Teaching a Christian Heart for the World
Ray recently sent me an article from a political magazine that often supports the views that Ray and I share. The article told about an educational movement that Ray and I deplore. It quoted from a guide that someone who supported that movement wrote about an agenda they were pushing. The article stated that books and literature are never neutral. On that point, I wholeheartedly agree.
Homeschooling mamas are right to insist that the curriculum they use with their children is written with a worldview that is in keeping with the Word of God. It is imperative.
At the same time, it is important that, in addition to helping their children understand history, science, and literature from a Christian perspective, homeschooling mamas also teach their children a Christian heart for the world.
I love the worldview of the prayer Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13.
Pray, then, in this way:
Our Father who is in heaven,
Our Father, You are not only the Father of people who look and think like me. You are the Father of all the people on earth. You love each of us. You truly are our Father.
Holy is Your name.
Our Father, You are completely holy. You are all-wise, all-good, and all-powerful. You know what is best for me to think, what is best for me to say, and what is best for me to do.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Our Father, the answer to every person’s problems, to every nation’s problems, and to every problem between individuals or groups or nations is for all of us to obey your commands. We often like to think that we can figure things out for ourselves, but Your way is always best. The perfect solution to every issue is for every person to acknowledge Your kingship and to do Your will — all of us in every nation all of the time, just as already happens in heaven. Father, please draw all people of the world to Yourself.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Our Father, please continue to take care of all of us around the world. Please provide for every need of my family. And, please, Lord, do that for everyone everywhere.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Our Father, please forgive me of my sins and please make conflicts between people and between nations cease, as we obey your command to forgive the people who have done things about which we have reacted in anger. Please stop everything from the little conflicts to the great big wars.
And do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Holy Father, please help us to do what You say about everything all the time and please keep us away from people who try to get us to do what you have commanded that we not do.
For Yours is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.
Holy Father, you are the King of the universe. Please help all people around the world acknowledge that reality in their thoughts, words, and actions. Thank You for being our King and for being our perfect, caring, providing Father.
The U.S. Office of War Information displayed
posters of all nations, mounted on colored boards
around the edge of the skating rink
at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, March 1943.
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world . . . ” And He came to save the little children and their mamas and daddies. Jesus also came to show us the way our Father wants each of us to live.
. . . He Himself is the propitiation for our sins;
and not for ours only,
but also for those of the whole world.
1 John 2:2
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,”
will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father
who is in heaven will enter.
Matthew 7:21