all important things 2

#1 To Improve the Character of the Work

J Oswald Sanders says on this subject "The leader must discover which departments are functioning below standards and remedy the defect."

So much has been said about character training in home school circles that I am hesitant to even mention it. But Gods word is clear training up the character of a child in the ways of the Lord is the chief duty of all parents. So whether it is character or academic we need to systematically discover the areas that need improvement in children's lives and work hard towards a solution. I love the idea from Simply Charlotte Mason's Sonia Schaffer of making a calendar and based on the needs of each child. You work on several habit or a character training issues over the course of the year. For more information see "Laying Down the Rails" at www.simplycharlottemason.com. Academically it has been helpful for me to begin each year with a goals sheet for each child. To write down where I would like to see each child by the end of the the year in each subject was a simple but valuable thing for me.

I was reminded of my own need for habit training a few weeks ago. Speaking of Philippians 4:8 (one of my favorites) Pastor Joe called the contents of this verse the habit of right thinking. Since habit training has been on my mind it really caught my attention. It reads:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

The Lord was speaking to me of my own need for habit training. The habit of right thinking. It applies everywhere in my life. Knowing that God sees me through the blood of Christ and not as a stinking rotten sinner, I think he must look at me this way. He looks for the true and the noble and the just, the pure, the lovely, and the things of good report. If he can find any virtue in me or anything praiseworthy this is what he thinks on. Since the word says his thoughts toward me are more than the sands of the sea He is thinking about me all the time! Wow. I want to think of others that way, especially my own children. What a habit to cultivate.

So we are to identify areas that need improvement and work to remedy those while at the same time meditating on the good that is already there. I think that is the balance that must be struck to improve the character of any work.