Ultimately, your children need to learn how to love their Creator, love their neighbor, and do common sense things. Teach them the 10 commandments. Teach them how to grow a garden. Teach them how to use a shovel, or cook a meal, or sew up a tear on a piece of clothing.
When they get older, they'll decide what they want to do in life, and they'll study for that specific field, but there is no common sense reason for a child to be learning anything they will not use in real life. If you need to know calculus for your job, that's cool. I've never used it. I use addition and subtraction, division and multiplication every day. People have education all messed up. Learning is great, but everyone doesn't learn the same way, and everyone doesn't need to learn the same things. I've took my boys to work with me since they were 13. Like real work. They spent time with me before that age, doing chores around the property like grass cutting, weeding, picking up those irritating black walnuts from our trees, lol. But at 13, I worked them hard. Tisha has taught our girls how to be moms since they were walking. My daughters could cook for our whole family when they were little. My oldest son is 18, married, and has a full time job. He's just as responsible as a 40 year old man. Probably more responsible than some. My next son turns 17 today, and works full time as a Karate instructor for children. Last time I went to one of his tournaments, all the adult instructors went on and on about how much they loved him, and how mature he was for his age. My oldest daughter (20) went to work for Ace Hardware right out of high school. She was loved by everyone there, because she did her job and was polite. She then became a wife and a mother, and she's doing wonderfully. Are you bragging on your children Matthew? Yep. You bet I am. Lol... It's by Yah's grace that He allowed my wife and I to train them up in the way they should go. It wasn't me. It was Yah's grace in me, and in Tisha. I do not care if my children never get rich. I'm not worried about them being famous. I just want them to live a good, honest, fun life. I want them to be upstanding citizens in the community. I want their names to be spoken and dignity to be thought of. I want them to be people you can count on. The way this is accomplished is not by forcing them to learn things they'll never use, but teaching each of them on an individual basis. Not when they sit down at a desk, but in day-to-day life. They learn as they live with and around their parents. Every student, after fully trained, will become like their teacher. A good parent is the best teacher a child could ever have.
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There is a strong pull in our day to conform to some kind of cultural ideology; to get on board one kind of ship or another, and then bad-mouth anyone not on your ship.
The problem is this: all of the ships sailing around aren't good vessels. They may have a stripe of something good here and there, but they all lack, because they aren't built by the right manufacturer - and they sure ain't captained by the right people. In order to judge right from wrong, you've got to have a standard, else you're just spouting your opinion. You can't just decide capital punishment is wrong or right by yourself. You can't just say we have to go to war with that nation or this nation, or that we need or don't need the government's help in schooling our children. People go round and round about matters as these, and you hear one opinion after another. One "solution" after another. In order to make a decision about your marriage, or family, or job, or whatever... you've got to have some kind of blueprint to go by. Some say that blueprint is what you feel is best, but then comes along another person with a "what-they-feel-is-best" blueprint, that doesn't match yours. Some people think the Democratic Party is the blueprint. Others think it's the GOP. Then you've got the Libertarians poking fun at both of them, while trying to build an industrial hemp plant. The reason there is so much bickering is because most folks have somehow made the decision to NOT allow the Creator to make all the decisions. They've decided what He says might be alright sometimes, but when they run across something He says that they don't like, they run back to some other level (or un-level) measurement. The other day my wife was showing me some amendments that people could vote on here in Georgia (our home state). As I read through each one of them, the only thing that crossed my mind is: what does the Creator say in His law? I've trained my mind to think like that. It's taken a while, but it helps to be a creature with a heart that's being written on by the Almighty Himself. He's helped me get to where I am today. I think like He thinks, because He has made me think like He thinks. There was one amendment that was about alcohol sales on Sunday (before noon I think I was). I remember when you weren't able to buy alcohol on Sunday, and I get where that comes from here in the southern "Bible belt." But... the Creator doesn't say anything in His law about buying a 6-pack on Sunday. He doesn't forbid it, so that was an easy one for me to vote on. Plus I like to drink, so there's that. (In moderation of course... for all you people who think drinking means getting drunk.) My point is that I have a standard, and that standard is the law of Yahweh, the Creator, and the author of the Torah, His instructions and guidance for humanity. I'm pro capital punishment, because He is. I'm anti-homosexual practice because He is. I'm pro helping widows and orphans and foreigners because He is. I really couldn't care less about what anyone else says. All other arguments are mute to me. You might as well talk to a telephone poll if you are trying to get me to okay something that He forbids, or to forbid something that He allows. I'm not listening. I'm closed minded. It makes life easier to have such a standard. I'd argue that it's the only standard in the universe, but regardless... I have one. It's not me. It's not my feelings. It's not a political party. It's not a denomination. It's the holy law of the Creator of all things. He created us, so I let Him call the shots. I go by what He says. What's your standard? What do you judge everything by? Why do you think the way you do? What makes something a sin to you? Why do you allow some practices and forbid others? Everyone judges by something. I'd suggest making that something Yahweh's Law, else you'll always end up changing with the whims of the culture. (Note: Some of this was adapted from Pastor Brian Borgman's series on pride and humility. I highly recommend it. It can be found at SermonAudio.com)
PRIDE
HUMILITY
Last night, our grandson spent the night with us. He's just over two months old, and he is as precious as it gets. My youngest child is now almost 10, so it's been a while since I've had that little of a person in my arms.
I woke up during the night. I heard him wiggling, and making all these baby noises. My wife (the Queen) knows exactly what to do to comfort him. She amazes me. She'd quickly get him back to peaceful sleep. At my third time waking up - LOL - about 4 a.m. I decided it was time to stay awake, so I laid there and meditated a bit. I thought about how little he was. How he knows nothing about what's going on in the world. How he has no responsibilities, no worries, no... pretty much anything. He's just a brand new, little human. I don't remember much from birth to about five years old, but my wife and I have raised five children of our own, and there's something special about little children. To them, everything is amazing. You show them how to color... amazing. You sing them a song... amazing. You take them outside and look at birds... amazing. You lay them on the couch and tickle their tummy... amazing. They are completely into whatever is going on. I remember when I could do no wrong in the sight of my children. I was still me, flaws and all, but I was their big, strong, perfect daddy. They were little. They had all the confidence in the world in me. They'd look at me with those eyes, and I would melt. There's something special about really little children. There was a time when the disciples of the Messiah asked him, "Who's gonna' be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Yeshua set a little child in the midst of all of them, and said: "Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 18:3-4, WEB) The characteristic to be pointed out here is humility. Little children are humble in the sense that they don't care what anyone thinks. They get dirty in the yard, don't brush their teeth, share their juice box, pat you on the back when you cry, tell you they love you, and say the sweetest things. They aren't perfect. I understand that we are all fallen sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, so don't get crazy and start rebuking my theology, lol. But Yeshua said what he said for a reason. If you're interested in being great in the kingdom, you gotta' become like a little child. You've got to humble yourself and live, and love, like a little 1 year old that's just learning to talk. So... I think all us adults focus on too much stuff we have no control over, because we want control over it. We bicker and fuss and argue about things that make us feel validated. It's a mess y'all. It's a stupid mess. We could spend all that energy reading and studying the Bible, praying, helping the poor, being kind to our neighbors, and living in amazement and awe of all that we've been given in the here and now for a short while. We aren't gonna' live forever in this life. Don't kid yourself. It'll be over before you know it, and what will matter are the humble things. What will matter is how you treated your neighbor. How you helped someone who didn't have the means to help you back. What will matter is how you spent time seeking your Creator. How you looked for ways to please Him more, and just lived a simple and peaceful life. Life isn't about being first. It's about being last. Let everybody ahead of you. Don't go for the gold. Just be what you can be. That's all a little child does. Be quick to forgive. Be quick to say "I'm sorry." Don't be afraid to cry, and don't be afraid to get dirty. If life hasn't thrown you a curve ball yet, get ready for one, and the just roll with it. Trials build character. Tough times produce soft hearts. My little grandson has the best times of his life awaiting him for the next 5 years, and he doesn't even know it. I'm gonna' do my best to have fun with him, and watch him live and love as a little child. And then, I'm gonna' try to be like him. |
AuthorBlog by Matthew Janzen. Lover of Yahweh, Yeshua, my wife and 5 children. All else is commentary. Archives
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