An Acrostic Poem about Little Men

Loving mother

Inspiring father

Thinking about the future

Thoughtful consequences

Leading the way by example

Esteem building

Much understanding

Encouraging praise

Nurturing environment

Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott is a perfect title for this book.  Jo and Fritz Bhaer are the “mother” and “father” of the many boys (and a few girls) that live and learn at Plumfield. 

Mother Bhaer was the loving mother who always had time for her boys and tried to look for the best in them.  She understood them and looked for ways to help them be better.  She kept a conscience book where she wrote an account of how the boys got on through the week.  She shared this with them every Sunday.  If the account was bad she felt sorry and disappointed, but if it was good she was proud.  She wanted her boys know that she was there to help them.  Her love for these children showed in her every action. 

Father Bhaer was a wise teacher.  He inspired and understood what the boys needed to learn best.  He allowed the boys to study what they were passionate about.   He helped them create a museum, plant gardens, put on plays, love books and want to learn.  Plumfield had a learning environment--a home where learning occurred everywhere. 

Together the Bhaer’s planned for the boys’ future.  They had many talks and shared ideas.  They worked together to create a loving home.  Their example was inspiring to me.

Is There Such a Thing as a Good Lie?

Recently I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer a loud to my kids to prepare for our homeschool kid book discussion.  There were a lot of things to talk about: how boys and girls relate to each other, superstition, friends, adventure, behaviors in kids, treasure and honesty.  I was particularly interested in the discussion about honesty.  There are several times when Tom tells a lie and the people affected forgive him saying it was a good lie.  I raised the question “Is there such a thing as a good lie?”  I was surprised at the responses and comments from the kids and later from the moms.

Let us go to the story and look at Tom’s lies.  The first is after he and 2 of his friends run away and are mistaken as dead.  A funeral is planned for the supposed dead boys.  Before the funeral Tom sneaks back into the town and observes his Aunt Polly and Mrs. Harper remembering all the good traits of the boys.  Later, after the funeral and the boys reveal themselves to be alive, Aunt Polly rebukes Tom saying it was “a pity [he] could be so hard-hearted as to let [her] suffer so.”  She thinks that he should have given her a hint that he had only run away.  Tom then proceeds to tell Aunt Polly about the time he snuck into town.  Only in his telling he lies and says it was a dream.  When Aunt Polly discovers the lie she says “it’s a blessed, blessed lie, there’s such a comfort come from it,” and later “it’s a good lie—it’s a good lie—I won’t let it grieve me.”  She is forgiving the lie because he believes Tom did it out of his love for her.  Is lying to protect someone’s feelings OK? 

Another lie of Tom’s happened later in the story at school.  Tom’s girlfriend, Becky Thatcher, had ripped a picture of the teacher’s and Tom was the only witness.  He knew that Becky would get punished when the teacher found out she had done it; so when the teacher started asking the students if they had committed this misdeed, Tom jumped up and confessed that it was he and took the punishment.  Becky believed Tom to be “noble” and bragged about his actions to her father.  Judge Thatcher said that it was “a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie—a lie that was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to breast with George Washington’s lauded Truth about the hatchet!”  In this case Tom lied to physically protect someone he cared for.  Is this type of lie OK?

Now, back to the discussion.  When I posed the question “Is there really such a thing as a good lie?” most of the kids responded with yeses.  They sided with Aunt Polly and Judge Thatcher.  In a later discussion with the moms several moms brought up how people lied to save the lives of Jews during World War II.  It seems that the opinion of most is that a lie that protects someone else is a good lie. 

I struggled with this idea.  I’m not saying that I’ve never told a lie, but I tend to lean toward the letter of the law than the spirit of the law in this case.  The law found in D&C 42:21 says “thou shalt not lie; he that lieth and will not repent shall be cast out.”  Two of the Ten Commandments also deal with honesty: “thou shalt not steal” and “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”  We are commanded to be honest in all our doings.  Does that mean that we shouldn’t lie to help or protect someone?  I think so.  What do you think?  Is there such a thing as a good lie?

What is Your "Hyde"?

Braedi and I recently read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It's a story about a doctor who experiments with the idea that people are really 2 (or maybe more) separate people.  The doctor was able to create a potion that turned him into his other self--Mr. Hyde.  As Mr. Hyde, the doctor was able to do the things that a person of his status wouldn't normally do--gamble, be rude, get drunk, etc.  Whenever Dr. Jekyll felt an urge to do those things, he would turn into Mr. Hyde.  Then he would take another potion and return to his respectable self.  After Mr. Hyde killed a man, Dr. Jekyll decided that he would have to git rid of Mr. Hyde and stay Dr. Jekyll.  But after a short period of time Dr. Jekyll found that Mr. Hyde could appear without the potion and that it was harder and harder for him to return to himself. 

This made me think of the temptations and sins that we struggle with.  We all have weaknesses that we are fighting daily to overcome.  They might be addictions to drugs or alcohol, pornography, same sex attraction, anger, over-eating, or any other thing.  Sometimes we give in to those weaknesses.  Sometimes we are able to fight them off. 

As Braedi and I read and discussed I compared our weaknesses to Mr. Hyde.  When Dr. Jekyll turned into Mr. Hyde he was giving into his weakness.  When he chose to never turn into Mr. Hyde again it was like he was fighting the weakness.  Unfortunately because he had given in to the temptation so many times before it was a lot harder for him to change and eventually it was impossible and Mr. Hyde won.  I told Braedi that when we continually give in to temptations it is harder to repent and change.  But,  unlike Dr. Jekyll, with Christ on our side we can win. 

Louis Pasteur

The kids are participating in a biography fair with our homeschool group next Thursday and have been working on their presentations all month. I had the urge to learn about someone, too. I mean, if they have to do it I should too, right? We've been learning about microscopes in science and some of the small things scientist could now see because of microscopes and Louis Pasteur and germs were mentioned. There was only a small tid-bit of information and I was intrigued. I decided to learn more and do my biography on him.  I read a simple book, did a simple summary (following what I've been learning from my new writing program), and presented what I learned to my kids.  I think he's a fascinating man. 

"Watch out! It's a mad wolf!"  Louis Pasteur heard this a lot as a young boy in Arbois, France.  Mad wolves were biting people and the people were dieing.  He never forgot the mad wolves. 

As a youth, Louis Pasteur wanted everything he did to go right.  He worked slowly and carefully.  He loved to draw and was good.  He thought he might be an artist, but his High School principal said he should be a professor. 

Louis attended a school and studied hard.  He liked science.  He still thought about the mad wolf. 

Pasteur was interested in crystals and how they grow.  He got a job teaching science at a University.  He studied crystals in the lab.  Then he met someone that he liked more that crystals--Marie Laurent.  They were soon married and had 4 girls and 1 boy. 

Guess what Louis studied next?  Beet juice!  Sometimes it turned to alcohol, sometimes it turned sour.  He found living things in the beet juice which are called microbes or germs.  He learned that different microbes act in different ways which caused the juice to act differently.  Scientist didn't know where microbes came from.  Louis found that they were in the air.  He learned that heat would kill the microbes.  People used his idea and killed microbes in milk.  This process is called pasteurization.  Louis' findings also helped dirty hospitals kill  microbes.  Louis told the doctors to boil their tools to kill the germs. 

Then 3 of Louis' daughters died.  He worked harder trying to find ways to help people. 

He studied sick silkworms next and found ways to keep them healthy.  After that he studied anthrax in sheep.  It was killing the sheep.  He injected a weak version of anthrax into healthy sheep and they didn't get sick.  These weakened versions of a disease are called vaccinations.  It's what you get when you go to the doctor for shots.  Lois Pasteur discovered this idea.

Remember the mad wolf?  So did Louis.  Now he decided to study rabies.  It was very hard and dangerous.  The rabies microbe is small and there was a chance that he would get bitten.  Bet he kept trying.  He gave infected animals a vaccine and cured them.  Now he wanted to try in on people but wondered if it would be safe.  He tried the vaccine on a boy bitten several times by a mad dog.  The boy got 13 shots and got well.  Pasteur gave the shot to many other people and save many lives.  He was a hero.

People donated money to Pasteur and he made the Pasteur Institute.  He was now too old to study, but he had a lot of helpers.  He died when he was 73 years old, but his work will never die.

Nephi Gets the Plates

image source:
http://www.whatdomormonsbelieve.com/2008/07/shalt-thou-kill/ 

Nephi and his brothers were commanded to go back to Jerusalem and get the plates from Laban.  They make three attempts.  The first they leave the results up to fate by casting lots.  The second they try worldly things by hoping to trade all their riches for the plates.  Finally Nephi puts his faith in God and goes into the city trusting that God will guide him.  He finds Laban on the ground and the spirit tells Nephi to slay Laban.  Nephi hesitates, but eventually kills Laban and retrieves the plates and returns to his brothers outside the walls of the city. 

What did Nephi know after this experience? 

*Nephi learned that he could identify the spirit.  It was the spirit that told him to kill Laban, not his own emotions.  In 1 Ne. chapter 4 verse 11, Nephi writes all the bad things that Laban had done--all the things that make you think he deserved to be killed.  Then the spirit tells Nephi again to slay Laban and that the Lord delivered him into his hands.

*Nephi also understood the importance of the written word of God--that it was more important than Laban's life.  The spirit said that "it is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief."  Along with that he also understood that the only way his people would be able to keep the commandments and prosper in the land would be if they had the commandments.  And the commandments (the Law of Moses) were written on the plates of brass.

*Nephi learned that he was obedient.  When the spirit first told Nephi to kill Laban, he "shrunk and would that [he] might not slay him."  This commandment was hard for Nephi to obey because he had never killed a man before and probably because of the commandment not to kill.  But after much pondering he understood the importance of the task. 

Nephi probably already new most of those things, but I think they were made stronger and he understood more Heavenly Father's plan for him. 

Tabitha/Dorcus

At Women's Conference this last April, I attended a class on women in the scriptures and it inspired me to study those women.  I began by reading the stories of the women I knew--Nephi's wife and mother, Mary the mother of Jesus, the mother's of the 2000 warriors and a few other well known women.  Then I got stuck.  I realized that I didn't know any other women or how to find them.  I got online and found a great blog.  She keeps a journal of all the women mentioned in the scriptures--named, unnamed and any other reference to women--and shares some of what she has learned.  She suggests reading all 5 books and doing the same, but for now I'm just taking her lists of women and studying them.  She also gives a list of questions that she recommends you ask yourself as you study.  The questions are great for me.  They force me to look deeper into the story.  My answers may be way off base, but that isn't the point of the asking.  All the questions aren't always applicable to each story/woman.

Questions:
1. What is unique about this woman her story?
2. How does she fit into the time period in which she lived?
3. What Christlike qualities does she exemplify?
4. What would I ask her if I could meet her?
5. How can I relate to her?
6. What can I (or someone else I know) learn from her experiences?
7. How are her trials similar to the spiritual battles I face today?

Yesterday I read about Tabitha/Dorcus in Acts 9:36-42. 
The story: The book says that Tabitha is a disciple (a student or learner/follower of Christ).  She is a good woman and is full of service.  She made clothes and coats.  Dorcus is the Greek translation of her name.  She gets sick and dies.  Peter comes and raises her from the dead. 
1. unique? She was a disciple. 
3. Christlike qualities? charity, faith, brotherly kindness, diligence
4. ask her?  I would probably ask her about death and what happened next?
6. learn from her?  how to be a disciple.

If nothing else I am learning more stories from the scriptures. 

I'm an Angry Person

Did you know that?  I sometimes get angry and  yell at my kids and use force out of anger.  I didn't used to be that way.  I used to be calm and patient.  But this new, angry mom is making my kids angry and it's making me feel bad.  I need to change. 

I read a book recommended by a friend: The Soft-Spoken Parent by H. Wallace Goddard.  It contains 50+ strategies to control anger.  There were several that I think I can apply.  I think the titles did little justice to the information in each strategy, but hopefully you get the idea.

#10 Put off 'til tomorrow what shouldn't be said today.  Sometimes we reply to behavior with sarcasm or we blame rather than take responsibility.  In times of frustration we should not speak.  Goddard shares "I only have the right to correct those I love.  Any time I am feeling impatient or judgemental, I am not prepared to correct."  He also says that when we truly love, the urge to correct evaporates.  So if you notice me talking less you'll understand why.

#11 Reprove betimes with sharpness.  Don't forget the parts that say "when moved upon  by the Holy Ghost" and then showing "forth afterwards an increase of love toward him who thou hast reproved."

#12 Take a mental vacation.  Just don't stew while taking the break.  Do something that takes your mind off the situation.

#14 Just listen.  I can't sort out someone else's life--I need to work on my own weaknesses.    This one really hit home the other day.  I'd been reading this book and trying hard to control my anger.  I done well all morning, but finally I exploded.  Then I got angry at myself and this book.  I said "It doesn't work.  I'm doing the strategies, but there is no change in the kids' behavior."  Then it hit me.  I can't control my kids' behavior.  I can just control mine.  I need to work at making myself a better person and hopefully being a better example will help my kids with their behavior. 

#15 Be on the same team.  This one made me think of Leadership and Self-Deception and how when were are "in the box" we see others as objects instead of people.  I need to see my kids more as children of God rather than as "aliens sent to torment" me. 

#26 Choose to see the good and #36 Keep the ratio right.  These were about looking for the good in the situation and in the child and being sure to have more good than bad.  I learned at a parenting class many years ago that the behavior you notice the most will be the behavior you see the most.  It's so hard for me not to point out the bad.  This goes back to the being quiet.  If I can't say something nice I won't say anything at all. 

There were a lot more good strategies about reading good books and talking to good parents and taking breaks and talking it out.  I liked what Goddard said:  I don't have to be angry; I don't have to rebuke my kids; I don't have to "get my anger out"; and getting angry doesn't help. 

The Lion

We are almost finished reading The Horse and His Boy from The Chronicles of Narnia.  It's the 5th book that CS Lewis wrote in that series, so we've been exposed to Aslan, the lion, and have had a lot of dialogue about him being a Christ figure.  Today was another testament to me about how Christ plays a roll in our lives.  Aslan is talking to Shasta about all the times he was present. 

I like this picture because it is from my favorite scene in the book.

"I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis.  I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead.  I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept.  I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time.  And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you." 


It made me think of all the times that Christ probably was there and I didn't realize or know.  When has he guided me to the right path?  When has he sat with me and comforted me?  When has he protected me?  When has he given me strength to go on? 

I know that Christ has often used other people to help me.  My friends and family have been my comfort and strength and protection while Jonathan has been in Uganda.  There have also been times when the conversations with friends about the scriptures and the gospel have guided me on my path.  I am grateful to those people and the experiences to remind of Christ's love for me. 

A Recipe for Success

Or is it?  I've been reading the Ingredients found in Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning.  At first I was upset and put the book down several times.  In fact this is the second time I've tried to read it.  I started about a year ago and had the same feeling.  To me Thomas Jefferson Education is a philosophy--there is no ONE way to do it.  But these ingredients made me feel that if I don't follow this recipe then I won't get a successful leadership education.  To me, the key to leadership education is the 7 keys and 5 pillars and following the phases.  The ingredients are just some ideas  on how to implement the philosophy in my home.  Once I figured that out I was able to enjoy the chapters.  There are 50 ingredients.  I'm already doing a lot of them, some I don't want to attempt and a few I'm ready to try.

1. Sundays: A time for Jonathan and I to meet with each other and talk about the kids and make a plan of the week.  Also when we can meet with the kids and talk about their goals.
2. Mornings: School time--in whatever form that may be.
3. Afternoons: A time for me to study and a time for the kids to get bored.
4. Evenings: For inspiring.  "Those with whom we spend our evening are those with whom we bond."  I love our time at home in the evening reading together.  I look forward to the cooler weather when we can spend our evenings outside.
5. The Bookshelf--Filled with books geared toward each phase.
6. The Weekly Lesson--I started my kids too early on weekly lessons and need to reevaluate.
7.  The Mom School--I can't wait to organize classes.
8. The Formal Ball--Oh how I hate dancing, but I agree that it is important to know how to act in different situations. 

Other random things I got: I want to live on a farm, "you, not them" is so important, I need to go slow to go fast, my kids need to be taught the phases and the keys, family socialization is how I want to make friends, I want to do a talent show with my homeschool group, and I love leadership education.

Transistion or Growth?

I am taking a Leadership Education Family Builder class.  Actually I am co-facilitating with my sister-in-law, but I do everything that everybody else does in the class.  The only thing different for us is that we lead the discussions.  (Which is new to us and we are still trying to figure out the best way to do it, but we are I am learning a ton!)  The classes meet once a month and each month we have a list of task/assignments to complete.  One of the assignments for July was to write a paper or teach someone about the transitions between phases.  Here's mine:

What are the signs of transition from one phase to the next?  Oliver DeMille says “you never actually leave Core Phase, or Love of Learning Phase or the others, once you have reached them.  Students in Depth Phase still apply the lessons of Core, Love of Learning and Scholar.”  Knowing that, I would say that one doesn’t transition into the next phase, one grows.  But there are a few signs to look for that shows one is ready for the next step in learning. 

A Core phase student builds a foundation for learning.  He learns right and wrong, good and bad, true and false and builds relationships through work and play.  He will eventually play in ways that look like learning.

After a solid Core phase a child will logically move into the Love of Learning phase.  Here he will fall in love with learning and study anything that interests him.  As he continues through this phase and is surrounded by an inspiring environment he will begin to do more independent projects and spend more time reading and studying than playing. 

Then he will be ready for the Scholar phase.  In this phase he “begins a rigorous, disciplined survey of classic works and real life application.”  He willingly studies subjects of his choosing for 8-10 hours a day and submits to a mentor who will help him understand the importance of other subjects. 

After gaining a scholar education, a student is ready to move into the Depth phase.  This is usually done at a college or university with a more demanding mentor.  Students with solid Core, Love of Learning and Scholar phases will be prepared to become leaders and statesmen during this phase.

These phases occur over the course of one’s childhood--from birth to young adulthood.  If the environment is right and the keys are applied the growth between phases will be natural. 

How Do I Love?

This a picture from the TV show,
but it's pretty much how I pictured theVirginian.

The Virginian by Owen Wister is known as the first great Western novel.  It is narrated by an unnamed Easterner who tells the story of a cowboy known as the Virginian.  The Virginian works as a foreman on a ranch in Wyoming.  He wins bets, plays tricks, fights both physically and verbally, hangs cattle thieves, reads great literature and falls in love. 

 Early in the story we read a letter from a young lady (Molly Weeks) from Vermont who is contemplating a job offer as a schoolmarm in Wyoming.  This letter is when the seed of love is planted in the Virginian’s heart.  It brings about a change in the Virginian.  He stands up for her honor even though he hasn’t been formally introduced to her.  He saves her handkerchief after rescuing her.  He visits her whenever he has the opportunity.  Throughout the novel we see several more instances where the Virginian does something to show his love for Miss Molly.   We also see that Miss Molly is afraid to return his love.  This makes me wonder if my view of love is skewed.  How can someone continue to love another person without any love in return? 

I am reminded of another case of love unreturned.  Gilbert Blythe loves Anne Shirley in the Anne of Green Gables series, but she doesn’t realize that she loves him and therefore treats him as just a friend.  He proposes and she says no.  He continues to love her and eventually tries again.  I couldn’t understand why Gilbert kept Anne in his heart. 

I look at my own relationship with my husband.  I love him for so many reasons, but one of those is his love for me.  If he stopped loving me what would happen?  Would I be like the Virginian and Gilbert or is my love purely conditional? 

In my recent re-reading of The Divine Center by Stephen Covey I learned that unconditional love is necessary to a relationship.  Stephen Covey says that in order to show love unconditionally one must have a “love supply source”.  He says Christ is our source.   Our relationship with our Savior is what helps us love unconditionally.  Though neither the Virginian nor Gilbert Blythe professed to be Christian, they must have had a hidden understanding of Christ’s love.  As Stephen Covey says “when we love Christ first, we will love [others] more.”

The Virginian’s actions toward Miss Molly helped me look at how I love others.  It made me think about my relationship with my husband.  Do I love him unconditionally? 

What's Love Got To Do With it?

Many emotions are demonstrated in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin—fear and anger, sadness and joy, hate and love.  Each of these emotions affects the characters from the story in different ways.  The slaves fear retributions from their owners; the owners express anger toward the slaves.  The slaves feel sad when separated from their families and joy when they learn of freedom.  Many slaves hate their owners and many white people love the black people.  Which of these emotions had the biggest effect on the people?  Which brought about the most change?  The answer is love. 

When Eliza learns that her son has been sold to a slave trader she decides to take her chances and escape with him to Canada.  Along the way she is aided by a group of Quakers and is reunited with her husband, George.  The people in the Quaker community hide George and Eliza in their homes, treat them as equals and help them in their flight.    Because of the “thousand unconscious acts of love and good will” bestowed by the Quakers, George experiences a change of heart and something he had never know before: “a belief in God, and trust in his providence.” 

The 3 are able to continue on their journey.  But before they are get far they learn that slave hunters are on their trail.  Through a series of fortunate events they create a trap and seriously wound one of the hunters.  The other hunters leave him for dead, but the runaway slave group shows compassion and takes him to a nearby Quaker home to be treated.  The slave trader helps Eliza, George and their son get past the last check point by telling them to go in disguise.  He gives up slave catching and stays in one of the Quaker settlements catching bears and other animals. 

Eva is another character whose love affects many people.  Topsy is a wild, slave girl on Eva’s father’s plantation.  She is “given” to Eva’s Aunt Ophelia to educate and tame.  Miss Ophelia is disgusted by Topsy, but agrees to take her as a project.  All her life, Topsy has been treated poorly and has heard only negative comments about herself.  After a stealing incident, Eva nicely tells Topsy that she would “rather give [Topsy] anything of [hers], than have [Topsy] steal it.”  This “was the first word of kindness the child had ever heard in her life.”  But because she had never heard words like that, she did not believe them. 

Later on Miss Ophelia is frustrated because nothing she does seems to bring about a change in Topsy behavior.  Miss Ophelia has “taught and taught; . . . talked till [she’s] tired; . . . whipped [Topsy]; . . . punished in every way [she] can think of, and still [Topsy’s] just what she was at first.”  Eva takes Topsy aside and talks to her about love.  She says that Miss Ophelia would love her if she were good.  At this Topsy laughs and explains that Miss Ophelia can’t bare her because she’s “a nigger” and she would just as soon “have a toad touch her” than Topsy.  Eva says that she loves her and that Jesus loves her.  Eva asks Topsy to be good for her sake and Topsy, overcome with a feeling of belief, says that she will try.  Eva’s love changes Topsy.  “Topsy did not become at once a saint; but the life and death of Eva did work a marked change in her.” 

The adults overheard the conversation between Eva and Topsy and it made Miss Ophelia aware of her own actions.  She knew that she didn’t like Topsy, but she didn’t know that Topsy knew.  But after Eva’s death she became “more softened, more gentle.”  She continued to teach Topsy, but no longer withdrew from her touch.  Miss Ophelia “viewed [Topsy] now through the softened medium that Eva’s hand had first held before her eyes, and saw in her only an immortal creature, whom God had sent to be led by her to glory and virtue.”  Eva’s Christ-like love touched her aunt and made her aware of her “duty” to overcome her prejudice. 

Uncle Tom is a character who has the love of Christ in him.  He understands that through Christ all things are possible.  He knows that Christ strengthens him in his trials.  He shares his testimony of Christ with all those who are around him.  Uncle Tom has 3 owners throughout the story.  His final owner, Legree, is a cruel master who tries to beat Christ out of him.  He tells Uncle Tom “I’ll soon have that out of you.  I have none o’ yer bawling, praying, singing niggers on my place; so remember. . . .I’m your church now!”  For a while Tom wrestled in his soul thinking that God had forgotten him.  Harriet Beecher Stowe says that “the atheistic taunts of [Tom’s] cruel master sank his before dejected soul to the lowest ebb; and, though the hand of faith still held to the eternal rock, it was with a numb, despairing grasp.”  He was given a vision of Christ suffering on the cross then of Christ crowned in glory.  Christ said to Tom “He that overcometh shall sit down with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne.”  This vision gave Tom the strength that he needed to survive the remainder of his life with this owner.  The “blows fell now only on the outer man, and not, as before, on the heart.” 

Tom’s faith and love touched many other slaves on Legree’s plantation.  When opportunities arose he took the chance to lend a hand, share his meager belongings and teach them about Christ.  In the end Tom’s faith and love of Christ brought Sambo and Quimbo, the two malicious overseers, to their knees begging for forgiveness and knowledge of this Jesus who stood by Tom through the beatings. 

Maybe fear and anger made some of the people in Uncle Tom’s Cabin act differently.  Maybe they reformed because of sadness or joy.  But the greatest changes were because of love.  George understood equality and the love of God because of the love of the Quakers.  The slave hunter shunned his old job because of the caring of a few slaves and Quakers.  Eva’s love helped Topsy and Miss Ophelia become better people.  And Uncle Tom’s love brought others to Christ.  How can love change me?

My Inspiration

In a recent re-reading of A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille, I came across a section called "Writing as Learning."  In it Olive talked about how Thomas Jefferson and his mentor, George Wythe, had a Commonplace Book were they wrote about what they learned and studied each day.  Oliver then encouraged mentors to write daily essays.  He says it is a "great way to document your process and progress.  It increases daily retention, interest and discussion."  One of my "jobs" is to be a parent mentor.  I also have a desire to be a better writer.  Jonathan has encouraged me to start a writing blog and after reading this section I have decided to do just that.  I am convinced (maybe that's too strong of a word) that it will be the best way for me to be an example to my kids and the best way for me to become a better writer.  My goal is to post something everyday.  It will (probably) mostly be about the books (secular and non) that I read, but occasionally I will post about a different classics.  Wish me luck!