Happy July St. Abe’s Community!
You’re probably fly fishing in Idaho, camping, or working like crazy right now. Enjoy and God bless your July. I have a few thoughts today.
In a letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote about independence from the Great Brittania on July 3, 1776 – 245 years ago: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
I hope your celebration of July 4 was filled with “acts of devotion to God Almighty” in church and you also had “sports, guns, bells, bonfires and Illuminations” (!) If you’ve never read/listened to David McCullough’s biography of John Adams, perhaps summer is a great time to read it. He and especially his wife Abigail, are some of my heroes.
Your Classical Christian Education quote this time is related to the development and opportunity with our children: “Time is more valuable to young people than to any others. They should not lose an hour in forming their taste, their manners and their minds; for whatever they are to a certain degree by eighteen, they will be in greater and lesser degree all the rest of their lives.” — John Mason
Your home, your church and your children’s school all make up the primary development of your child. And raising godly children is probably one of the hardest things we will do with our lives. The greatest thing you could do for your family culture and for the teachers of our school is to practice deep Christian virtue in your home. Parents across the country regularly ask what they can do for their children’s school. Here it is: Live the faith before them, love them deeply and expect much from them by way of obedience and healthy attitude – at home. This is the greatest thing you can do for our school.
Over the next month I am going to talk about expectations for maturity with our children’s development. It will be a series that I’ll build upon in the newsletters. This is to get us started: Many parents will be indulgent of ill behavior in their child when their sin is rather “cute” or silly because little people are, well, cute in almost everything they do, especially toddlers.
However, when the child grows up the sin is no longer cute and the parents get reactive in their parenting instead of being proactive. They scramble for control when that gracious mastery over the child should have been seized when they were toddlers. The tendency is for parents to all-of-a-sudden get super strict with the teenagers because at that point they are capable of doing much damage to both themselves and also the family.
Instead, parents ought to be lovingly strict when their children are small and give them more and more freedom as they grow older. But how many parents will do the opposite, giving too much freedom early on and not enough when the kids are older? It is this tricky progression that I will address in forthcoming newsletters. Parents, be intentional, be consistent and have high standards for your children when they are small. It will pay dividends down the road.
The Lord bless you!
Mr. Alexander