If you are reading this, you probably love classical Christian education; you might even love it too much. The Greeks believed that this “overreach”. Being “too good” or loving something “too much” is something that the Greek gods like to punish. We see this in Oedipus’s desire to get to the bottom of things in Thebes. When he gets to the bottom, he wishes he hadn’t.

Some people love classical Christian education too much. You are most at risk if you are deeply into it as a board member, teacher, or administrator.

This is not to say that classical Christian education is the problem. It’s not.

We are.

John Calvin said that the heart of man is an “idol factory.” Recently, God has been challenging me to sort out things and put them into two piles. One pile is marked “idolatry” and the other is marked “faithfulness.” I am thankful that I can say that the faithfulness pile is not empty; I also have to admit that the idolatry pile is not, either.

How do we know if we are being faithful? First, we should look to God’s Word and see if we can define what sort of faithfulness God wants from His children. My current working definition of faithfulness is obedience to God by living by the Spirit speaking through God’s written Word. You might quibble with the definition. That’s fine. I won’t fight back so long as you admit that if you ponder the Scriptures, you will end up somewhere near this definition. If so, then proceed.

My interest in this post is to play out a few of the more important implications of faithfulness that I have “discovered” recently. Honestly, if you had quizzed me twenty years ago, I would have known most of what I am sharing today. However, God is helping me acquire heart knowledge that can be much deeper, fuller, and more painful than mere head knowledge. I am writing this mainly for those who are coming after the founding generation of classical Christian education—a generation that I am a part of—in hopes that I can save you some scar tissue and some sleepless nights by sharing with you three implications of faithfulness:

Implication 1: You are not in control, and pretending to be in control does not make you more in control.

Don’t fall into the misnomer of thinking that faithfulness will lead to constant agreement, peace, and control. Having kids is a process of slowly losing control. The only thing worse than losing control of a 23-year-old is maintaining control of a 35-year-old. Being in a church, starting or joining a school, co-op, study center, or whatever other 500 permutations of classical Christian education out there are, to some extent, giving up control.

I meet people who give off the vibe that they have a level of control. They can make their children do something like parlor tricks for other adults to show off. If God is gracious, these idols will topple. One of the funniest idol crashes that I caused was with one of my daughters, who I had trained before the pastor and elder came to visit. She could recite the 10 Commandments (with hand motions) and say the Lord’s Prayer. I was so proud (proud like “prideful” proud). When she started the Lord’s Prayer, I beamed with, you guessed it, more pride. Suddenly, I realized that something had gone horribly wrong with her training. She joyfully recited the following:

“Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be MY name,

MY kingdom come,

MY will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”

Initially, I tried to stop her, but then I realized that this prayer was at least as earnest as mine.

You might love classical Christian education, the Great Books, and Latin. However, you are not in control of all your children's loves. You can encourage them, but God makes each person different. Sometimes, your pushing can actually cause your child to dislike the very thing that you want them to love.

Implication 2: Faithfulness does not mean that every child will end up the same.

I have four daughters. They look like each other and like their mother (whew!). Generally, kids resemble their parents, but they are identical to each other and not identical to their parents.

Beware of this version of this fallacy. It is a Post-Hoc fallacy. You might have a child who gets all A’s. Everyone will assume that the next will be the same. If he or she is, the pressure on the third to “measure up” will be immense. What if she loves balls or fashion or whatever?

Just remember that this sort of diversity can be part of God’s plan rather than proof that you were not faithful or that God let a slip-up happen on heaven’s conveyor belt.

Implication 3: Sometimes, the destruction of your idols can be both frightening and liberating.

A philosopher said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” (Mike Tyson). God sees our idols—even those that appear to be badges of faithfulness to us. He loves us so much that He will pull those idols out of our embrace so that we might free our arms to hold onto Him. He knows what is good for us.

When he does this, I have witnessed the weirdest thing. God’s children despairing that God is destroying the idol that is destroying us. I have been in counseling situations when marriages are broken. Some of the worst have been Christian marriages. I have watched spouses be so out of sorts with their spouse that they can’t talk with each other or even spend much time in the same room together. Sometimes they have carried on a charade for years. They might have spent decades creating an image, a false image, and they have enjoyed the prestige and respect that this false image has garnered. Then, something happens, and the image cracks. At times, when everyone is wading through the muck of sin and resentment. I can recall some of them saying they just wished they could return to when the false image was in place—where Dagon was still on the pedestal. God’s liberation looks more like the freeing of Eustace, who has been turned into a dragon, than anything gentle or easy. To be liberated, you must be freed from the idol—the dragon skin must be torn away.

You must remember to parent your children well in a classical Christian setting. You need to have a relationship with your child and maintain influence with that child. I’m a big fan of Paul Tripp’s book Shepherding a Child’s Heart. I’m so glad that Emily and I had friends who recommended it to us when our first child was young. It lays out a biblical case for consistent, loving discipline (including spanking). Our girls were blessed by what we learned from Pastor Tripp. (Now, all four of them are even thankful for our consistency—they weren’t always happy then!) People miss the second part of the book. The part about teenagers. If you haven’t re-read that part I would challenge you to if you have teenagers [or read his second book, The Age of Opportunity]. It is not the opposite of the first part, for while the methods change, the end goal of consistent loving faithfulness remains in place. The methods change because the kids change. Here is an interview I did with Paul Tripp on Maintaining Relationship and Influence with Your Teen.

Sadly, too often, great parents who attempt to continue the consistent, loving discipline of the early years struggle with teens. They struggle because they remain consistent with their methods and lose focus on the end goal: raising young people to be godly adults.

At this point, you might need to search your heart and see if you have idols that need to be toppled. You need to ask, is it My kingdom or Thy kingdom that is to come? Remember, if God loves you, He is going to destroy the idols in your life. He wants you to learn to do a pre-emptive strike on them. He wants you to love what He loves and hate what He hates.

So, can a classical Christian become an idol? Yes.

It can be one of the worst because it is so good that it is hard to see how it could be bad. If it is destroying your witness, your marriage, or your relationship with your kids, you should see if your heart has an idol named classical Christian education.

For most of us, classical Christian education, along with our family and children, can be idols, but they don’t have to be. If they have become idols in your life, you need to humble yourself and repent. God is faithful; He delights in showing mercy. His grace, however painful, never fails to accomplish His ends.