A blog-acquaintance of mine just put up some musings about homeschooling and asked about a particular curriculum she's thinking of using for her kiddos. It got me thinking. Schooling is one of those topics that can turn mild-mannered Christian parents into red-faced UFC contenders in the time it takes to say "unschooling." It's ridiculous, and I see why it makes people so neurotic -- even once you've decided on public or private or home, you still have to choose between classical! Montessori! Charlotte Mason! Waldorf! And then curriculum! Do you go for the tried-and-true Abeka even though it's KJV-only? Or Sonlight? Or Veritas? Or one of those online accreditation things? Or WHAT? And then methodology -- five days a week, 8-3, nine months a year? Or something else? Dedicated school room or kitchen table? Or picnic table? Or the table in your RV? No wonder so many threads about homeschooling end with people getting all capsy and BUT YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! WROOOOONNNNGG!
That reaction? Is all about pride.
So I was amping up to do a thundering post about pridefulness in schooling choices, when it hit me: I am just that bad about my "stuff." People who watch Glenn Beck. People who send their kids to school with a can of spaghetti-o's for lunch three days a week. People who use the N-word. People who tell rude jokes about Obama. People who roll their eyes at women who want a natural birth... All those people just get my blood pressure going.
And that reaction is ALSO all about pride.
AUGH.
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5 comments:
. . . but I've prayed about it, and I know it's God's will . . .so you should JUST SHUT UP AND DO IT MY WAY!
Are you saying I can't call you a nerd? :-(
Sigh. So you mean that if I got rid of pride in my life my blood would stop boiling? That would be nice :). It is funny, I gravitate between taking it upon myself to decide what others should be doing and thinking myself a total failure. According to C. J. Mahaney though, meditating on our failures is also a sign of pride! Have you read "Humility"? Great book.
"Be completely humble and gentle" - that verse has been going through my head a lot since I read it last night!
C. J. Mahaney's book, Humility: True Greatness, really IS a good book, but it will certainly kick your tail.
I've been forced into meditating lately on James 4:6 (quoting Proverbs 3:34), which I think may be the scariest verse in Scripture: "But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble'." I shudder to think that when I am operating in pride, I am being opposed by Almighty God! Now THAT should get your knickers in a knot!
In Thomas Watson's exposition on Philippians 4:11 ( in The Art of Divine Contentment , he wrote, "Here is a just reproof to such as are discontented with their condition. This disease is almost epidemic. Some not content with the calling which God has set them in, must be a step higher, from the plough to the throne . . . they would be in the temple of honor, before they are in the temple of virtue. They are like apes, which most show their deformity when they are climbing."
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