1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
 So, I guess to me it boils down to what is sin?  Sin is transgression of the law.  What law?  Gods Law..  So if Gods law states. Honor they mother and they father, and a child doesn't Honor them.  These children are then transgressing the law made by God.  (this is not referring to OT law, but the commands in the NT.)  At what age does a child sin?  That's quite simple, the age of accountability.  Each child reaches that at a different time.  How do I know this.. Because God has not stated an exact age.  Teaching and training has a lot to do with things  Meaning the parents have a lot to do with the training of their children in Godly things.   A child from a 'worldly home' knows at age 8 that if they spit at their mom it is wrong.  As does a child that is raised in a 'religious home'  Could this be the age of accountability? These children are 8 years old.  The age of accountability could easily have been passed.    Why?  Because "Those who know to do right and doeth it not, to him it is a sin"  
 
As to the children being in training.  As Christians, are we not in training as well.. "We are to run the race"  Do we not train for the race?  Learning is a continual process, even as an adult we are learning.  Hence 'in training' as to how to be a better Christian and mom and wife, and steward of the Lords money.   Training doesn't ever stop.  My mom is teaching me new things at 39. Lol.. (and believe me ladies, I need it! :)   
 
All that to say, that training never ends for any person alive, and that the Lord never states an age of accountability, but that there is an 'age'  those who know to do right and doeth it not, to him it is a sin'  There is no age in this verse, but a very open and obvious intent is there.

Authentic Passion?

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by Ellyn Davis

My Over-exposure to TV

Sorry for the long pause between newsletters. I had surgery in September and it took me a lot longer to recuperate than I thought it would. But, thank God, I am doing well.

However, it was because of the surgery that I began thinking about passion. No…not the kind of passion that usually comes to mind when someone says the word “passion.”

Because my surgery took place 500 miles away from where I live, I spent the two weeks immediately following it at a friend’s house. I was told to not exert myself, not lift anything, and try to just rest. I had thought that post-surgical two weeks would be a great time to catch up on all my reading, but that didn’t happen. I just didn't feel like reading.

My friend usually clicked on the TV around 5 PM when she got home from work and it stayed on until she went to sleep around 11, so I wound up watching lots and lots of evening TV. Then during the day I felt so lousy that sometimes I watched more.

Now I have nothing against TV, but I rarely watch it. Mostly our TV at home is used as the screen for watching videos. But, I had two weeks of time on my hands and not much I could do, so I watched TV…hours and hours and hours of TV.

After a few days of this, I was thinking to myself, “Oh my God…if the average American watches 4 hours of TV a day, we are in real trouble!”

Of course, there were the news programs, which were pretty depressing to watch. And there were the detective/crime/forensic lab/missing person shows. Then there were the regular series complete with dysfunctional families or even more dysfunctional single adults. Then there were all the reality shows and interview shows, including Dr. Phil who usually had someone on who was making their petty grievances seem like a matter of life or death. One day a woman he interviewed had been the only survivor of a serial killer who tortured and mutilated his victims. She had been fortunate enough to escape before he harmed her. She was so upset over having to share the rights to a book she had written about her ordeal that she told a nationwide audience she wished she had actually been tortured and mutilated. To Dr. Phil’s credit, he treated her like a lunatic.

But what amazed me the most were the “competitions.”

First there were the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader tryouts. This was an 8 hour continuing series featuring several hundred well-endowed young ladies whose greatest ambition was to become a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Then there was “I Want to Look Like A Cheerleader Again” or something like that. It was made up of a group of women in their late 20s to mid 40s who had once been cheerleaders and whose greatest ambition was to get back into the shape and size of their high school or college cheerleading days.

Then there was “The Bachelor,” where 30 different girls tried ridiculous things to be the one chosen by a wealthy, handsome bachelor from Texas.

And finally, there were the talent shows, where people competed for the privilege of being chosen the next “American Idol” or the best celebrity dancer. These actually were kind of fun.

There were more shows along those lines…all featuring a group of people competing for what they considered a great honor but that I had no grid for why they would even want what they were competing for.

What's Your Passion?

It was at that point I started thinking about passion. Of course there is romantic passion. But that’s not the kind of passion I was thinking about.

I define passion as a driving force towards something—achieving some prized goal, accomplishing some valued task, attaining some ambition…. It is an enthusiasm, an ardor, a fervor, a strong desire for something that one treasures. It is strong feeling that something is important enough to make sacrifices for. Passion is what keeps you going when times get tough and it looks like what you’ve been striving for is going to remain out of reach.

As I watched all this TV, I began asking myself, “What kind of passions are these shows teaching us are important?” Hmmm.

I realized that none of the “passions” encouraged on these shows would ever make someone a great mom or dad, or cause them to be concerned about making a positive impact on their world, or motivate them to have the character qualities of good parents, good friends, good workers, or good business owners, or empower them to have a real relationship with God or anybody else.

That led me to this question: What passions do I believe are worth encouraging?

I know the answer to that question for myself, but I don’t know it for you.

It seems to me that our long journey of home schooling our children isn’t just about teaching them academic skills or even life skills. There is a “hidden curriculum” that has to do with imparting a sense of value to certain beliefs, activities, actions, and lifestyles. In essence, there is an imparting of “passion.”

So, in this newsletter, I want to throw out two questions: What passions do you believe are worth encouraging? and How do you plan to encourage these passions in your children?