When You Rise Up (A book review)

I wanted to do a quick review on a book that was highly recommended to me by a fellow homeschooler years ago which I bumped across on my shelf the other day.  "When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling" brings out many good points in answering common objections to home education.  One of the arguments homeschoolers hear often is "Why do you think you are qualified to homeschool your children?" To be blunt, I know I am qualified because God gave me these children and told me to train them up in the way they should go.  Deuteronomy 6 talks about teaching your children in many different aspects of your day.  God gave us the children we have because He wanted us to teach them.

Another point the author makes is to really examine why we are teaching our children different subjects and skills.  Are we teaching are children to read so they will be ahead of their peers,. or so they can examine the truths of God's word for themselves?   Are we teaching them physics so they can get into an Ivy League college, or so they can see how awesome the God of the universe is by putting all these laws into motion?  Teaching is a great way for our students to learn more about God n every aspect of learning;  science, art, history, mathematics, and languages.

This book is a very good read and has helped us see that what we are doing in our home isn't strange even if it isn't typical. I recommend this book to all Christian homeschoolers or those thinking about homeschooling.  God has equipped you for the job and given you his Bible to lean on as a textbook.

"Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all to the glory of God"

What the Bible says about wives

I have decided to study what the word "wife" means in the Bible.  I had a really interesting thought about this yesterday when we were reading through 1st Timothy, but I am still trying to apply that in my head. I will share that later as I come to it, but I am just typing the word "wife" into the Bible search on e-sword.  I will share the verse and something that I think all wives can benefit from.  Please share comments about what God is teaching you from this study.

I do not want to teach any doctrine through this as I do not believe that is the woman's place.

Tit 2:3  Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 

Tit 2:4  and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 

Tit 2:5  to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 

I do not see doctrine taught here, but I do see that husbands are included.

Here we go-

Gen 2:24  "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." 

 I love my mom and dad.  But God has told us that when we marry, we have a new family.  When I was younger, I used to go to my parents for advice, like which college to go to or which dress to buy.  Now as a married woman, I am to go to my husband for these things.   His opinion should matter more to me than others. 

Gen 2:25  "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."  

I know this verse is talking about how they were in the Garden of Eden.  However, it made me think about how I act around my husband.  I have now gone through four full pregnancies, and my body does not look like it did when Mark and I met. I should not be ashamed of my body in front of my husband. 

Gen 3:17  And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;"

How many times have I said something that was not from God that my husband may even have considered?  If Eve had not eaten the fruit or offered it to Adam, things would be different.  Men listen to their wives opinions.  I do not want my opinion to be one that leads him away from the Lord's will.

Gen 4:1  "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, 'I have gotten a man(child) with the help of the LORD.'"  

 How much more intimately can you know your husband than this.  God created this way to conceive children for us to have an intimate relationship with our spouse.  It is easy to have your husband come home and just talk about the skin deep things.  "How was work?" ,"Joe called. He wants you to go golfing on Saturday" ," The toilet won't flush",etc.  But then God has created a way to get past that superficial communication and to enjoy each others company

.

It also says she "got a man(child)" with the help of the Lord.  With all the medical technology we have now, we tend to think that babies come when we want and don't come when we don't want.  But this verse tells us that God provides the child.  We help in the fact of having an intimate relationship with our husband (and I don't want to forgo that) but God creates the new life in our womb.  God can create a baby even when doctors have told a woman that she will never have children.  God can also create a life when birth control is being used. God has control in all of this, not man.  

What do you think about these verses?  Do you have anything to add?

The shadow of thy wings

I am sitting here tonight in a very hot camper.  The heat index was supposed to be high today and it easily passed 100 degrees.  However, there is good news in a hot camper. The air conditioning is currently shut off while our new friend is cleaning it.  Hooray.  He works on air conditioners for a living and said ours will work 30-40% better.  Thank you, Scott.

The heat was making me think about how we were trying to escape the sun.  Today, the girls wanted to hand our free drinks and tracts.  We sat in the shade of a beautiful tree in front of the church.  It just made me think about this verse. 

Psa 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 

Psa 17:9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

This just reminded me of how we are protected by God just as I was protected by that tree.  The sunlight looked nice and may have its benefits for today.  But later the burn will hurt.  The world is out there, and people may try to draw us into it.  But we should stay under the protection of our Heavenly Father.

Let's be real

The church (the people) are supposed to be One.  A large family that is to help us grow closer to being like Jesus Christ.Why do we try to be so secretive among other people who are supposed to be in our family?  As I child, if I was ill, I did not hide that fact from my parents.  If Naomi gets hurt, she knows that she can go to Nathaniel to fix her boo-boo.  If Samuel is crying because he can't roll over, Virginia can help him flip.

Many times, I have mentioned a struggle I or my family is having.  I have had brothers and sisters in Christ give me some fine answers and stories of their personal issues related to my problem.  I have had others who act as if everything in their life is perfect.  I believe that God wants us to have the support of other Christians and part of that is learning from eachother.  I am not saying that we need to complain, but that we need to help our brothers and sisters through their genuine struggles by sharing the experiences God has shown us personally.  

Most women would feel that a male doctor was belittling her if he said he understood how contractions felt.  Someone who has lost a child does not want to hear "I know what you are going through" from someone who has two healthy children.  

If I ask how to fit Bible study into a day filled with homeschooling and baby care, it is not useful for a sister to say "Well, you need to get up earlier".  It would be helpful to share "I was never able to fit it in either until I started to get up before my children".  I don't think everyone struggles witht the same things that I do, but there are some people that portray themselves as never having any problem learning how to best fit all our obligations to God and family into a day.

If I say something negative about my husband, I need a sister to lovingly come up beside me and show me how to build him up, rather than tear him down. If I admit that my personal time with the Lord is failing, I need a sister to show me how she makes it work in her daily life.  But do you think I would admit that to someone who never has any part of her life that she doesn't seem to have all straightend out.

Let's be real with each other and willing to share what God has shown us.  We need to help each other take up our cross daily and live the way God wants us to.  At least for me, I need examples from women who have figured out from real life how to make this work.  I also want to be an example to other women.

Learning from each other

This was written a few weeks ago, but I never got around to posting it.

I had the most amazing time with three young women who are very devoted to God.  Two of these ladies seem to be approaching marriage very rapidly, a very good thing.  We decided to sit down and do a Bible study on marriage.  It was so much fun and amazing to see the insights that these young women have.  It seems like there is not much mentoring that goes on in today's churches.  Both young men and women are left to figure out how to live a Christian life.  

God will give us the tools we need to be able to follow Him.  One of the tools he has given us is people who are more mature in the faith and those that have already experienced life.  We can learn a lot from one another just observing how other's live in their everyday life.  The early church saw this as they met together day by day to have meals together and worship God.  Our churches are so disjointed now.  We don't even know each other.   How many of us know  the color of the carpet of Mrs. So and So who sits in the pew with us on Sunday morning?  How many could even tell you what the house looks like?  Many may not even know the town she lives in.  Could you tell me how many children she has? What her favorite book is?  

The people in the first churches could tell you.  The home church was an extension of the family.  They connected with people through meaningful relationships.  They did not just see them at the "church building" 1,2, or 3 times a week. 

 Have you ever had friends that you spend a great deal of time with?  We had some really good friends that we spent probably 20 hours a week with, outside of the church building.  We would be at their house or they would be at ours until the wee morning hours.  You get to know a lot about a person this way.  Not only did our children become really close, but you get to know their hopes, dreams, fears, and struggles.  I saw their desire to follow the Lord all those years ago, and they just returned from a survey trip to the mission field.

People say quality time is not the same as quantity time.  You find out more from eachother when you have no agenda.  A big spider jumping out at me may reveal that my friend shares that issue. When someone sees me struggling to get my little one down for a nap, she may have a suggestion that I had not thought of.   These things are not brought up during Sunday school or Church service.  I know these are trivial things but these lead to big things.

We need to surround ourselves with the church, people who believe in Jesus Christ who came to save us from our sins.  The church building is  just that, a building.  God does not call us to go to church every Sunday.  He tells us to "not forsake the assembling of ourselves together".  Our family tries to be with other families at least 5 days a week outside of scheduled church meetings.  These may be believers or they may be people we are trying to lead to the Lord Jesus Christ. This way we can bring more people into God's family, more tools to help us in our Christian walk.  

Sara Cowperthwaite

12 Emery Avenue
Thomaston, Maine 04861
cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com