Little Helper

My son very proudly brought me his shoes just as I asked him to.

"My shoes had sand all over them, Mom!"

"Oh."

"But I got it off."

"So now it's all over the bedroom floor?"

"Yep!" (Big smile.)

The Shepherd King - as contrasted with the tyrant king

Almost every night, we pray and sing hymns before the kids go to bed. When in it's full version, each child gets to choose a hymn. Out of the blue the other evening, my daughter said, "What was that "king one," Mom?" 

"King one? Have we sung it before bed before?"
"Yeah, awhile ago."
"We Three Kings?"
"Yeah! I used to know all the words!"

I know that many will think this is just awful, but I'm okay with breaking out the Christmas carols on October 29. I think I've usually waited until November 1, but what's a few days? :)

The irony of it all is that I just studied Matthew 2 last week. I had no thoughts of Christmas when I began studying Matthew, but the timing was beautiful.

Here Herod the King is noticeably concerned over some tidings from some eastern visitors. Their claim that a Jewish king had been born has him summoning all of the chief priests and scribes to learn more about this.

Do you know what strikes me? The wise men said a king was born. Herod asked about where the Christ was to be born. He was immediately concerned that the Messiah had come. He immediately began plans to destroy this baby. How often do you think Herod sat in fear of his kingdom being ripped from him? 

My thoughts immediately go to "The Sword of Damocles." Damocles was a Greek who was given the opportunity to be king for a day, but before allowing him the privilege, the tyrannical king Dionysius had a sword hung from the ceiling by a horse hair. Damocles was enjoying himself immensely until he looked up. To Dionysius, being king meant a life of constant fear that others would want his power. 

And how do rulers act when they're living in fear? They're tyrants. The tyrant knows that if everyone else wants his power half as much as he does, he's in real danger. He thinks that if he can somehow get everyone else lower than him... if he can keep everyone else afraid enough of him... then he will stop being afraid and start feeling secure.

Fear is a terrible thing to base authority on.

Contrast that with Jesus.

"for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel."

What's the opposite of a tyrant? What's the opposite of someone who spends every effort to crush everyone around him? Perhaps we might think of someone who spends every effort to take care of every last one under his care. Perhaps we might think of a shepherd.

What does a shepherd do?

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
    He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever. (Psalm 23)

What did Herod do? He killed all of the boys 2 years old and younger. Having two of those sleeping in their bedrooms as you read that makes it hit a little closer to home.

But what does the shepherd do?

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:11)

That verse the scribes quoted came from Micah 5. When I read the rest of that passage, I was just so amazed at the contrast to the storyline in Matthew 2.

And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
 And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:4-5)

Here’s hope for the tyrant. Here’s hope for the mama who just lost her babies. Where is peace and security to be found?

“He shall be their peace.”

Jesus came as the shepherd king - not the tyrant king. He came humbly - as a child under the protection of his earthly father. But earthly kings still had no dominion over him. Herod stood no chance to destroy him. Jesus is who deserves all of our worship and praise - all of our elaborate, impractical worship.

The Most Important Recognition of Every Educator

As I write this, I'm actually just trying to figure out how to motivate the whole world to go read this one chapter that Charlotte Mason wrote. Here Charlotte Mason points us to one of the most amazing metaphors education and how God works through the minds of men. She then takes that metaphor and applies it directly to our hearts as parents and educators. Honestly, it won't take you long. I read it out loud to my husband while he stood in the kitchen. He was just as awed as I was.

Have I convinced you yet?

Here's a link. 

Here are some snippets:

"In the things of science, in the things of art, in the things of practical everyday life, his God doth instruct him and doth teach him, her God doth instruct her and doth teach her. Let this be the mother's key to the whole of the education of each boy and each girl; not of her children; the Divine Spirit does not work with nouns of multitude, but with each single child...

...His God doth instruct him and doth teach him. Let the mother visualize the thought as an illuminated scroll about her newborn child, and let her never contemplate any kind of instruction for her child except under the sense of the divine co-operation....

...Suppose we are willing to make this great recognition, to engage ourselves to accept and invite the daily, hourly, incessant co-operation of the divine Spirit, in, to put it definitely and plainly, the schoolroom work of our children, how must we shape our own conduct to make this co-operation active, or even possible? We are told that the Spirit is life; therefore, that which is dead, dry as dust, mere bare bones, can have no affinity with Him, can do no other than smother and deaden his vitalising influences. A first condition of this vitalising teaching is that all the thought we offer to our children shall be living thought; no mere dry summaries of facts will do; given the vitalising idea, children will readily hang the mere facts upon a peg capable of sustaining all that is needful to retain. We begin by believing in the children as spiritual beings of unmeasured powers - intellectual, moral, spiritual - capable of receiving and constantly enjoying intuitions from the intimate converse of the Divine Spirit."

This has me thinking about so many things. First and foremost is that recognition that this training and educating of my children is really not all on me. Incidentally, I read a section from Sarah Mackenzie's book Teaching From Rest just yesterday.

"We must drop the self-inflated view that we are the be-all and end-all of whether the education we offer our children is going to work out. We are too quick to feel both the successes and the failures of our job as homeschoolers. Our kids test well on the SAT and we pat ourselves on the back. They are miserable writers and we scourge ourselves for failing them. But He never demands that we produce prodigies or achieve what the world would recognize as excellence. Rather, he asks us to live excellently - that is to, live in simple, obedient faith and trust. He asks us to faithfully commit every day to Him and then to do that day's tasks well. He's in charge of the results....

....Because whether or not he becomes an excellent writer or a proficient mathematician is not your business to worry over. Your business is that single assignment today and loving him through it."

And here Sarah hints at what is required of me. It's the same lesson God's been trying to teach me over and over again the last few years. What's my part? To be faithful.

Come to think of it it's the same lesson God's been trying to teach His people from the beginning. 

Here are some of the best words on education ever written:

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children - how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so." (Deuteronomy 4:9-10)

Watch yourselves carefully. Be diligent. Be faithful. The rest of he work is His.

"...that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth..." (Deuteronomy 8:16-17)

I'm just here to be the gardener. I can cultivate the plants, but I can't make them grow. I can provide nutrients and healthy soil and I can water. God is the instructor. Not me. But I am responsible for providing a living, active, vitalising atmosphere of education. My children are their own persons with a God who loves them and will instruct and teach them.

Lord, please create a clean heart in me. Please do a work in my soul. Please make this home a place that breathes life, a place of peace and rest, a place of remembering. Teach us to fear You. Teach us true humility. It's all Yours.