Vaughnshire Farm

As we are in the last minutes of 2006, we have been gathering, as a family, today thanking God for His kind Providence on our lives. We rejoice for a well lived year in 2006 and are grateful for all the abundant blessings and trials! We look forward to a new year in our Lord, 2007!!!

Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

Ask any mother who has boys and she will tell you a tale that is sure to dazzle you….a true tale of the mysterious wonder of what we call…. a boy! The simple fact is boys are different than girls no matter how loud the feminist scream! They act different. The learn different. The play different! They are not girls and neither should we try to put them in the “girly box”.

Having 4 boys of my own…and 4 very male boys, our life is full of interesting twists and events. I grew up in a family of boys so my experience as being a mother of boys is only a sweet continuation of the antics and experiences I had as a child. I love boys and their energy and vigor for life. I love the creative zeal and though I don’t quite understand how their brain functions, I appreciate the incredible vastly different set of wiring bestowed upon them.

Looking at the biblical roles of a man, you can see all the more clearly of why boys are the way they are. The are leaders, protectors, providers, dominion takers. They solve problems and fix things…They are aggressive…They are rough and tough…even at 3 years old. All this for a reason.

Feminism has sought to wage an all out attack upon our boys from the church house to the school house to even the home.

Kevin Swanson has a must read article on “The War Against Boys” in which he states,

“Today we sit in a “gender blender.” For parents with vision, for parents who take the raising of their children seriously, we must go back to the Owner’s Manual and define a vision for raising our sons and daughters.”

Mr. Swanson also has an online audio interview called The War Against Boys. Kevin Swanson interviews Christina Hoff Sommers author of The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men.

If you have a boy, you need to listen to this interview.

So how do we protect our boys from this perversion? The family is the greenhouse for young children to grow and mature. Father and mother both play vital role in teaching boys. For the first several years, young boys generally spend most of their time with mom, however, as they get older, they need to spend more and more time with dad learning the ways of manhood. We know many home educators whose boys are completely home schooled by their father once they reach a certain age.

Even in the home school setting, it is important not to neutralize the home education of our children. The focus of education is teaching them the ways of the Lord and His design for their lives. Everything else flows out of that premise. In relation to boys, we use lots of boy related books and activities that promote healthy, moral boyhood and water the appetite for good literature and work. While many subjects and activities can be done with both girls and boys, I think that it is important to gear most of a boy’s home education from an approach that engages his masculinity and promotes his manhood from a Biblical perspective. In the same way, a girl’s education can easily be distinctly feminine.

Some ways to cultivate role distinctiveness in home education:

“How to” books are excellent for boys. Currently, the boys are working on making batteries from lemons, coins, foil and wire. They enjoy Henty books, books about catapults (thanks to this book we have three catapults in our woods), mystery solving books. Boys are interested in how things work, the nuts and bolts of something, in big bugs and mysterious animals. They thrive on adventure and conquest and dominion. Logic and solving problem books or activities inspire them.

Creative play with legos, wooden blocks and lincoln logs; simple things like ropes and sticks or more complex things like electronic or science kits are excellent for a boy’s mind. Our newly 6 year old built a house out of wooden blocks and wired it with scrap wire. He inserted a small flash light light bulb and attached it to a battery and wire to produce a house with a real working light. Boys will learn far more from this sort of play learning because it engages those boy brain functions that are dulled or lulled to sleep in a feministic environment.

In addition to the normal handwriting, phonics, spelling, one other way we promote education for our boys in a way they can thrive in, is by “Man School”. We started “Man School” in an effort to further promote healthy boyhood and education at the same time. We took the strengths and interests of boys and how they are naturally wired and tried to put together activities that they would not only love, but would learn from. “Man School” is not for babies or girls (the girls have Lady School). “Man School” is just for boys - energetic boys that are bursting at the seams to do something!

“Man School” may be sending the boys out to the back to work on their catapults they built in the trees. They have various “weapons”, i.e. junk, they have collected that sit disorderly around the launching site: A old cooking pot, a engine belt, a brick and about 10 other various items. In “Man School”, I might tell the boys to go out and work on the catapult but here are their assignments. I hand them a paper with these problems.

1. Write down each “weapon” you fire from your catapult.
2. What is the weight and shape of each “weapon”?
3. Write down which “weapon” went the farthest and why?
4. How many feet did it go? How many yards?
5. Write down the “weapon” that was the most ineffective and why?
6. Measure the length of distance each “weapon” went in feet and yards.

Other various problems may include measuring the circumferences of the trees in our yard and locating the biggest trees, drawing maps of them, calculating heights, identifying types and estimating age. Another “Man School” activity may be to measure the perimeter of the garden and to double and triple the perimeter by staking out their calculations using flags. “Man School” may be as simple as going to a business meeting with dad or working on a business plan. We are working to identify a host of other projects and activities that engage and challenge boys. Boys that work on this type of thing need not be drugged because they are forced to sit in a feminized classroom talking about how they feel about the rain forests.

Our goal is to produce powerfully effective manly leaders who understand their roles as men from a Biblical perspective, who protect women and children, who honor their elders, who fight for what is right and who despise wickedness and seek to do much damage to the kingdom of darkness. These are real men. Real men are not produced in the government feminist factories, they are produced, with God’s grace, by mothers and fathers who follow God’s pattern for the education of their children.

For further study on boys: (These are all web audios)

Created for Work interview with the author Bob Schultz (who has written a number of books on raising boys.) We are reading his book, Created for Work, to our boys and it is an excellent resource for encouraging the biblical work ethic.

Teaching Boys to Delight in Work - Applying knowledge to real life — something schools do not do!

The Youth Fetish and the Myth of Adolescence - Interview with twin 18 year old young men who run the website www.therebelution.com

It is an exciting time as we head into the new year. Before January 1st, each member in the family (who can write) will list out this years accomplishments as well as write out goals for the new year.

In the area of goals, not only do we list things we would like to accomplish, but we encourage setting character goals. I have a certain character trait that I will start to focus on. I have also identified some other character or obedience issues in some of the younger children that we will focus on as well. As a family, we also look at certain aspects of family life that we would like to improve upon.

It has been rewarding to look back over the years of accomplishments and goals for each person in our family and see the growth and maturity.

As we remember God’s providential hand in each of our lives as well as in our family, we are filled with overwhelming gratitude.

So what am I working on:

1.) Meal planning for the month of January

2.) Our 2007 Home School outline…Since we do not follow the regular school schedule, the new year brings a new home schooling outline. I have just written a syllabus for my boys, ages 9 and 11 to encourage and promote their education to be distinctly male. I think it may help with allowing them to exert that boy energy while at the same time learn necessary skills and educational facts. I will be working on a similar syllabus for the girls. Education should not just expand the mine, but should promote and build Biblical roles in our girls and boys. So many times we, even home school educators, pattern our schooling after the public education system and neutralize our boys and girls.

3.) New chore list to correspond with the ages of the children and chores that need to be done in our home.

4.) Goals for the new year for myself and a list of accomplishments from last year.

From what has been said, we may infer that this passage of Scripture gives no countenance to religious festivals, or holidays of human appointment, especially under the New Testament. Feasts appear to have been connected with sacrifices from the most ancient times; but the observance of them was not brought under any fixed rules until the establishment of the Mosaic law. Religious festivals formed a noted and splendid part of the ritual of that law; but they were only designed to be temporary; and having served their end in commemorating certain great events connected with the Jewish commonwealth, and in typifying certain mysteries now clearly revealed by the gospel, they ceased, and, along with other figures, vanished away. To retain these, or to return them after the promulgation of the Christian law, or to imitate them by instituting festivals of a similar kind, is to doat on shadows–to choose weak and beggarly elements–to bring ourselves under a yoke of bondage which the Jews were unable to bear, and interpretatively to fall from grace and the truth of the gospel. “Ye observe days and months, and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come.” Shall we suppose that Christ and his apostles, in abrogating those days which God himself had appointed to be observed, without instituting others in their room, intended that either churches or individuals should be allowed to substitute whatever they pleased in their room? Yet the Christian church soon degenerated so far as to bring herself under a severer bondage than that from which Christ had redeemed her, and instituted a greater number of festivals than were observed under the Mosaic law, or even among pagans.
To seek a warrant for days of religious commemoration under the gospel from the Jewish festivals, is not only to overlook the distinction between the old and new dispensations, but to forget that the Jews were never allowed to institute such memorials for themselves, but simply to keep those which infinite Wisdom had expressly and by name set apart and sanctified. The prohibitory sanction is equally strict under both Testaments: “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”
There are times when God calls, on the one hand, to religious fasting, or, on the other, to thanksgiving and religious joy; and it is our duty to comply with these calls, and to set apart time for the respective exercises. But this is quite a different thing from recurrent or anniversary holidays. In the former case the day is chosen for the duty, in the latter the duty is performed for the day; in the former case there is no holiness on the day but what arises from the service which is performed on it, and when the same day afterwards recurs, it is as common as any other day; in the latter case the day is set apart on all following times, and may not be employed for common or secular purposes. Stated and recurring festivals countenance the false principle, that some days have a peculiar sanctity, either inherent or impressed by the works which occurred on them; they proceed on an undue assumption of human authority; interfere with the free use of that time which the Creator hath granted to man; detract from the honour due to the day of sacred rest which he hath appointed; lead to impositions over conscience; have been the fruitful source of superstition and idolatry; and have been productive of the worst effects upon morals, in every age, and among every people, barbarous and civilized, pagan and Christian, popish and protestant, among whom they have been observed. On these grounds they were rejected from the beginning, among other corruptions of antichrist, by the reformed church of Scotland, which allowed no stated religious days but the Christian Sabbath. –Thomas M’Crie (minister, Associate Anti-Burgher/Constitutional Associate Presbytery; author and church historian), Lectures on the Book of Esther (1838).

That Christians did observe sacred days in the apostle’s time these writers [i.e., those who deny the divine sanction and authority of the Lord’s day] admit, and also that the usage was approved. But they say it was not founded on any divine authority; the apostle had just repealed all that. Then on whose authority? That of the uninspired church. Their view, then, is that the apostle, sweeping away all Sabbaths and Lord’s days, invites Christians to ascend to his lofty and devoted experience, which had no use for a set Sabbath because all his days were consecrated. But as it was found that this did not suit the actual Christian state of most Christians, human authority was allowed, and even encouraged, to appoint Sundays, Easters and Whitsuntides for them. The objections are: first, that this countenances ‘will-worship,’ or the intrusion of man’s inventions into God’s service; second, it is an implied insult to Paul’s inspiration, assuming that he made a practical blunder, which the church synods, wiser than his inspiration, had to mend by a human expedient; and third, we have here a practical confession that, after all, the average New Testament Christian does need a stated holy day, and therefore the ground of the Sabbath command is perpetual and moral. –Robert L. Dabney (professor, Union Theological Seminary, Virginia; Theological School at Austin, Texas; University of Texas; Presbyterian Church in the U.S.), “The Christian Sabbath,” in Discussions, Vol. 1 (1890).

Under the old dispensation, there were a number of days appointed for ceremonial observances. The Jews kept thirty-five in the year, but of these some fell on the Sabbath. While the Mosaic economy lasted, and while they remained in Palestine, these were to be observed; but at the death of Christ they passed away. Hence the apostle says to the primitive Christians, “Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath day” (Col. 2:16), or the Jewish Sabbath, on the seventh day of the week, which was now merged in the first. This shews how little they understand the liberty of the gospel, who prescribe for the observance of Christians, a variety of holy days, which are unauthorized in Scripture, and are found in experience to be lost in idleness, or abused in folly. Such days, originating in secular policy, or superstitious excitement, may be marked by names and rites solemn and imposing; yet, wanting the sanction of Jehovah, and the animating breath of heaven, they are soon disregarded as empty forms, hated as encumbrances on public industry, and welcomed only by those whose situation makes them wish for a season and a pretext for amusement and dissipation. –Henry Belfrage (minister, Associate [Presbyterian] Burgher Synod), A Practical Exposition of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism (1834).

It is our duty to attend faithfully and industriously to that secular business which is incumbent on us, during the six last days of the week, and not to institute or observe sabbaths of human invention; that we may be prepared for the sanctification of the Lord’s sabbath. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.” Gal. 4:10,11. “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed labour upon you in vain.” –Ezra Stiles Ely (pastor, Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.), A Synopsis of Didactic Theology (1822).

Men cannot, without sin, appoint any holy days. (1.) God has marked the weekly sabbath with peculiar honour, in his command and word. But, if men appoint holy days, they detract from its honour; and wherever holy days of men’s appointment are much observed, God’s weekly sabbath is much profaned, Ex. 20:8; Ezek. 43:8. (2.) God never could have abolished his own ceremonial holy days, in order that men might appoint others of their own invention, in their room, Col. 2:16-23; Gal. 4:10,11. (3.) God alone can bless holy days, and render them effectual to promote holy purposes; and we have no hint in his word, that he will bless any appointed by men, Ex. 20:11. (4.) By permitting, if not requiring us, to labour six days of the week in our worldly employments, this commandment excludes all holy days of men’s appointment; Ex. 20:8,9. If it permit six days for our worldly labour, we ought to stand fast in that liberty with which Christ hath made us free, Gal. 5:1; 1 Cor. 7:23; Matt. 15:9. If it require them, we ought to obey God rather than men, Acts 4:19; 5:29.–Days of occasional fasting and thanksgiving are generally marked out by the providence of God: and the observation of them does not suppose any holiness in the day itself, Joel 1:14; 2:15; Acts 13:2; 14:23; Matt. 9:15. –John Brown, of Haddington (minister and professor, Associate [Presbyterian] Burgher Synod), A Compendious View of Natural and Revealed Religion (1796).

1. We think God has appointed one certain day in the week, for the thankful remembrance of those mercies, which he has in common bestowed upon us. Upon that therefore, as often as it returns, all Christians are bound to employ themselves in meditating upon God’s works of creation and redemption, in praising God, and in other religious exercises. Hence we judge it needless for men, by their authority, to appoint other days of the same nature; and desire them, who usurp such a power, to produce the commission they have for it.
2. It seems probable to us, that God would not have us observe these yearly Holidays; because we meet with nothing in his word, whereby we can fix the times of the year, when those things happened, which our Adversaries pretend are the occasion of them. –James Peirce (Nonconformist minister, Exon, England), A Vindication of the Dissenters (1718).

It is not a work but a word makes one day more holy than another. There is no day of the week, but some eminent work of God has been done therein; but it does not therefore follow that every day must be kept as a Sabbath. The Lord Christ has appointed the first day of the week to be perpetually observed in remembrance of his resurrection and redemption. If more days than that had been needful, he would have appointed more. It is a deep reflection on the wisdom of Christ, to say, He has not appointed days enough for his own honour, but he must be beholding to men for their additions. The Old Waldenses witnessed against the observing of any holidays, besides that which God in his Word hath instituted. Calvin, Luther, Danaeus, Bucer, Farel, Viret, and other great Reformers, have wished that the observation of all holidays, except the Lord’s Day, were abolished. A Popish writer complains that the Puritans in England were of the same mind. So was John Huss and Jerome of Prague long ago. And the Belgic Churches in their Synod, Anno 1578. The Apostle condemns the observation of Jewish festivals in these days of the New Testament, Gal. 4:10; Col. 2:16. Much less may Christians state other days in their room. The Gospel has put an end to the difference of days as well as of meats. And neither the Pope nor the Church can make some days holy above others, no more than they can make the use of some meats to be lawful or unlawful, both of which are expressly contrary to the Scripture, Rom. 14:5,6. All stated holidays of man’s inventing, are breaches of the Second and of the Fourth Commandment. A stated religious festival is a part of instituted worship. Therefore it is not in the power of men, but God only, to make a day holy. –Increase Mather (Nonconformist minister, New England), Testimony Against Prophane Customs (1687).