Charlotte Mason Pearls of Wisdom

Code of Education in the Gospels- "It may surprise parents who have not given much attention to the subject to discover also a code of education in the gospels, expressly laid down by Christ. It is summed up in three commandments, and all three have a negative character, as if the chief thing required of grown-up people is that they should do no sort of injury to the children: Take heed that ye offend not-despise not- hinder not- one of these little ones." (Charlotte Mason vol 1 page 12)

Miss Mason begins, here, to explain the code of education as presented by the Bible. The Lord teaches us how to teach. How wonderful is that! Of course, we shouldn't be surprised. He has every bit of advice and wisdom we'll ever need wrapped up in that precious Holy book. She mentions that these three educational laws of the New Testament "cover all the help we can give the children and all the harm we can save them from" (pg 12). She goes on to help us to understand that by the Bible telling us what we may NOT do it helps us to understand better what we MAY do or MUST do.

1) Offences- "The first and second of the Divine edicts appear to include our sins of commission and of ommission against the children: we offend them, when we do by them that which we ought not to have done; we despise them, when we leave undone those things which, for their sakes, we ought to have done." (CM vol 1 page 13)

Miss Mason writes here about the opinion that children are born to be law-abiding. They want to do the right thing. However they also get their cues from the adults that they are around. Children are watching our every move. If we bend the rules, they learn to bend the rules. If we laugh at the cuteness of a child taking a toy from his/her older sister the child then learns that it's o.k. or even good to take from others. Bit by bit, slowly the child's character is being formed. We must take special care that we are molding our children by God's standards. Most importantly we must make sure that we are acting ourselves in accordance with the Lord's commands. We can't tell them the stand-by "do as I say and not as I do". They learn by watching. They learn from us.

2) Despising the children- how could we ever despise our children? It seems like such a harsh word. Miss Mason defines it as "to have a low opinion of, to undervalue". Oh, that makes a difference. Do we ever find that we despise our children, our husband, ourselves even? We must take care to always cherish our children. To value them as the Lord values them. They "should have the best of their mother, her freshest, brightest hours..." (CM pg 18).

I love our mornings at home. I love that each morning we wake up when we need too (not too early, not too late) eat breakfast together as a family (unrushed) and then proceed to spend quality time together in school and play. We are all at our best in the morning, refreshed and awaiting a wonderful day. I love this! These are my best hours. These are also my children's best hours. I'm so blessed that I don't have to wake them up before the sun, rush them through getting dressed and breakfast, and get them to school so that they can spend their best hours with complete strangers day after day. Oh, thank you Lord that I get to have them during these blessed times. This, my friend, is what life is all about. Don't neglect to give your children your best each day.

3) Hindering the Children- "The most fatal way of despising the child falls under the third educational law of the Gospels; it is to overlook and make light of his natural relationship with Almighty God. 'Suffer the little children to come unto Me,' says the Savior, as if that were the natural thing for the children to do, the thing they do when they are not hindered by their elders.

And perhaps it is not too beautiful a thing to believe in this redeemed world, that, as the babe turns to his mother though he has no power to say her name, as the flowers turn to the sun, so the hearts of the children turn to their Savior and God with unconscious delight and trust. (CM page 20)

I love love the last paragraph (which is not a seperate paragraph from the one above in the actual book. I seperated it to set it apart.). The Lord says that until we "humble ourselves like a child we will never inherit the Kingdom of God". They are born with a desire and longing for our Lord. WE ALL are born with that same desire. Do we all still have that desire, that longing? If not, where did it go? How did we loose it? Who hindered us? Let us make sure that we are leading our children TO Christ and not away from Him. The Lord will hold us all accountable and His judgement will be sure, true, and thourough!

Dear friend I hope you are reading Miss Mason right along with me. I could never put into this blog all that I'm learning from her writings. I feel unable to even explain my thoughts clearly in the little that I do write. But I do hope that you get something from this. And I hope that it entices you to dig for yourselves, learn, and grow through these writings.

Jill