The Kingdom-Driven Family

False Centers

Andrea Schwartz

August 27, 2015

One wonders what it will take to get lawmakers to recognize the magnitude of the continual sin our nation commits by maintaining the legality of abortion. If the videos from the Center for Medical Progress are not enough evidence to prove that abortion is the slaughter of innocent children, what additional proof will persuade pro-choicers? What do the proponents of abortion see (or fail to see) that makes them immovable in their position? By what standard can they determine good or evil when they hold to such a false center?

R.J. Rushdoony describes this well in his poem entitled “False Centers.”*

False centers will not hold.
Things fly apart, confusion reigns, and only taxes hold the state together.
Powers now do lie within oppressor’s hands, and men are cold towards virtue, prone to sin and treason.
There is a hunger for false goals,
A riot of unreason, a season of insanity.
Men scamper in the shoals of death, all heedless of the waves of danger.
False centers throw all things into destruction.
Nothing saves the centerless. The dead can never grow.
The center is not of us.
Neither time nor man provides the gravity, neither can be God.
Neither can provide the center, save He who rose again, when He had died.

Building for the Future

Andrea Schwartz

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August 25, 2015

“To control the future requires the control of education and of the child. Hence, for Christians to tolerate statist education, or to allow their children to be trained thereby, means to renounce power in society, to renounce their children, and to deny Christ’s Lordship over all of life.” ~ R. J. Rushdoony

As the school year begins again, a sad fact remains that too many professing Christians continue to sacrifice their children to a godless education by sending them to public school. Many of these same people bemoan the sorry state of our culture and the fact that the future is not bright. They fail to realize that their lack of obedience to the clear mandates of Scripture is what fuels the continued demise of our society.

In the July/August 2015 issue of Faith for All of Life magazine, Mark Rushdoony points out in “The Legacy of Public Education,” that this legacy has not been positive. He notes that among the byproducts of government education are stagnation, regression, a contempt for liberty, a lack of excellence, ignorance of economics, and the absence of independent thinking. The progressive secularization of the culture results as children systematically are instructed devoid of Christian influence, content, and meaning. Continue reading

School Daze

Andrea Schwartz

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August 17, 2015

It’s mid-August and the back to school ads and displays have been going strong for well over a month. In the state where I live, schools are already in session, so the “back to school” bombardment is winding down. It is always a bit sad when the daytime hours are devoid of children. There is something unnatural about having them absent during one portion of the day and then seeing them swarm after three o’clock when school lets out. It doesn’t take long for the charm of the first week of school to wane. When asked, “How is school going this year?” The answer (if you get one) often is, “The same as always — boring.”

I’m not sure my children ever called our homeschool boring. They may have had other choice words to describe it during those seasons when things were not going the way they wished. Nevertheless, I do not recall boring being a part of the complaint. For you see, I made a concerted effort to relate whatever was being studied to real life with real application being a very important part of the mix. Whenever we found ourselves in the midst of any activity that had no bearing on real-world application, I replaced it with another that fit the requirement. Boredom is the enemy of learning. Continue reading

It’s Not about the Money—It’s About Judgment

Andrea Schwartz

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August 17, 2015

When people do not think Biblically, they will end up thinking in other ways. These other ways may sound good and have some short-term benefits, but if they do not conform to the ways of the Lord, they will ultimately fail. I’m not sure how long it will take human beings to learn this, but in the end, every knee will bow to Jesus Christ.

When it comes to the recent revelations about Planned Parenthood’s trafficking in human body parts, the issue is not whether they should be funded by tax dollars. The issue is whether or not they should exist at all! Institutionalized murder is not something a nation can long advocate for, condone, and then expect to receive God’s blessing. The civil government has no business taking our money and using it for anything (compulsory education, enforced healthcare, or empire building) outside its God-ordained jurisdictions—defense and justice. The very action of providing confiscated funds to aid in the eradication of children in the womb is the antithesis of justice and defense.

In their defense of the indefensible, the talking heads on television and cable are demonstrating their epistemological self-consciousness* when they cite the good work that researchers can accomplish by using fetal remains for experimentation. They are admitting that abortion is, indeed, murder, but murder for a justifiably, good purpose. Will these become the new talking points and perspectives that even professing Christians will embrace? Continue reading

Parents Behaving Badly

Andrea Schwartz

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August 11, 2015

In years past, I remember asserting that I would never pursue a career as a teacher. I had good teachers over the years, but I thought my life would go in a different direction. When the call came to homeschool, I decided that, in order to be a better teacher, I should always put myself in the position to be a student, learning something that did not come naturally to me. One of the things I discovered was that not everyone who is in a teaching position necessarily knows how to teach.

A good teacher is one who has a vision for what she wants her students to achieve, and has a plan for how that will be accomplished. What makes teaching a group of students a challenge is that not all children of the same age necessarily have the same level of development, or the same strengths and weaknesses. Assessing the goal and determining how far along the path to that goal a student is, allows for an incremental approach tailored to the particular student.

This same concept applies to parenting, since parents are the first teachers of their children. Yet, I see many parents of young children who show that they do not have a clear vision of the skills or behavior they wish to instill in their children. Moreover, for those that do know what they want to achieve, they fail to patiently work on incremental steps that will eventually lead to the overall goal. Instead, they try to accomplish the result immediately without the necessary foundation, and frustration dominates the process. Continue reading

A New Twist on an Old Rhyme

Andrea Schwartz

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August 6, 2015

A Kingdom-driven family is one with parents who teach their children that the Bible applies to every area of life and thought. Just as in the parable of the sower, seed sown on fertile ground brings an increase in the lives of young people. One mother of such a family sent me an email that made me smile.

“Last week 9 yr. old Ricky told me he wanted to be a pastor. So yesterday when I heard him singing the nursery rhyme, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, I asked him to try to make it Christian. This is what he came up with, on his own, with no help from me:

One, Two, Read the Bible through

Three, Four, Shut Satan’s door

Five, Six, Fight the heretics

Seven, Eight, Set them straight

Nine, Ten, Do God’s Law then

Eleven, Twelve, Teach them well

Don’t we have reason to be encouraged for the future? This is one Kingdom-driven young man!!

Tearing Down the High Places

Andrea Schwartz

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July 31, 2015

When a child is brutally raped and murdered, our society is outraged. Well, sometimes. When women are trafficked for profit in the sex industry, there are those who in outrage call for immediate action. Well, sometimes. You see the outrage depends upon whether or not the perpetrators are a protected class shielded by the mainstream media.

Recently in Northern California, an eight-year-old girl was brutally beaten, sexually violated, disfigured and murdered. This incident received lots of press. We are horrified and discussions abound regarding the need to protect our children from such violence. Daily, however, infants in the womb, (decidedly more helpless), are routinely disfigured and murdered under the banner of a woman’s right to exercise personal choice. Apparently, some lives are more valuable than are others. Continue reading

Infomercial Mentality

Andrea Schwartz

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July 28, 2015

Although I hate to admit it, I succumbed to the lure of an infomercial, with its promised money back guarantee. I purchased something that, when it arrived, I realized wouldn’t work as the ad presented it. I went about the not-so-simple process of returning the item. I learned from the fine print that the shipping and handling cost would not be refunded, and I had to ship the merchandise back at my expense. After some negotiation, I received the commitment for a full refund, but I still had to pay to ship the merchandise back. The shipping cost amounted to one-third of the original purchase price. Live and learn.

We live at a time when Christianity is often presented like an infomercial. Rarely do new converts realize that entering in to the family of God may bring about rejection, ridicule, and other negative repercussions. The complete message of Scripture, which includes duty, responsibility, and obedience, is ignored. Happiness, fulfillment, and a better life are emphasized. Therefore many end up regretting their decision for Christ and some abandon the faith when trials and tribulations come. Continue reading

Use Your Mirror

Andrea Schwartz

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July 23, 2015

Driving would be a treacherous activity if we could not see what was behind us. Looking ahead is important and decidedly easier because we have eyes in the front of our head. Despite what some children believe about their mothers, human beings were not graced with visual sight from behind. That is the reason driving instruction emphasizes the use of side and rearview mirrors. As we proceed, we can do so with a degree of confidence that a collision is not in our future, nor is the likelihood of hitting, injuring, or killing a person or animal.

God has given us His law-word. In it are the accounts of those blessed due to their obedience, as well as accounts of those who reaped the consequences of disobedience. His law-word also gives us the remedy for the inevitable transgressions we commit: repentance, followed by the conviction that we go and sin no more (John 8:11). Continue reading

The Duty to Remain Faithful

Andrea Schwartz

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July 21, 2015

In a world that measures success in terms of a financial bottom line or in the acquisition of political power, you don’t hear much said about duty. In the end, the only thing that will matter when we come face-to-face with our Creator is whether we were found faithful in what He calls us to do.

This lesson of duty is a vital one for children from their earliest years. By placing the focus on what God requires rather than what an individual desires, priority then resides on the Kingdom of God, just as Jesus instructed (Matt. 6:33). Then, when it comes to the hard decisions and choices of life, this familiar framework becomes the backdrop for taking the correct path.
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