"Matthew Henry was born at Broad Oaks, Shropshire, England, on October 18, 1662....[he] was physically weak, but it was not long before his strength of intellect and character made themselves known. At the age of three, he was reading the Bible; by the time he was nine, he was competent in Latin and Greek. He spent his first eighteen years being tutored at home, in an atmosphere that was joyfully and lovingly Christian.
"He loved to hear his father preach. A sermon on Psalm 51:17 first awakened in young Matthew a desire to know the Lord personally. He was only ten years old at the time, but the impression was lasting. When he was thirteen, Matthew wrote an amazingly mature analysis of his own spiritual condition, a document that reads like an ordinary paper. Often, after hearing his father preach, Matthew would hurry to his room and pray that God would seal the Word and the spiritual impressions made to his heart so that he might not lose them. God answered those youthful prayers."
(From 10 People Every Christian should Know by Warren W. Wiersbe)
How precious it is to take a quick glimpse into the young life of this man who few Christians don't at least know by name. How many of us have his great Commentary on our shelves and many of us actually use it. There is little of the usual controversy about denomination and difficult passages that are often argued over. This is a commentary we can all benefit from, it is so devotional and practical. And written by a man who came to know the Savior young, and never went astray from that faith. This, dear ones, is a Christian hero. This friends, is the kind of story we would want our children to have, though it is far more difficult now than it was in Matthew Henry's day. But we can do our best.
Lovingly,
Nanna Maxine
More often than not this is the best combination ever--a child and a pet. Often there's a special bond of love and understanding, and often children are taught very good qualities of character via the care of a pet. They can and most likely will also have one of their first encounters with grief when a beloved one of God's creatures who has shared their life and home departs. It might even be a fish or a little hamster. Whatever its nature, the shared love and/or responsibilities of its care are worthwhile in any child's development. So if you can, and there are no health issues or other legitimate hindrances, I would highly recommend you enrich your child's life this way.
We have a new board at Pinterest, and it's called "Children and Pets" and there you'll find other pictures like this one. To qualify for this board, there has to be a pet and a child together, and oh, some hint of the love factor. The pin this photo is from is here, and the board is to the right of that. Enjoy.
Ruby Bridges is one of three examples of children having courage to do right things in the face of wrong which I posted at the Facebook page this morning. For anyone who doesn't know, a daily prayer is posted there each morning as the first post of the day. These prayers are based on the daily devotionals from the Bright Gems book. Day 16 is "Having Courage" and we're in the first month of the sequence, which devotional is about Daniel having courage to do the right thing. So today's prayer, based on that, is asking the Lord to give our children and grandchildren the courage to do right.
I can think of no better example than this child, from a very difficult time in our country. This is a great painting by Norman Rockwell of this courageous little girl, just six years old.
I found this article written by Ruby many years later, where she was looking back and reflecting on all that had happened during her childhood. Not many of our children will be called upon to do what she was, but we hopefully will teach them, as Ruby's mother did, that they have the power of prayer to help them through in the face of hard things when others wrong us. The Lord can surely help them to do right.
Trusting in God,
Nanna Maxine
This is another painting/picture I needed to share because the message is so there for us all. I was blessed that as of this writing this picture had been shared 9,750 times and counting. This gives me hope.
"We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings." ~ F. H. Bradley
I've been having some fun this week looking through pictures of little girls and dolls. Now anyone who had known me well in the past would know that as a child, I loved playing with dolls and had the same experience with my two daughters. Not only did they enjoy their dolls, but I enjoyed their dolls almost as much as I had my own. It is a definite fact that our dollies were, in fact, members of the family. Actually, they still are.
Now, in looking through these various photos and paintings of girls and dolls, I've discovered something. To the child, a doll can fulfill several roles. It can provide companionship, be a little "me" who can wear the same outfits, be a student, be a patient, and who knows what else. But more often than not, with the heart of a little girl being what it so often is, you'll find that this little make believe person is someone whom the child can "mother." Somewhere in the interaction between the girl and the doll, you will see it come out. And sometimes the pretend child is almost as big, if not bigger, than the real one. How delightful it is to watch the child's imagination and play. And we all know how important this play is; in fact it has often been called the child's "work." But it is in many ways usually preparing them for adulthood.
Now you may be wondering why this sudden interest in dolls to the extent that I would be perusing photos of them. Well, the reason is our new board at Pinterest. Having recently pinned an absolutely gorgeous vintage photo of a young girl and her doll, this whole idea of "playing mommy" was so apparent, it inspired me to do a whole board dedicated to the concept. So, I've been looking for pictures to put on it, and you won't be surprised to find out there are many to choose from. There are so many pictures of girls and dolls, however, that I decided to be rather choosy about it. You'll see that the focus is not on the dolls themselves, but the children. It's what the child is doing with relation to the doll(s) that I've been trying to capture, or something in her demeanor that caused me to gravitate to a particular photo. Sometimes, it's the look on her face.
You can just imagine how much fun this has been! And you'll even see a few pictures with a little girl and a real live younger person who's being mothered! Remember, we're focusing on the maternal instinct which comes out at a very early age. The board is here and the photo above is typical of what you'll find there: Budding mommies "playing," but in reality, preparing for the future.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Isn’t that ever an important truth to teach our children? So many things
in life, when taken alone, will never give us real insight into what
God’s big plan is for us. His ways are right and good, though very often
we're not able to see that rightness and goodness at a particular time.
Some of those “things” are difficult and painful. Some bring joy and
gladness. But if we are to trust this beloved passage of Scripture and
embrace it, we have to believe it in the dark times as well as when the
sun is shining.
Sometimes children go through darkness; life isn’t always bright and
carefree for youngsters. There are times when sickness comes, either in
their own bodies, or in that of someone dear to them. If you think hard enough, you'll even think of some children you know who are right now going through tough times. Actually, there
are often valleys which children have to go through, more than we may
think, if it hasn’t touched our own kids’ lives yet.
I have a suggestion: use jigsaw puzzles as a means to teach this truth.
How about finding one where the completed picture is one which will be
pleasing to them, a picture of something they enjoy or like. Work on the
puzzle together, pointing out that some of the pieces have colors which
are not very attractive when taken alone. But then you can tell them
how those particularly “unattractive” or darkly colored pieces are each a
necessary part of the total. In fact, the finished work would be
lacking without them.
My oldest granddaughters both like doing jigsaw
puzzles and I LOVE doing them with them.The older one has done a few really complex ones all by herself. Both girls are delighted when they get one all finished and so are the rest of us. I sure do hope they continue to enjoy doing these
puzzles and that their parents will take every opportunity to help this
activity teach them Romans 8:28. Hopefully, I can have some input too.
Perhaps this will be an incentive for you to make use of this important
tool for teaching many spiritual truths.
Lovingly,
Maxine, a/k/a Nanna
I have a friend from church who has written out many of her memories from her childhood up. It so happens Joan is just a few years older than I am, and she happens to come from the same hometown, even though we never knew each other until we became members of the same church in a different community. With her husband's help, Joan has had these memories printed and bound in a book. This is something so wonderful for her children and grandchildren, and the generations following. Imagine what this will mean to them when she's gone. She was kind enough to make enough copies for most of us in the congregation, and I have to say I treasure this book. I probably feel this way more than many of the others because I can really identify with her recollections of life in that small town we grew up in. I was only three years or so behind her.
However, there was one area where our experiences were quite different. You see, Joan and I are of different ethnicity and that, of course, affected many areas of our lives. This was especially true of life in the fifties, even in the northeast. Recent events in Florida have caused so much emotion, unfortunately some of it cutting to the core of race relations in our dear country. I don't need to go too far into this except to say that some things I've seen and heard brought to my mind an account by Joan in a chapter she wrote about the integration of her school when she was in the eighth grade. I love the way she closed that chapter, which I'll quote here with no further comment.
"We look back at some of the great problems as our nation began its long struggle out of the unfortunate ways of racial segregation. We often remember only the worst times. I have experienced the quieter side of change. I see the quiet dignity of a beautiful girl who was denied access because of her color but persevered with her dream. [She had earlier discussed a black girl who wanted to be a model.] I remember something else we learned in eighth grade. When one of our new classmates hit his head on the sharp edge of a wooden goal post on the playground, he bled from the cut. His blood was the same color as mine." ~ Joan B.
At the age of 13, after observing an artist at work at a neighborhood park, Henry O. Tanner decided he wanted to be an artist.
So this young man made the decision at that age, with a lot of odds against him. You see, his father wanted him to follow him into the ministry and wasn't so high on his son following the arts. Another factor which made this decision difficult is that when he made it, the year was somewhere around 1872 and he lived in Pennsylvania in the USA. Oh, and did I forget to mention? He was an African-American.
Well, he did become a very talented artist but unfortunately had to move to France to be accepted. Seems racial prejudices and their confines were not present there. However, what I like about this man was that it appears he never lost sight of the religious training of his childhood. Apparently his most famous painting is called "The Banjo Lesson" but he's also well known for "Nicodemus Visiting Jesus," "Daniel in the Lion's Den," and "The Raising of Lazarus." And there were quite a few others. In fact, a quote attributed to him is this: "I will preach with my brush."
More information here and here about this interesting man, worth our children knowing about, I would say. And the Lord gave him direction in a park when he was just beginning his teen years.
Henry Tanner
Speaking of a glimpse of a childhood, this sweet looking little girl was named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was born August 26, 1910. She grew up to become the woman we know as Mother Teresa. Isn't that quite interesting? No date for when this picture was taken, so I'm not sure of her age at this time.
"The seven children--Amy, Norman, Ernest, Eva, Ethel, Walter, and Alfred--were called daily to family prayers by the sound of a bell. Probably the servants also were required to attend. Amy remembered the sound of her father's voice reading the Scripture, a 'solemn sound, like the rise and fall of the waves on the shore.' Her ear was trained in this way, from those earliest years when a child's powers of memorization by hearing are nearly miraculous. For the rest of her life the majestic cadences of the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible shaped her thinking and every phrase she wrote. A child, even when apparently distracted, learns far more than adults dream he can. Amy did not by any means always attend perfectly to the reading. Once she found a mouse drowning in a pail of water just at the moment when the prayer bell rang. She fished it out, hid it in her pinafore, took her place at prayers, and hoped it would not squeak. It did."
~ From A Chance to Die (The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael), by Elisabeth Elliot
