Posts

Showing posts with the label fear

Is fear or love the better motivator?

Image
Last week’s post on the Final Judgment (and Mr. Darcy and St. Therese ) reminded me of two opposing views I’ve read in books about homeschooling. Some authors say that loving your students is the best way to motivate them to learn. Others say a healthy fear of the teacher is more effective. Here’s my take on the love versus fear debate. The Machiavellian argument Niccolo Machiavelli famously wrote in The Prince : “Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.” Focus on a child’s fear of his parent(s)–whether it is called fear, respect, or discipline–seems to me to be particularly Protestant. I mean no disrespect to my non-Catholic fellow homeschoolers, but many conservative Protestants have a somber view of human

Keep Singing in the Cellar

Image
I will sing of thy steadfast love, O LORD, for ever; with my mouth I will proclaim thy faithfulness to all generations. ---Psalm 89:1 These uncertain times we live in feel like when my dad used to ask me to go down in the basement alone to do chores. It was always a dark descent even when the lights were on ...even in the daytime. I'd fight him and pitch a fit..but he'd still ask me to go. My memory plays back the hollow sound of the wooden steps with each click of my shoes on the way down. I can still hear it and feel the fear. It's almost as if the Lord has resuscitated this memory to help me remember the faith of a child and how He strengthened me to do what I was asked even though I was afraid. We need to know how to courageously continue on in our faith even when it appears the bottom is falling our of our country and the church. Dad...I can't go down there. How will you know if something happens to me? He would say, I'll be right here in the kitchen. But I can

trust

Image
Here is a post from my early blog posts. I just wanted to share it with you lovely ladies and pray you are blessed. " Fear is useless; what is needed is trust ." Luke 8:50, Mark 5:36 Easy to say, right?  I have heard and read lots of good teaching about this subject. But the best teacher has been life itself.  I've found that trust comes a bit easier for the long term issues for which I pray--especially eternal salvation for my family and other loved ones. Also for people of whom I am not personally acquainted, the Pope for example. I pray for his intentions at the conclusion of each Rosary, and sincerely ask God for his protection and guidance; but I do not suffer the same pangs as when I am praying, for instance, for my two hospitalized  daughters, one here, one in Michigan. (that was quite a time!) In that state of  prayer, I awake all throughout the night. Every waking moment I have the intention in the foreground of my thoughts, often accompanied by  the phys