Please don’t think that I have this all conquered in my own life, because I don’t! I’m working on it daily. We also live in town & I have really struggled with the dysfunctional families out here. I don’t let just anyone in my house to play with my kids. If they are rude & disrespectful then of course they cannot stay. There must be boundries set. The public school kids that my kids are friends with have come from our church, not the neighborhood. I try not to judge the families out here, I do not know what goes on in their homes or in their past. But that doesn’t mean that I will let their children play in our house. There is a difference. Grace is not letting people walk all over you & hurt you & your family. I know that is not what you were saying, but I think that some people think that.
Love you dear!

Did you write this? You know that the Lord keeps dealing with me about judging and saying unkind things about people. Well, the things that have happened to the people you talked about who were judged and quit the group, those same things happened to me. But you know what? I still have the audacity to do the same thing to others. I’m trying so hard to stop judging people, because I sure don’t want to be judged.

We have been giving kids a chance, even public schooled ones. We let them come to our house, and we explain to them when they do things that aren’t acceptable, but we haven’t had very good results. They stay the way they were and don’t honor our rules. Their families are not in the best shape, either. But I feel like the Lord has told me that I have to protect my kids from people who only pretend to be their friends, but are really using them, and will not be true friends. We live in the city now, and I have had to turn many neighborhood kids away after they’ve come several times, because they wouldn’t behave respectfully. I don’t have overly high standards. I just expect kids to act decent, and when they don’t, they lose their right to come into my house.

But I have no right to judge them or their families. And I certainly have no right to hold any other homeschooler to my standards or my ways of homeschooling or raising kids or anything. If only we would walk in the Spirit at all times instead of walking in the flesh. I’m still working hard on that one. Sometimes I feel so immature and can’t believe I’m 44 and been saved my whole life. I’m thankful for God’s mercy, but I’m still striving to be all that He wants me to be. I just need to catch those judgmental thoughts as soon as they’re born and throw them out and ask Jesus to forgive me and help me not to even have them.

You’ve hit on an important issue. I hope that many people will see through this article that grace and mercy and love are what God is all about and will stop being prideful and judgmental and religious. And may I be one of them.

Love,
Penney