Very encouraging article on the value of godly motherhood by Nancy Wilson; do take a moment to read it, you moms (or would-be moms) out there!

Though a mother’s work can seem monotonous or repetitive (and it is) when it comes to doing the laundry or changing the diapers, we have to have the eye of faith as we go. God blesses all these loving duties to the prospering of the souls of both mother and children. … The mother is designed by God to be a source of great blessing to her husband and children, the “very soul of the house.” And mothers underestimate the power in their hands to bring their families great good. [emphasis mine]

What a perfect photo! Matthew was so thrilled and had such a great time a few weeks ago when we went to Roaring Camp Railroad’s “A Day Out with Thomas the Train” event. Here’s a shot of him with a beautiful smile chasing after bubbles, alongside a photo of our whole family:

Evers took a day off today to help me look after the kids because we have three sick people in this household. So, Daddy got to homeschool Matthew for the first time. They reviewed the catechism first and then on to the phonics lessons. Only two minutes into the lesson, Matthew started wiggling and moving about. His exuberant energy could not be contained. I knew the rest of the lessons would be ineffective if they continued, so I suggested that Evers play a game with him. Matthew immediately took interest, and through this impromptu phonics game, he learned new letter sounds with lots of gusto. It certainly didn’t feel like he was doing school. I sat there and watched them, amused. I just love homeschooling and the flexibility it provides for our family. With Matthew’s high energy level, he is not the type to sit quietly in his chair and learn new lessons. We have to be creative to meet his needs. I’m just so thankful to the Lord for providing us the necessary means to homeschool.

Lois asked me my specific thoughts on this last night. Of course, we’ve been on the homeschooling track, arguably, since before we even had kids. And since then, we’ve done plenty of research on different curricula, approaches, etc. But we hadn’t actually sat down and analyzed the specific benefits/tradeoffs.

Rather than attempt to expound the benefits, I’ll let you read a good blog posting on blog.sonlight.com that summarizes (and links to) an excellent full-length article addressing this topic, written by a homeschooling dad who’s also an MIT grad. One thing I note is that while the author is likely a Christian, his article applies to the benefits of homeschooling in general. Of course, his points are especially applicable to we who consider our children a stewardship and not our own to raise in whatever way we choose, but rather, in the nurture and discipline of the Lord.

Lois and I were talking last night about finding ways to talk to our boys about the Lord. Admittedly, with our oldest at 3 years old, there are limitations. Nevertheless, I’ve been blessed to have short discussions like I had with him last night. The context is our nightly time of prayer and a song. Last night, I sang to him one of his favorites, Rock of Ages. I got to the line, “Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

Matthew: What’s “the fountain fly?”

Me: Well, usually, “fly” is like a plane. But here, the songwriter meant to go really fast. And a fountain is something that sprays water. “Foul” means dirty. He is saying that he wants to “fly” to the fountain to be washed, that he wants to go quickly to become clean.

Matthew: But he has to take his shirt off first, right? [not quite getting it yet, but he’s listening and understanding the metaphor!]

Me: No, he’s talking not about a dirty body, but a dirty heart! When we are unkind to others, or not thoughtful or not careful, it’s because we have a dirty heart. And we need Jesus, the Savior, to clean it. Otherwise, we’ll die because of our sins, our dirty works. That’s why he says, “Wash me, Savior or I die.”

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Matthew probably only caught a tiny glimpse of what I was saying. But he was listening, so he knows something about the gospel! Lord willing, we can make the most of these kinds of times to continue to explain the gospel to our kids.

Today I read a fellow Christian blogger’s reflections about the movie Million Dollar Baby. Apologies for any spoiler, but from a Christian perspective, it’s not so great a movie anyhow. Here’s an excerpt that caught my eye, and was the main point of the post:

Frankie Dunn’s priest had 23 years to share the gospel with Frankie….more than enough time to help shape at least a beginner’s world view according to Christ, don’t you think? And had the priest done his job, Maggie’s request to Frank [to help her end her life because she’d become paraplegic] would surely have triggered the truth so that he would have been able to understand it more clearly. And then Frankie would have had multiple opportunities, as he sat by her hospital bed hour after hour, day after day, to share the gospel with her, redeeming her own world view.

What’s notable about the post, and as it relates to Lois’ blog entry below, is how the blogger noted how after some twenty-plus years of service as Clint Eastwood’s would-be pastor, the Catholic priest has failed to convey the gospel to him in any useful fashion. Notwithstanding errors of the Catholic church at large, this is certainly pressing on my own heart as a minister (in the broadest sense) of the gospel and as a father. How many years should it take to convey the most basic Christ-centered world view to someone?

Tedd Tripp’s article “Keeping Grace in Place” is a good reminder that the most important thing is the gospel when it comes to parenting.

All Christian parents want their children to know, understand, and embrace the gospel of grace, but often we don’t direct them to the gospel in their times of greatest need. This is the importance of shepherding the heart. The temptation is to focus on behavioral change. Whenever behavior becomes the goal, you are prey to all the temptations to manipulate behavior.

This rings so true. It is often easy to lose sight of the gospel when we feel so bogged down by the difficult task of keeping our children in line. Yet, the gospel is so central and crucial.

If the grace of the gospel and the need for internal change is not your message, if the heart is not addressed, only behavior, you will miss valuable opportunities to take your children to the cross for repentance, forgiveness, and cleansing.

This is such a good reminder. We need to address the heart issue and bring them to the cross.