Some of you have emailed me that you, too, are going to join me in reading "The Duties of Parents" by J.C. Ryle. Right now I am on encouragement 4..."Train with this thought continually before your eyes - that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered".
I read this section, including the following paragraph and was reminded about the enormous responsibility we have to walk wisely and think Biblically in every area of our lives and our kids lives...everything we and they do has eternal ramifications:
A true Christian must be no slave to fashion, if he would train his child for heaven. He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways, merely because it is usual; to allow them to read books of a questionable sort, merely because everybody else reads them; to let them form habits of a doubtful tendency, merely because they are the habits of the day. He must train with an eye to his children's souls. He must not be ashamed to hear his training called singular and strange. What if it is? The time is short -- the fashion of this world passeth away. He that has trained his children for heaven, rather than for earth -- for God, rather than for man -- he is the parent that will be called wise at last.
I think this stood out to me a little bit more as I am just finishing an amazing
book (Womanly Dominion) by Mark Chanski...a book that I will spend more time talking about in the weeks to come...a book that goes against the "customs of the world"...many customs of which we as women have adopted without even realizing that they are the worlds but not Gods. A book that may even seem "singular and strange" to many church ladies...but a book that is so desperately needed in our circles. Are you a little bit curious? If you do decide to pick it up and read it...you just might be mad at me forever...or you just might walk away changed forever!:)
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