NOTE: For complete understanding of these conclusions please read all previous posts dated March 25, 2007 under SDS study.

Based on my study(and this was just Lesson 1!!!) I can appreciate…..

1.  What an incentive to aim at and to target fashioning and shaping our dc’s character thru their education/training.  It holds much benefit for them and for their homes, their children, their communities, our nation(Godly president will make godly decisions).  God will bless and is with those who NOT just exhibit His character(b/c anybody can fake acting like they know God but in the long run it will not last) but one who has committed to live a life of Christian Character.  Lasting, true, Christian character can only come from knowing God-having personal relationship with Him and keeping His Word….living a life in obedience to His Word.  There is a pre-requesite to seeing this in our children though…this comes from 4R of the role of Parents in the education of children….we must be a TRUE, HONEST example of Christian character ourselves.  We MUST live what we teach our children to be and do.

Matthew 5:19 (King James Version)

2.  I now understand sooooooooooooooo much more the mindset and philosophy coming from the authors of FACE resources and T&L and CHOC.  I now see why the push for character, why the heart is the object and target of this method/philosophy and much more than that….Why GOD targets the heart of the individual.  The Word of God even tells us HOW to go about reaching the heart…it is thru educating/renewing the mind in God’s Word and His Ways…that will produce a character with traits of the philosophy of the education they received AND that is why choosing a method and curriculum or developing a method and curriculum that renews the mind to the fact that God governs all and can be seen in all of life and learning and in all subjects is CRITICAL!!  That is another dissertation on how the Word of God tells us to teach..in another post

3.  Even though I’ve read GACE and T&L and CHOC I understood what I read but I did not GET
it like I get it now…not until I started thru the SDS and did my own study and only then did God give me the understanding. 

Starting with I Timothy 4:7-8 begins my little mini-study of GODLINESS.    I was still asking myself and  God really if what I had concluded was true.  My thoughts went back to a scripture that had jumped out a me(some days ago) as I read Ist and 2nd Timothy doing Lesson 1 of the SDS.

Definition:  GODLINESS

Webster- A religious life; a careful observance of the laws of God and
performance of religious duties, proceeding from love and reverence for
the divine character and commands; christian obedience.

Strong’s concordance - pious, godly

Godliness-being, acting like God.  Having attributes, character traits like God; living a lifestyle Christ-likeness sincerely from the heart.

I Timothy 4:7-8 - King James

 But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

 For
bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all
things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to
come.

I Timothy 4:7-8 - Amplified Version(I know PA recommends sticking with the King James but I like how the Amplified gives additional insight)

But refuse and avoid irreverent legends (profane and impure and
godless fictions, mere grandmothers’ tales) and silly myths, and
express your disapproval of them. Train yourself toward godliness
(piety), [keeping yourself spiritually fit].

For
physical training is of some value (useful for a little), but godliness
(spiritual training) is useful and of value in everything and in every
way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life
which is to come.

So the bible(I Tim 4:7-8)  says that bodily exercise has some profit(for the physical) but spiritual training in HAVING THE CHARACTER OF GOD or godliness has profit in all things and in every area, physical as well as spiritual.

conclusion:   Building, molding, and shaping Godliness, or shall we say Christian character, in our children has profit for ALL things in their lives….for life here and now and that which is to come-10 years from now and when they get to heaven.
or
Building the spiritual will have an effect on the physical….internal produces external.

So now I’m beginning to see the value and the emphasis of PA in targeting the character of our children.  From the life of Daniel I see that excellent character will serve my children well in their relationship with God, with society and in their future stations in life. Relationship with God is the primary objective and what flows out of an intimate relationship with God, what my children allow God to do in their hearts and minds as servants of the Most High will affect and flow over into their effect in society and their future stations in life….in our nation. 

More proof…

2 Peter 1:4-11 (King James Version)

The amplified uses the terms AIM AT and PURSUE developing Christian Character.

Psalm 4:3 (King James Version)

NOTE: This is continuation of a previous post…for complete understanding please read previous post on Lesson 1…..

===========================

Roman 12:2 -  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

This scripture tells me that if you educate/renew a person’s mind(to
the Word and ways of God) that will produce a certain character in a
person…a person who has become TRANSFORMED…METAMORPHED into someone
who is NOT conform to spirit of this world and  how will we know that
they have been changed/transformed in their thinking?   By their actions, by their
outward lives and by his being able to prove/discernbe obedient to the good,
acceptable, and perfect will of God in his life.

conclusion:  We can affect a person’s character toward godliness by educating  their minds to the Word and Ways and Will of God

…again this is showing me that how one is educated produces a certain character.

Examples:

An honest lawyer will run an honest practice.

A wise doctor will have patients(who take his advice) that benefit from his wisdom in medicine and health…the health of his patients will reflect the wisdom that he prescribes to them for their betterment and overall well-being…(all things being equal..)

When my daughter thoroughly cleans her room and I don’t have to go behind her and have her ‘redo’ it tells me that her conscientiousness of doing a thorough job is being developed in her…that character trait is showing itself outwardly…what she has been TAUGHT she has internalized and now corresponding action is being seen…..NOW, the fact that she’ll do that on her own FROM TIME TO TIME and not ALL the time also shows me that we need to work on the character trait of DILIGENCE…:-)

=====================================================
Now once I came to that conclusion I looked for more “biblical proof”
to see if this conclusion could be backed up by ‘other’ scripture.  In
the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses let a word be established…..

[Just a little note here.  This came from a discussion with my husband about this lesson and my dh pointed out that you can train or educate/raise a person with a certain teaching and they can go out and do something totally different than what they had been educated to do.  In my opinion, the training was never IN them.  It is the Christian education that one INTERNALIZES(and lives by) that produces the Christian character.  I will have to revisit this and study this out more as to how to be certain that the education is internalized]

So, just to rephrase a little:  The character of a person will be seen in the kind of life they live, the conduct they exhibit and the fruit in their lives, homes, children, civil duties they have and their character  is shaped by what they internalize from their education/training.

…more in next post….

I’m posting this in segments b/c I want to give the reader time to ‘reflect’ on what I’ve said and to study this out and pray over it.  That is how it happened with me.  All of what I’m sharing from this SDS study came over a period of days…not all at once.  I’ve just complied it together and typed it out today..it kind of ALL came together today…I got segments over the week and the Holy Spirit put it all together for me and now I’m sharing what I received.  Prayerfully it will be a blessing to someone…..

Oh, I also now understand why the Principle Approach is described as “reflective” teaching and learning…for I have been mulling over all of this ever since I got my SDS and did each lesson each day…

I have happened upon a breakthru in my understanding (and therefore
application) of this approach to home educating my children. It all
started with Lesson 1 in the SDS when it asked us to read(portions of)
the books of Daniel and Timothy and to write a summary of the
characteristics of their education. What I saw was the following:

Daniel had an excellent spirit about him before he came to Babylon. He
also knew God, obviously had been taught about God..even if he studied
on his own and was not taught by his parents..somewhere, somehow along
in his life Daniel knew God, knew the ways of God and had determined to
live a life that conformed to what he had learned about God and His
commandments. He was committed to keep his consecration to the God of his fathers(Dan. 2:23)
Obviously Daniel had been taught about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob-his fathers!! I think by reading just the first few chapters of
Daniel that would be a fair and accurate statement.

Timothy also was taught and trained in the scriptures and in the way of
the Lord obviously from as far back as his grandmother and then from
his mother.

Conclusion: What these 2 men were taught was evidenced by the
‘characteristics’ of their life…what was inside of them showed itself
in their outward lives…internal produces external

ex. Daniel had such an excellent spirit that he was eventually made 3rd ruler of the kingdom of Babylon.

Pause and meditate on that…

Put another way…..

The training/education of Daniel and Timothy shaped/molded/made their character

…more to come in next post…

I’ve purchased the Self Directed Study from FACE and I’ve been getting blessed ever since I’ve started studying it. This approach(Biblical Principle Approach to education and government) really ministers to the heart of the one who WANTS to receive and who is in search of God’s deep purpose/philosophy of education…in search of God’s purpose for life….the life that Christ died to give to us… and this approach makes me appreciate all the more all that Jesus went thru to make this wisdom available to us thru Himself as we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. The bible tells us that Christ has been made unto us wisdom and that all the treasures of wisdom have been hidden in Christ Jesus…hidden for us to find..if we seek(study and pray and fast/passionately desire to know) not just know wisdom for wisdom’s sake but to know Him and His way/reasons for doing things.

Studying this approach(Principle Approach) has increased my knowledge of God’s will for education and of God Himself and has increased my love for Him…now if it is doing that for me I am soooooo looking for the same effect in my dc!!!!!

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I have a confession to make.  I did not study the lessons that Brenda shared with the SDS group but I’m logging this under my SDS study for this week; you will see why a little later  

It seemed as if my time just ‘got away’ from me this week…BUT as I did my own 4R to construct my own bible study lessons the first word I researched in the scriptures was WORD..meaning THE WORD OF GOD or THE WORD OF TRUTH…JESUS IS THE WORD.

I got very blessed by my 4R of this topic.  This is not all I came up with but this is just what stood out to me…

Psalm 119:25 - My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

That says to me that the Word of the Lord, written or spoken, has life in it.

Matt 4:4 - But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God

That says to me that every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God has life in it enough to sustain us and is NECESSARY to live this life…bread alone won’t do it.

Prov. 4: 20-22 - My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Then it hit me…The word of God doesn’t just have LIFE IN it…IT IS LIFE!!  It doesn’t just give life…it’s very essence and being is life. 

I think about the health experts who tells us to eat food that is alive, has life in it like veggies, plants, herbs, etc.  Well the Word of God goes a step beyond just having life in it, it IS LIFE.

This is proven by

Heb 4:12(Amp) - For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the ^[a]breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

How does this connect with SDS study?…Heb. 4:12 was in our lesson this week for us to break down and do a 4R on (I think- I don’t remember although I read thru the lesson I did not do it on the day assigned…but I did do it unbeknownst to me)

Anyway, this is such a powerful truth for us to keep in mind - that the Word of God is alive…it doesn’t just have life in it…it IS LIFE!!!!!

What is also precious to me is that the bible tells how the Word that God spoke (and had written down) is precious to Him.  He does not take lightly what He has said.  If He said it He will do it!!!  He did not just speak (or have men write by the Holy Ghost) just for the sake of speaking…He had purpose for His words and He had a purpose for speaking what He did speak.  How many times have I spoken frivolous words or went back on a word I gave?

God is not like that.  It says so in Psalm 105:8 - He is [earnestly] mindful of His covenant and forever it is imprinted on His heart, the word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations

God so esteems and has bound Himself by His own word that the bible says this in Psalm 138:2 - I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

God has made us promises that He means to keep and perform in our lives..I believe He soooooooooo wants to bless us with all that He has(not just materially, with even the thoughts and desires of HIS heart..how precious are HIS own thoughts to HIMSELF?  How much do we esteem His thoughts?  to desire to know His heart about whatever but especially about how to go about homeschooling the children He gave us?)

II Chronicles 16:9 - For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

He is looking for those whom He can bless…who will receive what He has to give…who is able to receive it what He has the way He wants to give it…those who don’t put Him in a box…

I sure want to be a candidate for His blessing of His wisdom and knowledge in insight!!!!!

The last point I want to make is the scripture found in Psalm 103:20 -  Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word

A question popped into my mind as I turned to write down the next scripture…It was ‘how does the Word of God have a voice?’ Answer:  WHEN WE SPEAK IT!!!

What a powerful principle!!  When we speak the Word of God, or speak what God has said, we are speaking LIFE!!  Life to our situations, to our lives, our bodies, our children.  I believe we activate angels to assignments when we speak the the Word of LIFE and give it VOICE!  Put LIFE  into the atmosphere and KEEP putting the Word of God into and over whatever situation needs to be changed to align itself with God’s will and we will see change.  Life begets life not death and death does not beget life….only life begets life so I challenge myself to start speaking life…not that I speak death, I just don’t speak the word of God as often as I think I should.

So that is what I learned this week from the SDS study(by no intention of my own but) by God’s providence.  He kept me on course after all!!

Isn’t He marvelous?

What was impressed upon me throughout every lesson I read was ‘consecration’.  God had been dealing with me about consecration before our assignment was given so when I read this in T&L it confirmed this word from the Lord and also blessed me…let me know that God was ordering my steps to be in this SDS for one thing J
 

Under the title ‘The Blessings of America” on page xvii it says in about the 4^th paragraph down, “ The battle today is for men’s hearts and souls.  It is not a battle for men’s minds.  The mind will believe only what the heart, the character, the conscience, of an individual dictates.  We cannot rely alone on INFORMATION, but we must depend upon CONSECRATION-‘as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart’ “.
 

Webster’s gives 3 definitions, I will only use the 1^st one. It says:
CONSECRATION, n.
1.        The act or ceremony of separating form a common to a sacred use, or of devoting and dedicating a person or thing to the service and worship of God, by certain rites or solemnities. Consecration does not make a person or thing really holy, but declares it to be sacred, that is, devoted to God or to divine service; as the consecration of the priests among the Israelites; the consecration of the vessels used in the temple; the consecration of a bishop.