Charlotte Mason talked about this. She said that there are Divine Laws that have to be followed, whether you’re a Christian or not. Even a faithful, God-loving person can’t expect to defy the law of gravity with impunity. She said that parents were responsible to find out the laws of human nature so they’d be properly able to train up their children. Parental errors, even when well-intentioned, do have very real repurcussions. In her first book, Home Education, she explained that love isn’t enough; mothers owe their children a THINKING love.

It seems to me that some parents in the Victorian era were evading controversial issues instead of learning how to deal with them. They meant well, they only wanted to shield their children from evil, but it cost those children their very faith in some cases when they came face to face with ideas and had no idea how to reason them through. And parents were also sending their children away to boarding schools. It’s hard to parent a child who isn’t even there.

Unlike Nietzsche. He was raised in a Christian home and studied Theology at the University of Bonn. But he worked in the Franco-Prussian War and the horrors of what he saw there lead him to the conclusion that any God who allowed this was not God. Perhaps it was due to the syphillis and the growing dementia, but he did seem capable of taking his ideas to their logical and natural conclusions, proclaiming God to be dead and hinting at the collapse of our social structures in the wake of his death.

Thanks for the link…I’ll check it out in a bit.

It is *so* hard for me to imagine because his work, in some respects, is so beautifully Christian and the giving of one’s self in books like A Tale of Two Cities is really remarkable (one of the best books ever written in my opinion once you get through the somewhat confusing first part). I was honestly surprised to read of his life choices after reading his work. I am not saying all his books are this way, but still, I think you understand my point.

There are actually (surprisingly to me) quite a few authors of that time that made very questionable moral choices yet they produced books we hail today as moral or at least clean. I suppose it could be said they wrote for their audience to some degree because they didn’t seem to write the way they were living. George Eliot certainly did pay to some degree at the time for her choice to live with a married man in Victorian England (and much of her family shunned her because of it too).

The more I read about some of my favorite authors the sader it makes me! I almost don’t want to know because it reveals they were not what they wrote about. There are some amazing moral characters in some of the books from that time that I have read and some very strong examples of making right choices for Christian reasons.

http://homeschoolblogger.com/UndertheSky/154913/ is my blog post about the books I have read and wish to read that were written during this time. It is fascinating to read from one time period because there was so much of the culture that makes its way into books written then. For example, there were some very strongly religious people in England at this time and Charlotte Mary Yonge is one of them. The Daisy Chain is her work and it was a fascinating look into some of the religious views as well as cultural views of the time. Beautiful Feet reproduced it and they sell it from their site. I highly recommend it if you are really interested in this subject.

It is hard to imagine attending a church that was pastored by someone who had no faith and having no other choices. I am thankful that we do have more today.

Warmly,
Kate
(Sorry to ramble on so!)

The more I read of this time period the more the reality of vicar as just another “job” to choose if you were a second son becomes clear. The clergy was a profession the same as a soldier or merchant. This prevented more than one generation from knowing what was really true. They may have lived in the more simple or “moral” time in our minds, but in reality, much of the restraint they had was based upon societal pressure and not true belief in the dangers of immorality.

The veil of societal pressure has long since been torn down in our day and in some ways (sadly) it is easier to show our children the truth of an immoral life. It is all around us. Destroyed families and lives are everywhere and the church is not immune.

As Christian parents it is up to us to show a true faith, an honest walk, and to pray for our children. I believe it is truly the Holy Spirit that does the work of regeneration in our children’s hearts. We are, however, called to live and do all for the glory of God. If we live with the joy of the Lord as our strength, it is much more likely our children will not seek their own form of “joy” elsewhere.

May God make it so in His children who strive to be faithful.

Warmly,
Kate

The Home School is the ideal place to learn who your child is and to raise them for God’s service, even if that service looks different than what you want for them. There are no recipes or formulas that will produce the perfect child… God wants us to pick up our cross daily and look to Jesus as our teacher. When children see that humility in us, then they become teachable “in the Lord”.

It is my understanding that we do our best to instruct our children in the Lord. We faithfully educate them and bring them up, teaching them the Word of God diligently and without ceasing. And while we protect them and shelter them to some degree, we need to make sure that we are laying a solid foundation, not just indoctrinating them. They need to be taught to reason…the story of George Eliot is kind of depressing. She walked away from the faith when exposed to anti-Christian materials that are weak and have since been soundly refuted. Had her faith been a foundation rather than a covering, she would have been able to see the errors for herself.

Of course, there are no guarantees. What the Lord has planned for each of our children may go against our own desires. Even in the best conditions, some walk away…many return later. Some do not. But I believe we must place our faith in the Lord rather than in our ability to teach them. We will always fall short, but He is faithful to bring about His will.