Bookshelf Bravery

When I was young my mother would read out loud the Cooper Kids Adventures books by Frank Peretti. I remember pacing back and forth on the hardwood floors behind the couch in our living room while my mother read suspenseful parts of the stories; periodically she would ask me if I was okay. I loved it--"Keep reading, keep reading" I would plea. She always acquiesced.

I read Tolkien's poem "The Lay of Beowulf" (which is a summary poem of the Anglo Saxon poem Beowulf) to my kiddos this week. They loved it; the last time I saw them that excited was when I let them drink some of my Baja Blast from Taco Bell. When I got to the part where Grendel (the monster) bloodily invades the Hall of Heorot my son held his breath and his eyes expanded to the size of saucers, and I'm pretty sure he didn't blink for a minute or two. I finished Tolkien's poem and he eagerly said, "Read it again!" So, of course, I did.

Today my son and I went fishing and we saw a 5' bullsnake. My son said, "I'm not afraid. I'm brave like Beowulf!"

Mental Map of World History: Maps, Globes, Literature, Art, Music, Architecture, Etc.

"A child needs to form an increasingly focused mental map of history and of the world in order to comprehend his place in space and time; physical maps aid this tremendously. In all his studies, use timelines of history, use maps and globes of the world, and use pictures (of art objects and architecture, etc.) from other places and times" (Wes Callihan, Preparing Younger Children for a Great Books Education, 13).

Education: History

"An absolutely critical role of classical education is teaching a student the relevance of the past. Knowing God depends on knowing history—what God has done for His people as recorded in the Scriptures, and what He has done for them in the last two millenia. And knowing oneself also depends on knowing history--where we came from and why we are who we are. The twentieth century has decided that the past is irrelevant, and in an excess of mind-boggling arrogance it considers our age to be the definition of reality, truth, and value. Education must oppose this in the strongest possible manner" (Wes Callihan, Preparing Children for a Great Books Education, 12).

Imagination

"Follow this principle as your children grow: feed their imaginations as well as their rational minds, for the imagination is the fertile ground in which all other studies can grow best" (Wes Callihan, Preparing Younger Children for a Great Books Education, 8).

Education: Learning for the Glory of God

"[D]isciplining the mind in rigorous, propositional, linear thought about certain core subjects, and learning to appreciate and glory in the beauties of language and words, must be at the heart of education. If it is not, then those other studies will be an incoherent collection of particulars with no overarching, coherent world-view into which to fit them and with which to find real meaning for them" (Wes Callihan, How to Prepare Younger Kids for a Great Books Education, 5).

Consider the quote above on the aim of education. Education first and foremost is about shaping a child-student's character. However, identifying and appreciating beauty and goodness is at "the heart of education." If an education curriculum is not beauty/goodness oriented, then its telos is broke. Like a compass with a needle that doesn't point to the magnetic North, such an education is plumb useless.

The world was created by a good God, and creation in its original form was good, good, very good. The child-student has a Creator. The "overarching, coherent world-view" that allows the child-student to make sense of the particulars of this world is derived from Biblical knowledge/revelation: a beautiful and good Triune Lord made a beautiful and good world to beautifully and goodly mirror and reflect the Creator's beauty and goodness. However, man, the chief image-bearer of creation, rebelled. Thus, the imago Dei was defaced, and now the world groans under the weight of sin and the effects of the Fall. And yet, the beautiful and good Triune Lord before the foundations of the world chose to elbow-drop Satan, sin, death, and the effects of the Fall, through the perfect obedience of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ.

The beauty and goodness in the world was merely defaced, it was not obliterated. Hence, a child-student studies the flawed (fallen) world, studies creation, studies language, etc., in light of Biblical knowledge/revelation, and the child-student learns a bit more and more about the beauty and goodness of the Creator who preordained to restore this world. Education conducted in this fashion necessarily becomes a means for giving God glory; education conducted in this fashion fulfills man's chief aim of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. So, an education curriculum with an unbroken and functioning telos will say things like, "Go and sin no more" and "Learn about this beautiful world" and "Glorify God and enjoy Him forever." And if you can check the box next to each of those three statements, then of course you'll be able to go find a job and get dominion for Jesus.

Education: "Sitting at the feet of . . . [who]?!?!"

"Should a family set their children at the feet of the wrong teachers, they will destroy the faith within a generation or two" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate: The Men Who Destroyed the Christian West, 6).

It sounds alarmist and hyperbolic, but it is true.

Parenting Like God

We should strive for holiness, but holiness is a flood, not an absence. Are you the kind of parent who can create joys for your children that they never imagined wanting? Does your sun shine, warming the faces of others? Does your rain green the world around you? Do you end your days with anything resembling a sunset? Do you begin with a dawn?   -- N.D. Wilson (from "God the Merrymaker" from CT, April 2014)

Children

"There is probably no greater life-changing event than the arrival of a child. Jobs change often. That big mortgage we signed is financing a house that will one day be rubble. But children last forever" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 80).

To a Thousand Generations

"The biblical vision, however, can inspire us to obedience. When we know the kingdom will grow, when we know that God is faithful in His covenants, when we know that He has promised to be God to us, to our children, and to as many as are afar off, when we know that Christ not only came to conquer the world but that He has already overcome it--then we move forward in the faith. We move forward believing the good news of the Kingdom of Christ. We don't send our little children out to drag their heathen classmates onto the boat; we prepare them for the larger task of raising their own children to be a light to a world that is not triumphing but perishing. Eschatology then becomes more than a theological parlor game. It is the very spring in our step, the very hope that is within us, the very vision that we are to pass onto His blessings--that He is in the midst of blessing to a thousand generations" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 58).

"Two Things"

"Young men, I beseech you earnestly, beware of pride. Two things are said to be very rare sights in the world--one is a young man that is humble, and the other is an old man that is content. I fear that this is only too true" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 23).

Beware of Pride

"Pride sits in all our hearts by nature. We are born proud. Pride makes us rest content with ourselves--think we are good enough as we are--keep us from taking advice--refuse the gospel of Christ--turn every one to his own way. But pride never reigns anywhere so powerfully as in the heart of a young man" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 22).

"Hell itself is truth known too late."

"Young men, I want to save you all this sorrow, if I can. Hell itself is truth known too late. Be wise in time. What youth sows, old age must reap. Do not give the most precious season of your life to that which will not comfort you in the latter days of your life. Sow yourselves rather in righteousness; break up your hard ground, don't sow among thorns" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 18).

Be Spared Many A Bitter Tear

"Young men, young men, I wish you did but know the comfort of a conscience not burdened with a long list of youthful sins. These are the wounds that pierce the deepest. These are the arrows that drink up a man's spirit. This is the iron that enters into the soul. Be merciful to yourselves. Seek the Lord early, and so you will be spared many a bitter tear" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 17).

Teaching Children About Sermons

"Teach your children that every sermon counts for eternity. Salvation comes through faith, and faith comes through hearing God's Word (Rom. 10:13-16). So every sermon is a matter of life and death (Deut. 32:47; 2 Cor. 2:15-16). The preached gospel will either lift us up to heaven or cast us down to hell. It will advance our salvation or aggravate our condemnation" (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 11-12).

Sins of Youth

"Sin is the mother of all sorrow, and no sort of sin appears to give a man so much misery and pain as the sins of his youth" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 15).

Sin-Nurse

"Custom is the nurse of sin. Every fresh act of sin lessens fear remorse, hardens our hearts, blunts the edge of our conscience, and increases our evil inclination" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 11).

Putting Lipstick on a Pig ... Things the Liar Does

"He [Devil] will paint, cover with gold, and dress up sin, in order to make you fall in love with it. He will deform, misrepresent, and fabricate true Christianity, in order to make you take a dislike to it. He will exalt the pleasures of wickedness--but he will hide from you the sting. He will lift up before your eyes the cross and its painfulness--but will keep you out of sight the eternal crown. He will promise you everything, as he did to Christ, if you will only serve Him. He will even help you to wear a form of Christianity, if you will only neglect the power. He will tell you at the beginning of your lives, it is too soon to serve God--he will tell you at the end, it is too late. Oh, do not be deceived!!" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 13).

Powerful Habits

"Habits have deep roots. Once sin is allowed to settle in your heart, it will not be turned out at your bidding. Custom becomes second nature, and its chains are not easily broken" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 10).

Thoughts for Young Men, Again

"Young men, do not be deceived. Don't think you can, at will, serve lusts and pleasures in your beginning and then go and serve God with ease at your latter end. Don't think you can live with Esau, and then die with Jacob. It is a mockery to deal with God and your souls in such a fashion" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 9).

Thoughts for Young Men, Again

"What young men will be in all probability depends on what they are now, and they seem to forget this" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 8).