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Nothing has renewed my passion for effective thinking-skill programs as much as my recent stint as a juror. Being sequestered with my fellow jurors to decide the immediate fate of an individual, I saw adults who were not only unable to discern obvious fallacies in logic, but who also put more credibility in a similar episode of a popular TV program than in actual testimony from a licensed doctor or an experienced police officer, which was scary.

Even if I were indifferent to the fate of the innocent (or criminals) in my community, knowing how to think and how to discern fallacies in logic is relevant in all areas of life. It impacts everything from the beverage I drink to who I vote for. While it is dismaying to see misleading ideas actually welcomed into a jury room, it is even more devastating to see believers unable to recognize fallacies as they share the gospel with others. These common fallacies include:

• If Jesus didn’t stay dead then it wasn’t the ultimate sacrifice.
• God loves me and anyone who loves me would never let harm happen to me. Therefore anything bad that happens to me did not come from God.
• Since so many people believe in so many different religions, there must be many different gods.
• It’s been 2,000 years; if the Bible is true then Jesus would have already returned.

But fallacies in logic don’t end at your front door. During a recent lively mother/child exchange of ideas I was reminded of many misleading statements I heard growing up, such as:

• I didn’t ask to be born, so why should I obey you?
• Maybe I did hit him, but I spent all day building that and he purposely wrecked it.
• Everyone else was doing it and I didn’t want to be the only weird one.
• If I can’t have (insert toy or game) I’ll just die.
• I don’t care if money is tight, we have always taken a vacation and I want to do so again this year.

Working through fallacies “in-house” should produce children who can refute erroneous ideas away from home. While we sell a number of thinking-skill programs, the best tool is a parent who will take the time to talk with his or her children and ask thoughtful questions which repeatedly point them to the cross and their need for sanctification. As 1 John 1:4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

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Have you ever discovered that the ideals you thought you were so faithfully upholding were in fact unwittingly being cast aside under your very nose? As our children were growing up, and before xylitol and stevia were widely available, we decided most sugar substitutes were not healthy choices for us. If an item was labeled sugar-free, it was taboo in our home. Relatives were baffled by our decision, as we were not health nuts, enjoyed desserts with abandon, and therefore looked like we would benefit from sugar-free treats, if you get my drift. But we were adamant that we did not want our young children ingesting the questionable chemicals associated with sugar-free items. Imagine our dismay when we discovered that what we had carefully, maybe self-righteously, avoided all those years was in the very toothpaste we used two to three times a day!

Do you think that this could never happen to you? Have you taught your children to never lie, then strung them along with tales of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy? Have you instructed them about the mercies of a sovereign God, then exclaimed about your “lucky” experience or your “unlucky” accident? Do you ask your children for the “magic” word when you desire politeness, even though we are commanded to avoid magic and every sort of sorcery? Do you have your child make a wish before blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, or maybe wish on a falling star? When you instruct them to honor you, do they see that same attitude in your life towards your parents?

The toothpaste we are currently using has no sugar substitute. Yes, it was a bit difficult getting use to it. Sugar substitutes can be up to 400 times sweeter than sugar itself, and taste is a powerful magnet. What else have we given our children a taste for? How powerful are the little compromises that we make in our family life, and how will they affect our children’s taste for the unholy? Those that trivialize these compromises have forgotten that this world is not a playground, but a battlefield. If you do not feel yourself involved in skirmishes with the evil one, perhaps it is because you pose no threat.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

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When I was growing up, I loved school. I loved learning new stuff and having access to a seemingly limitless number of books. I even loved taking tests. But, being a chunky child, I hated the annual weigh-ins. I particularly remember my sixth-grade experience. We were herded, en masse, to the gym. As we waited in line it was horrifyingly apparent to me that the woman manning the scales and the woman recording the weight were not in tune to the sensitivity of this procedure. As each child was weighed, a number was announced, one which seemed to reverberate off the gym walls. It was an unbearable experience.

So you can understand my bafflement over the current trend towards talking scales. For the visually impaired, they are a blessing. But for people like me, who never seemed to outgrow our craving for food and who live with the fantasy that our clothes hide this inclination, why would we want to announce to the world another day of defeat?

It is easy to see my daily dieting success or failure by merely clambering on a scale. By doing that first thing every morning I am slowly getting a handle on what works and what doesn’t. I was thinking recently that the importance of how much I weigh pales in comparison to that of the condition of my spiritual life. Sure, I can read my Bible, memorize Scripture, pray and so on, and a lack in any of these areas should raise alarms, but how do I weigh the condition of my heart? How do I know if I am holier today than yesterday? Those of us who struggle with weight issues know how easy it is to look in the mirror and say, “I don’t look that bad.” Unfortunately, how we see ourselves is never as accurate as a scale. Why isn’t there a soul scale?

Then yesterday, while chatting with a couple of my daughters during our daily lake swim, one quite matter-of-factly piped up, “Mom, you’re not as sinless as you think.” Eureka! A talking scale.While I still have a strong preference for the silent versions, God has chosen to give me at least six fully-functioning, talking scales. And as painful as it is to hear their announcements, if I will only listen, God can use them to help me recognize my padding of sin and strive for spiritual muscle.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus…” Hebrews 12:1

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Years ago, when there was more concern about public decency, reading bumper stickers was not only an amusing way to pass the time on a long car trip, but was also a curriculum in itself. Not only could we discuss the logical or illogical basis of the statement being made, but also the worldview behind that statement. While many of today’s bumper stickers are not fit for younger audiences, with a bit of judicious weeding there are still plenty of opportunities to speak with your children about current sentiments. Children need to learn how to determine whom the bumper sticker is targeting, what the agenda is, why there is a passion for the topic, and ultimately, what God’s Word says about it.

Consider these current stickers:
“On what day did God make all the fossils?”
“Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right.”
“So you are pro-abortion but against killing terrorists?”
“If you aren’t liberal at 18, you have no heart. If you aren’t conservative by 35 you have no intelligence.”
“Only a Liberal Could Turn a Terrorist Into a Victim.”
“Love thy enemies implies not killing them.”
“Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who didn’t.”
“Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how it remains so popular?”
“None Are More Hopelessly Enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free.”
“If religious groups want to get into politics, they should pay taxes.”

Our children must learn critical thinking. A mother once asked me what program I would recommend to teach her young children logic with a Biblical slant. Our family used the book of Proverbs. As it is such a powerful book, we learned that if we went through a chapter a day we would drown our children in a tsunami of wisdom. Instead, we thoroughly examined one verse each day. We would ask the obvious and the not so obvious. And we would drill application: what it looked like for a child, what it looked like for an adult, and what it looked like for the fool. While we sell all sorts of curricula to teach logic, a systematic study of God’s Word will always beat any other logic program and will give children a jumping-off point to grapple with the ubiquitous bumper stickers, t-shirts and billboards that dare to oppose His wisdom.

Desiring to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”

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Ideally, service is a proficiency you learned from toddlerhood onwards. Just as reading is a skill that some learn as toddlers and others at age 8, but there comes a time when, if a child cannot read, a panic button is and should be pushed. If a child reaches the end of the teen years and still is not service- minded, I would push the panic button and set aside all else to target this.

Beginning Curriculum

Hebrews 10:24 commands us to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” That is the intent of this program. Instead of college and instead of career, you will be spending 40 hours a week in service. Understandably, this will not be intuitive to you. So initially, your acts of benevolence will be assigned to you. Then, when you can joyfully, enthusiastically, and thoroughly complete each task assigned, you will be ready for stage two.

Phase Two

This intermediate phase works to help you become more astute in seeing needs in others. After every social encounter you will be asked to summarize needs you heard or saw expressed. This will range from the spoken yearnings of the widow to have help in her garden to the harried homeschooler who lacks adequate time to tutor her child in math. You will be taught to analyze the spoken and unspoken messages and then to formulate the scheduling of your acts of service. When you have mastered this, you will be ready for the final exam.

Final Exam

Unlike most finals, this particular exam will take a number of weeks to complete. What will be examined will be your ability to see a need and respond spontaneously. Here is what it will look like. You will see a family struggling to unload young children and their paraphernalia at church and you will jump in to offer to carry a diaper bag and toddler. At a community meal, you will be the one setting and clearing the table while others visit. At the store you will be the one scrambling to pick up the spilled pennies of the elderly or pushing the cart for the disabled. When you see your neighbor mowing his lawn, it will be you sweeping the excess grass off his walk.

Service for you may never seem natural. Even ardent worshippers of God struggle in this area. Remember when you learned to ride a bike? Balancing on that wobbly 2-wheeled knee-scraping machine was hardly natural. For some children, the process took an afternoon, for others, weeks. But eventually, most learned and what was once unnatural and awkward is now intuitive. It is our hope that service will become that for each and every one of you. And knowing that true service is not intuitive for any one of us may we fix our hope on Christ who works through us with His energy, who works for (serves) those who wait for Him, and who is our Savior, correcting and forgiving us when we fail.

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An open letter to a number of relatives and family friends…

Dear collegiate seeker,

When we spoke with your parents recently, they told us of your plans to attend college this fall. We wish we could be as happy about the decision as you are. College may be appropriate for some adults, but we see more pertinent needs in your life than additional formal education.

In the many years we have fellowshipped with your family we have seen no evidence in you of a servant’s heart, despite the fact that you see it abundantly displayed in the lives of your parents. While the world values academic success and is loath to engage in acts of service, your unwillingness to serve indicates a lack of maturity. College, with all its emphases on freedom, fun, and self-fulfillment will not produce this wisdom. Despite the fact that adults who have never learned to sacrificially serve may attain employment, even marry and raise a family, their self-serving, self-centered lives lead to a narcissistic existence.

[While service is never a means of salvation, as we are saved by grace and not by works; it is certainly a sign of salvation. So why is this a common weak spot in the Christian church? The New Testament is replete with ‘one another’ verses, one significant verse is found in Galatians, “through love serve one another”. Service can take many forms. It can be the paint on the hands, mud on the knees variety, or it can be an invitation to dinner. Regardless of the form, service means giving up what you want and doing what others need. It is rarely glamorous, often involves sacrifices of time and treasures, and is frequently goes unnoticed. And we hate that, especially the unnoticed part. So while we seek our own glory, the task of service is ignored.]

In the ideal world, your passion for God’s glory and His pleasure would be motivation aplenty to continuously be in some sort of service. However, at this time, that does not appear to be the case. Still, were the improbable to happen and you were to become our child you would find that we take seriously the teaching of Proverbs, “The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.” Since you have not, as yet, learned to serve diligently, instead of college, we would be investing in a unique, individualized course of instruction.

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Tim Keller of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, is credited with saying that if you want to know what you worship, you need to know what you fear. Once you know what you fear, you’ll not only recognize its redeemer, but will also realize that it is that savior you worship

In the home school realm, if your greatest fear is raising a household of average children, your redeemer will be those programs that ensure accelerated learning and your god becomes academic success.

Or maybe your primary fear is to be disliked by your peers. So you dress their dress, use their curriculum, listen to their music and worship the savior of approval.

If you are the parents of older children, maybe your biggest fear is the stigma of an unmarried son or daughter. So you compromise in ways you would have never imagined, in order to see your child arrive at the marriage altar.

Last week, our son Abel graduated from firefighter recruit school. The hardest part of this training has not been the exposure to all the ‘potty-mouths’ in the classes; it has been the seemingly solitary battle against self-glorification. For many of his peers, their greatest fear is drifting though life unnoticed. They look to self-glory to save them from invisibility and their desire for admiration easily infects those around them. Because glory seeking can become an all- consuming passion for any one of us, we need to fight daily to make sure that the praise of man is never our designated savior.

Ultimately Jesus is the only Savior worthy of worship, and our only fear should be eternal separation from God Himself. Thank God for friends and families who faithfully point us in the right direction, toward Him.

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This week my niece, along with her cousin, began their hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. From Mexico to Canada, the Pacific Crest Trail is 2,650

The initial appeal to me would be to marvel at God’s handiwork. While our hearts will always yearn to stand in wonder before God’s creation, that desire can only be satisfied in eternity. Better to pursue here what will not be possible there.

Secondly, who wouldn’t want to spend 5 months with apparently no bigger burden than getting from point A to point B? No timetable, no housecleaning, no morning commute, no bill paying, no tiresome routine. Oops; again, only in heaven when our desires are purified will we finally get to do all we want, with time to spare.

Thirdly, there is the desire to challenge your body, to make it do what seems impossible to do. But we kid ourselves here. What is harder to do, walk through deserts, rain forests and snow-bound trails, or repeatedly get out of our easy chairs to redirect an errant child? If you want to test your body, dare it to get up cheerfully every 2 hours with your newborn, keep pace with your toddler, roller-skate with your preteen and swim laps with your teen. This challenge transforms what appeared to be a strictly physical test into a more vital test of the heart.

Finally, hiking the PCT is a self-test of resourcefulness. Faced with overwhelming trials, could I survive? If this is your motivation let us suggest an alternate challenge with an eternal focus, offer respite care to a family whose child has autism or other challenges greater than your own. This month marks a year that our family has been involved in this endeavor and we speak from experience when we say your body, mind and spirit will be tested like they have never been tested before.

Every unfulfilled desire we have, whether for things God has not given us or for opportunities God directs us away from, is a wonderful opportunity to examine our heart, rather than to indulge in covetousness or self-pity. By asking why our heart longs to follow each desire, and pushing it through the filter of God’s word, we will be able to see more clearly the root of our motives. As our family discussed the PCT hike, when we took away those desires that will be satisfied in heaven and those that are strictly self-centered, the attraction faded.

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” Hebrews 11:16

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This year our family is reading through the Bible using the M’Cheyne Bible-reading schedule, which means this week we are smack-dab in the middle of Leviticus. As you know, the book is - among other things - a handbook on sacrifices; who, what, when, how, and why. The question that has come to our minds is, did the Israelites view sin differently than we do because of those sacrifices. Knowing that a sin would cost the life of a valued animal, did it weigh on their conscience, causing them to see sin as more abhorent than we do?

Of late our family has been discussing the need to see how dreadful our personal sins are. The culture we live in has done its best to persuade us that our sins are small and God is not offended. But we, as a family, want to grieve and repent for our sins and not just feel sorrow for the consequences. There is a tendency in the church to emphasize the Good News while glossing over the bad, but when we have experienced that Romans 7 moment, when we realize how loathsome our sins are, then we will know more fully how great a Savior we worship. Like women who have undergone childbirth and remember the sweet relief, or even elation after the excruciating pain subsides, so we, when we are aware of the depth of our sins, value more highly the profoundness of His grace.

So once again we appreciate the poignant words from a prayer in Valley of Vision. After acknowledging how our every sense, our every body part may be a snare for us, the author ends the prayer like this; “Keep me ever mindful of my natural state, but let me not forget my heavenly title, or the grace that can deal with every sin.” This week, as we prepare our hearts and home for the Resurrection Day celebration, what better time to reflect on our need for the atoning work that was accomplished on the cross and the wonder of the empty tomb?

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