Christians & their need to defend their non-homeschooling choice

Sara B.  I think WE should be friends!!!  I’ve had a similar problem with facebook and Christian friends that put their kids in public schools and not so much because I condemn public schools, but because I am homeschooling’s BIGGEST FAN!!!!  I LOVE it – I think the benefits are ENORMOUS!!!! Every chance I get, I sing the praises of homeschooling, because it has been such a blessing to me… so, I lost someone that I thought was a good friend after 2 years of friendship, because she had had enough of my posts about homeschooling.  A mutual friend had posted a complaint about having to send her son to full-day Kindergarten, and I just commented something like, “you can always homeschool – we’re done after 2 hours most days!”  Well, apparently that was the final straw, she called me very upset, because didn’t I realize that Christians who send their kids to public school have already considered homeschooling and have decided not to do it, and she had been tolerating my homeschool posts for the past two years and was tired of my attitude and just had to call me and tell me.  Well, needless to say, while happy to be confronted, I decided I didn’t really want to stay friends with someone who had been essentially faking her like of me for the past two years. 

So, now when I’m posting something to encourage homeschool moms, I’ll either block out specific people who might consider it offensive or post so that ONLY my homeschooling friends can read it (you can put your friends in groups).  I am still careful to never post things that could be forwarded or accidentally be seen by someone that I wouldn’t want to defend having said, but this way, I’m able to encourage without instigating arguments.

I’ve also been having this same issue with my husband’s family and my political posts.  They are HIGHLY offended by anything I post about Obama’s track record, even just posting links to newspaper articles – so I recently added them to a restricted list.  Now, they can only read things that I post that are visible to the public (which is not much).  My real friends are much more civil and while we may disagree politically, we’re good enough friends that we don’t insult each other, nor do we pick fights with one another – I let them post their opinions on their walls and I post MY opinion on my wall.

And I recently decided that while it’s nice to post your opinion, I need to remember in EVERY post to ask myself – Is this going to bring the people that read it closer to Christ or drive them farther away?  And I think that can be true of homeschooling posts as well.  It’s not my job through facebook to be the Holy Spirit in their life.  I know that’s hard when you’re convicted about something, to not understand how it’s possible for people not to agree with you, but I am grateful for the gentle prompting of the Spirit to get me to where I am today and pray that my friends are similarly open to Him working in their lives.

Fondly,

Rebekah