Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Influence.

12:28 PM by Christi Bowman

I am finally at a point where I can honestly say that I love home schooling my daughter. This has been a learning year for both of us as it was our first. There have been many ups and downs, but things are falling into place beautifully and she and I are really enjoying it.

Their are many things about home schooling that I delight in. I appreciate the more relaxed nature of our mornings. I am very thankful that I can now be most confident as to her well being throughout the day. I like spending time with her, but most of all I like that I get to be more intentional as I influence her.

We start the day by reading a chapter in the Bible and then after we finish up my daughter picks a verse that stands out to her; we talk about why she chose that verse and then she writes that verse down in her journal.

Today we read Matthew 13 and as we were finishing the parable about the wheat and the tares my daughter read "and then the evil plants are got together and burned with fire, so it will be in the end of the world"

My daughter has been raised in Evangelical denominations for all of her little life; so when I asked her what she thought that verse was speaking about I was not at all surprised when she said, with a sadness in her voice that I am all to familiar with, hell.

My children are the main reason why I left institutional church. It is not that I don't believe in hell; I believe it to be very real. What I don't believe is that it is only a place reachable upon death. Another word for eternal is perpetual...past present and future. With Christ we have eternal or perpetual life and without Him we have eternal or perpetual death which is past, present, and future hell. People who are living and breathing on this earth without Christ are not only going to hell, they have been in hell and are in hell.

I also do not believe that hell is a permanent place. Being in hell, while on this earth, is eternal (past, present, and future) as long as we remain without Christ; but it does not have to be forever. At any moment Christ can come and reconcile a person with or without the help of a Christ follower (although he prefers the former.) I believe it to be quite possible that God will be reconciling people who were not reconciled during their time on this earth after their death. In Colossians 1:19-20 Paul talks about God reconciling all things to Himself through the blood of Jesus. In Romans 14:11 & in Philippians 2:10 Paul states that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; and in Romans 10:9 Paul promises that if anyone confesses with thy mouth and believes that they will be saved.

Because my daughter has grown up in Evangelical denominations it is important to me that we discuss what she has already learned and re-process things if we can. I grew up accepting and only knowing God out of a fear of hell. I have been given freedom from that and I will take any and all opportunities to re-direct my daughter away from any fear based decisions she feels she must make. A friend of mine who was abused throughout her childhood became a foster parent and she talks about the healing she received while making intentional decisions to parent them in a completely different fashion than she was parented. I feel as though I am being healed from a lifetime of religiosity and a very backwards view of God as I walk with my child towards Jesus instead of forcing Him on her.

With re-direction in mind I listened to the conclusions she had come to about hell based on what she had been taught and true to form they were quite scary and as she talked she became frightened. It was with great joy that I took her to I Timothy 2:3-4 "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." I Timothy 4:10 "For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe." and Matthew 22:10 "So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests."

As I read my daughter these verses she began to cry. I asked her why she was crying and she told me that it was hard to explain. I tried to make things a little clearer for her by letting her know that it is very hard for a seven year old to put into words what God is doing in their heart, but that I thought He was creating sacred space in her heart for Him.

As we both sat their teary eyed together at the goodness of God I said a prayer of thanksgiving. I am so thankful that God has given me the grace to influence my children

Labels: Bible, eternity, Hell, home schooling

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