prayed about it every year when we PCS'd when we moved. We even prayed about it as we transitioned into church planting. Like, should we put our kids in the local public schools? Would that get us into this community in a different way? And God opened doors to a homeschool community that did plug us into the community in a very different way. So, yeah, just really weighing options of what and how are we making these decisions? Really sitting down and thinking through what's our goal in educating our children, what is the end desire. And then Proverbs 22, six, train up a child in the way he should go when he's old, he will not depart from it. was heavy on my heart that when it came to teaching them that I felt God was asking me just teach them these things that you didn't have growing up, reclaim your education. Let's grow together with your kids. Know that this won't save them, but they can never get away from what you put into them.
SPEAKER_01So that is and I've seen you guys do that so well. And I just like I'm so thankful that you've been able to do that. I think that's great.
SPEAKER_02For the question of how we got to that conversation though, or that decision from my perspective, and maybe this will be helpful for some of you guys out there, we came to this this decision point. And to me it was it was simple. I knew what we didn't want but then we knew we didn't know what right looked like we didn't know what we did want. So as we were praying about it, thinking about it, we had just moved like three times in three years. And I was like man, the inconsistency of pulling people in and out of school doing this with the kids will be really hard in the future.
SPEAKER_00You were also creating duty and scene test scores, I think.
SPEAKER_02Well from that the part of it though that I want a lot of the guys to hear those I I heavily weighed on Brittany to make that decision because I knew it was going to fall mostly on your shoulders to do a lot of the things for the homeschooling. And so I wasn't like this dogmatic oh hey this is I see this and this is what we're gonna do and I'm gonna lead my family by saying this is what you're gonna do. Because if you're gonna push that upon your wife and then you know force that into the situation it's gonna create a real toxic weird and we have seen that oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So you you had this conviction to not come to this dogmatic solution knowing that your wife was going to bear the burden of that decision. Exactly. That is so wise.
SPEAKER_02Uh I'm so glad you brought that up well I mean this happens with many things like hey you know we're come up to this decision point but hey honey this is going to affect you way more than it's gonna affect me. I really need to know where you're landing on this before we make this decision together.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Ross Powell Yeah I have a statement I say quite regularly and it applies to a million different topics. Everything's easy for those who don't have to do it. And so husbands if you're the guy who goes off to work all day and your wife's gonna primarily bear this burden just be careful about like oh it's easy you're just gonna homeschool the kids everything's easy for those who don't have to do it.
SPEAKER_04So just that's a good deal.
SPEAKER_03Yeah Kelly what are some things that we weighed as we were thinking about educating our kids?
SPEAKER_01Well I think it's important to know like we it's funny how our backgrounds kind of affect our decisions in a way. I mean we both grew up in Christian homes and went to public school and so I feel like my perspective is probably just a little different because of that. And so I had Christian parents and grandparents that spoke into my life a lot and we were just very involved in church ministry and I was saved as a young kid. So it's yeah it's just been different in that way. So I it wasn't I don't know I just remember feeling the only reason that I was thinking about homeschool was mainly from pressure maybe that I put my own self or maybe from some statements that people had said to me. And I remember talking to you about it and I always felt defensive but you never in any way made me feel like you should home like I you've never said that.
SPEAKER_03And I'm thankful that you really like just but it's a real pressure in the mom community. In the Christian mom community I think there's this real pressure where people are like well what is it okay that I send my kids to public school or is it okay that we go to this private school that's not necessarily Christian or is kind of Christian or whatever the case is.
SPEAKER_01And that's why it's so good to just get down to the like before the Lord we're responsible for our children and how we teach them and you know and so it's just like you have to make that decision before the Lord not be cut out of fear or being defensive or you know just anything like you make that decision and walk in. And I'm so thankful like we have seen you know and we've also changed our mind on work in schooling like okay this for this child specifically let's try you know something different and and so with public school or private school whatever like in your area some of the public schools may not be a place where you want to like literally not get kids educated. Or some of the things they're teaching you know we've not experienced that as much like you know in a big way where we are where some of the things that I've I've heard being taught in classrooms and stuff hasn't been.
SPEAKER_03I also love so you had taught for one year and then you were a stay at home mom for 14 years
Making The Call As A Couple
SPEAKER_03and then you had this inclination to go back into the classroom but you only applied to the school where our three kids were attending high school in our neighborhood. And so that was very intentional. Like you could have shopped around and like gone to the best job for you in some ways but you said I we're in this season they're in high school there's this like they once they start driving like they're gone they have their activities and you're like how can I get closer to them and you moved into the school.
SPEAKER_01And I want to say that was so hard. Yeah I felt like a foreigner after not being in the public school for you know 14 years and then going back in it like I I re like I was like should I have done this? I don't know. I did I felt like just I had been so far removed from the culture and stuff but it was so good for me in my own faith and learning how to like bridge that gap like just be able to you know share the gospel and stuff with with people that I just hadn't been around. I mean so like that's been so good in my own like faith and just learning to be bold and courageous and love people that live differently and you know like so it's just been but there's also been amazing Christian people that I've met in the school system too. So it's just it's been a really beautiful thing but not easy.
SPEAKER_03So I just want to yeah last thoughts you would say we could talk about this for another three yeah we could do 10 hours on this probably but Brittany last thoughts you would say to somebody who's wrestling through this decision.
SPEAKER_00I would encourage you to sit down with your spouse if you have a spouse and think about what is your family's mission and goal with your kids. Be on the same page. Yes be on the same page and how do you desire for them to be educated and learn about some education philosophies whether that's how the public school method is the public model modern education whether you're looking at pre-modern education classical style education are you looking at Charlotte Mason style education look at the educational philosophy that fits your family dynamic and that's going to help guide you as you seek the Lord in that something that really mattered to Joshua and I was that we wanted to nurture the mind and cultivate the soul and we decided that a classical Charlotte Mason model was the best way that we could do that as a family and grow together. My encouragement to you would be to ask yourself are you acting out of fear or faith in this decision and then educate yourself on the options. Don't just go off of what you're seeing on TikTok or Instagram know why you're doing what you're doing and have a clear goal and mission in mind because in the end all of us are accountable for Deuteronomy 6. Like we're all required to teach our children the commands of the Lord to love him with all their heart, soul and mind. We just have different ways about getting there.
SPEAKER_01And I I would say like don't be prideful of what you think others should do with their family because that's their decision. You know just in that in the Christian world I just see there's a lot of you know like some pride.
SPEAKER_02I taught all three of my kids how to drive and one of the main things I tell them is to stay in your lane. Because that's how you avoid a lot of car accidents.
SPEAKER_03I would also say though something we're we've kind of not said that I want to say is these decisions that we make for our family and our children do have effects on our city especially when lots of Christians are doing them. And so we do have to keep in mind how it affects
Faith, Mission, City Impact, And Listener Questions
SPEAKER_03our city. God tells us to love the city we're in and to dwell in the city we're in and so just always keep that in mind and if you decide to to homeschool or to private school or to do some of these options that not everybody has, how can you also mobilize your family to minister to those folks in other ways and not neglect them also like we can't insulate ourselves we have to be in the city that we're in and this is a big decision about what happens and we have to do so in faith. We need to do so not out of fear of man or what might happen, but in faith and prayerfully seeking the Lord.
SPEAKER_00Can I say something that really quick I know we're over time our directors over like hey get it together. So from a homeschool perspective Brian I just like that you hit like how is that impacting the city because something I see in homeschool families is they're pulling away from the public school to shelter their kids. And I believe that we need to intentionally like you said find ways to engage in the city and expose them to things so that we can have those conversations. So on the homeschool side we have to be more intentional to expose our kids to certain philosophies and ideas that have consequences like musical theater or somewhere that they're gonna gain athletics some introspect to what is happening out in the real world. So if you're a homeschool parent listening to this please don't shelter them so tightly that they are not exposed to the real world because we're not called to rip them out of it.
SPEAKER_03See and I think on the public school side we have I I have fallen into the trap of like I need to fix society but that's not on my kids to do that. Right. And so I can't put that on them. Right. And so there's there's ditches all over the place. Walk the tightrope thank you guys so much I'd be interested what specific questions do you have on this topic? Okay. We could talk a lot but we've kind of started the conversation hello at military wellness collective dot com Hello at military wellnesscollective dot com. Send an email what are your specific questions on this topic? I'd be interested to hear what those are and maybe we'll riff about it again in a in a few weeks. I love you guys.