Raising Christian Children Who Do Mitzvah |
Author: Marcia Harris Brim
Issue: Volume One, Number Eight – February 2015 Web Site: BrimWood Press Marcia’s prayer site supporting the seriously ill: prayerbook40 Circulation: ~400 |
What's in this Issue: |
1. Welcome
2. Confusion about things bad and good 3. A letter about a bad book 4. Why worldview training should include Christian bad guys 5. Christian goodness — does it matter? 6. Why we value certain questions 7. Christ did mitzvah 8. How good triumphs over evil 9. Goodness – an act of repentance 10. A product Marcia recommends 11. Announcing our Family Fiction Contest Winners! 12. Upcoming issues 13. Pass this newsletter along 14. Reprint rights |
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1) Welcome to the BrimWood Press newsletter! |
This new monthly newsletter is dedicated to Christian parents raising children in this postmodern, secular, Gnostic culture: parents who want their families to shine. (Matthew 5:14-16 & Philippians 2:15.)
This newsletter provides practical, relevant help for the on-going work of evangelizing our children.
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
Galatians 4:19 ESV
This newsletter is now issued every other month.
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2) Confusion About Things Bad and Good |
We tend to be equally confused about human goodness and badness in our world and in ourselves. It’s hard to teach our children about confusing things. So this newsletter will attempt to convene some helpful thoughts relative to teaching children about and making sense ourselves of people who do both good and bad deeds.
We all, including our children witness laudable and despicable behaviors in the lives of people we know, the accounts we read in newspapers, or the tales stockpiled in history books. And of course, each of us possess our own inventories of good and bad deeds, and so do our children.
How does our Christianity impact our understanding about human behavior in general and the good and evil deeds found in the lives of Christ followers? The Bible has a great deal to say about this subject. So do other religions. Most world religions not only define what is good and what is evil, they also teach about the kind of actions that should typify the followers of a given faith.
Biblical instruction about the conduct of Christians should be part of any worldview training as many young adult sons and daughters will retain or discard biblical beliefs based on how the Christians in their growing up years behaved.
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Think about how David’s sin with Bathsheba effected Absalom?
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3) A Letter About a Bad Book |
I began an attempt to teach about this very subject several years ago when BrimWood Press commissioned four historical novels that compares most of the major world religions in story form. But here’s a letter I recently received about one of these novels called The Jeweled Astrolabe. It was written by one of our affiliates, Brandy Ferrell who reviews BrimWood Press materials.
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"… this has been on my mind for some time. … When I read the second book in the series [The Jeweled Astrolabe], it was very tough. I want to wrestle through faith-questions together with my children, but also I do want not to introduce concepts too early for them such that they turn from their faith. The book did not edify our relationship with Christ.
I'm sure that this has much to do with the fact that I am still learning myself - how to question and defend our faith. If there were some sort of question guide or parent text to help us think through our discussions, it would help tremendously. Is it possible for you to make a study guide (a short downloadable discussion guide) for the last three Historical Novels for Engaging Thinkers? I am hoping to read the other two this year, as I set them aside when I struggled so much with Book 2. I am sorry it has taken so long, and I have not written a blog post about it, but I could not recommend it and did not want to post anything negative. So... I have waited until I mature and better understand how to use these books." |
I admire Brandy for writing this letter. She was honest, straight-forward, and humble, recognizing that just because she detected no good in this book that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. She is teachable, and I am repentant for not providing some helps for parents sooner.
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For those who haven’t read The Jeweled Astrolabe, let me give a brief summary of the problem this book poses for Christian parents. It is set during the Middle Ages in Western Europe, where we meet a Jewish protagonist, his Islamic friend, and a fair number of Christian bad guys. In short, the character whom the reader bonds with is Jewish, and his likeable Islamic pal offsets the difficult reality that the Jewish family must live under in Islamic-controlled Spain.
In the story, the protagonist goes on an adventure through Western Europe during the era of the Crusades. He learns of terrible misdeeds done by Christian Crusaders and is kidnapped by an ex-Crusader turned mercenary. Though the book references a couple of decent Christian fellows, these mentions do not offset the weight of the dominate Christian bad guys.
Given the fact that I expected a lot of letters like the one above, you might be wondering: what was she thinking, publishing a book for a Christian audience where Christians are the bad guys? What good could come from that? I believe quite a lot.
I had two reasons for my publishing decision. First, I published this novel planning to write an accompanying Christian Reader’s Guide that compared Christianity to Judaism and Islam. Alas, finishing my Christian Reader’s Guide remains a seemingly permanent fixture on my to-do list. But thanks to the prompt of the letter above, a question guide for parents with accompanying biblical passages has been written for The Jeweled Astrolabe.
Second, we published this book because unsavory Christians can be found in both history and today’s world. Our children will eventually meet them and perhaps be wounded by them. What better way to prepare our children for this reality than with a work of historical fiction that depicts Christians in less than flattering ways? We often forget that a bad example can teach just as powerfully as a good one.
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4) Why Worldview Training Should Include Christian Bad Guys |
Christians do bad things. In our desire to equip our children to stand against the false religions of this world, we can easily overlook the reality that false, misguided, hypocritical, pharisaical, or simply sinful Christians can do far more damage to the plausibility of the Gospel than the persuasiveness of other religions.
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How many young adults have turned away from Christ because of the ugly things they witnessed as children in some church split, a falsehood exposed in a Christian adult they esteemed, or some habitual failure in their parents to walk the Christian talk?Christian sin is a powerful weapon in the hands of our enemy. If we don’t think he will exploit it for his ends to win the hearts and minds of our children, then we are simply naive.
Wise parenting prepares children for the ugly reality of sin in the lives of Christians. There are many excellent reasons for doing this. Though teaching this topic may be approached from a variety of angles, the outcome of such instruction can include the following:
• To teach a child to hate that which is evil and to love that which is good.
• To confirm the biblical truth that the human heart is desperately wicked. • To review examples we find in Scripture of sinful behaviors by God’s people, even those who are considered heroes of the faith. • To instruct our children to “be careful lest you fall”. The human condition is marred by the reality of sin, a reality that we must stand on guard against all day every day. • To examine the different human responses in dealing with personal sin: Evil deeds can either consume us (i.e. Judas) or they can become the vehicle by which we learn how to repent and walk humbly with our God (i.e. King Nebuchadnezzar, the Apostle Paul). • To prepare our children that they will encounter evil in the lives of Christians. A variety of appropriate biblical responses exist including; judgment, grief, confrontation, separation, consequences, forgiveness. |
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• To teach Christian children that, though no sin is beyond forgiveness, forgiveness does not expunge the great damage done by those whose lives were given to represent God in this world.
• To enlighten our children about the great Christian truth: Goodness is the antidote for evil.
All of these things and more can be taught in the Christian home that is brave enough to face the dreadful truth that Christians sin. Our new free parent companion for The Jeweled Astrolabe will assist in this endeavor.
There is a great deal more I could write on this topic here, but given this is a newsletter and not a book, I will show restraint, believing there is enough to ponder here about the value of teaching about evil witnessed in the lives of Christians.
I want to turn the page and give some equal time to writing about the good. Unfortunately, I think there is as much confusion about the necessity of teaching about goodness as there is about the reality of evil.
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5) Christian Goodness — Does It Matter? |
The title of this newsletter uses the word "Mitzvah". It's a Jewish term that refers to doing good deeds.
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Doing good is an essential tenet of Judaism.
A reading of The Jeweled Astrolabe raises the question: How important is “doing good” in the Christian faith? Many believers find this a difficult question to answer. Such inquiries about the place of good works in Christianity often get rephrased and turned into questions about what saves us. When this happens, faith generally trumps deeds.
By pitting faith against works we have set ourselves up for some unintended consequences. The necessity of good deeds in a believer’s life becomes less important when we elevate the personal question about our eternal destiny. But in living the Christian life to which we are called is faith the essential, while good works are optional?
Think for a moment about who benefits from good deeds and who benefits from faith. While I may be the beneficiary of my faith in Christ, others receive the blessing of my good deeds. Is Christianity only about Jesus and me?
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Is not my love for others the hallmark of the genuine Christian life? I think it is necessary for parents to understand that in emphasizing the importance of the individual question, “Where will I go when I die?” we can easily neglect the communal question, “Why must I do good for others?” The disciple whom Jesus loved reminds us:
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother,
he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 1 John 4:20
So how do we love our brother?
Let us not lose heart in doing good, …
while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. Galatians 6:9,10
Though we may bicker relentlessly about the salvific power or lack thereof of good works, we nevertheless know that good works are an essential ingredient of Christian living. Why? Because Christians are called to love one another. We cannot be characterized by this distinguishing mark of a disciple of Christ without doing good.Goodness, genuine goodness, is always the outworking of love.
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My advice to parents is to stress long and hard with children the fact that the Christian faith is about much more than knowing we will go to heaven when we die. Because I am member of a community of believers called the people of God, how I treat my brothers and sisters is as indispensable to Christianity as it is to Judaism.
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6) Why We Value Certain Questions |
A history lies behind why the Reformers camped on faith and emphasized the question of salvation. Much of this history is bound up with the troubled centuries that led up to the Reformation. Many of the challenges faced by the Western church began during the era of the Crusades.
Men who went to fight were promised salvation. Would crusading save them for eternity? I do not claim to know the basis by which the Pope made such a promise, but a little research into Catholic theology taught me this:
Crusading was an act of penance. Penance is a visible demonstration of repentance for evil deeds through acts of self-denial or goodness. In the Catholic view, penance, a word which is often used interchangeably with repentance, is necessary for salvation.
Imagine being a young man in the Middle Ages, painfully aware of your sins and your need to repent and turn your life around. Crusading would provide a concrete means to demonstrate true repentance. Many a brave Christian warrior answered the call to risk their lives for the worthy work of protecting pilgrims and defending holy sites and holy lands stolen by the Turks.
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But again: did crusading save them? This and later questions about indulgences and purgatory ruffled many a Reformer’s feather. Eventually, the question, “How can I be saved?” divided the Western church.
The Protestant line, “Good deeds won’t save you”, is a direct response to the Catholic teaching about penance. I am not going to reopen discussions from the Reformation here, let alone state an opinion about something that has been dividing the church for more than 500 years. I am merely pointing out that this is a parenting issue, given so many young adults are saying “No thank you” to the free gift of salvation. Many walk away from a Christian heritage because Christians don’t live like Christ.
Without strong, consistent teaching about the necessity of doing good, children can get the wrong idea that Christian virtue is optional. When exposed to a vice committed by a believer, the question “what difference does Christianity make?” can begin a dangerous teeter in the mind of a thoughtful child.
While emphasizing good deeds won’t lessen the blow children experience when they encounter Christians doing evil, it will place evil deeds in a context that is antithetical to the purpose Christians have been given — to love one another even as Christ loved us.
Having faith is never a substitute for good works or an excuse for evil. “Christians aren't perfect just forgiven” may fit neatly on a bummer sticker, but it won’t woo a son or daughter wounded by a grace-claiming sinner.
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7) Good Deeds in the Life of Christ |
Christ did “mitzvah”. We won’t find the word in the Gospels, but the story of His human life was punctuated with mitzvah, whether it was healing lepers or blind men, freeing the demon-possessed, or feeding hungry masses.
A short man, confronted and changed by Christ’s ministry, gave away half of all he had and repaid those he swindled four-fold. A despised man whom Jesus praised showed goodness and mercy to a traveler beaten by robbers, bandaged his wounds, and paid for his care. Others offered cups of cool water, visited prisoners, and showed hospitality to strangers.
Christ expected His followers to do mitzvah.
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I cannot be His disciple without following His example of doing good. Virtuous deeds characterize a Christian life.
So, in this way, Christian sons and daughters can learn much from the Jewish protagonist in The Jeweled Astrolabe, who learns about the importance of doing good.
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8) How Good Triumphs Over Evil |
Another reason exists in Scripture for teaching about goodness. The grand story of Scripture has always been bigger than questions involving how individuals get saved. In the grand narrative, there’s a major battle going on. Goodness plays a decisive role in the biblical conflict against evil. The Bible’s antidote for evil is “overcome evil with good.”
We see this powerfully portrayed in the last story of Genesis, where betrayal and treachery became the very means by which many people were kept alive (Genesis 45:5-8; 50:19,20). Joseph is an Old Testament example of a man who entrusted himself to God and did good (1 Peter 4:19). What God accomplished through Joseph saved countless people during a seven-year famine and brought reconciliation to a family once utterly estranged.
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And, as we know, Joseph was a type of advanced signpost, telling us about the work Christ would do. Christ, a man also betrayed by His brothers, defeated the evil of death by death itself, and, through his death, Christ’s life was offered up for all men.
And so we should not be surprised that we too are given the job of defeating evil by doing good.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21
So this is another reason why we should never diminish the importance of goodness—it plays a decisive role in the battle against evil. This role also applies to battling the evil deeds present in our lives.
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9) Goodness – An Act of Repentance |
So let’s close this topic with another antidote for evil deeds — repentance.
Genuine repentance is a turning away from that which is evil and towards that which is good. In the case of Zacchaeus, the short man I referenced above: repentance in the life of someone who had habitually stolen from others was demonstrated by generous giving to those he had wronged.
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Repentance will manifest itself differently as we each deal with our areas of besetting sins, in training ourselves and our children to abandon habits of sin, nothing is more powerful than cultivating new habits of goodness through which we learn to do the exact opposite.
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So perhaps here is one of life’s great ironies: each struggle with sin presents us with an occasion to do good.
What is more, each struggle with sin is a continual reminder to be humble. Remember: the first deed that brought evil into the world was not the disobedience recorded in the garden, but the sin of a prideful angel, who would make himself like the most-high God. God hates pride. The presence of sin in our lives is a necessary remedy that keeps us from being puffed up.
If Christian homes are places where the reality of sin is acknowledged and dealt with in ways consistent with the models with which we are presented in Scripture, then the reality that Christians sin should be an occasion for sorrow and humility but not an excuse for sons and daughters to walk away from a faith that teaches them how to transform evil into good.
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10) A Product Marcia Recommends: |
So, it will come as no surprise: the book I am recommending this month is The Jeweled Astrolabe and its parent discussion guide now available thanks to the concerned parent I quoted above. If you have already purchased this book through BrimWood Press or one of our fine retailers, you can download the parent discussion guide here.
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If you have not purchased this book, may you be brave and plunge into a world that is less than flattering of Christians, but nonetheless, pregnant with opportunities to teach Christian kids how to live like Christ. You can purchase The Jeweled Astrolabe here and get a free-download for the discussion guide here.
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11) Announcing our Family Fiction Contest Winners! |
As most of you are aware, we have recently wrapped up our Family Fiction Writing Contest. Due to insufficient entries we did not have winners in all categories, but the two selected from our entry pool are outstanding.
Congratulations to Kayla Bjorn for her story, Butter for Papa. Kayla is an eleven-year-old who can tell a page turning story full of mischief, narrow escapes and the beauty of familial love. Her award winning entry with original illustrations can be read on-line here.
Our second, first-place winner is a homeschool mom named Deborah Gronquist Gates. Her lovely narrative based on her ancestor is entitled The Long Walk. It’s a must read for those wanting inspiration to tell their own ancestor tale, as well as those parents looking for a good wholesome read that will inspire children to values that are vanishing in this society. Pour yourself a cup of tea and download The Long Walk. You’ll be glad you did.
With these model stories now available on-line, along with ourjudges comments it is our hopes that subsequent Family Fiction Contests will inspire future entries of a similar quality. Someday, we’d like to publish a homeschool anthology of Family Fiction Tales. It’s not too early to start thinking about the story you have to tell.
Special Thanks to Our Contest Judges for their Mitzvah to BrimWood Press:
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Jennifer Johnson Garrity author of Family Fiction, Calendar Quest
and six other historical novels, two of which are based on her ancestors. Visit her author page here.
Kathryn Mattingly, award winning author of
Benjamin and Fractured Hearts can be found on Amazon here, or read her blog at Edgy Words Unleashed
Kim Kautzer is author and co-owner of WriteShop:
An Incremental Homeschool Writing Program. You can visit Kim’s website and investigate her outstanding array of writing products at WriteShop.com.
If you want to know what caught the eye of our judges when they read Butter for Papaand The Long Walk you can read their comments here.
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13) Pass this Newsletter Along |
This is our eighth newsletter. If you know someone who could benefit from its content, please forward it and ask them to subscribe. If they don’t subscribe, you’ll have to forward it to them again next month. Subscribe Here. Of course, if this newsletter was not helpful simply unsubscribe at the bottom below.
We do not sell or share your contact information with others, no matter who asks.
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14) Reprint Rights |
This newsletter is copyright Marcia Harris Brim, 2015. Permission is granted to use any of the information in this newsletter in your own newsletter or web site, as long as you include the following 2-paragraph blurb with it:
This article is reprinted by permission of the author.
Marcia Harris Brim of BrimWood Press writes a free bi-monthly newsletter for Christian parents to provide practical, relevant help for the on-going work of evangelizing our children. Marcia’s books for teaching 10 to 13 year old children Theology, History and Worldview are available at www.brimwoodpress.com
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Check out one of our great affiliates and their review of BrimWood Press Worldview Curriculum by Brandy Ferrell at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood
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The title of this newsletter uses the word “Mitzvah.” It’s a Jewish term that refers to doing good deeds.
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