Jesus at the Home of Mary and Martha

My daughter texted me--at midnight--that I should go read Delphian Volume 4 pp. 40-43. It talks about Early Christianity in the days of Rome. This idea struck me:

Jesus left no writings. Nothing was written down until some time after his death. Yet, "we know much of his wonderful personality, which the greatest students of Christianity admit to be the essence of the faith. It was the striking personality which gave such a pulse of life to his teachings... Their religion was something to be felt rather than expressed in words."

We spend so much time worrying about teaching skills to our children, but what we are trying to accomplish here at WEH is to develop their personalities.

There is a section in the Restoring the Art of Storytelling book where the storytellers talk about warming your own heart first:

"The parent...should first enrich his own personality through an understanding of the essential values of literature and of life. The person whose life is colorless, whose emotions are pallid, whose experience is narrow, whose appreciation of beauty is undeveloped, whose knowledge of literature is limited, should face squarely the fact that he is not the one to guide the development of a child. He should kindle the flame in his own life before he attempts to pass on the torch." (Esenwein)

(P.S. Don't let that statement discourage you! You only have to be one step ahead of your kids. :) )

How to obtain a rich personality: "By loving the beautiful, by reading the worth-while, by filling the mind with those things that are worth passing on, by cultivation of a cheery disposition, by striving towards high ideals." (Eggleston)

"Love paints the pictures, writes the poems, sings the songs, bears the burdens and does all the great and abiding deeds." (Wyches)

"A deep and abiding soul life is more important than the mouthing of many words. The measure of our influence is not what we say but what we are..." (Wyches)

"The story which lacks an inner spiritual quality is...devoid of power to stir a soul." (Edward St. John)

Why do I not focus on academics? Because there is something deeper within all of us!

Art credit: Jesus at the Home of Mary and Martha by Harold Copping

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