So often we easily fall into the trap of doing things to please others. This is not always a bad thing. We may want to please our parents, because this is obedient to God’s commandment. We may seek the approval of our spouse or friends, because we love them and want to make them happy. However, there are times when we can become carried away with pleasing others and making them happy, we forget about our need to please the Lord. I was reading today in John ch12v43 “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God”. I am taking this verse out of context slightly, but the meaning remains the same. It is wrong for us to put our desire to please others, before our desire to please God. If there was ever a good time for us to be reminded of this, it’s Christmas! Just thought I’d Share it with you! Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Archive for » 2009 «
The education of our children, is a very important aspect of their lives. It is one of the key factors in determining their future job prospects and quality of living. Everyone always has an opinion on the way children should be educated and before I begin my discussion I would like to make the point that I believe this is a personal issue, specific to each individual parents biblical and moral choices. I don’t believe I have the right to suggest to others how their children should be educated, in the same way I don’t welcome judgement on my decision as to how to educate my daughter. Although I am a few years away from making this decision, it will be a personal choice between myself, my husband and most importantly, The Lord.
I have heard many people express opinions on Christian Education or Home Schooling, which suggest that they are inferior to that of a Secular School Education. Firstly, I don’t think we can ever make a large sweeping statement about one type of education and brand it as the truth. For example, we cannot say “Teachers in Christian schools are unqualified” or “Teachers in secular schools are unsaved”. Both these statements are ridiculous, as there are thousands of schools in Northern Ireland and they all differ from each other. Secondly, rather than focusing on a type of education as a whole, we would benefit from analysing the specific school that we are interested in sending our children to. When looking at schools, we should be considering the motto of the school, is it based on God’s Word?; the type of teachers, do you know if they are saved? if so, do they follow the same doctrine that you teach your child at home? Are they qualified to a standard that you are happy with? The answers to these questions will be different in each individual school, and should determine your decision on whether it is suitable for your children.
There is an assumption that academic education and biblical teaching are two separate things, which are dealt with in different places i.e the school classroom and the church. However, as the Word Of God is the very foundation of our faith as Christians, we must remember that it should also be treated as a basis for our understanding in many other areas of study. For example, what we teach in science about creation is taken from the book of Genesis. We teach moral principles based on the 10 Commandments. An education which has a Christian ethos will inadvertently give our children a better biblical knowledge.
As parents we feel happier knowing that Christian teachers are setting good examples before our children, whereas we would know very little about the lifestyle and moral standards of a teacher in a secular school. Of course I know that there are many Born Again Christian teachers in sec
ular schools, but unfortunately they are outnumbered. The age of extreme political correctness in which we live would deter us from knowing any personal information about teachers in secular schools concerning their faith, sexuality and moral standards. Given that teachers have such an important influence on our children, should we not want the influence at school to continue the promotion of the Godly principals that we are teaching at home?
“It is often quite expensive and time-consuming to buy healthy food and that puts wealthier parents at an advantage.” This is a statement by Tam Fry (National Obesity Forum), when he featured in a BBC News article about childhood obesity. My question today challenges this idea that wealthier people have an advantage when it comes to buying healthy food. The BBC article went on to explain that wealthier parents have more of an ‘awareness’ about healthy eating as well as the money to finance it. I think this is nonsense.
Firstly, ‘awareness’ about healthy eating is not confined to the upper classes. The society in which we live is obsessed with it. If you go into most schools, there will be some sort of healthy eating program for the pupils to follow; if your waiting in the doctors surgery you will read the posters about the necessary ’5-a-day’; we even have TV advertisements, in the form of friendly cartoons, encouraging the whole family to eating healthy and do more exercise. Last time I checked, people from all social classes watch TV and go into public places, so why would we assume that they are unaware of all this propaganda about healthy eating? It seems a bit silly, don’t you think?
Secondly, I challenge anyone to disagree with me on the fact that the healthiest foods are very often the fresh ones, which are prepared from raw products. Preparing a meal from scratch, using fresh produce will generally speaking always be cheaper and healthier than buying it as a ready-made product in a chilled or frozen format. So if convenience food is more expensive than home cooked nutritional food, it doesn’t make sense that wealthier people have an advantage in eating healthily, because the healthy way is (generally speaking) the cheaper way.
The ways in which we can make our lifestyles and eating habits more healthy, are promoted to us in many different ways. We don’t need to have completed third level education to know that it’s better for us to have salad for lunch than a Big Mac or a banana rather than a mars bar! Forgive me for using such obvious examples, but I am trying to make a point. Common sense is a major influence when we are choosing what to eat and how much exercise we should be doing, it doesn’t always require a specialist education or the advice of a dietitian (of course there is no harm in using these) Being on maternity leave, I can honestly say that being able to prepare fresh meals everyday has been cheaper and tastier than supermarket prepared meals that cost a fortune and don’t fill the house with the smell of home cooking 
The past three months have been incredibly life changing. Time has gone so quickly its hard to believe how much Tamar has changed and grown in such a short space of time. One minute we are in the hospital unsure how to change a nappy, the next we are having our baby dedicated in church! As much as we love to see the healthy growth of our daughter, there is a tiny part of me that just wants to keep the little newborn who sleeps all the time and loves to be cuddled. But I suppose growing up is a natural process, although I didn’t expect her to be using the computer quite so soon!
This post marks the beginning of a new section in my blog, entitled ‘Women of Faith’. It is my intention to share with my female readers, some of the thoughts and feelings I have on different aspects of faith, church life and indeed Christianity as whole. Any comments you have concerning the topics I write about are more than welcome.
In keeping with the seasonal time that we are currently enjoying, there are many issues around Christmas celebrations which cause many Christians to think carefully about the extent to which our festive traditions glorify the reason for the season -The Lord Jesus Christ. Although we can all make metaphorical comparisons between the biblical Christmas Story and the modern way in which we celebrate (such as the giving of presents), it is evident that for a vast majority of people we can lose sight of the true meaning. Very often I find myself guilty of this also.
However, this is my first Christmas as a parent. This of course will add a new and wonderful aspect to the festive season, but it also raises a whole new range of questions and reflections on how we will portray the celebration of The Saviour coming into the world, to our daughter. Being just 3 months old, she won’t have any concept of the festivities this year, but God willing there will be many more years to come. In the years ahead, we hope to show that there is just as much joy in giving, as receiving and that there is much deeper meaning to be taken from the exchanging of gifts.
My question today, raises the issue of Santa Is it biblically correct for us to lie to our children in telling them that there is a jolly man in a red suit, who is watching them all year round and knows when they are naughty or nice? Should we allow our children to believe Santa is watching them and they can get more presents by behaving well? I want to point out at this stage that I am not setting out a right or wrong answer to this question, as each parent has the right to teach their child according to their own biblical principles, I am merely setting out my own thoughts.
My problems with the ‘Santa’ ideal, are based on the foundations of what we ultimately should be teaching our children – The Gospel Message that Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19V10). The Lord Jesus Christ is at the center of the Gospel, we portray him to our children as a part of the Trinity or Godhead. God IS actually the omnipresent person that we need to teach our children about. Very often even young children in Sunday School are taught that God is perfect, he can do no sin, unlike mankind who are born and shapen in iniquity (sin). So when we teach our children that there is also another omnipresent ‘person’ called Santa who sees everything they do and judges them according to their behaviour, are we not making a mockery one of the main attributes of God? Only God can be omnipresent.
So often in today’s society we read and hear of atheists who compare a belief in God to a belief in Santa or the Tooth Fairy. But if we think about it from a child’s perspective, your child has a trust in you from a very early age. They trust that what you tell them is the truth and they accept it. So just as we send them to Sunday School and encourage them to read their bibles and pray, we also tell them about Santa and his ability to visit all the children in the world in one night etc etc. As the child gets older, they become more curious and naturally start to question everything they are taught. This is a normal part of growing up and by asking questions they gain knowledge and understanding. Biblically this is fantastic and we should enjoy sharing more of Gods word with our children. But when it comes to the question of Santa, which is a lie to begin with, we have to tell more lies. For example, “mummy, how does Santa get into the house if we don’t have chimney?”, to which we have to lie “we leave a key outside for Santa, honey.” Or “daddy, how can reindeer fly?” to which we respond “Santa uses magic reindeer dust.”
There are many other strange questions that children come up with, but I’m sure you get the idea. So one lie which is considered acceptable because of the social importance the world places on an imaginary person, turns into a web of lies. When did breaking the ninth commandment (Exodus 20v16) to keep in with worldly ideal of Christmas become OK? Surely this must be sending the message to our children that its acceptable to lie in some circumstances, so long as everyone else is doing it. If you genuinely disagree with me based on biblical convictions, I would love for you to leave a comment to discuss this further.
I know there are many readers who have decided that I sound mean and nasty but I assure you this is not the case 
As you can see from the photo Tamar has had her first visit to see Santa and we wouldn’t stop her from enjoying this experience, but we won’t tell her the lies which revolve around Santa. Our daughter will receive Christmas presents and will look forward to this time of year the same as every other child, but I do not believe that we have to deceive her into feeling this way. My concern would be that if we taught our child that Santa really exists and then one day break the news that he isn’t and it was all lie, it may cast doubt on her believing us when we teach her about another man who she also has never met, The Saviour Of The World.
It would be easy for me to write a blog post day after day, about the joys and news experiences of being a parent! Wonderful and unique things happen everyday with Tamar, she is a fascinating little person, who is maturing in her own way. I was just pondering on the fact that everything is new to a little baby, they have to experience life in order to have knowledge and understanding. In a way, everything we set before them is what will occupy their minds until they come to an age when they discover things for themselves.
This brought home to me the importance of setting before them a Godly home, a loving family and a moral courage to do the right thing! Though we may think that the main channel of learning is education, we must realise that by the time our children reach school age many important traits in their personality have already been formed. Their personality and attitude to others, will reflect the surroundings they have experienced in the early years of their lives. Love, respect, charity, responsibility, kindness and courtesy need to be presented to our little babies and toddlers so that they will grow to accept them as a good way of living your life. Ultimately, the teaching of God’s Word and setting a good example in the way we live our lives, is how we give our children the best start in life.
Proverbs 22v6 “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Well today, I had a refreshing reminder that there are still many nice kind-hearted people in the world! It began two days ago when our neighbour from two doors down (whom I have never seen or talked to before) was driving out of the cul-de-sac as Tamar and I were going for a walk. She stopped the car to say congratulations and asked how the baby was doing etc……. Very nice elderly lady.
This afternoon as Tamar and I were struggling to find some decent daytime TV, there was a knock on the door. It was the very nice lady (who I now know as Mabel). She had knitted a beautiful pink blanket for Tamar! It’s almost too nice to let Tamar use, although this would defeat the point of a blanket I suppose! A very nice gift from a lady we only met two days ago! Refreshing indeed!
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