By the time our children were ready to go to school my husband and I were both believers. We wanted their teachers to have a faith in the Lord and be godly role models. We wanted curriculums that would emphasize God’s involvement in every area of life. Financially speaking, Christian school made no sense at all for us, but the Lord always worked it out.  I believe that was God’s plan for our kids. It wasn’t long before I discovered the common consensus in the Christian community was that public school is the last place you would want your kids to go. I clearly remember a single parent who had to withdraw her son, Jarae, because of finances.  She was upset but couldn’t find any way to keep him in private school. I was shocked to hear an insensitive staff member say, “Well, all that work done here for Jarae is down the drain”. For me that was a significant eye opener to an arrogant attitude at the school.  It got me thinking and eventually it brought me to recognize the call on my life to teach in public school. I wanted to be there for the Christian kids like Jarae who were in the public school.  I knew there were Christian public-school teachers and I wanted to be one of them!

From the journal . . . . December 1994

Oh Lord.  I love You.  Lord, I need you to guard me.  Guard my heart and my mind.  Since being among non-believers in the college teaching program I see that public school isn’t as bad as I had thought. Lord, You are The Way, and those who follow You are making the right choice.  There’s no question in my mind about that, but those who don’t appear to be following You and don’t profess You as Lord aren’t all bad. A complaint that I have against many Christian leaders is they paint the non-Christian world with general and evil extremes. What I am finding in my secular college is that non-believers are as shocked by these extremes as the believers.  We don’t have a monopoly on goodness or virtue.  Righteousness and certainly forgiveness are, or at least should be, abundant in the Christian life, but the world isn’t all bad.  Lord, is that mindset okay?

And I Believe God Said:

Yes – I want you to love the people in the world.  Not the ungodliness, not the apathy, nor arrogance, but love and accept the people.  Remember that they have a choice to make.  I want you to let them know that there is a choice and to make that choice attractive. You are My sales rep.

 
Luke 6:35-36 ³⁵ “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for He is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. ³⁶ You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
 John 3:16 ¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
Matthew 5. Sermon on the Mount
 1John 2:15. ¹⁵ Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
Joshua 24:15 ¹⁵ But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Mark 16:15 ¹⁵ And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.
2 Tim 4:2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

In my growth as a believer, I see that this word from the Lord was very significant for me. I often wonder how to interact in a loving way with people who are clearly not living for the Lord. It so often comes down to ‘hate the sin and love the sinner.’  I also need the reminder to proclaim what the Lord has done.  People need to see they must make a choice. They need to choose Him!