Teaching Good Theology to Our Kids

I just started reading a fantastic book, Big Truths for Young Hearts, by Bruce Ware. (Yes, I do have a couple books going at the same time right now, but it keeps things interesting.) I'm only about a fourth of the way into it, but so far it's great and I don't see how that will change.
Ware is a pastor and father of 3 and has a long history of explaining theology in a way that kids and adults can understand. The preface, which was written by his two daughters, explains how this book really morphed out of the bedtime stories that he told his kids as they were growing up. Can you imagine having your dad use theology to put you to sleep? Well, maybe that makes perfect sense (on face value, it's not so exciting ... but when you get down into it, it blows me a way!). What a cool practice though; to know biblical theology so well that you can piece it down and jazz it up so that your kids are at the edge of their beds yearning for more ... and then their little heads are filled with beautiful truth as they dream! This book is really a gem ... the the way that Ware articulates concepts and relates them to tangible things that we as parents can learn to articulate ourselves and make them tangible for our kids is wonderful! It'll probably be a while until I start having these conversations with my 14-month-old, but I'm anxious to finish the book and to continue processing this information so that when the day comes, when it's appropriate to dive in; I'm ready! But in the mean time, I think it gives me better perspective on theology and is equipping me with a better understanding and to be able to share it with others.

So ... next time you get an extra $10.87 in your cookie jar, pick up this great tool and enjoy a good read that will last your kids a lifetime and beyond! (Price is specked according to Amazon.)

A Mother's Job Description

I had the chance to read a page and a half of Womanly Dominion this morning, pretty good for a Saturday, and I'm encouraged by the words that I read that remind me of my job description as a mom.

Homemaking motherhood is no refuge for the inept woman who can't cut it in the real world. Rather, stay-at-home mothering is the ultimate profession for the elite of her gender.

Her skill set must be highly diversified. She's no mere babysitting caretaker. She realizes she's raising thoroughbreds for the kingdom, and so she studies and reads and prepares meals with the inspiration of a dietitian and a nutritionist. Her health care duties summon her often to rise to the level of nurse or physician. Domestic engineer is a suitable title for her who exercises dominion over her household headquarters by subduing swarming details into workable order. She is an economist in keeping the budget, holding the purse strings as the accountant, and acting as the purchasing agent for the family corporation, averting bankruptcy and maintaining solvency. She's a psychologist in analyzing the peculiarities of each temperament, tracing the development of each child, and bringing the apt word as a counselor in every situation. She's a personal trainer and disciplinarian as she cultivates obedience and self-control in her natively wild herd. She's a teacher and professor in instructing her students in reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, history, science, and art. This is exceptionally and overwhelmingly true of a homeschooling mother. She's a pastor and theologian as she educates her children in the lofty themes of morality, spirituality, and eternity.

 Wow, what a job we mothers are called to! I don't think there's any job in the workforce that would call us to wear this many hats ... but while at the same time has such a high calling -- "raising thoroughbreds for the kingdom." What an amazing blessing!

Chanski continues by saying:

A mother is handling things of a far greater magnitude. She's handling never-dying souls. She's daily conducting heart surgery on eternal spirits whose forever destinies are influenced most profoundly by the hands that rock their cradles, wipe their noses, spank their fannies, open their Bibles, prepare their after-school snacks, and turn off their bedroom lights. Those motherly hands are molding characters which will become men and women who will turn the world upside down either for good or for evil. Now that's a job that counts.

A Good Remedy for Teething ...

I just finished reading Mark 5:21-43. As I'm digesting it and trying to figure out it's practical application for me, it seems to provide the perfect remedy for my son's teething pain ... his first molar started breaking through late last night. Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night and nap time this morning didn't work out so well. It seems to be the times when he needs to sleep that it's the worst. Playtime is fine, but it's just when he's laying there, that the pain is evident to him (and the rest of the house.) So, to remedy the matter, we already used up the rest of our children's Motrin and we've been applying the baby oral gel religiously. But in reality, the true remedy outside of my human comprehension should be the Lord.

This does sound hokey ... "Just trust in the Lord and everything will be fine." But that's not really what I mean. God gives us the ability to think and pursue wisdom, Godly wisdom, to make Godly choices so that we don't make those decisions blindly. We see this all throughout Proverbs. God gives us access to science and medicine, so why not use it ... but still we need to understand that medicine, science and wisdom are all within the realm of God. But no matter what we do, God is still in control. God controls health and sickness, life and death, wealth and poverty, and the list goes on. Here's an example of this truth from Isaiah 45:5-7:

I am the Lord, and there is no other besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all of these things.

So ... needless to say, I can pursue wise options to help heal my son's pain, but unless the Lord wills it, it won't happen. However, the point here that I don't understand is this: If I choose not to give my son medication for his pain and I just bring it to the Lord, would I just wait on the Lord to direct me to the right remedy or wait for His sovereign healing? I have a difficult time getting my human mind to comprehend this ... Does anyone have any insight here?

But on another note, as I read Mark 5:21-43, I see how Jesus brought the little girl back to life and how He increased her father's faith; ultimately healing him spiritually. I also see how the bleeding woman came to Jesus, despite her embarrassment and shame, touched Jesus with confidence, knowing that He would heal her. Both of these situations, though much more severe than my son's teething pains, bring me back to Jesus' feet too. If Jesus healed people in those situations, why don't I come to Jesus with my son's teething pain? Why shouldn't I have confidence that He can heal him as well, even at a year old, and begin to make Himself real to him in his one-year-old heart and soul? What a beautiful lesson of faith that would be for him and for me!

Once I had this realization, I did take my son to Jesus' feet and pleaded with him to heal him. Now, I don't necessarily think this will automatically stop the pain ... Jesus may choose to do that, but if not, He is teaching me to rely on Him and not on my own strength or knowledge (knowing what medicine's or human remedies to consider). While those options are still good and I will continue to use Motrin and Oral Gel, my confidence needs to be in Jesus first and foremost. I need to take these worries and troubles to the Lord and know that He is faithful to listen and heal, regardless if His definition of healing is the same as mine or not.

A New Gospel-Centered Parenting Book ...

I was just browsing through my blog list and noticed a recommendation for Gospel-Powered Parenting: How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting on the CBMW blog. Moms, you might want to check this one out. Looks like a great resource. I'm going to add it to my to-read list.

Drop me a comment if you know anything else about the book.

More Thoughts On Being a Helper

I just finished the chapter on How to Raise Feminine Daughters by Susan Hunt in Biblical Womanhood of the Home, and as Hunt focused on the ways to raise daughters well, she highlighted the characteristics we mothers need to have in order to train our daughters to be godly, feminine women. (I don't have a daughter yet, but if the Lord chooses to bless me with one, I'm eager for the challenge.)

In Hunt's discussion, she touches on these points in relation to women as helpers:

"The helper design of the woman brought a completeness to the garden home [Eden] that received God's pronouncement, 'It is very good.'"

Hunt also mentions several references to 'helper' in scripture ...

• Exodus 18:4: God as Moses' Helper
  
• Psalms 10:14, 72:12 and 86:17: God is the Helper of the victim, the fatherless, the needy, and the afflicted
• Psalms 20:2, 28:7, 33:20: God is referred to as our Helper who is our support, strength, and shield.

Hence, these references to 'helper' do not depict the word as one of fragility, but one of defense, comfort, and compassion! (Here's a few more practical ways to understand what it means to be a helper.)

And finally, Hunt explains that in Psalms 146, the words help (ezer) and hope are linked together. And she says, from an excerpt from her book, By Design:

Help apart from hope is superficial and temporary....The woman who can give authentic help is the one who has come to a place of hopelessness in self that drives her to God's Word where she finds her 'help is the God of Jacob,' and her 'hope is in the Lord.' She is qualified to help others because she has an eternal relationship with the Lord and she is SATURATED (emphasis added) with His Word. She points them to the only viable Object of hope by directing them to the only veritable Source of hope. This is authentic help.

Can you imagine if we were to help our husbands in this way? Like I mentioned the other day about how we should help our husbands to Jesus like the men did with the paralytic in Mark 2:1-22 ... what if we did it with such humility and confidence in the Lord that everything in us 'points them to the only viable Object of hope'? How awesome would that be? (Hunt's example and explanation of helper encompasses our helping ability toward our husband, but also to others around us too, but for the purpose of our ongoing discussion of how we can be a helper to our husband, I'm going to keep the focus on our husbands.)

And ultimately, as Hunt explains further, the woman that she explains above is the REDEEMED helper. The woman who will "defend her family and the covenant family [fellow believers] on her knees ...." So, one additional quality of a helper, a redeemed helper, that we need to add to our ongoing list of helper characteristics is that of a prayer warrior!

Proverbs 22:6

I was hanging out with some of my girlfriends last night and in our conversation, I brought up Proverbs 22:6 (not that I'm always quoting scripture when I'm hanging out ... but it just came to mind when we were talking).

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

The reason why I brought it up was because we were talking about well-known people in the Christian world who "seemed" to raise their children in the ways of the Lord, but it seems that there is no fruit of their belief in the way that they live. You would obviously have to question what training those children were actually receiving (and these children are not at the end of their life yet ... the verse above says "old"), because I think the Bible is very clear in how we are to raise our children: Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6, and Colossians 3 to name a few. And when we impress these truths on their hearts, surround them with godly wisdom, the outflow of those truths in their hearts will be evident in the way they live. Not to say that their hearts will always be receptive to that training ... we need to be in constant prayer for our children ... but that's the general idea.

And so if we look back at Proverbs 22:6, I am amazed at God's sovereignty in the promise of this verse. He says that if we train our children in the ways of the Lord, when they are old, they will not turn from that truth. It's hard for my feeble human mind to grasp that when I understand that a child has free will and can choose whether or not to follow the ways of the Lord, but then I have to remember that God is God, and because he says this, IT IS. Praise God! I just need to pray like heck that God will equip me with everything I need to raise my child in His ways so that I can see this verse come to fruition in his life.

Thoughts?