First of all, I wish all of you fathers a happy Father’s Day.

I also wish to state that I am extremely blessed to be a father.  My wife and I found that we would not be able to have children.  After fifteen years of marriage, we were blessed to take custody of a little boy who was eight weeks old.  Thirty days later we took custody of his older sister, who was twenty-two months of age.  In ten months the adoption was finalized.

I count myself so very blessed to be able to have these two children, and also to have been instrumental in their being out of a dysfunctional home where their lives were in danger.

To be totally honest, I think that I appreciate fatherhood much more having had to wait so long to experience it.

Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and her daughter, Jessica Thompson, team up to write an amazing book on parenting.
Give Them Grace is not a parenting manual, however. Give Them Grace is a book that reminds us that parenting manuals don’t do the job that we need them to do.
The premise of this book is that the goal of parenting is not to raise good children, but godly children. If we train them to be good, there is a great possibility that they will rebel against the rules, or turn out to be hypocrites, the authors tell us. It is a very real possibility that they will miss the grace of God due to their self-righteousness. If we train them to be godly, and show them the grace of God, we can point out sin and failure while showing them that God offers a way to escape both.
Children need more than rules. We should not seek to condition them with various behavioral modification techniques. We should teach them right from wrong, and then show them how that God graciously forgives our sins through Christ. We should also teach them that God’s grace is sufficient to help us/them to do what is right.
The authors explain that we must continually preach the gospel (not in pulpit fashion, but by example and daily instruction) in our families so that our children will see their need for Jesus and trust Him. That is most effectively done when our parenting is grace based instead of being founded on rules.
More than anything, parents and children need to remember that what is right will not be achieved in our own power. We must trust God for His grace.
More than a book about how to raise good children, this is a book about how to be a good parent. It is a gospel-centered book that teaches us that success only comes by trusting in the grace of God.
I highly recommend this book as a help and an encouragement to parents who wish to raise good children- children who know Jesus and His grace.

View all my reviews

This is taking things way too far.  Any competent police officer should be able to talk to a little boy, or restrain him in a non-violent manner (there are videos that teach that, because I saw one while preparing to foster children).  This, however, shows us the nature of a police state, and the intellectual bankruptcy of many public school teachers.

This story is a great argument for homeschooling. And by the way, when “authorities” (as they are doing in Sweden and Germany, and in a few states in the U.S.) pretend that homeschool parents are a potential danger to their children, send them a copy of this little tale and ask them to find another line of work.

Schools, classrooms, the entire idea of school, it is all degrading. If you as an adult were treated like most school children are, well, I imagine there would be a lot more pepper spray being sold to local police departments. The only wonder is that MORE children don’t rebel. According to the Denver Post, such acts of student violence are severely on the rise in their fair municipality. Hmmm. There’s a surprise. Good work, Colorado.

via A New Tool To Handle Misbehaving Children – Pepper Spray! | Homeschool Under Siege | Homeschool Under Siege.

Public school?

No thanks.  I’ll protect mine at home and teach them there as well.

There is no way under God’s Heaven that I could in a good conscience recommend Michael and Debbie Pearl, or their so-called ministry.

Why?  Because of several things.  Not only do they seem Pelagian in doctrine at times (I only wish I could find a link to demonstrate my concern, but it seems that things have been sanitized, or changed around their website), but consider Michael Pearl’s recommended “switch” or “rod” for spanking:

Please give me a description of the switch or rod of which you so often speak. I wish you could send me one so I could see it.

The rod we speak of is a plumbing supply line that can be bought at any hardware store or large department store. It is a slim, flexible, plastic tubing that supplies water to sinks, and toilets. Ask for “¼ inch supply line.” They cost less than one dollar. I always give myself one swat before I swat the child to remind myself how much force to exert. It stings the skin without bruising or damaging tissue. It’s a real attention-getter. Michael demonstrates its use in our new Seminar videos.

via Article: Questions Answered – No Greater Joy Ministries.

To take this a step further, I fear that the Pearls give many Christian parents and homeschooling families a bad name.

For this reason I felt that I must warn against these folks.

I am so thankful that this dear lady has found God faithful, even in the midst of the loss of her precious toddler.

What an inspiration it has been to follow her journey on her blog.  Today she has said,

As I knelt on the floor, the weight of a dresser on my back, trying to keep my son’s head and neck straight as I rolled him to his side so he wouldn’t aspirate on his own vomit . . .

{Was God amazing?}

As I stood shaking in the ER, wanting to be with him (needing to be with him), terrified of being in the way as I heard them trying over and over and over to get him intubated . . .

{Was God faithful?}

And, only minutes after a nurse had told us he would be in room 201, went over the use of the respite rooms, admonished us to be strong for him, as the surgeon came in and told us he couldn’t save our son . . .

{Was God good?}

It isn’t really something we post to Facebook quite like that, but even in tragedy, God is amazing.

via Roscommon Acres » Blog Archive » Is God good?.

Please click through to read the whole post and then the posts to which she links: they tell the complete story.

God is good to give us people such as this to be examples for us.

An IFB youth writes a letter that speaks volumes about how we should NOT be doing things.

 

Our parents did not spend time teaching us to love God. Our parents put us in Sunday Schools since K4. Our parents took us to church every time the doors opened, and sent us to every youth activity. They made sure we went to good Christian colleges. They had us sing in the choir, help in the nursery, be ushers, go soulwinning. We did teen devotionals, and prayed over every meal. We did everything right. And they made sure that we did.

But they forgot about our hearts. They forgot that the Bible never commanded the church to teach children about God and His ways. That responsibility was laid at the feet of our fathers. Unfortunately, our fathers don’t have time for us. They put us where we are surrounded by the Bible. But they didn’t take time to show us that God was important enough to them to tell us personally about Him. So to us, Christianity has become a religion of externals. Do all the right stuff, and you’re a good Christian. So, some of us walk away from church. Some of us stay in church and fill a pew. Many of us struggle with stuff that our parents have no idea about because they hardly know us.

I think these problems stem from first, our detachment from our parents, and second from our misunderstandings about the essence of Christianity—a relationship, not a list of rules. I worry that many young people like me are not even saved because of their misunderstandings about Christianity.

via Saddest Letter I’ve Ever Read | Encouraging Words from Cary Schmidt.

The follow up post to parents is pretty good.  I think, if we followed this man’s advice, we’d all do a little better as parents.

Today has been a beautiful fall day in South MS.  I’m glad that fall has arrived.

The temp didn’t quite reach 80 degrees today.  I sat outside, read, played with the children, cooked, and looked around at the beauty of the day.

We have a little fall color, but not much- it’s too dry.

I took a couple of pictures of the last summer flowers from TK’s bed.

Of course, there were great things on the smoker!

Ahhhh!!!  What a good day!

Some leaders, including D. A. Carson, have already declared their preference for more clearly differentiating between civil and religious marriage, citing practices in other nations, particularly France. I surveyed four experienced pastors for a new feature, TGC Asks: Should pastors separate the Christian wedding ceremony from the civil rite?

Click the link below to see the complete discussion.  Very interesting, to say the least.

via TGC Asks: Should pastors separate the Christian wedding ceremony from the civil rite? – The Gospel Coalition Blog.

“It’s one of the most disgraceful abuses of power we have ever witnessed,” said attorney Mike Donnelly with the Home School Legal Defense Association in an earlier statement. “The Swedish government says it is exercising its authority under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in their unnecessary break up of this family.”

“We fear that all homeschooling families in that country are at risk.”

Case Filed Against Sweden Over Seized Homeschooled Child | Christianpost.com.

This is a very sad situation.  Let us pray for this family, and seek to raise awareness of the fact that we must be on our guard for the protection of our families from predators of any stripe.

Could I remember to drop love more often into these little hearts? A word here, a smile there, and a hug always.Is it really that hard?

via » Loving Them Big in Small Ways.