Iron Sharpens Iron

Happy Monday yall!! Did you have as beautiful a weekend as I did?? The weather was beyond gorgeous yesterday, and we were lucky enough to be able to spend some of it outdoors enjoying it. And after that, we had a couple friends over for dinner, and while the boys grilled outside, we got to leave the doors and windows open to let that beautiful weather in the house!

That time we spent yesterday evening sounds pretty simple right- a cookout with friends? Well, it should have been, but it really got me thinking about some more complicated things. I've been thinking a alot about what my husband and I will want to do when it comes time to send little man to school in a few years. I know it's a couple years away, but I want to start thinking about it now, because there is a lot involved in the decision: to home school, or not to home school?

I've really been leaning towards homeschooling the past several weeks. I keep hearing more things that bother me about school, and even more positive things about homeschooling, and I'd almost made my mind up that I want to homeschool, but last night changed that in a big way.

My husband grew up in the area where we live now, and it's a pretty small town. The people we had over last night were his best friend since childhood, and his girlfriend. I say childhood, but really, I should say babyhood, because they've been friends since they were about two years old. And the fact that they're in their mid-twenties now and still spending time together is awesome. He was there when we all went to prom together in high school, at graduation, at our wedding, and at the hospital when we had our son. And for a million other moments before I met either of them. It's a friendship that has literally lasted a lifetime, and you just don't see that anywhere. But in this area, it's not really uncommon. As much good as homeschooling would do little man, I don't want to deny him the opportunity to have that kind of friendship.

Romans 12:10 "Love one another with brotherly affection."
Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."
Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up."

And there are more verses like these that talk about the importance of friendship. Obviously, none of this is to say that homeschool kids don't have friends, because I know a lot who do. But the kind of relationship that I've seen over the past nine years between these men, and that was shown to me again last night, is something that I think kids in the school system have a better opportunity to find because they spend more time together and share a lot more of their lives with one another. I want my son to have a friendship like this one, where it's still going strong almost a quarter of a century after it began, and there's no reason to believe that it won't last another couple quarter centuries more.