That Weird Homeschooling Family with All the Kids

We have for some time been known as "that family with all the kids." With six sons and one daughter, now a seventh son due at the end of January, people notice our entrance. To our amusement, it is not uncommon for people to proactively ask if we homeschool. A family of this size, people can be forgiven for guessing. But there are some ways we want to be weird, unusual, uncommon, and atypical on principle. And to some extent, we want to different just to manage expectations that we do not go with all flows, follow all trends, do whatever is popular just because everyone else is doing it, or blindly serve the broader culture and consensus - particularly if and when doing so would mean violating conscience and conviction. Nevertheless, there are ways in which our conservative theology informing our conservative politics and social engagement actually predisposes us to look favorably at change. And then there is the added conviction that I have that we should not be slaves to tradition just for the sake of being 'old fashioned.'  "All things are permissible," the Apostle Paul writes. "But not all things are beneficial." And we do not want to be a slave to anything or anyone except for Christ. Yet where it is possible to do as the Romans do in some measure for the sake of expedience without disobeying or dishonoring God, we want to and will. 'Pick your battles,' and all that. So also, no humble servant should be conceited and think more highly of themselves than they ought. And in the interest of not being seen - either internally or externally - as thinking we are better than everyone else, we do well to subordinate our ambition to being different to the overarching contention that while we are not better than everyone and everything else, Christ is.