Well, if that's you, I'm encouraging you to stay for this episode because it's gonna help you organize your thoughts around influences and knowing exactly where to put your energy.
The Places of Influences Transcript
We all know that influences are everywhere, but what if I told you that I have broken down influences into three main groups, and each of these groups work together to influence our minds and our hearts to form our habits and become our nature.
By having an understanding of each of these three places that influences hangout, you're gonna be able to better prepare yourself in a defensive and offensive way with your family so that you can actually move your family towards the natures you desire them to be in order to help them form the habits of discernment that will help them to know and be motivatedin going the right way and growing to fruitful purpose.
Let's get started by knowing what this very first place of influence is. This very first place that your children are born into is community.
Community is where the intimate influences are happening. And I love how Charlotte Mason said that we are educated by our intimacies.
We know that to be truth because we educate our children amazingly from birth until you know forever.
But we influence them in a way where they are learning so much, they're like sponges the first few years of their life. When we recognize that that is a community and they're being educated in their intimacy, then we can begin to see that we are also surrounded by many communities.
The communities are where friendship and relationships happen. This is where connections are happening based on different interest levels.
For instance, you have best friends who might have the same ages of your children. You might have best friends because your kids go to the same Christian school or the same school or you're homeschooled. You might have friends in your close community because you go to the same church or in the same neighborhood or you go to the same pool or your kids play in the same sports team.
All of these connections is how we're building our communities. It's when we have a something that relates to another person that builds that connection, that brings us closer together to form these intimacies where we are educated.
Now we know that word of mouth advertisement is the biggest thing. How many of you have ever gone and bought something just because your friend recommended it or just because your friend's using it or just because your friend got amazing results?
That's the influence of purchasing within a friendship. But how many of you have gone and watched a movie or bought a kind of clothes or and did some type of parenting because your friends are doing it?
This is the intimacy I'm talking about the intimacies that educate us. Now, when we recognize that these intimacies may make up two different types of influences, right?
They could be good influences and they could be evil influences.
We have to make sure that we are safeguarding our children and making sure that the intimacies within their communities are only going to be influencing them with wholesome ideas that are leading towards the perfect will of God.
Now, the second place of community is our culture. Our culture is when we step out of our home and we begin to connect or become acquainted with people in other places, ideas in other places outside of our home, that becomes the culture.
Now the culture is invasive, meaning that the ideas of culture begins to get into our mind in influences us to the point because the majority of those in culture has set a precedence that this is acceptable behavior.
Now the problem with that is that culture has changed an awful lot over the years and it's because of those belief systems have changed, allowing behavior, the character development and behavior of people to change with it. So we have to be very careful with this culture.
Now our communities are those that we are intimate with our cultures, who we come face to face with or mind to mind with. And that's a lot of time things that we cannot control completely, but we should have some type of control about it.
In other words, we shouldn't be putting our children in place of culture that we don't want them to be observing. We need to be very careful about where we're putting our children.
Now, we could be in a Christian culture, right, of a Christian school or a homeschooling group or a church in itself, but it doesn't mean that everyone that's makes up that culture is within our community of intimacies.
We may have acquaintance with them, we may listen to their ideas, but it doesn't mean that we have intimacy with all of them, if that makes sense.
Now, this culture is the most concerning of all the places because it is the thing that will invade our mind the most. Culture is what shows up in our media. It's what shows up in our television shows. It's what shows up in our books. It's what shows up in the grocery store, checkout aisle. It's everywhere from clothes to words to actions.
And so we have to become very aware of these as parents and we need to have some type of defense in place to protect our children against the culture until they are strong enough to defend themselves against that culture.
Now this third place is curriculum.
This curriculum is intentional influences, intentional meaning that it's the, the very ideas of our culture is being put into the curriculum. This is why I stand firm, I Christian education. There is no place for a child in public education if you desire them to go the right way and grow to fruitful purpose, aligning them with the will of God.
Our children are going to be learning the culture, the invasive ideas that have been intentionally put into our curriculum. Are you hearing me? So this is why Christian education is a must. This is a intentional thing that it will help persuade and change the culture to align with the writer's desires, beliefs. And so we have to be very careful with this.
Now, our curriculum have been changing for years in the public school system. What I had in public school system when I was in Elementary classes is not what's being taught today. And I know that there's a lot of parents awakening to a lot of this and exiting public school system. And I praise those parents who are standing up against it.
I want to encourage those that are still in the public school system to sacrifice, to find a way out for your children's sake. You have to at some point step out in faith that God is going to provide a way for you because a Christian education is his perfect will for your children. And that is that of course it's free. That means it's harder to walk away from, but it is more valuable for your children's eternity if you'd make the sacrifice.
Now, and trust me when I tell you eternity is what's hanging in the balance with influences. We have to fight this at an eternity level.
Now let's continue on and recognize that within our curriculum is where our children's beliefs are being formed. The beliefs are being formed, which going to connect them to their communities in which they choose to become intimate with.
And do you see how all of these three places of influence are all connected to each other? And if we put a stop to one of them and say, alright, I can't control culture right yet. I can somewhat control community, but I, I surely can control the curriculum that my children have put in their mind.
We start there.
We started giving our children a Christian education.
Then we begin to ensure that the communities in which our children are are going to lead them with wholesome influences along the right way, that point to God.
So that together our communities change the culture that demands new curriculum that becomes safe for our children.
Do you see how all this works together? So you start by choosing a wholesome curriculum, which is Christian education for your children.
If you're not there yet, work to figure out how to do that. And I have to tell you, by becoming an affiliate with with Me, with Wholesome influencers, you'll be able to get an affiliate commission on the things that you promote and sell and that will help towards your Christian education. And that was my desires to ensure that I can help equip parents who feel stuck in the public school cause they just don't have the money to do it.
So go check out wholesomeinfluences.com/partners and you'll be able to see more about that. And I hope I can help equip you in that way of making Christian education possible for your family.
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