19 Days and Counting!

Soon we will be the parents of a teenager! Joel is counting down the days. I remember his early days of sweet babyhood and thinking that the teen years were so far, far off in the distant future. But how quickly the time has gone! He is as tall as me now and wearing 30 inch waist jeans and his voice is even starting to squeak now and then!

Can you believe we are even starting to "look" at colleges? Researching them, thinking about which one would be a good fit for him. I know, we have almost 6 more years... he's only in 7th grade! But because I'm the one responsible for his education, I need to be planning ahead. I want him to have the best prepration possible for those college years so the planning needs to start now.

I always thought he would live at home and go to local Millersville University - commute to classes every day. And if not M.U., we have several other local colleges - Franklin & Marshall College, Elizabethtown College, not to mention the community college. We are literally surrounded by institutions of higher education in this county!

However, after reading a little article written by our pastor in the current church newsletter, my thinking on where he would go to college has been challenged. I've always homeschooled our children because I definitely did not want them to go to a government (public) school. Yet, I thought any college would be just fine?!! Sadly our culture is moving further and further away from the truth and becoming increasingly opposed to our faith.

Our pastor has recommended 7 Christian liberal arts colleges and has encouraged parents, like us, to consider sending our children to a Christian university where the truth of Scripture and the inerrancy of the Word is interwoven in all facets of learning. Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia is highly recommended because of it's solidly Biblical focus as well as it's excellent academics. It is under the PCA denomination which our church is part of. Two other reformed churches closer to home are Grove City College and Geneva College, both in western PA. Other colleges he recommends are Gordon College, Taylor University, Cedarville University and Wheaton College. If you want to read his article, click on the link for our church and then click on "calendar and events" and then "Communique" to read the newsletter.

Covenant College does sound like an excellent choice and we have been very impressed by everything we have researched about it. However, and this is a BIG however, it is 11 hours and 4 minutes away!!!!!!!! I'm so glad we have a few more years to think about this! And yes, Joel has a big say in this too. So far, he really likes the idea of going there - although his reasons are a bit more superficial, he loves the Georgia Bulldogs! And of course, I am very partial to the south and so is Mark - we always thought we would retire down in the Smoky Mountains someday. We even honeymooned there 17 years ago.

I'm so glad that God is our Shepherd, like my mom always has said. We are just His sheep. We'll follow where he leads us. And we need to pray for our children that God would direct them to wherever they should go.