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Jun. 2, 2008
Teach a Biblical Worldview to Your Children in Your Homeschool!
"If our children are going to be able to stand against the thoughts and ideas of the 21st Century and be able to defend their faith, we must be teaching, equipping, and preparing them now. Nothing is of greater importance. All of life should be understood from the Christian worldview." - David and Shirley Quine from the book, "Let Us Highly Resolve"
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Do you know what a Biblical worldview is? "A person's worldview is the collection of his presuppositions or convictions about reality, which represent his total outlook on life." - W. Andrew Hoffecker A biblical worldview allows you to look at the world through BIBLICAL GLASSES. It allows you to discern what God's Will is concerning the world and it's present condition.
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What is YOUR Biblical worldview?
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Have YOU been properly trained? Your training is step #1. HERE is a GREAT training site!
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TEACH Your Biblical Worldview To Your Children! What better way to instill your values in your children and train them according to Deuteronomy 6:7 than to do so through homeschooling! HERE is a WONDERFUL book on why it is absolutely VITAL to teach a Biblical Worldview to your children! It's a part of homeschooling that cannot be missed! God will hold us responsible for not passing these important facts on to future generations! This is one of the best books I've read as of late.
By teaching a Biblical Worldview to THIS generation, you will, in turn, reach future generations, just as was done in Bible times! How exciting! What an impact you will have!!
"It's not enough to reach our own generation. I want to reach them and their children and grandchildren. We can influence people for Christ who aren't even born yet!" - Morgan Cryer (singer/songwriter & homeschool dad)
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May. 21, 2008
Generation to Generation Family Integrated Bible Study Class
Equipping Fathers, Strengthening the Family, Serving the Body, Touching the World
This is a Bible study class designed to strengthen the family by equipping husbands/fathers to disciple their families. God has ordained the family as a key place for evangelism. Our desire is to assist fathers in realizing the importance and the responsibility to teach and train their children in the ways of the Lord (See Malachi 4:5-6; Eph. 6:4). Wives/mothers also have an irreplaceable role to fill, as well (See Psalm 128:3; Titus 2:4-5; Proverbs 31:28). We feel it is important for the children, young and old, to be a part of this Bible study class. This will help in building the foundation for family devotions.
We invite you to join us as we strive to conform to the biblical model of the family and learn how to truly make disciples, starting in our own homes.
This will be a time for:
Praise and worship and prayer
Psalm 95:1 “Come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”
Teaching
1 Timothy 4:13 “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.”
Fellowship (eating):
Acts 2:46 “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
Above was the flyer for our family integrated Bible study (meaning the family worships TOGETHER) at our church. This has been on all of our hearts (Mark, Lisa and our good friends the Wilsons) for quite some time. We strongly believe that the majority of Christian fathers are neglecting their responsibilities that God has given them to disciple their families on a DAILY basis, and that mothers have a tendency to "take over" this role when the husband doesn't fulfill his God-given role in this area. It's so important that we all know where God put us and how we should go about fulfilling these roles to the UTMOST for HIS GLORY! It is also important that WE, as parents, learn how to disciple our children as it says in Deuteronomy 6: 6-9 - "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." It was so wonderful to have all of the atendees' children see their parents learning from God, as they learn right along with their parents!
Last night was the last night of our class. The class might resume this fall, but we will need new leaders to step up to the plate. This has been a WONDERFUL ministry and we have all learned a lot about the BIBLICAL ROLE OF THE FAMILY! Below are some photos of our class' pizza party last night!
~ Lisa
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Generation to Generation Class
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Here are pics of the end-of-the-year pizza party for our Generation to Generation family Bible Study class that Mark and I co-led with the Wilsons!
Equipping Fathers, Strengthening the Family, Serving the Body, Touching the World!
God has ordained the family as a key place for evangelism. Our desire in this class was to assist fathers in realizing the importance and the responsibility to teach and train their children in the ways of the Lord (See Malachi 4:5-6; Eph. 6:4). Wives/mothers also have an irreplaceable role to fill, as well (See Psalm 128:3; Titus 2:4-5; Proverbs 31:28). We felt that it was important for the children, young and old, to be a part of this Bible study class. The class was to help in building the foundation for family devotions and in understanding the BIBLICAL MODEL for a CHRISTIAN FAMILY! We had a great class!
- Lisa
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May. 14, 2008
No Greater Calling Than This!
"Christian parents, brothers and sisters in Christ, there is no greater calling in our lives as Christians than to raise up the next generation of faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely within that calling, the most noble, the most necessary, the most foundational task is to ensure our children have been thoroughly trained to properly, earnestly, honestly, from the heart and soul and mind and strength, offer their reasonable service, their spiritual worhip to God the Father Almighty in the name of His only begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!"
~ Craig & Barbara Smith Keystone Magazine July 2002, Vol. VIII No. 4
This quote is so true! Are you following your calling in this area? If not, what can you change? Ask God now!
~ Lisa Metzger
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May. 7, 2008
What to Men Consider to be Immodest? How surprised will you be over this?
Would you be surprised to know that a lot of young men/men view wearing a purse diagonally across the chest/shoulders as suggestive?
Click Here to see an excellent site that polled guys on SPECIFIC articles of clothing and specific movements, etc as to whether they were a stumbling block. Very insightful.
A must see!
Lisa Metzger
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Apr. 9, 2008
Bible Memorization Lists for Children and MUCH More!
This site has a great list of Bible Memory verses for kids. They suggest starting this at ages 3-4. I agree! Even our 2 year old has memorized about 5 verses! The earlier you start, the easier it will be for them to memorize CHAPTERS or even BOOKS of the Bible!
Click here to enjoy!
Lisa
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Apr. 2, 2008
Teen Rebellion Part 3 - How can we raise godly teens while giving them independence?
This question was posed recently on a Yahoo Group that I belong to. Below is my response.
<< The question is, HOW in today's society can we safely, and without abandoning them and throwing them to the wolves? Can we begin to give them the God-driven independence in a safe way while still setting expected rules/guidelines for behavior within our own homes? How do we set the expectations and get results without a constant battle for control of their lives?>>
We believe that we should have our children work from home well before they are ready to leave home. There is so much work to be done within our homes and with our family! The book by the Maxwell's, "Preparing Sons to Provide for a Single-Income Family" (http://www.preparingsons.com/) is a wonderful guide on how to develop the strengths in your sons TODAY that they will use in the future! They suggest that we start with our sons as toddlers to instill the value of work within our sons! It's a WONDERFUL book!
Our family raises our daughters and sons to learn and master their God-given responsibilities now, as toddlers/children/teens/young adults. We have our daughters learn to cook, clean, watch children, teach homeschooling, garden, iron, do laundry, etc., etc., etc. and we start with them as soon as they learn to walk. They actually enjoy their work and do it cheerfully BECAUSE they have grown up knowing that if they don't they will have a consequence! On the rare occasion that they do not do it quickly, cheerfully and without being told, they receive the consequences that were laid out well before any chore was even given to them to complete. And that goes for the boys, as well.
ALL of this can be done, but it does require that the children know the guidelines and know that we will follow through with the consequences if they do not follow through, as told. After all, isn't that what will happen when they are adults? Actions have consequences and the earlier they learn that, the better it is for them (and us)!
The keys are these:
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We must have a commitment to follow God's Word in raising children (no matter what the world tells you),
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We must lay the consequences for sin
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We must follow through with discipline and be consistant
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We must teach them what God has to say about EVERYTHING. In teaching them about Jesus and the Bible as in Deuteronomy 6 (when we sit down, stand up, etc.) we will see our children grow up to be godly men and women! Their hearts *can* be transformed! God didn't give us an impossible task, just one that needs constant attention in order to complete well!
Look closely at this "famous" Bible verse on training children! Prov 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." The word "train" is directly translated as "narrow" or "discipline" or "initiate." We are to narrow that path they are on by constantly correcting them, disciplining them or initiating them. It's a hard job, but we will reap wonderful results if we keep them on God's path when they are young enough to be molded by God, through us. The below commentaries put it beautifully when commenting on that verse!
A great duty enjoined, particularly to those that are the parents and instructors of children, in order to the *propagating of wisdom,* that it may not die with them: Train up children in that age of vanity, to *keep them from the sins* and snares of it, in that learning age, to *prepare* them for what they are designed for. Catechise them; initiate them; keep them under discipline. Train them as soldiers, who are taught to handle their arms, keep rank, and observe the word of command. Train them up, not in the way they would go (the bias of their corrupt hearts would draw them aside), but in the way they should go, the way in which, if you love them, you would have them go. Train up a child according as he is capable (as some take it), with a gentle hand, as nurses feed children, little and often, Deut 6:7. (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible)
Show him the duties, the dangers, and the blessings of the path; give him directions how to perform the duties, how to escape the dangers, and how to secure the blessings, which all lie before him. Fix these on his mind by daily inculcation, till their impression is become indelible; then lead him to practice by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, till each indelible impression becomes a strongly radicated habit. Beg incessantly the blessing of God on all this teaching and discipline; and then you have obeyed the injunction of the wisest of men. Nor is there any likelihood that such impressions shall ever be effaced, or that such habits shall ever be destroyed. (Adam Clarke's Commentary)
Lisa Metzger
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Apr. 2, 2008
Teen Rebellion Part 2 - Let's Smarten up on Teen Rebellion
Below is a great article by Michael Smith from the HSLDA! I agree that teenage rebellion can nearly always be avoided, particularly in homeschooling families. My brother and I NEVER went through any type of rebellion. Yes, we were homeschooled, but even if we hadn't been my parents would never have "allowed" us to be rebellious. It just simply wasn't permitted, and we knew it! Were we encouraged to develop independence through supervision? Yes. But we did not feel the need to showcase a rebellious attitude, which by the way is NOT biblically permissible. Was rebellion accepted in Bible times? In the Old Testament children were to be stoned for rebellion...wow, now that's harsh! I just don't see God as being accepting of our children being raised to disrespect their parents in any way. Remember God is loving, but he also wiped out entire people groups for their rebellion to him and prevented an entire generation of Israelites from seeing the Promised Land because of their whining, doubts and rebellion. God DOES love us, but he also wants us to obey Him and to raise our children for him. It *is* possible! Adolescence is a "new" thing to our American society!
~ Lisa Metzger
Let's Smarten up on Teen Rebellion
J. Michael Smith - HSLDA President
We all have heard the term "teenage rebellion." It's conventional wisdom that
teens go through a period of turbulent adolescence before-it is hoped-they
settle down and become mature, productive adults.
Recently, the media and sections of the scientific community have concluded that
because brain scans show the teen brain operates differently than the average
adult brain this explains the behavior. It's all in your head, therefore, the
acting out and rebellion are just a normal part of growing up.
At the Home School Legal Defense Association, we have been skeptical of the idea
that there's an inevitable teenage rebellion. Through anecdotal evidence, we
knew many parents with homeschooled teens were not experiencing the traditional
teen rebellion.
Furthermore, the 2004 study "Homeschooling Grows Up" shows that homeschooled
teens are successfully integrating into society. There was little evidence of
teenage rebellion and significant numbers of students demonstrated their
maturity by being involved in community activities. They also reported generally
good relationships with their parents.
Teens are much more intelligent and capable than we realize. We need to have
greater expectations for teens by giving them greater responsibilities.
Most homeschoolers have consistently maintained that the institutional school,
with its necessary one-size-fits-all approach to education, constrains the
teenager's natural ability to learn and advance rapidly and, at the same time,
exposes them to negative peer influences. The environment of the institutional
school might be the place to start looking if we are trying to uncover some of
the causes of teenage rebellion.
Homeschoolers are not alone in their skepticism of the current explanation for
antisocial teen behavior. A challenge to the conventional wisdom also has been
offered by psychologist Robert Epstein, whose work was published in the
April-May 2007 issue of Scientific American Mind.
His main point is the way teens are treated in society, by parents,
institutional schools, the entertainment media and other government agencies is
more likely the cause of the observable differences in the way the teen brain
operates. He asks the question-"Did the brains cause the turmoil, or did the
turmoil shape the brains?"
****He points out that if teen rebellion was simply a function of the brain we
should see the phenomenon across all cultures and all time. This isn't the case.
The majority of pre-industrial cultures, where teens spent most of their time
with adults, didn't develop a word for adolescent and most of the young males in
these cultures didn't display antisocial behavior. Also, a series of long-term
studies began in the 1980s show that delinquency increased when Western-style
schooling, television and movies were introduced to non-Western countries.*****
He also suggests that if the "answer" to behavioral problems is to restore
"normal" brain chemistry, the pharmaceutical industry would actively support
this position due to the increasing use of drugs to address behavioral problems.
If society is the main culprit driving teen behavior, however, then the
solutions are very different from administering more drugs.
It is our view that teens have been shortchanged. So much more can be
accomplished by teens if they are allowed to flourish in a home-based
environment. They have so much potential, but unfortunately have been
constrained by a system that doesn't serve them well.
Homeschooling has begun to give the wider society a glimpse of what can be
achieved by simply returning to an individualistic home-based model where teens
spend most of their time with adults learning how to become mature citizens.
We encourage parents of teens to carefully consider homeschooling because
history shows teens are very capable and that we are at risk if we don't prepare
the next generation adequately for the challenges we all face every day.
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For more homeschool news visit
http://www.hslda.org
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Apr. 2, 2008
Teen Rebellion Part 1 - The Invention of Adolescence
I have to agree with the below article that adolescence is rarely found anywhere else in the world. I remember visiting the teens in orphanages in Kazakhstan (where we adopted our oldest daughter at 10) and in Haiti and they were NOTHING like the typical American teen. Adolescence is really only "accepted" in the US and other "modernized" countries. Below is a very interesting read. ~ Lisa Metzger
The Invention of Adolescence
by Otto Scott, October 4, 2006
Adolescence is now accepted by most Americans as a strange and difficult period marked by wild swings of mood, outbursts of temper, rudeness, rebelliousness, and personality changes - all involuntary.
They would be surprised to learn that this period was unknown, unrecognized, and unseen in every previous civilization, culture, and society throughout the immensely long history of humanity. It is, even today, unknown in large areas of the inhabited world.
I recall marveling at the calm that pervaded families in South America during my last extended stay there in the early 1950s. I did not hear a single rude response by a teenager to anyone. No doubt it was different in the slums, but this was the atmosphere among the middle and upper classes.
In earlier times, this was once true even in the United States, the land now known for difficult children. There was even a time when there were no adolescents.
That was, of course, a time beyond the memory of even our oldest inhabitants: a time before the Civil War, during the First American Republic. Our great social changes began after that conflict; after huge waves of immigration came via the new, safer steamboats; during the period when many Americans anxious for a higher, more complete education, went to Europe - and especially to Germany - to study.
One of these was G. Stanley Hall, who earned a doctorate in psychology under William James at the new Johns Hopkins University in 1878. Hall went to Germany for two years and was swept up in German psychological research and became especially interested in the mental development of children.
After that immersion in what is usually termed "the latest scientific developments," Hall returned to Johns Hopkins as a professor of psychology and pedagogy. (Wonderfully impressive terms!) Hall taught John Dewey, Lewis Terman (who later pioneered "mental" tests) and Arnold Gesell, later famed as a "child" psychologist.
Hall conducted numerous "studies" of children during the 1880s and 1890s, and in 1904 issued a landmark book cumbersomely titled Adolescence: Us Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education. That title alone should have warned the wary, but it was a time when a number of savants were appearing with novel theories about human behavior.Dr. Freud, addicted first to opium and then cocaine, had convinced many of his patients that he could read thoughts of which they were themselves unaware. Lombroso's theory that a criminal was an anthropological type with certain physical characteristics still had a following; so did phrenology: the idea that the contours of the skull indicated mental and spiritual qualities. It was a time, in other words, when - in the name of science - human beings were being redefined by various individuals who claimed to possess supernormal powers of observation and insight.
Dr. Hall was one of these. His theories fit inside spread of Spencer's social Darwinism and the fashionable belief in the perfectibility of Man through formal, secular education. He thought the embryo in the womb repeated Darwin's evolution of humanity from the sea, and that the stages of childhood repeated the stages of social evolution from pre-savagery to civilization. He left the definition of civilization unstated and seemed to believe that it was a permanent condition achieved in the West in 1905.
Dr. Hall argued that childhood consisted of "three stages, each with a parallel in racial history" and each requiring certain set teaching approaches. Infancy and early childhood were equal to pre-stages of culture, and parent/teachers should allow the child to play with blocks and to exercise freely. At six or seven, he believed the child experienced various crises leading to the "pre-adolescent" years of eight to twelve, when behavior is comparable to "the world of early pigmies and other so-called savages.'"
At this point (six or seven) the child was, in Dr. Hall's view, ready for school - and its discipline. But a new period of crisis, he believed, arrived between thirteen and eighteen - which he termed adolescence.
Hall compared this to ancient and medieval civilizations. He believed it was a crucial period, "because it prepares the youth for the acquisition of knowledge, mores and skills that will determine the future of the individual and, by extension, that of the human race."
He also believed that it was "a stormy period . . . when there is a peculiar proneness to be either very good or very bad.'"
There does not seem to be any basis for this conclusion. Throughout all the previous centuries of Christianity - and of Judaism before that, twelve had been considered the age of maturity. Both confirmation in the Christian religion in Pre-reformation centuries, and the Bar Mitzvah in Judaism (then and now) took place at that age. Thereafter, a young person was expected to behave as a responsible adult, and to assume a place in adult society.
Boys in New England whaling towns went to sea and rose to become masters of clipper ships in their early twenties Girls married at sixteen and set about raising a family, managing a home and behaving as matrons. Their counterparts around the world behaved the same. Life began early; tantrums may have occurred, but they had no general rationale connected to age: everyone was held responsible, and God was not blamed for anyone's misbehavior.
Social life, however, is replete with imitative patterns. People are apt to behave as they are expected to behave - whether well or foolishly.
Hall's ideas fit the fashion: it would not be fair to say that they were deliberately conceived to do so; it would be accurate to say that Hall was a man of his time, more than a man of original insight. He codified ideas about children and youths that were then floating in the air. That was the reason his argument was so easily swallowed by educators and other professionals. True originality has a much harder time.
In any event, Hall's work provided a basis for segregating school children by age. Elementary school children were segregated from secondary schools along the lines of his "observations." Twelve was the age of the break. The new fashion spread even into religion, and the clergy began to aim different lessons at special age groups: the Bible was too much for the young.
The movement mushroomed into special courses for special ages. At certain ages, a child was expected to learn this much - and no more. To learn behind the group was a cause for concern, so in time, was to learn ahead of the group. Norms came into being; to fit the norm became (as it is now) more important than to sprint ahead - and to fall behind is a calamity. Never mind that different children grow at different rates at different times and that even individual progress is sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Differences were put in the background; age in the foreground.
At a certain time, therefore, in the lives of contemporary American children, certain behavior patterns are expected - and subtly mandated. Nor is this only true of children. There is now an expected beginning and an end to a working career: one cannot be too young - or too old.
We have, today, an entire hierarchy of social groups based on age: from Day School to Leisure Village. There are assumptions surrounding each age group: from expected tantrums by adolescents to PMS for women of a certain age -and an end to creativity from the old.
There are many variations of this development - from youth gangs to the forced retirement. In fact, we have almost achieved a society nearly completely segregated by age in which the generations have been narrowed from the traditional thirty years to far fewer. Age now separates us more than ever before in any society; persons raised only a few decades apart find one another nearly incomprehensible. Dr. Hall, therefore, can be said to have influenced us as much (and perhaps more) than Darwin or Dr. Freud, and like these more celebrated "thinkers" has brought us at least an equal load of distress, disturbance, and unhappiness.
Originally appeared in the CHALCEDON REPORT, JULY, copyright 1991. Reprinted with permission.
Lisa Metzger
http://www.visionforumministries.org/issues/cross_examination/the_invention_of_a\
dolescence.aspx
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Mar. 27, 2008
Abstain from evil, yet be without hypocrisy! Is this really possible?
"In every area of our life we should strive to 'abstain from every form of evil' (1 Thessalonians 5:22), as we let our service to Christ 'be without hypocrisy' (Romans 12:9). The topic of educating our children is the perfect place to check out progress in holiness and extend this attitude to every other topic we encounter. May we all consider these somber words from King Solomon: 'Because I have called adn you refused, I have stretched out My hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all My counsel, and would have none of My rebuke, I will also laugh at your calamity." ~ Buddy Hanson www.exodusmandate.org
If one considers sending their child to public school, consider what Jesus tells us, "Everyone will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40) How can 30+ hours of classroom instruction in a government-run school produce a child who is solely set on seeking God and serving Him? Can there be exceptions to that rule? Yes, but it is certainly not likely given the studies and statistics and that is exactly what the founders of "public schools" wanted....to indoctrinate your children in secular humanism! Do you want to chance it ALL when over 70 percent of "Christian" kids go off to college to only stray far from their parents beliefs? That's a scary thought!
Lisa Metzger
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Mar. 20, 2008
Voddie Baucham - The Call to Discipleship
These are EXCELLENT! If you are not familiar with Voddie Baucham, these would be a great introduction to his ministry, which is growing by leaps and bounds! Here are some wonderful radio interviews from Family Life Today. I thought y'all might find these interesting. Click Here!
Lisa Metzger
Author and pastor Voddie Baucham talks with Dennis Rainey about the responsibility of parents to spiritually guide and disciple their children. Are you modeling faith for your children? Join us to hear how Voddie and others are helping their children develop a biblical worldview.
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