May 29, 2008
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I was going through an old file of writings I kept on training children when I ran across these words from an old article by Elisabeth Elliot. I’m sure Elisabeth would agree with me that there is nothing inerrantly evil about giving a child a peppermint lozenge in church but I thought her question, where she asked if the cross is an attraction, was worth considering. Today’s child training methods seem to go in the opposite direction. Parents oftentimes do everything they can to keep their children from experiencing any hardness in their lives. I’m sure there are extremes on both sides of this coin. Yet, how different our child training is today compared to a century ago.
Amy Carmichael told about how when she was a child, they had very strict rules in their family. She came from a northern Presbyterian family. She said, “When we went to church, we noticed that other children were given peppermint lozenges, but we were never allowed that luxury.” Her parents felt that they could sit through church, long as it might be, without sucking on peppermint lozenges.
As I look around at the Christians and the Christian children, I wonder to myself, “Where is the discipline that produced an Amy Carmichael, a Gladys Aylward, a Malla Moe, a Mary Slessor, an Ida Scudder?”
There’s pain in the realization that there are not very many in that category, not very many to whom the cross is the attraction. That was one of the questions that Any Carmichael would ask prospective candidates who wanted to come and work with her in India as missionaries. “Is it the cross that is the attraction? Does the thought of hardness draw or repel you?”
Excerpts taken from Elisabeth Elliot’s writings
Comments (12)
I have a friend who always excuses her children too have ADD or some medical problem. This is often an excuse ( some true cases need meds) in parenting today and it’s mostly because the is lack in dicipline. As a young mother I must admit it’s a challenge yet I know it’s possible to raise repectful, obedient children, it’s areas of selfishness in my own life that effects my children most.
Great post!
This also raises an interesting but controversial topic……”Children’s Church”. Perhaps my opinion comes from a background of strict Catholic upbringing, mother of 3 children (now ages 32, 31 and 29), and as a pastor’s wife for 27 years……I don’t like Children’s Church. I like to see families worshipping together. I like to hear children whisper a question to mom or dad about the sermon, I like to see young ones tugging on the hand of a parent to go to the altar to pray together, I like to see toddlers eager to give their family’s offering, I like to see families listening to the preaching of the Word and standing together with arms around one another when the Scripture is read. Worship is something a family should do TOGETHER.
Thanks for your post. I love E. Elliot’s writings and yours too! Q.’
Oh and I forgot to add…..how will a young one learn how to behave in church (with the parent’s guidance) if they are not sitting in the pew together for all portions of the worship service? As a result we are seeing teenagers AND now adults who don’t know how to behave in church……there’s lot’s of talking, giggling, poking and note passing going on. I don’t like to see THAT! Q.’
Interesting comments. I’d have to sit down and think for awhile to come up with my true response though. For one I do not have children so cannot speak by experience. As for the names mentioned above, I’d have to say they were individuals “called by God” so parenting wasn’t the only tool of who they became. Not wording this completely right but hope you can understand what I am trying to say.
I have never read any of her (Elizabeth Elliott) devotions but her story I know well. Its because of her commitment and her love that the Ecuador tribe came to know Christ, after they murdered her husband and another missionary! I would say she is a modern day Amy Carmichael herself! They both attended the college that my Mother did in Illinois (which is also the same college Billy Graham attended too) called Wheaton!
He is not fool to give up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. ~Jim Elliott
@Donna7 -Absolutely! Parenting was surely not the only tool that God used in shaping these individuals into His image. Yet, I’ve rarely seen a GODLY young adult that was not disciplined biblically while growing up. Yet, I know that God draws and saves whom He wills. He may sometimes choose to use children that were not raised in a godly home. Yet, we as parents are still held accountable to train our children up in the Lord’s way. The results are left with Him.
So nice to have you stop by! Please join us again!
@firefighterswife - I think you would really enjoy E.E.’s devotionals. They can be read FREE online at http://www.elisabethelliot.org/devotional.html. Also, you can sign up for them through Gateway to Joy and they’ll be sent to your inbox. Possibly you can do the same thing through E.E.’s site.
How interesting your mother attended the same college!
So nice to have you post. Please come by again!
@georgene - Thanks for the warm welcome
greeting, i was on xanga this morning & figure I would stop by to say hello. Hope all is going well. Have an awesome weekend.
two great women of God. and I’m so grateful they’ve left their writings behind them so that we may learn to walk as they.
Hello Georgene!!
Hope all is well with you today!
In church my children are expected to sit still and listen. We don’t give them candy. My husband says if they start to act up they are to go outside and calm down. Then come back and sit down. I only had to do that maybe twice when my children were babies. Of course he gives them a good talking to about being church.
God Bless You!
thank you for the comment – and subscription.
I, too, was introduced to Lilias Trotter through E.E.’s writings. namely, the book “A Path Through Suffering”. and I have that biography of Ms. Trotter on my bookshelf.
God is good to allow us such heroes.