Every day a new page of history is written.
Are we teaching our children how to ✅examine it, ✅respond to it, ✅be impacted by it, ✅lead others through it, ✅LEARN FROM IT?
2020 has been an unprecedented collection of new days of history. Are we engaging our children in the treasured task of being shaped by history and simultaneously shaping it? I want my kids to be leaders in tomorrow's pages of the past. If we want them to be effective, LOVING LEADERS, NOW is the time to take our role seriously.
We’ve all heard the quote by Winston Churchill saying, "Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." I would suggest that when we hear that quote we often fail to pay attention to one key phrase, “LEARN FROM” – "Those that fail to LEARN FROM history, are doomed to repeat it.” Reading some facts in a textbook about a past event, cramming lots of those facts into our brain while we study for a test, and then quickly forgetting those facts, that is not LEARNING FROM history. That is more like window shopping through history – taking a shallow little scenic tour but not going in and
experiencing it,
allowing it to impact our perspective,
shape our worldview,
affect our decision-making,
form our character,
and compel us to lead others toward truth and good deeds.
These are the things that I want history, including current history-in-the-making to accomplish for my kids. The better we and our children understand the "weak and strong actions, the foolish and wise decisions, and the helpful and harmful perspectives" in each of our society events, the better we will live out our own history, create our own legacy, and shape the world we pass on to others, because we have developed wisdom from our examination of those events. If we really want our kids to grow in their character and affect their decision-making by learning from history, we have to do more than window shop through the events of our day and of the past.
We adults need to do the hard work of opening the door of events with our children, go in and examine those events together -
*visit historical sites,
*listen to famous speeches,
*watch documentaries,
*read diaries of the people who walked those miles.
*and above all, we must discuss what God was doing, what He was seeing, what He was allowing, and what lessons societies were learning during His-story, God’s story. These are the ways to LEARN FROM history with our children to raising wise, loving leaders.
Well, my friends, I tell you all that to explain why I brought a history guy onto the podcast this week. It’s because I believe that LEARNING FROM history with our children is an important part of intentional parenting to build strong kids who become strong leaders who shape history. At the end of this blog post, be sure to use the link to a FREE 90 Day Membership to the Notgrass History resources site!
Can we have a heart to heart right now?
In recent days, a series of tragic racial scenarios emerged in the news followed by peaceful protests and dangerous, destructive riots, yet the interview fits perfectly with this important time.
These current events, that have been heavy on all of us, are reshaping my heart and what conversations I am having with my kids in hopes that it shapes their hearts, in hopes that the world we hand off for our children to lead, will be a place that they’ve been equipped for the challenges at hand.
How do we do this?
We do this by teaching them
hope and empathy,
perseverance and sacrifice,
grace and truth,
and by discovering history with them - making space in our days for unpacking both current events and the historical events of the past, learning what insight God gives about these issues in the pages of the Bible, and by introducing them to great heroes and heroines of the past.
I want my kids to
💞lend a hand to the needy,
💞to speak up for the oppressed,
💞to embrace those who grew up differently from them or who look differently than them,
💞to recognize that those differences are the most beautiful aspects of us, collectively and individually.
💞to act out of compassion, honor, strength, dignity, and love
💞to lead others to do the same.
And, I want them to look at situations and events more analytically, dissecting the different parts of the event, being aware of philosophies that might be behind behaviors and decisions in current leaders.
Honestly, 2020 has been an insane level of current events to dissect. Am I right? What I'm asking parents to do, could sound