Last night I had the privilege of speaking to a group of homeschooling moms. No matter how many times I am in situations like that, I am taken back by the determined, dedicated look in their eyes. These women want to fulfill their callings as wives and mothers and are hungry for good guidance and direction. As I normally do, I encouraged them to become excellent students of God’s Word and its application to all areas of life and thought. I directed them to a study of Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law and the Chalcedon Teacher Training Institute as ways to make them the best teachers for their children.
I always come back very excited from these meetings. My husband commented how energizing the law of God is when applied to specific needs and circumstances. Merely reading God’s law as background material is like learning a foreign language for a country you will never visit; learning how to apply the law of God to all areas of life and thought is like becoming fluent and conversant in all situations.
By God’s grace, I met thirty new women who carry a vision for furthering the Kingdom of God as they train their children. They, as heirs of the victory Christ obtained on Calvary, value their inheritance and are eager to make the most of it.
In my second book, The Homeschool Life, I included a 2007 essay, “The Mother’s War”, by Vox Day* that summed up the importance of mothers. It bears repeating:
Mother's Day is, to be honest, somewhat of an annoyance. It's manifestly one of those tedious Hallmark holidays wherein everyone is supposed to run out and support the revenue stream of cardboard manufacturers in the name of expressing gratitude to mothers, fathers, grandparents and anyone else to whom we might be related.
I imagine it won't be long until Sept. 18 is declared Anonymous Sperm Donor's Day, which will probably be celebrated by giving matching card sets to one's two mommies and lighting a candle for dear old anonymous sperm donor, whoever he might be.
Mothers are not only important, they are absolutely vital due to their position as front-line shock troops in the ongoing, centuries-long struggle for the survival of Western civilization. Despite the fact that their maternal instinct has been harassed, criticized, mocked, belittled and subjected to a 40-year effort to indoctrinate it out of existence, our mothers stubbornly continue doing the only thing we actually need women to do in order for our civilization to survive, bearing and raising children.
We don't need female doctors. We don't need female scientists. We don't need female entrepreneurs. We don't need female producers of PowerPoint presentations. And we really don't need female politicians.
While we can argue about whether such luxuries are beneficial or detrimental to society, there is no arguing the empirical evidence which proves that civilization has survived without them before and could easily do so again.
But without mothers, there is no civilization. Without mothers, there is no future for the civilized.
Europe is in the process of discovering what a world without mothers is like. It is an ugly picture, a brutal picture. It is a probable future that promises to be much worse than the most exaggerated images of past patriarchal oppression ever painted by Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinhem.
Without mothers, there is only barbarism and the choice between the brothel and the burqa.
Motherhood is a sacrifice. It may mean putting off a college education and a career, or even giving them up entirely. It may mean sacrificing a flawless figure. It may mean sacrificing dreams. It definitely means putting two, three, four or more lives ahead of your own. But motherhood is also an expression of hope. Motherhood is a vote of confidence in the future of mankind. Motherhood is the brave voice of a woman saying, "I will not live life for today. I will create life for many tomorrows."
Cards, gifts and flowers are no adequate expressions of gratitude for this living statement of faith.
In the ongoing war against Christian civilization, it is the mothers who matter most. The sterile secularists don't fear Christian intellectuals or Christian pastors, they regard the former as petty annoyances and there's little need to worry about one weekly hour of Christian teaching on Sundays overcoming 40 hours of secular reprogramming from Monday to Friday. But they fear our mothers who can create children faster than they can manage to indoctrinate them. And they are downright terrified of our homeschooling mothers who rob them of their primary means of creating a new generation of secular barbarians.
Every time a woman says "I do," every time a wife turns to her husband and says "let's have another baby," every time a mother hugs her child and says "how would you like me to be your teacher?" she is striking a powerful blow in defense of her faith, her family, her church and God. We should celebrate these bold decisions, these audacious acts, as victories, not just for the family and the faith, but for civilization and mankind.
It is not enough to thank our mothers. We owe them a debt that cannot be repaid. But we can, and we must, love them, honor them, support them and sustain them as they faithfully continue to wage their mother's war.
* used with permission
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You were a blessing to our group and I'm sure an inspiration. It is always a pleasure to hear your God directed instructions. What a gift you have to mentor.
ReplyDeleteAndrea,
ReplyDeleteI read the Vox Day commentary and was struck by how unbiblical it was. I was also disappointed by the cover of your book, as it represents a reality found in few homeschooling households. Both issues reflect the same problem.
The culture we have created in the United States, one supported strongly by all too many churches, is solely a product of the Industrial Revolution and has no basis in a biblical ideal of work. The way we work today removes the father from the home to work in a distant office and creates a vacuum of leadership at home that forces women to bear a disproportionate amount of parenting. Yet we endorse this as normal.
In biblical times, BOTH parents worked from home. As most household were agriculturally based, BOTH parents worked their land. BOTH parents taught their children. There was no artificial division of labor. That division came from the fallout of the Industrial Revolution, not the Bible.
And this is why the image of the father schooling on the cover of your book is not a good representation of reality. Most fathers are not at home schooling their children. They are not even at home for most of the day. They are off in a distant office doing work that divides the family.
Truth is, most homeschooling moms do all the schooling, with dad contributing very little to the kids' education, save for bringing home the money to pay for schooling materials. As a homeschooling dad, I know this to be true because I have spoken to many homeschooling moms. The women are bearing 95% of the load. This is madness.
None of this is the way things should be, yet so few voices are addressing this mixed-up standard we have pronounced "good" when it is anything but. Perpetuating myths about the work both men and women are called to do in a culture where the fundamental way we work is flawed only exacerbates the problem.
When Christians finally stand up and renounce this broken work system and labor to change it, then perhaps Christian parents will find the freedom God affords us. Otherwise, we are placing enormous burdens on moms and dads that they were never meant to carry, burdens that are in no way condoned by the Scriptures.