Do Kids NEED a College Experience?

Do Kids NEED a College Experience?

Jana Duggar just turned 28 years old. There was a post on the Duggar Facebook page wishing her Happy Birthday. Of course, there were many critical comments directed towards the Duggars under this post. Here is one that stood out to me:

“I would really like to see at least one of the Duggar girls go out on their own, without needing a man. Go away to college, or university and experience life in the outside world! You don’t need to wait for a man!!! These girls rush into marriage, because they’ve been in the Duggar compound their whole lives, without experiencing the outside world, without the Duggar clan. Spread your wings and be an independent woman and find love the normal way.”

Our culture acts like going to college is a rite of passage for young adults and needing a man is deeply frowned upon as if its a bad thing. Do young adults need to go away to colleges or universities to “experience the outside world?” Is this an “experience” that we should all want for our children even if they don’t know what they want to do with their lives and our daughters only desire to be wives and mothers?

This is what Matt Walsh had to say about it:

“You can’t spend $70,000 for an experience!…What is the experience in most colleges these days? …Moral degradation, casual sex, STDs, and maybe some liver damage.” He mentioned the humanistic teaching that they will receive in most colleges, too. So is Jana missing out on life since she isn’t going to college but staying home with her family which is the way that its been for all women since time began up until a few generations ago?

There’s nothing biblical about young women going away to college. I am not calling it sin but the women learn nothing about godly womanhood unless they go to a strong Christian college, which there are very few. They will not learn how to have a strong marriage. They will not be taught how to raise children. They will not be taught to be modest, discreet, good, chaste, sober, or a keeper at home. They are taught the complete opposite!

They will be taught to be strong apart from the Lord and independent of Him and in no need of a man. In fact, they will be taught that there’s no differences between men and women and be encouraged to be a man and take on his role. They will be taught about birth control, overpopulation, and the inconvenience of  having children. They will be taught to pursue careers so they can make a name for themselves and have money of their own. They will be taught nothing about God’s ordained role for them but instead, spend a lot of money for their college education and gain a mountain of debt. In my day, college was affordable and not so humanistic but it is not this way anymore.

The Duggar young women want to be married and have children. This is all they want to do. It’s all I ever wanted to do. It’s a God-given desire and it is good. I don’t mind saying that I need a man. I need my husband. He gave me children and worked hard so I could stay home with them. He helped me raise them. I am protected by him. Our children have been our greatest blessing and they are gifts that keep on giving!

When women of the world are encouraging the Duggars to get out of the “Duggar compound” you can know that they don’t have the Lord’s interests in mind at all. No, they just have their selfish, culturally-correct ambitions in mind instead that can’t compare to God’s role for women. Yes, there are a few who are called to singleness but they are to use their singleness for the work of the Lord, not their selfish ambitions.

What can be more important than being a help meet to a godly man who provides for and protects his family and raise godly offspring for the next generation? Nothing and everything good and I, for one, am thankful for the Duggar women wanting to marry, bear, and raise godly offspring just as the Apostle Paul instructed women to do in 1 Timothy 5:14. This is what our culture needs more than career women. The Duggars have been a wonderful example to many.

I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
1 Timothy 5:14

15 thoughts on “Do Kids NEED a College Experience?

  1. Excellent post, Lori. I pray it will influence and inspire many young women to embrace God’s role as wife , mother, and keeper at home. Thanks.

  2. I would like to know the answer to this from your perspective. I completely agree that the Biblical role of women is to be the keeper of the home. I am thankful to have done that. My real question I guess is about a woman having some way to support herself if needed. I got a teaching degree and I kind of liked that there was a way for me to provide (not nearly as well as my husband) if I had to in case of an emergency. So thankful to have stayed home.

  3. I love what the Apostle Paul wrote to widows in 1 Timothy. He never said that they had to go out and get jobs. No, family and churches are to support them. It was never God’s intention that women would ever have to support themselves.

    Now, what are his instructions to widows who are desolate? “Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers day and night.” (1 Tim. 5:5) She trusts God and waits upon Him. Yes, this is foreign to most in our culture but we can absolutely trust our God who owns everything and loves us enough to take care of us in the “what ifs.”

  4. Excellent post once again. Young women don’t need the “experience ” of the outside world; college life. Secular colleges/universities only offer immorality, feminism influence, grossness to say the least. Young ladies, stay home and wait until the Lord brings you your mate!

  5. There is nothing particularly wrong with getting a college degree, and or a teaching credential, and working while one is single, or has no children at home. But then again, one must be able to step around the many land mines that going to college often brings of “Moral degradation, casual sex, STDs, and maybe some liver damage” … most importantly the humanistic, anti-Bible teaching of some professors. A college education is not necessary to have a career that pays $40,000+ per year.

    Choosing an inexpensive college and not getting into too much debt may be a sound thing so long as one does not get trapped in the world’s ways of thinking, acting and debt. This post is a warning to some, an encouragement to others, and for the vast majority of young women bent on the world’s ways it will fall on deaf ears without so much of a small consideration of “what would God have me do with my life?” And “what does He say in His Word about the path that is most fulfilling.”

  6. Hi Lori,
    I met the Duggars during their trip to Australia, each one of the children was very mature,, easily approachable, intelligent and were very relaxed. Jana was clearly a very capable woman amd the only time i saw here near a little kid was when Josie ran up to her a couple of times to ask a question, then she ran off. The rest of the time she was either talking to women her own age, teenage girls or older married women. Josie’s choice of buddy was mostly Michelle. Jana clearly smarter han any ‘college educated’ women ive met and all the critics have no idea what they are talking about. She certainly doesnt look overburdened at all.

  7. I couldn’t agree more Lori!

    Our daughter is 16 years old. We homeschool and have no intention of her going to college. She has no desire to do so either. She is an intelligent, capable young woman but along with her “schooling” at home she is being taught how to manage her own household, respect her husband and the qualities of a Godly woman! Why send her to college and load her with debt when God’s will for her is to marry and have a family?

    The comment you quoted never attested to the fact that the Duggar girls who have married seem quite in love and happy at home with their husbands and to be having and training children! 🙂 The commenter made it seem like Jana should try to live a good life rather than the ones her sisters have gotten into….which doesn’t make sense at all!! 🙂

    You should see the puzzled looks (and sometimes comments) I get when in conversation I mention that Madelyn won’t be attending college. It’s as if people believe we are trying to set her up for failure….how far from the truth that is! We are setting her on the path the Lord has paved for her…rather than the world! Even though I know we are doing the right thing…I still, in my mind, wrestle with it all because it is so against-culture! It’s like when we began homeschooling and the backlash we got at first! Oh my! It almost felt like we were being “bad” for not doing the mainstream thing!

    Thank you for encouraging posts such as this one! It is a breath of fresh air, truly, to read truth that aligns with God’s Word! :o)

  8. You are doing the right and good thing, Katy, in the way you are raising your daughter. It’s the way most women throughout the history of the world have been raised! College is a more modern invention that has caused a lot of destruction in our culture because of the godless things they teach. Your daughter is blessed!

  9. What if those who are not yet married or do not yet have children made it their mission to be available to those who are in the trenches of young motherhood? What If they committed their time and energy to helping the widows and or the orphans? There are so many needs to be met and so many women are so busy with their careers or the pursuit of an education that so many are left struggling because no one has the time to help. I’m the mother to 10 children, my 7 youngest are 7 and under, my husband is in the military and is gone for many hours each day. I would love if there were more women available to encourage and help me as I navigate my way through this challenging season. Sadly nearly all of the women I know, even those in the church, have careers and no one has the time.

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