Chesterton said somewhere (and if I knew which box the book was in, I’d go find it) that boundaries are what make art possible; breaking some boundaries will not make you free. He goes on to say that if the artist decides in his bold creative way to draw a giraffe with a short neck, what he will find is that he is actually not free to draw a giraffe.
The boundaries that we have in life are exactly the same. Have you ever heard someone complaining about all the “rules” of Christianity? As though the ten commandments exist in our lives the same way the obstacles at the dog show exist for show poodles? Are these laws abstract things that God set up just to watch us try to follow? Rules to obey for no particular reason? Something that has been set up for hobbyists and enthusiasts and otherwise unbalanced people? Continue reading ‘Believe it Yourself’
When men gather round and start talking shop, you can bet it’s not about pregnancy and childbirth. But when women have a moment to talk to one another, whether it’s on facebook or actually face to face, that’s often the subject. And I’m not complaining. This is as it should be. We talk about what we are doing, and young moms are having kids, so that’s the biggest topic on their minds.
When the men talk about whether it’s better to drive a Ford or a Chevy, I’m betting that it would be pretty rare for any of the men to get their feelings hurt. But when women are talking about how much weight to gain or whether to use cloth diapers, feelings can be right out there on the line, being crushed by every toe that steps on them.
So here are a couple of cautions for us all. If you are a young mom looking for input on any issue under the huge heading of mothering or childbearing, be wise. Be prepared to receive lots of advice and opinions that you may or may not agree with. Some may even be positively fruity. Don’t take it personally. Don’t take Continue reading ‘Talking Shop’
Desiring God Ministries invited Rachel to be a guest blogger, and I know you will all want to go over there to read this piece she wrote about the most important mission field for moms.
Teaching your children to love the standard is at the very heart of Christian parenting. When Mom wrote about “lowering the standards,” it naturally raised a lot of questions about how you teach little kids to love the standard. How can we teach them to love high standards? How can we help them internalize the whole of the law, and not externally conform to whatever they have to. If you teach your children to conform, simply because it is easier for everyone, you are setting them up to do exactly that when they go out into the world. What you want is for your children to form a deep love for and loyalty to the law of God. But how do you do this in the day-to-day operations of a household with small children?
Continue reading ‘The Strength of the Ox’
When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden, the place was full of fruit and delights, and they were invited to enjoy themselves. In the midst of all those invitations to enjoyment was one forbidden tree. Only one.
When God wrote down His commandments, He gave us only ten. And those ten could be summarized in two: Love the Lord with all you have, and love your neighbor as yourself.
We parents, on the other hand, do just the opposite. Rather than imitating our Father in Heaven, we lay down rule after rule, command after command. We would do well to consider what it is we are creating, whether it is modeled after the Garden or modeled after some dungeon in the bad place. Continue reading ‘One Rule’
Here’s how my husband puts it: The goal is not to get your children to conform to the standard. The goal is to get them to love the standard. If you can’t get them to love the standard, lower the standard.
Getting them to conform is relatively easy when they are little. But once they have grown up, if they don’t love it, they will abandon it. This can explain why some teenagers leave the church and fall in love with the world. They conformed until they were seventeen or eighteen because they had to. But the standard was never internalized, never loved.
That strange command about not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk applies here (Exodus 23:18-20). The milk is intended for life and should not be used as an instrument of death. We should bring our children up to be nourished by the milk of the Word, the milk of family life, the milk of worship and obedience to God. But if we turn up the heat too high, we will not nourish them, but destroy them. Continue reading ‘Loving the Standard’
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