Mom’s Musings

Today I was reading about an upcoming event in Bellingham, WA that really struck a chord with me. Educator and author Chris Mercogliano will be talking about his book, In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids’ Inner Wildness, at Village Books at 4pm this Saturday.

According to Kie Relyea, who wrote the Herald article, Mr. Mercogliano is concerned that children’s lives are being over structured, with too much homework and constant before and after school organized activities. He proposes that parents seek to nurture their children without over-scheduling them. He says,

“I really wanted to get across the message that the most important thing for parents to do is not to do. It’s important to let your kids have their own time and space. Don’t structure their day. Don’t structure their play.”

He also emphasizes reading to children, and getting them outdoors to investigate, play and explore.

I think I’ll try to make time to read this book. I wonder if Mr. Mercogliano actually does have the same philosophy of child-nurturing that I do. When the children were little, we did have order to our day. But once chores were done and meals were eaten, there was plenty of time left for the children to explore the forest behind the house, build forts in the bushes, put on plays in the living room and create works of art. When the children were indoors, I would sometimes spend hours a day reading to them, the length of time depending on how interested they were in the current book and whether it was a cozy, book-reading sort of day or not.

When the children were older, we homeschooled, in a laid-back sort of way. I taught the children to read and taught them the fundamentals of math. We did use some text books. But, mainly, we relied on the library and the rule, “You need to read as thick a stack of non-fiction as fiction books!” If there was a certain subject to which I wished to introduce a child, I would check out some books on the subject and leave them lying around. They were usually read, and soon thereafter the excited child would tell me all about the new interest.

Our homeschooling also involved taking the children everywhere with us, preparing them beforehand with what to expect, and what behavior would be expected of them. I let them know that if they weren’t able to behave, we would have to return home, but this rarely happened. Going out was a treat, and they wanted it!

At one point, three of the children told me they were interested in learning to play violin, so violins were purchased and private lessons ensued, with melodious consequences. For art, we kept the home well-supplied with all things artsy and craftsy. The children used their imaginations, and then decided to view all the art videos available at the Bellingham Library to learn such things as colored pencil techniques, and how to paint with oils, acrylics and watercolors.

I treasured those days of the children having time and opportunity to pursue interests and develop talents in a relaxed setting. There was plenty of time, too, to contribute to the work of the home, read books, go on hikes, and get enough rest!

I think that all of these things were beneficial to the children, and helped them to become the independent thinking, curious, and creative people that they are. There is so much more to be said, especially since some of the grown children think a more “normal” life would have been better. But this is a topic for another day, since I’m so tired!

I’m still making my way through the book The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge, M.D.

Here’s a portion I read today that I find both hopeful (as an older middle-aged person) and amazing:

We now know that exercise and mental activity in animals generate and sustain more brain cells, and we have many studies confirming that humans who lead mentally active lives have better brain function. The more education we have, the more socially and physically active we are, and the more we participate in mentally stimulating activities, the less likely we are to get Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Not all activities are equal in this regard. Those that involve genuine concentration - studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, and dancing - are associated with a lower risk for dementia. Dancing, which requires learning new moves, is both physically and mentally challenging and requires much concentration. Less intense activities, such as bowling, babysitting, and golfing, are not associated with a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s.

These studies are suggestive but stop short of proving that we can prevent Alzheimer’s disease with brain exercises. These activities are associated with or correlated with less Alzheimer’s, but correlations don’t prove causality. It is possible that people with very early onset but undetectable Alzheimer’s begin slowing down early in life and so stop being active. The most we can say about the relationship between brain exercises and Alzheimer’s at the moment is that it seems very promising. - pages 254, 255

My friend Mrs. Darling from Dishpan Dribble recently posted a recommended reading list for children at her site. Inspired by her effort, I went back through the records of some of the books the children read when they were little. This is a greatly abridged list of the most cherished books, and doesn’t include much of the nonfiction that they read. Were some of these books your children’s favorites as well?:

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I spent some more time reading The Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic by Richard Phillips, Philip Ryken and Mark Dever. The chapter I read today was An Apostolic Church by Philip Ryken. The author based his comments on Ephesians 2:19-22:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

In the course of his discourse, the author substantiates the point that there are five marks of apostolicity in the church:

An apostolic church is Christ-centered in its preaching,

Bible-based in its teaching,

Grace-dependent in its ministry,

Faith-seeking in its evangelism, and

God-glorifying in its vision.

As we review this list, something about it ought to seem familiar: Christ, Scripture, grace, faith, glory. These are the Protestant Reformation doctrines: Christ alone, Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, and to God alone be the glory! – page 109

Additionally, the author does a great job of explaining what “apostolic” does NOT mean. These are some common misconceptions, making this chapter well-worth reading.

This image won’t really allow you to “search inside”, but if you go to the Amazon book site, you can sneek a peek inside the book before ordering it.

Many of my favorite books have been recommended to me by my daughters Kayla, Rebecca and Lydia. Avalon High, by Meg Cabot, is one of those books. This book is a modern-day morphing of the legend of King Arthur and friends. The book is a fun read, addresses some serious issues (but not in a heavy-handed way), and isn’t predictable, amazingly enough.

WARNING: This is not a guy book. It is not written from Arthur’s point of view, or Merlin’s, or Sir Lancelot’s, so just be warned, OK?

As an enjoyable and profitable thing to do on Sundays, I’m continuing to read portions of the book The Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic by Richard Phillips, Philip Ryken and Mark Dever. This afternoon I read Chapter 3, “A Holy Church”, by Philip Ryken.

The Scripture verses referenced by Rev. Ryken for this chapter are from I Corinthians 6:9-11:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

One point emphasized by Rev. Ryken is that this holiness is by grace. He says, in part:

What brought about this change? Or to ask the same question in a different way, what does it take for the church to be holy?

What it takes is nothing less than a supernatural work of divine grace. After describing their old sinful lifestyles, Paul writes, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (I Cor. 6:11). There are three main verbs in this verse: washed (apelousasthe), sanctified (hegiasthete), and justified (edikaiothete).

These verbs have several things in common. They all occur in the past tense. Also, they all refer to things that happened at some point in the past: the Corinthians were washed, sanctified, and justified. Another feature these verbs share is that they are all passives (technically, apelousasthe is a middle, but here it has the force of a passive). In other words, they do not tell what the Corinthians did, but what they had done to them. It is like the all-important difference between “I hit you with my car” and “I was hit by your car.” What the police officer wants to know is who hit whom! Paul is clear in this passage as to who did the washing, the sanctifying, and the justifying. These were not things the Corinthians did for themselves, but things that were done for them by God the Holy Spirit. Salvation is not something we accomplish on our own. Rather, our holiness comes by grace. - page 54

This is such an encouraging truth to me: It is God Himself who makes His church holy. The holiness of the church is by God’s grace, just as the salvation of the individual sinner is by His grace. Ephesians 5:25b-27:

Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it;

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

There are so many more thought-provoking and profitable points made in this chapter. Read it for yourself and be edified.

Rev. Richard Phillips in the book The Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic speaks of the unity “among all who adhere to the apostolic gospel that bounds the true church”:

How is this possible, many respond, when we don’t agree on everything? The answer is to be found in the manner in which we hold our disagreements within the fold of the true gospel church. Though we are organized outwardly in denominations, we must oppose the party spirit of denominationalism. The great Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs, a champion of truth but also notably charitable toward true believers with whom he disagreed, wrote this:

• We should labor to find out what is truth, search for it as silver, and go according to what light we have; but yet so, though we might differ, to ‘keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,’ and join in all things that we can, and so walk so lovingly that it may appear that, if there are differences, it is merely that which conscience makes, because we dare not deny what we are persuaded in our consciences is a truth.

I’m slowly making my way through the book The Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic by Richard Phillips, Philip Ryken and Mark Dever. I’m on Chapter 2, One Church, by Richard Phillips. The verses considered by Rev. Phillips in this chapter are from Ephesians 4:1-6:

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
With all lowliness and meekess, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Here are a few interesting and thought-provoking excerpts from the chapter:

We hear today a constant cry against the “problem” of Christian division. Roman Catholic apologists use this as one of their main arguments against the Reformation and its doctrine of Scripture alone. One group argues, “Today there are tens of thousands of competing denominations, each insisting its interpretation of the Bible is the correct one. The resulting divisions have caused untold confusion among millions of sincere but misled Christians.” Catholics and Protestants who bemoan this problem point to Jesus’ prayer as proof that visible unity should be our top priority. Jesus prayed, asking “that they may all be one” (John 17:21).

What are we to make of this matter? I think the best answer, and the one Paul gives in our passage, is not to solve the problem of Christian unity but to deny its existence. Let me state that again: according to Paul the church is already united. He says, “There is one body and one Spirit” (Eph. 4:4). Not that there ought to be one body, but that there is one body, one unified church. We are not exhorted to “create”unity among Christians, but to maintain it, that is, to serve and promote the unity that is already a fact (Eph. 4:3). Likewise, Jesus prayed to the Father, not to us, for church unity, and we can be sure that his prayer was answered. This was the assertion of the Nicene Creed, the formula of which shapes our treatment of the church in this book. There is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” There is no problem of unity in Christ’s church, for it is already one. (page 26)

On page 29, Rev. Phillips continues:

The true church is not divided, Paul insists, for there is one church, one body. We have unity, but are now called to maintain and serve it, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). If we are to do this, we must rightly discern the boundaries of Christian unity and truth. If there is one church with one faith, then we must be prepared to discern what is the content that defines the boundary between brother Christians and false professors. With whom do we have unity? This is what we must discern.

To discover the author’s answer, you will have to read this excellent little book for yourself.

I’m in the middle of reading a fascinating book entitled The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D. Much of what I’ve read thus far has application to principles of optimal child development. Here is one excerpt from the book that I found enlightening:

Most people think that the dangers created by the media are a result of content. But Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian who founded media studies in the 1950s and predicted the Internet twenty years before it was invented, was the first to intuit that the media change our brains irrespective of content, and he famously said, “The medium is the message.” McLuhan was arguing that each medium reorganizes our mind and brain in its own unique way and that the consequences of these reorganizations are far more significant than the effects of the content or “message.” (page 308)

Television, music videos, and video games, all of which use television techniques, unfold at a much faster pace than real life, and they are getting faster, which causes people to develop an increased appetite for high-speed transitions in those media. It is the form of the television medium – cuts, edits, zooms, pans, and sudden noises – that alters the brain, by activating what Pavlov called the “orienting response,” which occurs whenever we sense a sudden change in the world around us, especially a sudden movement. We instinctively interrupt whatever we are doing to turn, pay attention, and get our bearings. . . Television triggers this response at a far more rapid rate than we experience it in life, which is why we can’t keep our eyes off the TV screen, even in the middle of an intimate conversation, and why people watch TV a lot longer than they intend. Because typical music videos, action sequences, and commercials trigger orienting responses at a rate of one per second, watching them puts us into continuous orienting response with no recovery. No wonder people report feeling drained from watching TV. Yet we acquire a taste for it and find slower changes boring. The cost is that such activities as reading, complex conversation, and listening to lectures become more difficult. (pages 309, 310) (Emphasis added)