By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established;
And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 24: 3-4
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul....Joseph Addison.
As Joel, Joy and I drove home one night from visiting a hurting friend, we began to speak of the need for soul -filling that is so obvious within our culture. I shared with them, "I hope that at each juncture of life, with each person you meet, you will have in mind that you need to leave some bit of love, words of life, knowledge, wisdom, a corpus of thoughtful and illuminating ideas--that you will seek to fill the lives of those with whom you spend time, with something of the eternal good."
"You have to have a soul filled with light, beauty and intellect in order to have something to give," Joel pondered.
Somehow, the subject turned to music. "Remember all the music we listened to as kids, Mom?"
Do I remember? I carefully sought it out and created places for us to listen, enjoy, discuss, dance to, etc.
"I loved Classical Kids--you know I still play them when I clean my room, Mom. My favorite was Beethoven Lives Upstairs", offered Joy.
"Oh, I loved the Magic Flute by Mozart , and the aria that the woman sang. Joy, did you know it is one of the most challenging arias to perform in all of music?"
As which point, all of us started to belt it out together, seeing who could hit all of the high notes and all of the ones in between, amidst laughing chattering--”no, it goes like this!” Then the conversation turned to the Messiah, the Nutcracker, Les Miserable, Narnia, and we pulled into our driveway.
Joel immediately came into the house and put on the Messiah ,and while we were popping corn, making finger sandwiches and piling up a plate of fruit, we sang to the choruses. All of this bubbled out from what they had stored up and cherished.
And so my soul was filled as I observed what was coming out of the souls of my children.
As I have said many times before, I pictured my children's souls as treasure chests, and sought to fill their souls with excellence, beauty, life-changing thoughts and ideas, the best books, the most beautiful stories and literature, fine music and concerts, science and creation, loving, sacrifice, serving, great people and ministry opportunities.
Maybe you need some ideas. You will find a wealth of ideas and resources to help you along your way on my membership: Life With Sally
One of the great accomplishments and most fulfilling purposes and work of a godly woman is to become a conductor of all the is good, true and beautiful in the minds, souls, and lives of her children. And so, it is satisfying to see that it has all been stored up there, in the deep recesses of my children's souls.
Life is not about perfect parenting or the perfect school or perfect planning, it is about investment and mentoring and joy. We dance to His truth and leading in front of our children so they become familiar with the ways and values of he Master Artist as we celebrate Him in our homes, and they in turn can choose to dance the same steps in their own lives.
