mother plants swiss chard

We had always been more conservative than most, and so would occasionally throw out the TV for a needed respite.  Then we usually would get another one after a few months.  But this time we won't get cable.  Just the "safe" channels.  Maybe we'll just use the monitor for good "Christian" videos or DVDs. 

Even though we lived a seemingly healthy, wholesome life already -- homeschooling, spending lots of quality time with each child, teaching them spiritually...I still had that low, underlying fear vibrating so softly underneath.

I had become scared and fearful.  My not-very-old Christianity told me to fear.   The Bible says to fear God.  I also had fear of what the future held for our children.  Fear of not being able to overcome the evils of the world.  Fear I would ruin our children.  Fear that Satan would worm his way into our lives so subtly that we wouldn't even notice, like C. S. Lewis described in The Screwtape Letters.

While homeschooling the children, we had started using a Mennonite curriculum.  I felt such a peace when reading aloud the little storybooks.  So pure and wholesome:

God Gave Us Work

Our family's all outside tonight:
Big brother mows the yard,
My sister's weeding flower beds,
And Mother plants Swiss chard.

 

 

Helping Mother

Molly was six years old. Her little brother Timothy had just turned three. 

They lived with their father and mother in a little house in the country.

One day Mother was very sick. She was so sick that she had to stay in bed, 

so Grandma came to spend the day while Father was at work.

Molly wanted to help Mother too but she did not know what to do.

"Dear God," she prayed, "please show me how I can help Mother."

Whenever I ordered some schoolbooks, I'd also order a few extras for me, some booklets and pamphlets, being the voracious reader I am. The Mennonite stance on competitiveness was exactly how I'd always felt.  We had never felt quite comfortable with our children being in those fighting sports, where the goal is always to beat somebody -- to always try and be better than another.

Their stance on non-resistance was another area we agreed with.  Doesn't the Bible say "Love your enemies and bless them that curse you?"  It doesn't say "Love your enemies except when the government says to kill," I thought.


We were finding so many areas that we agreed upon. And the little storybooks were so peaceful.  I wondered if there were people who actually lived these principles, who lived this wholesome, simple life.