Encouragement for Mothers

It is time for school to start and mothers everywhere are preparing their hearts and hands in many different ways. Some are looking for forgotten books, running to copy a log that will be inspirational for their students; some are sending their children to school and others are preparing to home educate. We all have educational goals and want to start the new year right; we want discipline both for ourselves and for our students. What are our most important educational goals? I want mine to be to nurture my children’s heart for God, to teach them about Christ, to walk with them in the knowledge that serving God is the greatest objective and joy that we can have. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” Matthew 22:37-39. I want to teach them that love’s only source is Christ Himself, our only hope of true love is when Jesus becomes precious to us and restores us to our Father through His Holy Spirit. I want to occupy as much of our time as possible in this teaching, this search for real life and sharing of this real life with others. I want to dig deep into God’s Word with my students this year………….Oh, Lord, help me to do this, I have desired this before and fallen short because of all the earthly requirements that I cannot seem to see as less important than getting to know our Savior better.

Living and working in a family is the greatest calling that God gives us; from here we work out His plan for our lives. Being a mom, a dad, a daughter, a son, a sister and a brother, a husband, a wife; these are our greatest privileges. Our Heavenly Father gave up His Son to restore relationship with us. Jesus always referred to His Father, that they were together and of one mind, that they were One in love, plan, and purpose. He showed us that we must cleave to our families in love, plan, and purpose. His identity was rooted in His Father’s; I believe that we teach our children to cleave to their Heavenly Father through our cleaving to them, not in possession, but in love, patience, gentleness, longsuffering, kindness, companionship, and perseverance through the hard times. We walk alongside them and hold them up in their activities, we sacrifice our activities to help them with theirs.

If we walk alongside of them in patience and nurturing, we can have very high expectations for them. We all have to have much higher expectations and goals for our children. Not that they perform to make us look good, but that they will want to study God, learn the Bible while they have the time, and make their own plans to serve Him. And if they don’t? Lovingly help them to do this. Create situations in which they will succeed in serving God. A very Godly mother taught this principle to me and she is the mother of three very successful children, that is, successful in the eyes of the Lord, not the world. Children may ask to study the Bible if they know this is time to be with Mom and Dad talking together about God’s Word. I have always struggled with laying down my own activities, goals and desires to walk alongside of my kids as they made and carried out their plans. I am eternally grateful for the people that God has placed in my path to teach me to love my family by nurturing their interests and life purpose. I have lost the battle many times to my own selfishness. But, when God’s desires, that I sacrifice, won out in me, I have seen the fruit of my children growing in their identity in Christ.

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England in the 1800’s. She wrote books on the education of children. Education is much more than math and science; it is teaching about relationships, relationships with God, man and His creation. Through this lens of relationships, Charlotte developed her educational plan. Karen Andreola introduced me to Charlotte Mason’s ideas through her book Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning. Every parent who wants a deep relationship with his or her child might want to read this book! And of course there is that wonderful dilemma………..I don’t have time to read the book because I am spending time with my children! So, I want to share a section of this book that encouraged me 10 years ago when I was having a very gloomy day and has re-inspired me several times since to be grateful for God’s plan for true education for His children. This is from Karen Andreola’s book:

Magnanimity and Enthusiasm: (Chapter 36)

“A soul occupied with great ideas best performs small duties.”
-H. Martineau

Magnanimity is generosity or nobility of mind or greatness of spirit. This quality of mind and greatness of spirit comes about through a combination of ‘high thinking’ and ‘lowly living.’ A magnanimous person thinks great thoughts but also is generous in overlooking injury or insult – for example, he or she rises above the pettiness or animosity. His intellectual pursuits do not make him ‘too good’ to do lowly chores.
‘Do you wish to be great?’ asks St Augustine. ‘Then begin by being little. Do you desire to construct a vast lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. Modest humility is beauty’s crown.’
Home school (every parent schools at home, either all the time or part of the time) is the best place to raise children to be magnanimous. We can hold up Jesus Christ as the perfect example of magnanimity for our children. We can endeavor to be like Him. We can teach our children to share even when it is hard, to forgive when it doesn’t seem fair, give them opportunities to absorb the principle of magnanimity, and eventually see them turn into magnanimous persons themselves.
Was there ever a time when magnanimous minds were more needed? Charlotte Mason bids us to ‘endow our children, not only with a multitude of ideas, but with the greatest ideas and most noble thoughts mankind has to offer, springing from great minds in every sphere of human relationships.’ A person who contemplates these noble and great thoughts in humility will not become ‘high-brow’ or haughty, but magnanimous. It was Charlotte’s hope and prayer that magnanimity would be a character trait common to all her students.
…………….With the Bible, children can develop a relationship with God and learn to desire righteousness. With the humanities, children learn to see as a painter sees, for example, by studying great art. They learn to feel as a poet feels by reading poetry aloud. They listen to great music and read the best literature (including heroic biographies) and plays. We lead them to observe closely the wonders God has made in nature. We encourage them to pick up noble ideas that contribute to the training of their consciences. We want them to add to their collection the ideas also owned by those who are chivalrous, noble-minded, large-hearted, altruistic, and unpretentious. …………….
The words of George Elliot (she wrote Silas Marner) come to our aid:

If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting find
One, self-denying deed,
One word
That eased the heart of him who heard
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine
Where it went-
Then you may count that day well spent.
But if, through the livelong day,
You’ve cheered no heart, by yea or nay-
If, through it all
You’ve nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one’s face-
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost-
Then count that day as worse than lost.

I invite you, continues Karen Andreola, to make it an educational goal to raise magnanimous children. Magnanimity is one big reason for placing emphasis on ideas derived from the humanities. Through narration a child verbally expresses these ideas. Through servanthood he humbly lives for others. These three- ideas, narration, and servanthood-can work well with both young and old people. To Charlotte, every well brought up person is one who has become magnanimous. He is a large-hearted person who practices high thinking and lowly living.”
-Excerpts from Chapter 36 in the Charlotte Mason Companion
By Karen Andreola

Thank you to Karen Andreola who has encouraged me once again to start another school year!
It’s Labor Day……………. I didn’t map out the math chapters or acquaint myself with Elizabeth’s science; I didn’t take my last chance to clean out a closet; I didn’t plan my meals for the next month or even go to the grocery store to get a fresh start for the first day of school. I didn’t find a place for 50 books on the floor or make up the girls’ logs…………….I studied magnanimity…… and hopefully, one weary mom will read it and feel as happy as I do to be a mother with the greatest life purpose any person could possibly have!
~Kim