Friday, June 08, 2007

Book Review: The Ministry of Motherhood, Ch 9

Chapter Nine Quotes ~ Enough for a - Lifetime A Model of Faith (my thoughts in green)

We're getting comments on Chapters 7 and 8 - so I'm going to go ahead and post some more today. Remember, you can click on the links in the sidebar to read what others are saying and dialogue back and forth, at any time.

We now move to examine "Gift of Faith" in our GIFTS acronym.

"In order to know God and follow His purposes, we must know and understand His word, which is the primary source of our knowledge of Him and His ways. " page 99

OK I could pull some little semantics here and get into a theological discussion - but honestly - the point is well taken. We do NEED to be in the word, to know the God of the Bible and to trust in His character.
Faith Leads us to stake our lives on God's truth as revealed in the word. page 99 I guess I would say that faith leads us to stake our lives on the truth of God's character and nature as revealed in the word.....but yeah - I'm there with this.
After talking about the disciple John, Sally goes on to quote, " Jesus said that this world is passing away, that we will live with him in his kingdom for eternity, but also that eternity starts right now as we establish his spiritual kingdom in our hearts and learn to live with an eternal perspective. " page 105
This is BIG. Do you get it? I remember the first time I heard a pastor explore this view of eternal life - it was a much younger Mike. ::snort:: We studied it out (because I check everyone out when it's something new) and the word tense etc in this passage in John is amazing. It changed me to realize that when Jesus came to bring us eternal life it is not pie in the sky. It's now. He came to give us a life that is characterized by the eternal. That abundant life begins NOW even in the midst of the fading away and decay of our world and society. Cool stuff.
If we teach our children through our actions or instruction, even subtly, that being successful in this world is somehow a measure of their importance and success, then we will miss the point of all the Lord's teaching. We are given one chance to live on earth and the true measure of our success will be our faith, our faithfulness, and our obedience. page 105... If they can keep eternity before their eyes, they will be able to live in hope no matter what happens to them in this life." also page 105
Whew this is good for parents to remember. Maybe, especially homeschooling parents? I'd love to hear some thoughts on this. First this was convicting - ouch. What AM I focusing on with the children? How am I measuring their success? Then, it was encouraging....because I know of some weak areas in my graduates. But THEY LOVE THE LORD WHOLEHEARTEDLY....and the more I thought about it that really is the TRUE measure of success for a Christian, isn't' it? I think that Sally is not saying that you won't focus on excellence, but that you will train your children not to think more highly of themselves than they ought if they excel in things the world considers important. What do you think?
I think the main point of this chapter is to keep eternity before our eyes.
Oops no time to even proofread - gotta go pick up produce.

4 comments:

Yvonne said...

Hey De'Etta, This year Matt's first in high school/home school I finally got the courage to make God THE priority in our educational process. We still worked on every subject, but the priority was God and His Word above all. If anything was going to be dropped in any particular day, it was going to be composition or math...never Bible or discipleship time. I'm in the midst of pulling together our portfolios and I was REALLY worried that our portfolio was going to be "less," than normal. But what I'm finding is that God led us in so many excellent endeavors, that we've had one of the richest years ever. Instead of seeking after academic excellence, I simply surrendered to seeking God with my children everyday. I did, literally, put the academics on the back burner in favor of facilitating their relationship with God. And while the academics were on the back burner, I simply stirred the pot, so to speak and kept things simmering. He seems to have rewarded us with that relationship AND an excellent academic year as well. The kids have finished their program and are right where they should be...and best of all, they really DO love the Lord. ~Yvonne

Kathy in WA said...

Interesting post, De'Etta and a great response from Yvonne. Exciting to hear her testimony as well.

What does it mean to keep an eternity focus? I'm still grappling with that. Is it the idea that my goal is to serve and love the Lord here? That the things I do have an eternal purpose?

I'd love to hear a little bit more. You know, when you have time. :)

Lisa in Jax said...

Whew, weighty subject. I think this is hard. I want my kids to do well in life AND have a focus on Heaven.LOL I think that I have more work to do in this area.LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Hmmm...wouldn't keeping an eternity focus mean -

~keeping the things that God says are important - first place?

~realizing this isn't our home and making decisions and responding based on the fact that this life is not all there is?

And I'm not sure that Sally's point is that we DON'T aim for excellence in academics...but that we don't judge a child's worth based on their preformance...that we don't put academics above Christ....that we don't let the whole excell at academics become a measure of our child's worth. Our child's worth is settled in Scripture and should be built on who God says He is and not on how well they can preform.

At least that is what I got from it. I suspect Sally's children have had a very rigourous education....