A Word From The Editor
Welcome to the November edition of the Leaders e-Newsletter from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! All of us at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine pray that you will enjoy a very blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends and that the Lord will bless you in His abundance.
I am deeply thankful for many things in my life, and this time of the year I am often reminded of what a great blessing it is to have the freedom to homeschool our children and to join with other families in local support groups and co-ops. May the Lord bless all of your endeavors as a homeschool leader! The work you do is very important. Not only are you supporting your homeschooling community through your labors, but you are serving as a beacon of light for our Lord: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). As modern culture degenerates and slips away from the foundations of Biblical faith, homeschool groups can serve as champions for truth and righteousness, shining the light of the Lord.
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine will be featuring a special conventions and support group section in the Winter issue coming out in December, Lord willing. We'll be discussing homeschool ID cards, insurance for support groups, foundation blocks for building a strong homeschool organization, and more. You won't want to miss this issue!
This month in the Leaders e-Newsletter, we are highlighting the life of a great author, leader, and man of faith: C.S. Lewis. We hope that the articles this month will encourage and support you in your ministry as a leader of your families and homeschool communities! If you have feedback, ideas, or contributions for this e-Newsletter, please write us at Leaders@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Blessings,
Sharra Badgley
Editor, Leaders e-Newsletter
Sharra Badgley is the blessed wife of Michael and mother to Shaiya and Briyah. They make their home in West Central Indiana. She is a freelance author, serves as editor for the Leaders e-Newsletter, and is the Indiana Homeschool Nations Coordinator for The Old Schoolhouse.
Stop in and visit her at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/SBadgley and www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/Indiana.
Devotional from God's Word: Be Wise, O Kings
By Wayne Walker
Thanksgiving is one of the holidays on which we especially remember some of the history of our nation. "Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling" (Ps. 2:10-11). Psalm 2 begins with a statement about the kings and rulers of earth who set themselves against the Lord. The early Christians thought of this passage of Scripture when they began to face persecution at the hands of their rulers (see Acts 4:23-26). We are told to "pray for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence" (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Thus, we often ask in our prayers that the rulers of this world will have the wisdom to make decisions that will be right and bring about peace.
From whence does wisdom come? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9:10). God has said that if we lack wisdom, we can ask of Him and He will give it to us (James 1:5). The truth is that no one is truly wise who does not acknowledge his dependence on the Lord. Of course, not all the rulers of this earth believe in God. Yet, even among those who do not, the closer they hold to the principles of righteousness that God has given to mankind, the wiser they are and the better off their people are. "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34).
Of course, if we expect those in authority to act with wisdom, we as individuals need to act with wisdom as well. "Walk in wisdom toward those who are without, redeeming the time" (Col. 4:5). Such wisdom demands that we show our respect to our rulers, even when we disagree with them, by submitting to their lawful authority (1 Pet. 2:13-17). There may come a time when we must make a choice to "obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). However, the constantly rebellious rabble-rouser who is "not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries" (2 Pet. 2:10) is not acting with wisdom and loses any influence for righteousness that he might otherwise have had. As we enter into this season of thanksgiving, we can be thankful for the wonderful heritage that we have in our country and the freedom that is afforded us to teach our own children. Yet, we must also be careful to make sure that our children learn to respect those in authority.
Wayne S. Walker is a minister, the husband of Karen, and the homeschooling father of Mark and Jeremy.
Visit him at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/Missouri
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Leader to Leader: Lessons From War
By Michael Badgley
There was a point in the not-so-distant past that Europe was in the midst of a desperately dark and hopeless time. The Nazi war machine was at its peak, and all of Europe was being affected. The German bombs had begun to fall on English soil, and as they fell, so did the heart of the nation. People began, quite naturally, to look at the calamities that were befalling them, and, as they did, hopelessness and despair entered their minds and they became largely crestfallen. The Britons were desperate to have something to both take their minds off the war and rally them.
The government's radio station, British Broadcasting Corporation, asked Clive Staples Lewis to present a series of radio talks during the war. These "talks" have been transcribed and presented as a very important work, Mere Christianity. The messages that Lewis communicated, now thought of as his treatise on what the pure Christian life should be like, were a major rallying point for his fellow Britons. Delivered by his baritone voice, these messages helped to transport the listeners beyond their frequent trips to the public bomb shelters into the realms of great faith.
Today in America, though we are not in such a war, our culture is under great attack. Even our children are constantly bombarded from an unseen enemy. For our family's sake, we must follow the leading of C.S. Lewis and teach our children about faith and how to live. Our choice in this war is simple--we can either let the war make casualties of our loved ones or we can choose not to settle for passivity and get into the trenches of faith-building with those that matter most to us.
To learn more about the life of C.S. Lewis, consider reading his works:
(some of which are available at www.cslewis.com)
- Mere Christianity
- The Abolition of Man
- The Weight of Glory
- The Screwtape Letters
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- The Problem of Pain
- The Great Divorce
- The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 1
- The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 2
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Michael Badgley is the husband of Sharra and homeschooling father of two daughters. He is a freelance author and works in ministry with First Fruits of Zion, an international organization that produces in-depth Bible study materials.
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Great Leaders in History: Biography of C.S. Lewis
By Teri Berg Olsen
"I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books." --C.S. Lewis
The personal experience of that beloved Christian author, C.S. Lewis, is a classic example of why we should teach our children at home rather than send them to public school, and it also shows how important it is for us to surround our children with authority figures, mentors, and friends who openly express their love for Jesus Christ. Read the following biography and you will understand the significance of such people in his life.
Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, a major seaport in Northern Ireland. His brother, Warren, had been born three years earlier. The family lived in a large old house with tunnel-like passages, a secret attic, and a spacious bushy garden. The two brothers often played imaginative games. They also liked to bicycle to the docks and watch the ships.
As a child, Lewis was taught at home by his mother and a governess. His parents liked to read, and they had a library full of books. In addition, books were piled in spare rooms and hallways, anywhere and everywhere, filling the whole house. Lewis was encouraged to read anything he liked. His favorite books included Treasure Island, Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin, and The Secret Garden. Lewis was also fascinated by the fairy tales, myths, and ancient legends told to him by his Irish nurse.
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Lewis's parents were Protestants. His mother was a clergyman's daughter. Lewis was extremely close to her, so it was a terrible blow to him when she died when he was 9 years old. Lewis was then sent away to a boarding school in England. During this time he began to abandon his childhood Christian faith.
After unhappily attending several different boarding schools, the 15-year-old Lewis was told in the summer of 1914 that he could come home and be privately tutored by a family friend. However, his new mentor was an aggressive atheist, and Lewis moved further away from any church teachings or belief in the Bible. Lewis learned Greek, Italian, French, and German. He studied Norse mythology and enjoyed the music of Richard Wagner.
Yet none of these influences were as strong or lasting as that of Scottish author George MacDonald, whose work Lewis came upon by chance at a train station bookstall. MacDonald was a dedicated Christian who wrote children's books, such as The Princess and the Goblin, as well as adult fantasies full of religious symbolism. Lewis immediately fell in love with the book he had picked up and later wrote, "I regarded [MacDonald] as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him."
In 1916 at age 18, C.S. Lewis was accepted into Oxford University College. Europe was in the middle of fighting World War I at the time. As an Irishman, Lewis could not be drafted by the British Army, but in 1917 he chose to volunteer. After Lewis was posted to the front line, he was soon wounded and returned home. He continued his studies in Oxford and said to himself, "The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come."
In 1925 Lewis was hired as an English teacher at Magdalen College in Oxford. It was here that he met another recently appointed teacher, a professor of Anglo-Saxon and a devout Roman Catholic, J.R.R. Tolkien. Lewis joined a reading group established by Tolkien, composed of Oxford men who enjoyed reading Old Norse and the dead northern languages.
The year 1929, when Lewis was 31, became a turning point in his life. For some time Lewis had been an avid reader of G.K. Chesterton, a great English novelist, poet, and essayist who had brought many to Christianity. Lewis kept thinking that he was deceiving himself by not believing and that he should accept God because "I couldn't think of anything else to do."
It was on September 28, 1931, that Lewis finally became a Christian. The evening before, Lewis had a long talk on Christianity with J.R.R. Tolkien. The following day, he and his brother Warren took a motorcycle ride to the Whipsnade Zoo. Lewis recalled in his autobiography, Surprised By Joy, "When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did." Lewis became closer to Tolkien, and this and his conversion spurred him on to write. In 1933, he published his first theological work, The Pilgrim's Regress, a parody of The Pilgrim's Progress.
In 1939 Lewis became involved in an Oxford-based writing club known as The Inklings. World War II began, and several of his friends joined the armed services. It was at this time that Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters. Then, when children from London were being evacuated to the country, four youngsters were lodged at Lewis's home. Surprised to find how few imaginative tales his young guests knew, he decided to write one for them. This story became The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a wonderful Christian allegory for children and the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia series.
Lewis also wrote a science fiction trilogy and many apologetic works. In doing so, Lewis became the most popular Christian author of the century. Personally, I think the story of his life is as remarkable as his writings!
Teri Ann Berg Olsen is a home educator, a librarian, and the author of Learning for Life: Educational Words of Wisdom. An AFHE member since 1995, Teri and her husband have always homeschooled their children. In addition to serving as resource coordinator for the Knowledge House Learning Resource Center, Teri is the leader of Desert Hills Christian Homeschoolers and the Arizona State Coordinator for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
Visit her blog: www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/Arizona and website: http://www.knowledgehouse.info
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