PrincipledMom™

I love the violin. And the cello. Especially if I can hear them together. Nothing warms my heart like a well-trained musician playing a beautiful melody. All the strings tuned and in their places, singing out the tones that they were designed to make. Each string is made to do its own thing and do it well. If you were to tune the low string to the high note it would break, and the high notes would go limp in the low string's spot.

Some people are really busy and seem to make it function well. Some might call them "high strung" but maybe they just resonate at a higher frequency. Thriving on activity and a full schedule, they usually get more attention and are a bit busier on the musical staff than the lower notes. This is natural for the human ear to hear.

Others prefer a slower pace and folks may label them "quaint" or just behind the times. Maybe they are simply the bass notes of our society, laying the foundation that grounds the higher strings. Slow and melodic, they bring richness and depth so important to a composition.

Separately these make lovely melodies but when you put these together they complete the harmony. We need to find the tone God has designed us to make. There may be some sour notes as we find our way to that perfect pitch, and even when we do we may slip a bit off pitch. But the more we submit to the Master's touch the more we will find, like a fine instrument, we are making our own sweet song to the Lord, happy in our place and resonating with joy.

At his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.  Ps. 27:6b KJV

This blog is not known to be particularly involved in current events and other potentially controversial things. However I heard a bishop say something last week that convicted me.  On the radio show Janet Parshall's America last week Bishop E.W. Jackson was on talking about his ministry and taking calls from listeners. One caller offered the idea that Jesus got down with the people and was basically okay with them being in sin. This got Bishop Jackson discussing the idea that Jesus came to love, but He didn't come to be everyone's friend. He came to divide (Matt. 10:34). He said the following challenging statement:

Christians have got to learn there is no way getting around the potential for persecution and people not liking what you have to say when you stand up for Jesus Christ...We owe our first loyalty to Him. He is our savior and our Lord and it is Him we are trying to please.         (emphasis mine)

Well said, Bishop Jackson.

What would He has me do? What would He have me say? Where would He have me go? I owe my first loyalty to Him, not to my ego or my  friends or even my family. Pleasing Him should be my only concern.

In this new age of "tolerance" it seems that the only point of view that is not tolerated is God's. I can say I am too often intimidated by the potential backlash, so I refrain from speaking strongly for Christ and His principles. That will change as of today. I encourage you to make the decision this year to care less about what people think and more about what Jesus would want you to do. Speak the truth in love and let God receive all the glory. It is Him alone we strive to please.

Excellence is not a light switch. It's not something that you wake up one day and you suddenly are, like a birthday. It's more like getting grey hair; it happens one strand at a time.

The process of excellence is important. Like a baby chick must struggle to shed its shell, the struggle to learn is necessary and rewarding.

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:3, 4

The trying of our faith increases patience. This increased patience (fruit of the spirit) brings increased perfection, or wholeness. It is a glorious chain reaction that we would never wish to short circuit in our children. He has struggles for them in their learning, in their reasoning, in their finding their way in their own faith. If they never get the chance to reason from Scripture for themselves they will never get to the wholeness, to the security of their own faith in Christ.

And this is true excellence. Ownership of your own faith, not your parents' faith. Internal government, governing self with Christ's superintendence and the Holy Spirit's faithful guidance. The ability to give an reason for the hope that lies within you (1 Peter 3:15).

My goal is to this: to give my children every opportunity to struggle, not to be a stumbling block but a coach that pushes you farther than you thought you could go. I love that scene in "Facing the Giants" when the Coach Taylor shows Brock that he had more in him that he thought possible, driving him to crawl the entire length of the field with another player on his back. Once Brock got a vision, once he saw what was possible, he was like a new player and he influenced all the other players.

I want my kids to push and struggle and fight with all their might. I want them to give their all and lay exhausted in the end zone, amazed at what their God was able to do through them.

What sweet satisfaction, this excellence.

...to bring you the results of my first blog give-away. The winner of Cooking for Kings is (drumroll please)...

 Becky Lee!

Congrats to you. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. Please contact me with your info so I can get it in the mail to you.

Look for more give-aways soon. I have some handmade books, some of my art and more to sprinkle throughout the year. I really want to bless you all this year. Thanks for playing! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

In American society today there  seems to be an allergy to excellence, at least to the Christian idea of excellence. On the one hand you have children afraid to look "smart" in front of their peers. and on the other we have the Martha Stewarts working hard to convince us that perfection is possible. Kids are texting and losing what little grammar skills they may have once possessed while they try hard to be "gangsta." The excellent is, for the most part, not valued or praised or even seen as something to strive toward.

What is the Christian idea of excellence? I submit that it is not simply getting good grades. It is your internal character and not your "book smarts" that make a person excellent. For example, Daniel in the Bible was described as having an excellent spirit in Daniel 6:3. This fueled hatred among the leaders of the land and that's how he ended up in the lion's den. He was not excellent because he was the smartest. He was excellent because of his character.

Christians should set the standard in education. American Christians are blessed beyond measure. We enjoy liberty in every area. Nothing has been held back from us. We have to most to be thankful for---and the most responsibility. We should always strive to work toward excellence. God's idea of excellence. As we become more and more excellent on the inside, our outward fruit will be excellent as well. We will work harder, be more diligent and make more of an effort to be a good example to others, in word and in deed (Col. 3:17).

The point is not knowledge but wisdom and fear of the Lord. As a Christian my goal is not simply to fill my children with facts until they are ready to pop. They must be able to correctly apply knowledge in real life.

My next post will finish up by discussing the process of excellence and applying scripture to our educational goals.