"Camp"

So, two of my boys have been taking Tae Kwon Do.  The yougest for 6 months and the middle son for about 2 months.  They are really enjoying it.  At the facility where they attend there recently has been a push for summer camps.  My youngest son brought me the flyer with the "PLEASE!!!!!!! Can I go? PLEASE??????" not too long ago.  Well I talked with my darling husband and we chose 1 week of the several they offered to send our boys to "camp".  They started yesterday.  Drop off was from 7:30am - 9am.  I realize that many working parents need the early drop off time but since "camp" activities did not actually start till 9am I dropped my boys off a little before that time.  When my hubby went to pick them up yesterday evening Matthew broke down.  It is an understatement to say that he had a very bad day.  Apparently this "camp" really is just summer day care with a different name.  From what we gathered after talking to him it was organized chaos with very little "camp" activities at all.  There were lots of multi-age kids who were disrespectful to authority, downright mean to their peers, me-centered, blasphemers, and cursers.  My boys were troubled by what they saw.

 It is really hard to discern how much of this world we should let our kids experience.  On one hand, there is the "you don't want to shelter your kids too much" idea that says they need to learn how to live and deal in the real world.  I get that.  I do want my kids to live and operate in this world but not so they can be successful here.  I want them to live and operate here so they can be successful there, in heaven.  I am not raising my kids to be pagans like the majority of the community I live in.  I am raising them to be Christians, to be followers of Christ, and frankly I am happy that when they hear a child drop the name of Jesus Christ as a explicative that it is offensive to them.  I am thankful that they identify disrespect of an adult and it bothers them to see it and see it NOT being corrected.  I am thankful that they see me-centered attitudes as offensive and are troubled when they see all the smallest kids getting pushed around and bullied out of a chance at the pool table.  I am thankful that hearing children use the "f" word still bothers them. 

I do not want my kids to become successful pagans.  I want them to become successful Christians.  There is a difference.  I don't want them to measure their success by the world's standard.  I don't want them running after the pagan gods of money, popularity, and worldly success.  God says, "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever!"  Deuteronomy 5:29  I pray my kids would have a heart that loves the things God loves and hates the things God hates.  I pray that so that it "might be well with them."  I want them to realize the difference between right and wrong and choose to do right.  I know they will fail many times as I have myself.  Ultimately, though, I don't want sons and daughters who can blend into the pagan culture we live in successfully.  I want sons and daughters who will stand for God and live set-apart lives.