TMWOG : Chapter Two : Self- Government

It took us a while to complete this chapter, but we enjoyed it a lot. The emphasis was “self-government” and we spent time discussing its ramifications. We did all the notebook activities suggested by the author as well as a couple of others which I thought further illustrated the concept of self-govenment. We spent some time on Alcott's poem and I was just pleased my daughter could recite it by heart after our reading it several times. We talked about how

“And selfishness its shadow casts,

On all my words and deeds.”

We also talked about

“How can I keep a sunny soul

To shine along lfie's way?
How can I tune my little heart

To sweetly sing all day?”

Ah, this is something I desire for myself too.

I look forward to the next chapter on Civil Government.

MWOG Chapter 3 - Civil Government

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

- President James Madison, as quoted in “the Firm Foudnation for a New Beginning” (Plymouth Rock Foundation).

Notes based on Mr. Rose's ACE and Ruth Smith's TMWOG.

1. God knew that families would live together in cities, states and nations.

2. People would need a way to protect themselves and their property.

3. The civil government was ordained by God to make laws to protect the people and their property. (Genesis 9:6; 1 Peter 2:13-14; Romans 13:1-4) . It is for our good.

4. Biblical purposes of civil government

a) Being the “minister of God” - a servant of God - “to thee for good”, not our harm. (Rom. 13:4)

b) Valuing and protecting individual God-given life, liberty and property so we can prayerfully “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty..” (1 Tim. 2:1-3)

c) Executing “wrath upon evil doers” and administering the death penalty upon convicted murders in civil society. (Rom. 13:4; Gen:6)

5. God planned for these laws to be based upon the Bible. Men did not always have the Bible so they did not know what God had planned for civil government.

6. God planned for the people to direct or control their own civil government. They should choose who to rule over them.
   
   

7. People (individual citizens) are hence responsible for the quality of the administration of those men in civil government. These are the men who exercise the God-given authority to fulfill God's purpose for civil government.
   
   

8. Civil government can be called Christian if the form  of its functions is Biblical.
   
   

9. Even if “born-again” Christians exercise the functions of government - legislative, executive, judicial- the consequences of their administration may not be Christian unless the individual is governed by the Biblical idea of God, man and government.
   
   

10. Civil government is certainly Christian if the participants - citizens and officials- express Christian self-government, character, stewardship of property and voluntary union, and relate these principles to their political decisions and action.
    
    

11. If each person has more self-government, he will need less civil government.

12. If a person does not control his own actions, he will need more civil government.
    
    

Based on the above notes, I will include the following 4R activities.  

Reflection and Reasoning

1. Review the definition of government.

2. What is self-government

3. What is civil government?

4. Why do we need a civil government? Whose idea was it?

5. What authority does the civil government have?

6. On what should the laws of the civil government be based?

7. What does the Bible say are the functions of civil government? Look at relevant scriptures.

8. Who should give the civil government the power to rule the city, state or nation?

9. Are we to obey the laws that are made in our land? Why?

10. How can rulers be sure to make good laws?

11. Think of the civil government during the time of Moses. Was that good or bad? Why?

12. Think of countries whose Christians are being persecuted. How would you describe those kinds of government where people have no freedom to worship God?

13. In our nation, the USA, we have great liberty. Why?

14. Review “internal is causative to the external idea” from past lesson.

15. Review how when we have little self-government, we will require greater external government and vice versa.

Reading, Relating and Recording

1. Read pages 7 and 8.

2. Draw concentric circles showing the city in which we live in in relation to the state, the nation and the world.

3. Find out the population of the city/state/USA...consider the many families in the USA.

4. List some personal property. List brother's property.

5. List some property belonging to the family.

6. List some areas of liberty/freedom.

7. Relate self-government and family government using charts.

8. Relate self-government and civil government using charts.

9. To relate “Bold Believers in China” - a Link International Activity Book (VOM) to the study of civil government. We are doing this book with a group of oher home schoolers once a monh. Thought I could review what we're done so far. Also we have a lot of VOM magazines we can read through to see what is is like in other nations.

Notes for notebook

1. God has a plan for civil government.

2. The individual is reponsible for civil government.

3. Civil government controls and directs men in cities and nations.

4. If each person has more self-government, he will need less civil government.

5. If a person does not control his own actions, he will need more civil government.

I have Ruth C. Haycock's Encyclopedia of Bible Truths. Her chapter on Government is quite comprehensive! I shall incorporate some of the ideas as I teach this chapter on Civil Government.....

General Knowledge Activity

(I'm still not sure about this...but thought I could include it here just in case).

Describe briefly how the government works.

This link has cute illustrations. The following descriptions are taken from the website.

a. Over 200 years ago, our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution. The Constitution is a basic design for how our government should work. The Constitution divides the government into three branches. They are the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

b. The legislative branch makes laws for the nation. The main lawmaking body of this branch is known as Congress. Congress is made up of two parts, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Congress meets at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

c. The executive branch makes sure people follow the laws that the legislative branch makes. The leaders of this branch are the President and Vice-President. When making important decisions, the President often asks for advice from a group of 15 helpers, known as the Cabinet. The President lives at the White House in Washington, D.C.

d. When people are unsure about the meaning of a law, the judicial branch listens to many opinions and makes a decision. The judicial branch is made up of courts. The highest of these courts is the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is made up of 9 judges. They meet at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

TMWOG -Chapter Two Government

When the average person thinks of government, he first thinks of civil government. I was typical, I guess.

Since being introduced to the Principle Approach, the word “government” these days causes me to wonder how I'm being governed; internally, by the Word of God or externally, by laws or expectations of man.

When I teach my daughter about government this week, I'm not going to first teach her about civil government. That will come in another week or two.

Instead, I will help her understand that government is direction and control.

I will help her understand that there are two spheres of government – internal and external.

I will help her appreciate that she is either governed by that which is within her (internal) or that which is without her (external).

I will help her appreciate that God's Word teaches her how to govern her heart.

I will help her understand that when she chooses God's Way, when she allows the law of God to be written in her heart, that law will control her actions, whether it's her speech, her attitudes or her outward behavior. Hence internal is causative to the external.

I will help her internalize this principle; that if she governs herself well, she will not need others to control her.

Some of the following verses will be reasoned out and used for copy and memory-work.

Proverbs 23:7a

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he

Proverbs 4:23
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Matthew 12:35

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Psalm 119:11

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Romans 2:15
They demonstrate that God's law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right.

2 Corinthians 3:3
Clearly, you are a letter from Christ prepared by us. It is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on stone, but on human hearts.

Hebrews 8:10
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Hebrews 10:16

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

Other learning activities:

1. Reading aloud the poem “My Kingdom” by Louisa May Alcott. I will encourage her to memorize it.

2. Sing a little song I wrote for her as well as the hymn “Trust and Obey”.

3. Complete the activity sheets TMWOG provided.

4. Read pages 3-6 of TMWOG textbook.

5. Copying the following leading ideas for her History Notebook.

   (i) Government is direction and control

   (ii) Internal is causative to the external.
   (iii) If I govern myself well, I will not need others to control me.

We basically followed the Teacher's Guide for this one. I usually like to write out my own lesson plan but the guide was nicely laid out and well, I was also short of time!

Some of the things we did:

We made a family tree up to her great-grand-parents on both sides, looked at old photos (including a picture of her daddy's maternal great-great grand-parents - male was supposedly a Cherokee, but in the picture he had facial hair so we are not sure! ) and talked about the value of pictures and the importance of leaving records.

She writes in her journal most evenings before bed and she realized how that could one day be passed to her children and grandchildren and how it would serve as a kind of record for her descendants (a word she reviewed).

We sang “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” and she wrote for her note book,“History is His Story” on a sheet of paper. She also copied Psalm 78:7 under that statement and transformed the sheet into a pretty poster.

On the last day, I printed out Deut. 7:18 and 6:2. She underlined “remembered” in both the verses and we talked about what the verses meant. We also looked on-line the 1828 Webster definition of “remember”. Under the two verses she wrote,”We study History to remember what God has done.”

She read the two assigned pages and we discussed the assigned questions.

All in all, it was a good introduction. I look forward to the next chapter on “Government”.

After a long break, we're finally returning to more structure next week. We will continue with our JBC and also begin on “The Mighty Works of God” (TMWOG). I'm also going to put up on the wall, the nine major links used by God to move Christianity westward.

The nine links, as identified by historian Verna Hall in The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, are:

1. Creation

2. Moses and the Law

3. Christ : the Focal Point of History

4. Paul : Christianity moved Westward

5. Bible in English

6. Columbus: Link to the New World

7. Pilgrim: Seed of our Christian Republic

8. Patriot: Westward Movement and Falling Away

I think I'm going to roughly follow the sample lesson one for the first chapter (His Story) and see what the outcome will be. Frankly, I'm feeling a bit lazy having goofed off the past several weeks. I want to get the kitchen more organized and I also want to do more gardening. We're planning our first Square Foot Garden (32 square feet!) and I rather be out there now than sitting in here and doing all this!

Hurray! My early Christmas gift to myself arrived yesterday. Yes,  The Mighty Works of God  books are here! And they are great! I love the approach! My daughter was so excited she read the student’s book in two sittings –before and after dinner. After her last chapter, she told her her daddy that she was going to study history (HIS-STORY) soon and she was so happy about that.

She had told me recently too that she was interested in history, something she had scant interest in times past (she has always been a nature-girl) so I think it’s timely that I begin MWOG sometime in early 2006, perhaps.  I really like that it identifies nine major links used by God to move Christianity westward. These links were derived from historian Verna Hall's work, The Christian History of the Constitution of the United  States of America.

I’m so excited too that several of my BPA friends are using both JBC and MWOG. Let’s all share and see how we can sharpen each other’s iron.