Your Kids' Interpretation Of Your Past

Abraham tried to pass off his wife, Sarah, as strictly his sister; twice. While it was true that she was his half-sister, he was purposefully being deceptive.

Isaac ended up doing the same thing.

Only it got worse.

Why would Isaac do this? It did not reap any benefits for his parents. In fact, it would seem to be a humiliating situation to be caught doing such a thing. Isaac definitely experienced for himself the shame of this decision. A PUBLIC PROCLAMATION of his lie was made!

It's possible that in relaying the story "of this crazy thing we did one time" to their son, they did not manage to present it in a negative light. 

I've seen parents inadvertently talk about their life before Christ in a way that makes it seem so fun, and glittery, and romantic to their kids.

I think it is very important to talk about our past with our children. They should know our mistakes. But I think we should be cautious and aware that we are not romanticizing the past in how we relay this information. 

As with Abraham to Isaac, the situation gets worse from generation to generation. Abraham was founding his lie on a partial truth; Sarah WAS his half-sister. For Isaac to repeat this behavior he had to straight-up LIE. In Abraham's case, God stepped in and intervened by telling the king to not touch Sarah. In Isaac's case, God didn't touch that mess. If the king hadn't seen them fondling each other in what they thought was a hidden place, there's no telling what disaster would have insued. And as mentioned before, when the king denounced Isaac, he did it loudly and to his entire nation. I'm not sure what your opinion is when a news outlet reveals a politician has been blatantly lying to the public about a matter, but I'm certain that's how the population felt about Isaac.

I have mad props for Abraham's endurance and faith. But I wish, for Isaac's reputation sake, that he'd have said, "Don't ever do that. Be honest and forthright and trust God to protect you, son."

Let us not giggle when we tell our kids about our foolishness while drunk or on drugs. Let us not high-five each other in conveying stories of narrow escapes. Let us soberly tell our children the damage we caused in our ignorant state. And let us wrap up those stories by telling them how thankful we are to not be living in that destructive place of darkness. Let's make sure they KNOW that because of the price Christ paid on Calvary to redeem us from our stupidity, that every generation henceforth will live in joyful humility and service to Jesus.

When I Drank Bug Juice

When I was sixteen years old, my parents took me to several countries in Europe. The most memorable ones were Russia and Yugoslavia because we had church there. And our point in going was most definitely more than to have inspiring worship services with our spiritual family in another language and culture. We went to share the gospel with those who had not had a chance to hear it. So one afternoon we were having a meal at the home of some people who were clearly hungry for the gospel of salvation. We were also on our best behavior knowing that you win souls one impression at a time.

I do not remember everything we were served to eat and drink, but I do strongly remember not liking the drink that was offered. It was part juice and part soda, and this spoiled, American, junk-food loving kid did not have a pallet for such an "oddity." But clearly, it would have been rude and unappreciative to not consume whatever they put in front of us. I also need to mention that this was a poor family which was obvious from their clothing to their furniture. We had been in many homes while in Yugoslavia, and this was not up to the standards of the other places we had visited.

So I had managed to eat all of the disgusting fruits and vegetables set before me. "Disgusting" not because they actually were disgusting. But I HATED eating anything that grew from dirt back then. If it did not moo, cluck, or snort, or wasn't bleached and filled with God-knows-what chemicals, I did not eat it. But, THIS WAS SOUL WINNING! And in my deep sincerity to be Christ's hands to the lost, I ate things I absolutely could not stand. Then the worst of the WORST occurred...

I had managed to swallow the last of that awful drink (again, it probably wasn't awful, but just my immature taste buds being bratty.) Then the hostess raised the bottle and offered to refill my glass. We did not speak a common language, so I gestured that I was full and "no thanks!" To my horror, she still refilled my glass, even emptying the bottle! I shot a glance at my parents, but they were no help! Their gestures were saying, "Wonderful! How nice! She LOVES it!"

I smiled weakly, took the glass and sipped. I sat the glass down just before a bug nosedived straight into my juice! Now, in my home that's an automatic reason to pour it down the drain while everyone at the table is resisting the impulse to hurl. But I KNEW that was not how this family dealt with a piddly insect in a valuable drink! Not allowing myself to dwell on it, I fished out the little beast and guzzled that drink as fast as my esophagus would let me. I honestly have no recollection of what anybody said or did from the moment I brought the glass to my mouth till we got to church. It's hilarious to me, but I absolutely blocked the whole experience out of my memory!

Their daughter received the Holy Ghost that night as a result of them following us to church. Obviously, it was definitely worth guzzling some bug juice!

Denée Richardson, Le Muser
www.deneerichardson.com

~Thanks to Lisa Velie for editing.

My Homeschool Mistakes

I loved, loved, loved, homeschooling! In fact, I homeschooled my two children for eight years. I loved everything about it. From the time I got to spend with my children, to setting my own schedule, to laying a foundation for the love of learning, to the personal choice of curriculum... I cannot say enough good about homeschooling! But in THIS blog I am not going to tell you about the cool parts of homeschooling, because you likely already know about those parts. I am going to tell you some mistakes I made that I hope you can avoid. (Be on the lookout for my "What I Love About Homeschooling.")

Get Dressed
I have a VERY laid back, chill, personality. I do NOT like molds (as in "Jello" or "ice" or "cookie cutters.") Whereas I value rules, I also look at rules as "pick your battles wisely." And I don't think strict rules about a dress code is a battle I want to fight. I think we SHOULD get presentable for the public, like if we are going shopping or to church. But I do not see a need to prioritize how we dress at home. We were happy in our PJ's all day, thank you very much! And if we did put on clothes, we did not care what they looked like.

This proved to be dumb. Just because you can, does not mean you should. This approach seemed to make the school day "heavier" because our clothes made us feel like we were on some type of vacation, and so the school work went slow.

Getting dressed in "public ready" attire makes everybody take their job more seriously. Not to mention, it also keeps mom more aware of her body image; a needed focus in the romance arena with dad. It does not matter how bald, or fat, or old he is. His eyes still trigger his sweetness.

Full Day
It truly does NOT take six hours a day to teach or learn. We would be finished with school work in less than four hours. When the work was done, I was done. That left M&M bored. Boredom resulted in too much sitting, too much movies, too much snacking, and too much bickering.

I should have planned more experiences. So many ideas that pop in my head on the spur of the moment cost money, which we did not have too much of to just throw out on a whim. If I would have planned better, we could have accessed many freebies, which would have kept us from being bored, had us moving our bodies, and kept us away from continual snacking.

Social
My kids have never met a stranger. Also, because of our role in church leadership, our family was among the first to arrive and the last to leave. This meant they played with lots of kids. They have never been anti-social or shy. But having rarely experienced peer pressure or competition, they were a little off kilter when they started going back to school.

It's not that I think a child should give in to peer pressure, but I think they need to experience it so they can learn to resist it. And while I do not have a competitive bone in my body, both of my kids are very competitive. They dealt with some rude awakenings when both teachers and students were affronted by my kids' inability to chill over things that were no big deal to kids who had been in school all their lives.

It is possible that if I would have been part of a weekly home school group my children would have learned this naturally along with their peers.

Homeschooling is great if you recognize it is a live, morphing organism. What worked last semester may not work in this one. What did not work last year might be perfect now. So, my advice is that you not give up, that you not be afraid to try, and that you not be afraid to change some things.

Don't forget to check back soon for some of the “out of the box” things we did, and other valuable experiences we had while homeschooling.