Praise God and pass the ammunition!

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that it is very difficult to provide enough spiritual integration in our family life.  We are in a situation that we never thought we would face (but which is quotidian for most people): our kids are going to public school.  You see, we had really planned on being a homeschooling family.  My wife’s parents homeschooled all five of their kids all the way through, whereas my parents turned to homeschooling after running into a principal who proudly informed them that he would not allow my older brother to skip a grade in certain subjects.

We even started homeschooling and enjoyed it amidst the chaos of fundraising for our current work.  My bride taught our oldest two kids to read by the time they were six (as in, reading a couple hundred pages a month these days at 7 and 8) and got our third on the same track before we made the move to Europe.  Then, reality struck.  The Wife and I needed to enroll in full-time language programs.  Our homeschooling adventure was, it seemed, at an end.  Four of our kids are now enrolled in the public school system, and #5 is in a Christian nursery during the day.

Except, homeschooling never ends.  For any parent.  You are always homeschooling, whether you call it that or not!  I volunteer as much as I possibly can at the school.  Twice a month I volunteer at the library (la bibliothèque), which is a great way to be with my kids, work on my French, meet new people, and keep four boys there in line that otherwise love to look up every nude drawing that they can find in the library and then attempt to bump into whatever girl happens to be hanging around.  Seriously.  More on such challenges later.

I go on field trips (skiing next week!), and try to make the PTA meetings.  My wife and I read through homework and endless notebooks that serve different purposes in a language that we barely function in, and God faithfully sees us through every day.  But I feel a sense of loss.  I liked homeschooling, dangit!  I enjoyed doing flash cards to learn the timeline of the Bible and how it fit into the global timeline of history.  I enjoyed noodling on the piano with my kids and showing them what I do for work as a video editor.  I still miss it, six months later.

So, here we are.  As I type this on a school night, tired out after a couple of hours of conjugating words and according past participles, I’m listening to some choice Beatles tracks and thinking of what we are doing that seems to be working.  I thought that if I shared a couple resources, maybe some of you might find something useful in this mess and maybe give me your ideas, too.  Therefore, in no particular order, here are some of the things that we are doing to bring the presence and knowledge of Jesus into our kids’ lives.

Prayer:          

Really, can I do anything else but start with this?  If you’re not praying for your kids, I hate to say it, but you do not love them 100%.  *Cue sound of RSS feeds being unsubscribed*  Still here?  Okay.  What I mean by that is that God is the only one who loves a child more than their own…He also knows their past, present, future and purpose better than those parents.  It is the height of lunacy for me, as a fallible and feeble human being, to reject His offer to take them under His care.  /endsoapbox

Useful books:

The Bible

We use this often, but we do so in many different ways.  Even though AWANA doesn’t exist here, my mother-in-law is an AWANA leader, so our kids say their verses to her over Skype.  We also play a tabletop roleplaying game of my concoction (yes, it is set in a Christianized Star Wars universe, so sue me!) that has conversation options that include Scripture that the kids need to have memorized to be able to unlock the story tangents.  We are geeks for Jesus in the Shires household.  The Bible frequently comes up during meals, and we try to ensure that each of the children has their own in a version that they can more or less understand.  With that, I would also recommend…

The MangaBible Series

I picked these up at a conference a couple years ago to help the kids learn French, but you can get them in English.  They’re great!  The artwork is action-packed when it needs to be and poignant in other instances.  Unlike other such projects, this one tackles theological passages as well as narrative ones, often weaving the two together to provide context for the children.  Which, if nothing else, gives us the opportunity to discuss with our children why context is so important in understanding Scripture.

Nightlight for Parents: A Devotional

This follow-up to Dr. and Mrs. Dobson’s Nightlight: A Devotional for Couples is a great way to focus on how parenting is going at the end of the day.  The daily readings aren’t too long, and the questions (unlike in some other devotional books) are practical and engaging.

The Story of Me:

As I alluded to earlier, gone are the days of elementary innocence.  I was not trying to shock my dear readers in mentioning the physically and conversationally inappropriate acts that I’m encountering in public schools; in fact I (yet again) had to break up such an instance today!  And this is with seven and eight year olds!  Pray for the students in school, and pray for their parents, who have no doubt contributed to  this behavior in the environment they’ve created at home.  And put on your big boy/girl pants and face the fact that just because you want the topic of sex to not come up until Junior is 15, that this is no longer a safe assumption…and probably hasn’t been in your lifetime.  Also, pick up FamilyLife’s The Story of Me series and gently, purely, and wonderfully introduce your kids to what it means to be made in God’s image. 

Useful tools:

I don’t have a lot to put here at the moment, but in the past, we have enjoyed using the Veritas packets.  We went light on the book because it was third graders (we don’t have any yet) but the CD and the timeline cards are great for teaching kids Biblical and secular history at the same time.

Useful apps:

Okay, I have a few for my iPhone; mileage may vary with Android.  They are:

Saint-A-Day:   We’re not Catholics, but we do believe that God’s story didn’t end with the book of Acts and then restart with the Reformation (oh, I went there), so we enjoy reading stories about men, women, and children that have given their lives to serve God and share Jesus with the world.  This app is extremely readable and understandable for our children, and we just leave theological things that we don’t agree with out (such as praying to saints).  For Protestant “saints”, we have…

Foxe’s Bookof Martyrs:

We read this a little each week.  I have to pretty heavily censor some details, but I try to make it clear how-and more importantly, why-these believers met their death victoriously.  It’s always a sobering read, but I think it’s important for getting your kids to not equate serving Jesus with a comfortable middle-class life and retirement.  Just make sure to read it a bit and judge whether your kids are ready for it yet!  It’s available for free.

BibleHIStory Game:

Somewhat like a digital version of Veritas’ history cards, this app allows you to start a multiplayer game at various difficulty levels (easy is plenty for our kids right now).  A card pops up with an event and you have to compare it to a card in your “timeline” and decide whether it occurred before or after the event on the timeline.  If you’re right, the card gets added to your timeline and you get a point.  If you’re wrong, you get a strike and your opponent gets to try to add it to their timeline…which has different events on it.  This goes until someone either gets enough points or too many strikes and the game ends.  The first several rounds are rough depending on how much history your kids know, but they start to catch on as they persist.

Media:

Adventures in Odyssey:

If you’re already familiar with Focus on the Family’s children’s program, then move along, but if you’ve never heard of it, BOY OH BOY are you in for a treat!  This radio series has been going for almost 30 years and has hundreds of incredible episodes that follow the adventures of Whit, Connie, Eugene and dozens of other characters, good and evil, as they learn lessons (or don’t!) about God, the Bible, and faith in the real world.  Squeaky-clean, although every now and then they warn you that an episode is for 12 and up, it’s not just fun for kids, it’s really engaging for adults as well!  Catch it online for free!

Radio Theatre:

Another great Focus dramatic offering, you can catch it on their website to.  Listen to dramatizations such as the complete Chronicles of Narnia, Oliver Twist, The Screwtape Letters, The Hiding Place, Father Gilbert Mysteries, and many more for free online or order the discs and support a ministry that has brought talented and often famous actors together to teach Godly lessons through performance radio.

Plugged In Online:

Another FotF ministry, Plugged In provides media reviews for movies, music, and games that break the content down into sections like: spiritual content, sexual content, positive content, etc.  I don’t always agree with some of the conclusions (Gladiator is the best R-rated movie ever made, as I’m sure you would agree), but I’ve also never watch a Plugged In-approved movie only to find that the review had misled me, and that’s saying something these days!

Well, that’s it for now!  We have some other items (board games, music, etc.) that I’ll add in another post sometime, but this might be enough to get ya started!  What about you?  How are you bringing Jesus into your home in different ways?  Let me know!

La mort, l'injustice, et Dieu.

Aujourd’hui dans le monde occidental, ont trouve que la question n’est pas simplement « Est-ce que Dieu existe » ? Mais plutôt « est-ce qu’on a vraiment le droit ou le besoin de parler de Dieu » ?  Selon les chercheurs scientifiques, c’est sous-entendu qu’on ne cherche pas pourquoi ou pour qui le monde a été fait, mais par quels processus.  Selon les pensées du média, on a simplement besoin de regarder aux souffrances et violences pour affirmer qu’il y a ni Dieu, ni raison d’être dans le monde, et même dans l’univers entier.  Elie Wiesel, une victime de l’Holocauste qui avait a peine survécu cette horreur, avait dit que

« Dieu est mort au bout de la corde d’un bourreau à Auschwitz ».

Comment répondre à telles affirmations, telles tragédies, telles expériences, particulièrement quand nous n’avions pas vécu telles choses ?  Je pense que, pour le chrétien, l’essential c’est de se souvenir que Dieu nous a dit que c’est une génération perverse qui demande toujours un signe, dans cette cas, l’exigence d’une justice immédiate.  Mais Jésus dit que :

« Dieu, en effet, n'a pas envoyé son Fils dans le monde pour qu'il juge le monde, mais pour que le monde soit sauvé par lui. »

Il va plus loin et dit qu’aucun signe serai donné sauf le signe de Jonas : l’homme mort ressuscité.  C’est évident que Jésus et l’exemplaire le plus étonnant de cette idée.  On peut penser à d’autres, comme Lazare, ou le fils de la veuve de Naïn, ou Eutychus, qui avait sommeil juste à la mort.

Alors, une question.  Est-ce qu’il y a seulement une type de mort ?  Serions nous libéré seulement après être mort ?  Bien sûr, l’aveuglement, le viol, le meurtre, l’oppression, l’injustice, la perdre d’un enfant, l’affliction, l’esclavage, l’ignorance, le manque d’aide médicale, toutes ces choses sont des types de la mort.  Et maintenant, que fait Dieu comme défense contre tout cela ?  Eh ben, il nous lit un morceau du livre d’Isaï:

« L'Esprit du Seigneur est sur moi, parce qu'Il m'a oint pour annoncer une bonne nouvelle aux pauvres;

Il m'a envoyé pour guérir ceux qui ont le cœur brisé, pour proclamer aux captifs la délivrance, et aux aveugles le recouvrement de la vue, pour renvoyer libres les opprimés, pour publier une année de grâce du Seigneur (…) Aujourd'hui cette parole de l'Écriture, que vous venez d'entendre, est accomplie. »

Comment, accompli ?!  On voit toujours la souffrance et la mort, même dans la vie de Jésus, lui-même !  Mais c’est vrai qu’on trouve que, si il y a plusieurs types de la mort, il y a pourtant un type de la vie.  La vie offert part Jésus est une vie qui libérer, parfois dans le monde, parfois ailleurs.  Surtout, Jean nous dit que

« Le Fils de Dieu a paru afin de détruire les œuvres du diable ».

Je pense que c’est là qu’on enfin trouve la bonne réponse.  Bien sûr, un jour il y aura une grande libération de l’univers.  Mais avant ce bouleversant événement, « la création tout entière soupire et souffre les douleurs de l'enfantement. »

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, qui n’a pas survécu la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, aborde ce problème en disant :

« Le Dieu qui est avec nous est celui qui nous abandonne! Le Dieu qui nous laisse vivre dans le monde, sans l’hypothèse de travail Dieu, est celui devant qui nous nous tenons constamment. Devant Dieu et avec Dieu, nous vivons sans Dieu. Dieu se laisse déloger du monde et clouer sur la croix. Dieu est impuissant et faible dans le monde, et ainsi seulement il est avec nous et nous aide [...] Voilà la différence décisive d’avec toutes les autres religions. La religiosité de l’homme le renvoie dans sa misère à la puissance de Dieu dans le monde, Dieu est le deus ex machina. La Bible le renvoie à la souffrance et à la faiblesse de Dieu; … L’évolution du monde vers l’âge adulte dont nous avons parlé, faisant table rase d’une fausse image de Dieu, libère le regard de l’homme pour le diriger vers le Dieu de la Bible qui accomplit sa puissance et sa place dans le monde par son impuissance.».

Le problème, c’est toujours le même dont Jésus avait parlé au Pharisiens : ce n’est pas que l’évidence de Dieu manque, c’est que la foi nous manque.  Mais peut-être ils restent toujours des hommes, des femmes, des enfants qui sont prêtes à croire, mais qui attendent simplement la bonne nouvelle.  Peut-être que quand Jésus avait parlé du signe de Jonas, ce n’était pas seulement une chastement contre les Pharisiens, c’était la promesse que nous aurions toujours le signe de la vie ressuscitée.  C’est pour cette raison, que j’aime travailler avec les témoignages, parce que chacun représente ce promis réalisé.