You're Invited! A monthly study group
Light Duties
God built certain responsibilities into the parent/child relationship. If you are looking to grow in understanding and doing that role, then you might appreciate the monthly Charlotte Mason study group I host. This episode explains what that is all about. You can join the group ($5 AUD per month). A reading schedule is available on the Light Duties website. Join anytime, no prior knowledge required!
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The Bible's Costly Assumptions About Families
Light Duties
First published August 2024 on the . For the full text, see the AP site or the Light Duties website. This article explores the disparity between the sentiments of the 2024-25 Women's Budget Statement and the Bible's vision of how children are raised. Instead of focusing on women's rights, I suggest we refocus by considering how our children are going with the biblical imperative that they obey their parents. Is it possible that the expectation that children can learn to obey has disappeared along with the means by which the Bible assumes it is learned?
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Think-Aloud Chat: Children's Books
Light Duties
Following the episode, I've received questions about what kinds of children's books to read. Here is a response, to help you filter out many of the options and point you to some good springs. I mentioned: Vigen Guroian, "" (No affiliate link; I used the website that had the cheapest prices as of the date the episode was released). . Charlotte Mason Study group at (NB it's 5% per month). .
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"Bringing Forth Life" Book Review
Light Duties
Jodie McIver is the Christian friend every expectant mum needs, especially in Australia. She understands the Bible, she understands midwifery and she understands the great variety of experiences faced by women who are becoming mothers. This is a review of her book, "Bringing Forth Life: God's Purposes in Pregnancy and Birth".
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The Necessary Desperation {bonus}
Light Duties
When we’ve been invested in giving good and restraining harm for our kids, the situations that bring them low can be bitter to us. But we and our children need these pains, lest we miss the best of comfort, especially as they become independent.
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God Will Not Do What We Imagine {bonus}
Light Duties
Our work in mothering is not going to achieve all that we imagine. Why bother when we don't know which way the ball will bounce? This episode is about the comfort we can count on.
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#54. Stretched, Strained, Sustained
Light Duties
How can these maternal duties be called "light" when they are so weighty in importance and difficulty?
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Q&A: How to Fill the Time?
Light Duties
A listener has asked, "What good things can I fill my time and the kids' time with before starting formal schooling?". This response was recorded while I was out and about (so it sounds a bit raw). It's a start in thinking about why we have trouble filling time with very young children (I propose that it is an oddity of our economic/social/historical context). I meander through some of the key elements to making time at home with preschoolers nourishing for them and you. Plenty more can be said, but one needs to stop recording somewhere! I mentioned J.R.R. Tolkien's essay, "On Fairy Stories"...
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#53. Ruined, Recycled, Restored
Light Duties
Perhaps we find motherhood difficult because we haven’t given much thought to building a house? The thing is, we're all building from ruins, salvaging and restoring what we can. We have ideals, but none of us are working with ideal materials. Our splintered posts have meaning.
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Affection Follows Attention
Light Duties
In this think-aloud chat, we consider how our most basic form of treasure is our attention. And where our treasure is, there our heart will follow. Some thoughts on how we might come to love things we really don't like doing.
info_outlineObedience doesn’t bring about belonging, the belonging comes first. When we belong, we express our connectedness through obedience.
Obedience isn’t about keeping ten thousand rules. In our own obedience as mums, and in helping our children learn to obey, rules cover only a fraction of the surface area. Rules aren’t the entirety of obedience, they only define the edges. Rules are fences and gates; obedience is the space between. Good rules protect and direct and give definition to obedience, but they are signposts, not the substance. Rules are a step in describing the features of godliness, what it looks like to actively belong.
For their season of dependent childhood, belonging to a family, and learning to obey within that family, is the most common, enduring, complex, deepest form of evangelism and discipleship. It is a temporary season though, a season of higher dependence to prepare them to live for Jesus away from us.