Why You Should Be Excited if Your Child Has ADD

Is your child bent toward being an entrepreneur?  If so, encourage it! We were so inspired by this video–you’re going to love it!  Hat tip to Kathy for finding it.  (Please note that it has some mild slang language–use discretion with children.)

“I think we have an obligation as parents to start teaching our kids to fish instead of giving them a fish.”

Ah! Thank you! It’s about time somebody just says that out loud.

Very inspiring video, especially if you have boys that seem to struggle with school.

As the Family Goes, So Goes Civilization

Teach it to your children…

Family and marriage are institutions designed by God–they are not man-made.  Perhaps then, we shouldn’t be surprised that the family is becoming an enemy. Who would have ever believed there would come a time when society would be hostile to what has always been considered the basic unit of its existence?  It is why I think feminism has had the most damaging impact on our culture…because at the core, it seeks to separate family…with destruction as a result.

We have slid down a slippery slope and arrived at the belief that the basic unit of society is the INDIVIDUAL.  (Think about it for a minute…look at all the ways families are divided and the expectations that is should be so…even within the church.)  And when that is believed, the individual is very quickly lost in the state.

“Dr. Carle C. Zimmerman, Harvard University spent his life studying the history of the family.  He has pointed out the family’s significance:  that whenever the atomistic (separate, unrelated members) family develops, in which the authority of the father is no longer paramount, then there is a very quick disintegration of society, the total state takes over, and there is a radical collapse of civilization…..

With the development of the atomistic family–which is really no family at all–the home is simply a place to room and board while the state takes over the role as father–to take care of the family in its every need, providing for the children and the parents; the family no longer cares for itself; civilization collapses. ” -R.J. Rushdoony

(By the way, this paradigm does not exclude the rare single men and women not called to marriage;  all still belong to a family and have a major importance in that role.)

Listen to  Zimmerman’s conclusions:

He believed…

“..that a fundamental purpose of civilization is the empowerment and enabling of the family — and is absolutely key to the health of any civilization. … Nobody undertakes to have a large family because it’s fun, or, in advanced societies, because it’s economically beneficial. They do it because they believe that’s what people do. In other words, they believe that children are a blessing from God, and that we humans are participating in the divine will by begetting children and raising them up to carry on our civilization….

Mankind has consumed not only the crop, but the seed for the next planting as well. Whatever may be our Pollyanna inclination, this fact cannot be avoided. Under any assumptions, the implications will be far-reaching for the future not only of the family but of our civilization as well. The question is no longer a moral one; it is social.”

Building the family is the only option for surviving–slice it any way you like, our ideals and personal opinions won’t erase factual reality.

Star-Gazing is the Closest We’ll Get to Starbucks

The nearest Starbucks coffee is some 40 miles away,

but tomorrow we’ll have butter ’cause we’ve got raw milk today!

It’s not all glam and glitz to dabble on this funny farm,

but we marvel underneath the stars and cherish country charm.

They think I’m “Fertile Myrtle” but they should only see, these goats don’t have a thing on me–this baby’s number three (at a time, that is)!

It may cost less to buy tomatoes at the grocery store,

But watching them sprout from the ground has taught us so much more.

It’s a simple life we live, with its share of dirt and grime,

And as much as I love Starbucks, I’ll take it anytime.

Oh, and maybe life gets a bit too busy?  Yesterday, Aaron and I both forgot it was our anniversary

From the kitchen as we got ready for church I called into the bedroom,

“Hey Honey, Happy Anniversary!”

Dead Silence.  *hee hee*  I can see his face!

Slowly he eased out of the room, not sure if I had just remembered or had just given him ample time to drop the bomb…

I burst into laughter!

Yep, it’s OK to forget as long as you’re not the only one.  But I wouldn’t suggest taking the risk if it can be avoided.

So, we went to Starbucks later last night.  Well, OK, it wasn’t Starbucks, but that fit with the poem so much better.  It was actually a coffee cafe very akin to Starbucks except without the wavy-haired siren.

And Starbucks coffee.

The Importance of Family Reading

“Christians are to be people of the Book and people who love good books.  The family gathered together over dessert listening to Dad read is a lovely tradition.  (And if Dad doesn’t want to read, there is no reason why Mom can’t read to the kids at appropriate times.)  Reading at bedtime, reading at dinnertime, reading on the porch on a summer evening–reading ought to be part of a family’s heritage.  Experiencing books together ties us together, and we begin to love certain books as a family and remember them like we remember a special vacation.” ~Nancy Wilson, Praise Her in the Gates

Words and Choosing to Love

Issues of the parent-heart about which the Lord is dealing heavily with me…

Living in a house, all day, with lots of children creates almost constant training opportunities.  And none are so available as those that involve the use of words.  And yet, it isn’t words really.  “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

I maintain that we can’t truly love others out there until we truly love each other here.  And of course, we do love each other.  But I mean we must truly demonstrate that love to each other.  So it’s one thing for a brother to love his sister and be willing to fight for her honor.  But do his words reveal it?  Does he choose to show love..even in the ordinary moments?

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Ephesians 4:29

Do we build up?

And then I remember a familiar warning:  “More is caught than taught”.

And the very thing I spend my days trying to form into the character of my children, I often find sorely lacking in my own.  It’s easy to use build-up words on the good days…but do I use them when I’m put to the test?  “Out of the abundance of the heart…” The fruit of the Spirit is seen best where the fruit is squeezed.

Me thinks that work on myself is the principal thing…removing the plank to aptly assist my children with their specks.

A New Kind of Church

“Do you see that the church is completely dependent on what is taught in the homes of its people? Likewise the civil society is also dependent on it. What has happened over the last 50 years is that self-discipline is no longer being taught in the home, either because parents are not present or because they have chosen not to take the difficult task of parenting seriously enough.”

“A New Kind of Church” by Eric Rauch points out the error in Brian McClaren’s book, A New Kind of Christianity and poignantly describes the proper way we must think about the church if we desire to see its effectual power around us:

It starts in the home!

“Remember that God ordained three separate and distinct realms of government…The most basic of all of these realms is, of course, the family, and basic to the proper operation of the family is the practice of self-government. No family, church, or society will exist long with members that are not self-governed (self-disciplined).”