"An Older Woman", an honorable title

It's true that in today's societal language, the term "older woman" may seem offensive.   Most woman spend countless of dollars trying to hide or at least slow down the showing of their old age.  Of course, we've never heard of a church ministry called, "the older woman's bible study".  Why, what would come to most people's minds are a bunch of old, argumantative, controlling, gossips, commando.  Who would want to go or even be a part of?

Nonetheless, contrary to our culture today, even our 20th century western church, an older woman's ministry is indespensible, biblical, much needed, extremely important and highly honored.  I am not saying that just merely age would qualify you to be in this type of ministry.  We all know that being older doesn't necessarily means you have become wiser.  Proverbs says it is even a disgrace.   I would qualify an older woman's ministry by the wisdom she has in the Lord.

I admire these woman who have suffered and sacrificed their own ambitions, if they ever had any, and gave themselves to serve God by serving their family, loving their husbands, loving their children, being keepers at home.  That is exactly what Titus 2 refers to.

I am very blessed to know some.  One of them is a widow of 105 years old, who by the grace of God, stands strong in the Lord.  This is a tribute to her.  Many may not know the countless hours, the short nights, the 12 children she raised, the honor she gave to her husband till this day.   Mama Sarita ministers to the soul of women in this generation by her humility, love, compassion, serving heart, joy and godly wisdom.  She belongs not to her own emotions, wants and desires, but only to Christ.  She prides herself in being wholy His and never belonging to the world's ways of rebellious attitudes.

One lesson I learned from her is the high honor and respect she holds towards her deceased husband.  Others have said (never heard from her lips) that he was not the best man or husband to her.  Nonetheless, if I had not heard other testimonies of her husband, I would have never guessed.  I regret it because that was never her wish.  She recounts the story of when he would be away from home at night.  Other gossip woman would put ideas into her head to wait for him at night as ask him where and with whom he had been.  He had done it countless times before, but she never thought any evil of him.   So she decided to listen to these women and she did.  She waited late at night for him.  He never came.  She went out in the crossway.  There was no sign of him.  Suddenly, she said to herself, "Sara, what on earth are you, a married woman, with children at home, doing in the middle of the night out in the street.  If your husband were to find out, what would he think of you?"  And with that thought, she hurriedly went home, locked the door and went to bed.  Of course, the thought of where he could be still lingered in her mind.  But another thought prevailed, "Sara, you are a woman with duties and cannot spare to waste precious sleep in worthess worries and thoughts.  That is pure devil.  If you dont' go to sleep I'm going to swat you."  Surprisingly, that is exactly what she did.  She got grabbed something within reach and swatted herself in the head to make herself fall asleep.  When morning came, and husband was found coming, not a word of rebuke did she spoke to him.

"How are you Sara?" he greeted half drunk or really drunk.

"Not as well as yourself but fulfilling my duties.  I've fed the chickens, milked the cow, and got the children going." She responded without a frown or scorn.

"First gol", he replied, realizing he was quite a shameful sight. "Well, Sara, what do you think? The men are waiting for me for orders, should I go?"

"You know how make desicions for you are a leader, but under your circumstances, I'm not sure you can get much accomplish."

"Second gol," he said admitting his state.  And with that he took off again.

Sarah cared and honored her husband and would never think of giving him a scornful rebuke.  "He was my husband and I owe him respect." She would say.  An another instance, one of her boys was going through his father's wallet and found the picture of another woman.  Thinking he would tell on him and mother would handle it from there, he eagerly brought the picture to her astounded at the finding.  The boy expected a different reaction from his mother.  Instead, she turned to him with a dissaproving look and said, "where did you find it?  Shame on you for going into what privately belongs to your father.  That is lack of respect.  You need only to honor your father.  You better run right away and put that picture back where you found it".   She held her husband's position of authority high before her children.   She did settled the situation with her husband later.  Privately, she lifted the picture so he can get a look at it and said, "where did you find such an ugly picture, she is really a disgrace."  Then she continued soberly, "you are a father, you have sons, what image will they get of their father if they find this out?"  He shamefully hung his head and asked her for forgiveness and approved of her.

It is easy to honor and respect our husbands when they are loving.  But how about when they COMMIT ADULTERY?  How about when they DON'T COME HOME AT NIGHT?  How about when they are not BELIEVERS?   How about when it takes YEARS and they don't seem to change?  I am not saying woman are subjects to be doormats nor do I deny of the pain and heartache she would go through.  I cannot imagine the dreams shattered, the betrayal, the sadness and deep loneliness that a betrayed wife can suffer.  In my opinion, it is worst than being a widow.  Nonetheless, only by God's grace can woman under such circumstances would be able to maintain her dignity and be woman of strength.  In return, she will win the respect of her husband.  Just like Sarah,  in front of the children, he held her high and demanded obedience, honor and respect to their mother.  He lavished her with what pleased her and would go out of his way to grant her small wishes.  If this marriage was young and contemporary, even if she was a Christian, would receive sure sympathy from left to right for a divorce well deserved.

From her example, I conclude that a woman has influence over how her husband treats her.  The more she trusts in the Lord in honoring, loving him, and respecting him (even when it may not seem like the think he deserves), the greater the blessing she will receive from her Heavely Father.  Her submission is ultimately unto the Lord.  Sarah has now lived to see her descendents up to four generations and length of years has the Lord blessed her with.  Her years have not been easy, but rather hard and a hard life is a good life.

What a blessing to the Church is a Wise Older Woman who teaches the young wives to love their husbands in a way that even a pastor, elder or other church leader can't.  She can teach young mothers how to love their children in a way that a Seminary graduate pastor can't.  She can connect heart to heart for her pilgrimage has been the same and by the grace of God she has gained a heart of wisdom.  If older women would minister in such a way, we would have steadfasts wives and mothers, stronger families, stronger churches, stronger societies...you get the point.  I'm not saying she is the key to these  but a part of the Body that needs to come alive.

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Back to School Or Not

I've heard these arguments, "We send our kids like Jesus said, sheep among wolves",  "Our kids have excelled in public school", "My child is a straight A student", "We can't abandon the school system, the enemy will gain more ground".  And so on and so on.

Really, really really!  If your goal is to educate your children,  Public School has failed everytime, even if your child gets straight A's.  I was one of them.  Even since first grade I was the best student in class.  I'm not exaggerating, all the way through College.  My father taught me since very little not to be a good student but to be the best.  Soon, it just became a part of me to be excellent in everything I did.  I went through schooling just fine but gain no real education.  This is a big difference.  I did the right thing my teachers asked me, but was I learning truth that would change me?  No.  A few things I learned are, and your children are learning too:

1.  Betty Friedman was a hero


2. How to use condoms


3. Our Founding Fathers were atheist and deists


4. Hidden truths about George Washington.  History textbooks have been revised over and over to delete Providence interventions, miracles in the founding of America.


5. Planned Parenthood will take care of you


6. Homosexualism is another naturally biologica sex


7. In Elementary, you learn about fairies, Christmas is all about Santa Claus.


8. We came from monkeys


9. The earth is millions and millions of years old


10. Dinasours are millions and millions of years old


11. In the beginning there was a spec of dust and everything came from there


12. To believe what the teacher says is true, and not parents


13. It's ok to break every single of the 10 commandmants.

From friends you learn:

1. To be cool and hang out with them instead of with your parents or siblings


2. Sex


3. Inmodest, lustful dress


4. Spend a lot of money in cosmetics and toiletries and unfitting clothing


5. Laugh at foolishness


6. Tolerate sinful life styles


7. Experiment if you are bisexual


8. To talk like them


9. Bible is not relevant


10. Dating


11. Ungodly music


12. Waste time

And the lists can go on and on.  You can add to this list.

Here is the formula: 

Teaching academia truth + a little bit of poison mixed in it = A new pattern of thinking

"The tuth is that in the late 19^th century the government Marxist cartel overthrew home education because Christians were a danger to a Marxist utopia.  There were important political reasons to take parents completely out of the picture.  Once that happened, teachers replaced parents and diverged them from theology.  They began to school them rather than educate them into patterns of thinking and behavior conforming to a socialistic state.

The best minds of America have been conditioned to information that is not true about many things and education itself.  When we think of school we think with a compromised mind of Marxist schooling.  For example, it is false that public school have always existed in civilized country.  They are a recent failed experiment.  Before, literacy was almost 100% and now it has destroyed literacy and compromised students to think and created a deep moral paralizes.  Marxist say it’s a success because it has done just that.   It was their goal.

Psychologist John Dewey said, “high literacy is an obstacle to socialism.”  He proposed a system to reduce literacy in students through a forced public education system.  For over a century, the experts have institutionalized children. They’ve schooled them, not educated them.  They’ve limited their access to their parents and access to real education.  All this is necessary for a successful socialist economy.  Today social planners say, “schooling is the way children will be fit for life in the modern world.”  This is why so many parents are uncomfortable with the idea of home education.  They believe it will rob their children of success in this world.  And yes, it might.  There is the opportunity to build something different.  Educate our children to live for the kingdom of God and not the kingdom of this world.  A complete non socialist world." Insert by Geoff Botkin

Shall we conform? to the patterns of this world?  Or shall we follow God's Word on Educating our children?

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Education "by the way" for young learners

Deuteronomy 6:7 "...and you shall teach them diligently to your children.....when you walk by the way..."

Being gone through schooling all my years of school even through a teaching credetial program for the state of CA, I had been taught and conditioned that education is something to do rather than a way of life.   In my home education, a check list in my "to do list" would be something like "math", "read Bible" at a certain time.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with schedules or scheduling activities, many times it's the only way you'll get things done.  But the way we approach each task in our schedule has a lot to say about how motivated children will be at learning.

I've experienced that with young learners love to learn new things.  They will be life long learners when we make education a life style rather than a task or chore. 

At first I would say something like, "Lizbeth, it's time for our writing, or Bible reading."  At first she would eagerly engage.  The next day, I would get a response like "uuuugh, I don't want to do it."  Rather than seeing disobedience, she was trying to tell me that it wasn't interesting or exciting. 

Now, she would go through anything on my "to do list", but without knowing it and with a totally different attitude.  First, I know what interests her.  She likes to draw.  So I say something like, "Lizbeth, let's read this story and illustrate it."  Wow! What a different response.  She is then off showing her Bible illustration to everyone.  Then she would be playing about the story. 

Recently she did this with Dad.  They read about those who enter through the wide gate and the narrow gate.  They illustrated it.  She shared it excitedly with everyone in the house.  The next day I found her playing and she told be, "Mommy, look, these people are going through this wide gate and these little girl is going through the narrow gate."

Now reading and writing is done all day long too.   She would read a recipe as we bake something or write our shopping list or do some math with the recipe ingredients.  And there, reading, writing and math was done  on my schedule. 

Lizbeth has just turned six and almost everything she has learned now has been by living life day by day and seizing every opportinity and every question she asks to instruct her in the subject.   This really applies to almost everything to a young mind.  This way the Word of God is  being lived and applied before us all throughout the day.

This is essential for her, as she is developing a heart of wisdom, to view learning as an exciting never ending treasure.   If there is something that I think is of value for her to learn and she is not interested, then it's my job to make it interesting.  It always works.  In our house the word "boring" or "bored" is forbidden.  I tell my children that when your soul is asleep, you're almost always bored.  But awakens our soul so we can use our imagination and be creative in any circumstance.

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Why Home Education?

Our number one reason for home educating our children is that it is God's way of fulfilling the command of Deuteronomy 6. 

1. 
   
   We desire the best education for our children and that can only come from the Word of God.  Thus our main textbook is the Bible.


2. We pray for our children to gain a heart of wisdom.  That would only come from learning God's ways and not the wisdom of the world.


3. We have no time to waste.  Too much time is wasted sitting in classrooms listening to teachers trying to keep order in the class.  Education is far more than just academics.  We teach about life.


4. We are the primary responsible for our children so we need to discipline their actions.  We cannot do that if we don't know what they did or said all day.


5. We are the experts when it comes to our children because we know them best.  We know what they need and what they don't need.


6. Age-integrated teaching.  Children are not age segregated like in school.  The older ones will learn love, kindness and patience when it interacting and teaching the little ones.  The younger ones learn better and faster from the older ones.  No room for selfish attitudes or immaturity.


7. Nutritious, homemade food,  rather than cafeteria food.


8. No peer-presure, no humanistic teachings, unstructured


9. Go at our own pace


10. Te tell you the truth we just love being together and learning together about God and life all day.

The list goes on and on.....

Which other reasons do you have for home educating?

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