ramblings_of_jc

the hour is near

So today is the official day that our baby is due. As such we are sitting around twiddling our thumbs and waiting because obviously labor will begin any minute.... like now?..... or maybe now? So I am reminded of the stories I've heard of ages past in other cultures where women supposedly would be working in the fields, stop for a few minutes to push the baby out (apparently going through the hours of labor leading up to that while still working), cut the cord, wrap him up on her back, and get back to work.

Now, I don't know how realistic those stories are but I do believe that our culture today is completely different when it comes to children. Some would say we are so much more civilized and understanding and loving to children and the mother than something like what I just described. But are we really?

Those people did what they had to do based on their circumstances. Maybe the only way that family could survive is for the woman to work in the field and the need to feed their children far outweighed the desire to go lay down in a bed somewhere to have a baby. Does that make her husband a terrible person for allowing (or even making) his wife to continue to work? I get the picture that in these cultures surviving was of paramount importance, but that survival meant the survival of their children and their training to survive for themselves.

Yes, parents would have their kids working at young ages. But if they didn't, the kid would not learn how to survive. We place all this importance on "kids having fun" because we live in complete luxury compared to these cultures. But I really do not think we are more loving. We send our kids to others to educate them whereas these people took them and trained them on their own. I'm not saying school is bad and survival in our culture requires it, but if we think that all education happens in school we are blind.

Nonetheless so many parents in our culture don't spend time training their children because they want them to "have fun". And it is this lust for leisure and comfort and things to go my way that leads to so many broken families where kids are raised by one parent or by two who are letting them learn life lessons from television and the internet. Our culture has a whole host of problems of its own, many created by our wealth and luxury. Maybe life is "easier" but I don't know about better; only Jesus makes life truly good. I don't know much about raising children, and I know that it will be a lesson in faith and trusting the guidance of God; however, I do know that is the one area that I must be fervent in pursuing. I must love my children by teaching them and showing them about Christ because He is the only hope that they will have in life and the only way that they truly survive.

posted by jc @ 7/04/2007 08:31:00 AM