In the previous post someone mentioned that distractions keep our children from learning. I suppose Solomon might say that there have always been distractions but it seems that in the last 5 years they have become more insidious. When all we had to do was not have a TV or Nintendo it was pretty easy to keep our children focused. Now we are attacked on every side by electronic diversions.

We can watch TV shows on our computer. We can buy a song within seconds of hearing it on the radio. I can even wave my cellphone in the air when a song is playing that I don’t know and it will identify it !? I can watch Who’s On First or Dave Chappelle in seconds on YouTube. I can play Scrabble with my friends in Maryland or Idaho. I can look at a Da Vinci or a recipe.

Today my 9yo wanted to memorize the poem we were reading, The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats. He walked into the room and was holding a printed copy of the poem. He had Googled it and printed it without ever consulting me and we are not a computer literate family.

Today during our MT I started to say, “Friends, Romans…”
Suddenly the 6yo pipsqueak sitting next to me grabbed his ears and said, “….countrymen lend me your ears.” I was shocked. Where did you learn that? I was not prepared for the answer: “Robin Hood: Men in Tights!” This is called having older siblings.

And then I find myself on the couch reading The Snow Queen to at least 2 children with several others hanging about the edges of the room. I’ve never read The Snow Queen before. I was scared to death by the TV version of it I watched as a child. Vigen Guroian has hooked me.

I find myself reading Story One:

The Devil has a mirror and it distorts everything, makes everything good look bad. All the devils love it and think it is jolly fun until one day they accidentally drop it. It falls to the Earth and shatters into a million little slivers. Some of the shards lodge in people’s eyes causing the same effect the original mirror had and some lodge in hearts turning them to ice. That is how the story of Kay and Gerda begins.

I am not having trouble understanding the metaphor today.

Some of my children are struggling. They are distracted but they cling to the shard in their heart just like little Kay. I must be Gerda today. I must help them but it is hard to see. I have a sliver too. I ask hard things of my children. I must ask hard things of myself.

We are calling it “cleansing the palate.” We will remove the distractions for a while and see if our vision clears, our taste improves.

Hopefully, we will return in a month or so with our discernment heightened. In the meantime, the comments are here and I will respond, the archives also and you can always email me. I don’t plan to read blogs either. It’s a nasty business, clearing the mind. Thankfully it is the work of the Spirit and not of the flesh.

Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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