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Unchanging Truth in Times of Change

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I just had my third daughter. I thought I was prepared for this major life-event. I had listened patiently to all the three-children horror stories people shared with me while I was pregnant. I had anticipated the sleepless nights, the difficulty of scheduling life around feedings and naps, the piles and piles of laundry. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew life was never going to be the same again. I was right.

But somehow, change is always unpredictable. I didn’t anticipate that my newborn would be in constant danger because of two very curious and overly eager-to-help sisters. I didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to do “normal” things like running to the store for a gallon of milk. My “bring it on” attitude quickly changed to a “take me away, please” attitude as I struggled to juggle three small children, household chores, ministry obligations, and more. Life quickly became exhausting and chaotic.

In the midst of all the upheaval, I found myself taking great comfort in the fact that God never changes. In fact, James claims that with Him there’s not even a shadow of turning. God is still the same God He has been from eternity past. He is still the same God who sent ravens to feed Elijah during a drought (1 Kings 17), who raised a widow’s son from the dead (Luke 7), and who calmed the raging sea (Matthew 8). He is still at work. He is still answering prayers. I can trust him.

Remembering truths about God stabilizes my soul during unsettling times. What truths about God are stabilizing your soul right now?

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Little House and the Big Omission (Part 2)

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black and white drawing of Hiram Bell Farmstead in the 19th century
Hiram Bell Farmstead/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

In Part 1, we made the case for how the Little House series portrays a cultural Christianity that contains moral teaching, positive character traits, a good work ethic, and traditional family values yet is bankrupt of the saving gospel of Christ. It portrays a religion of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. We must train our children to be discerning, always doubting man’s word and comparing it to God’s inspired, perfect Word. Now we will continue our survey of relevant Little House passages that give us the opportunity to teach our children how to recognize cultural Christianity—which still exists in America, though weaker and more secular than ever—and combat it with biblical truth.

Response to Trials

In By the Shores of Silver Lake (217–19), Ma recounted the illness that took Mary’s sight and how she patiently endured the trial. Reverend Alden responded, “We must remember that whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and a brave spirit will turn all our afflictions to good.” Later he prayed, beseeching God, “Who knew their hearts and their secret thoughts, to look down on them there, and to forgive their sins and help them to do right.” After the pastor prayed, Laura felt a peace and resolve about giving up her own desires so that Mary could go to the college for the blind.

Discussion Questions

  • Do we know for certain that Mary’s blindness was a result of God’s chastening? (Luke 13:1–5; John 9:3; Hebrews 12:5–11)
  • For whom does God work all things together for good? (Romans 8:28)
  • Whose likeness are Christians to be conformed to? (Romans 8:29)
  • When the reverend prayed for forgiveness, how was it disconnected from the gospel? (Acts 4:12; Ephesians 1:7)

Mary and the Goodness of God

In Little Town on the Prairie (11–13), Laura was relishing her friendship with her sister now that they were grown up. But she confided that when they were little, she’d often want to slap Mary for being so good all the time. Mary explained that a lot of her “goodness” was showing off, and she referred to the Bible’s teaching about people’s wicked hearts. Then Mary said, “I don’t believe we ought to think so much about ourselves, about whether we are bad or good. . . . It isn’t so much thinking, as—as just knowing. Just being sure of the goodness of God.”

Discussion Questions

  • Is being sure of the goodness of God enough to save a person? (Romans 2:4; Titus 3:4–7)
  • When the rich young man called Jesus “good,” how did Christ respond to demonstrate He was God in the flesh? (Mark 10:17–18)
  • What did Jesus tell the religious leader Nicodemus must happen to a person before he can see the kingdom of God (John 3:1–8)?

Raucous Revival Meeting

In Little Town on the Prairie (276–79), the Ingalls family listened quietly while fiery Reverend Brown worked up the rest of the crowd into an emotional frenzy, crying, “Repent ye, repent ye while yet there is time, time to be saved from damnation!”

Discussion Questions

  • How can emotional altar calls manipulate an audience to short-lived responses? (Joel 2:13; Luke 8:11–15; 14:25–33)
  • What was missing from Laura’s description of Reverend Brown’s altar call? (Acts 20:21; 1 Corinthians 2:2)
  • How can a person know that he has eternal life? (1 John 5:13)

Removing “Obey” from Wedding Vows

In These Happy Golden Years (269–70), Laura discussed wedding vows with her fiancé and said, “I am not going to say I will obey you.” She explained, “I do not think I could obey anybody against my better judgment.”

Discussion Questions

  • Whose judgment are we to trust? (Proverbs 3:5–7; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 8:7; 1 Corinthians 1:25; 2 Timothy 3:16)
  • Can you think of a Bible passage that speaks of a wife obeying her husband as an example for other wives to follow? (1 Peter 3:6; 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:22–24)
  • If a husband were to ask his wife to do something that involved disobeying God’s Word, whom should she obey? (Acts 5:29)
  • What “great mystery” is shown when a husband loves his wife as Christ loved the church and when a wife submits to her husband “just as the church is subject to Christ”? (Ephesians 5:22–33 )

Works Cited

Laura Ingalls Wilder. By the Shores of Silver Lake. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

———. Little Town on the Prairie. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

———. These Happy Golden Years. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

Little House and the Big Omission (Part 1)

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The wolves howl hungrily in the Big Woods, but inside the little log cabin a cozy fire projects the lively shadows of Pa’s fiddle playing while Mary and Laura sing along. Scenes like this one from the Little House series are still etched in my mind. My mother read each of the Little House books to us children, and I recently began reading them with my daughter.

This beloved series captures the essence of pioneer life. We experience the nineteenth-century American frontier with the Ingalls family on long journeys plodding across the prairie in a covered wagon, through relentless Dakota blizzards that nearly brought a town to starvation, and against harsh farming realities such as grasshopper plagues and hailstorms. We learn perseverance, discipline, family harmony, and courage.

Yet as I’m reading through this series as an adult, I’ve noticed a big omission in the Little House series. We take for granted that Little House is a wholesome Christian series. After all, the Ingalls family prays, goes to church, and lives morally. However, the Christianity portrayed in the Little House series is merely cultural, from dull Sabbath-keeping and moral judgments to religious platitudes, such as “The Lord helps them that help themselves.”

The gospel is conspicuously absent from the Little House series and so the shell of Christianity that remains implies a works righteousness that cannot save.

So as I read the Little House series with my children, I want to point out the instances of cultural Christianity and contrast it with biblical truth. This may help them recognize cultural Christianity today, such as when we hear politicians say “God bless America” with never a mention of Christ or our need for repentance, or when we interact with that likable neighbor who believes his moral life and good deeds and occasional church attendance earn him a title deed to heaven. As we enjoy the story of American frontier life, here are some discussion questions you can use to help children distinguish between the shell of religion and real life in Christ.

Naughty Cousin Charley

In Little House in the Big Woods (210–11), Laura was astonished at how Charley disobeyed and distracted his father. She couldn’t imagine being so naughty, and she thought he got what he deserved in being stung by the yellow jackets.

Discussion Questions

  • Do you think you are better than Charley (Luke 5:32)?
  • When we compare ourselves with other people, we often think we’re relatively good and that God will accept us into heaven. But what does the Bible teach us about comparison and our true state before God (2 Corinthians 10:12; Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:10–24)?

Clichés

The Little House series is full of practical proverbs and optimistic sayings, such as “All’s well that ends well” and “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” In Farmer Boy (146), Mother is frightened at the possibility of being robbed, but Father reminds her, “The Lord will take care of us.” She responds, “The Lord helps them that help themselves.”

Discussion Questions

  • Is “The Lord helps them that help themselves” a biblical proverb?
  • When it comes to salvation, is this proverb applicable (Romans 5:6-11; Ephesians 2:8-9)?

Getting Even with Snooty Nellie Olsen

In On the Banks of Plum Creek (168–76), Laura shows the normal human response of loving her friends and hating her enemies, seeking to get even with haughty Nellie Olsen by chasing her into the muddy creek area infested with bloodsucking leeches. Laura’s friend thought Nellie got what she deserved, and “deep down inside her Laura felt satisfied when she thought of Nellie dancing on the creek bank” (176).

Discussion Questions

  • How does Jesus say we should respond to our enemies (Matthew 5:43–48)?
  • What did Jesus do for those who were God’s enemies (Colossians 1:21–22)?

Ma and the Indians

Several times in the Little House series, the Ingalls family encounters Indians, much to Ma’s displeasure. In By the Shores of Silver Lake (82), she declares, “I always heard you can’t trust a half-breed.” The author observes, “Ma did not like Indians; she did not like even half-Indians.”

Discussion Questions

  • What are some reasons why Ma disliked Indians? Are there any people groups that you naturally fear or dislike?
  • Are there really different races of people or only one human race descended from Adam and Eve (Acts 17:26)?
  • How does faith in Christ break down ethnic barriers and give us a love for enemies (John 3:16; Colossians 3:11; Revelation 5:9)?
  • Contrast Ma’s attitude with the love and sacrifice of David Brainerd, who sought to bring the gospel to the Indians.

Stay tuned for Part 2  with more discussion questions to help us see the Little House series through a biblical worldview and gospel lens.

Works Cited

Laura Ingalls Wilder. Little House in the Big Woods. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

———. Farmer Boy. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

———. On the Banks of Plum Creek. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

———. By the Shores of Silver Lake. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

Don’t Just Google It: Seeking Counsel Mom-to-Mom

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Image of two moms drinking hot chocolate and having a conversation at the table.

It was our first house, and it needed some work. One of our first projects was tearing out the old stained carpet in the master bedroom. At a carpet store, we browsed the rolls of discounted carpet pieces, and the salesman convinced us to purchase a lonely roll that was supposedly of much higher plush quality than the other colors. The only problem—the color was white. At the time, we didn’t think having white carpet was a big deal, but we didn’t realize it would spotlight every speck of black sock fuzz and every minor stain.

We have all made major or minor decisions that we now regret. We might have avoided them had we taken the time to ask those with more experience for advice. Proverbs is full of instructions about seeking counsel from others, as in Proverbs 15:22 (NKJV): “Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.”

As I begin homeschooling, I want to intentionally seek out advice from wise mothers. Whether they’ve homeschooled their children or guided them through traditional school, they can lead me down a time-tested route and warn me about detours or potholes.

When I have a question about homeschooling, my first inclination, as a child of the digital age, is to Google it. While I’m thankful for the convenience and wealth of information online, I want to guard against the dangers of wasting time and having information overload. Before I realize it’s dinnertime, I have forty-six tabs open on my browser with opinions of people I don’t know from Adam.

If I lived fifty years ago and had a question on teaching or raising my children, the obvious course would have been to pray about it, talk with my husband, and call a trusted friend or relative. While the Internet brings the world together, it threatens to isolate us from true relationships. I know many wise, godly mothers that I can go to for counsel, and many of them happen to be homeschool moms as well. By approaching them, I’m going to sources I trust, and I’m building relationships with women who can encourage me and pray for me.

Seeking personal counsel is worth the extra effort, and integrating our lives with other believers’ lives is the biblical pattern. In Titus 2, the apostle Paul encourages the older women to mentor the younger women so that their lives might honor God’s Word. He told Titus to teach

the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. (Titus 2:3–5 NKJV)

So what about you? How have you found ways to balance the convenience of online information with the value of a trusted advisor? How do you balance social media with face-to-face relationships ?

Family Calendars

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A few weeks ago, I left my phone at home on a Sunday morning. I didn’t realize it until we were on the way to church. When I gasped and told my family, there was silence for a moment. Then my husband semi-facetiously said, “How will we know what to do today?”

Like most families, our calendar is jam-packed with soccer practices, music lessons, youth group activities, school projects, orthodontist appointments, and more. Meeting those obligations in a timely manner is an important life skill that I’d like my children to learn. Another goal of mine is to help them meet their obligations without any of us having to endure my endless nagging! Something that I’ve incorporated recently is the Google Calendar™ tool. My kids are in or near their teens now, so each of them has a mobile device or tablet.

 

In the Google Calendar™ tool, I’ve set up four different calendars—one master family calendar plus a calendar for each child. The master family calendar is for activities that the whole family needs to know about—church events, my husband’s business trips, and so forth. The individual calendars are tailored for each child (the other siblings don’t necessarily have access) and include soccer practices, homework milestones or due dates, doctor appointments, music lessons, and so on. I’ve set up alarms or reminders as needed. I’ve encouraged my kids to add their own events (and to-do items like chores and music practice) to their calendars. The various calendars have been helpful for me and for my husband too.

My two older children have done very well with the family calendar and refer to their own calendars regularly to make sure they’re prepared. My youngest still likes Mom’s personal reminders better.

What do you do to keep your schedule organized?

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Jennifer has worked at BJU Press for over twenty years. A favorite aspect of her job is talking with home educators and teachers about their experiences. Jennifer is married, with three children. She enjoys cooking for her family, and is always ready to try a new recipe.