In the first episode of our 5th season of the Thinking Love podcast. We'll be exploring the topic of wisdom this season, what it is, and what Charlotte Mason has to say about it.
"Every human being, child or man, is a Kingdom of Mansoul; and to be born a human being is like coming into a very great estate; so much in the way of goodness, greatness, heroism, wisdom, and knowledge, is possible to us all." Charlotte Mason, Ourselves
1:24- Leah, why do you think that wisdom is something we should be pursuing right now?
1:45- Could our world be lacking in wisdom because so many people are lacking the truth of God's word, and even some Christians aren't getting into God's word?
2:20- Proverbs 2:6
2:47- Definitions of wisdom:
Modern Definition: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.
From Webster’s 1838 Dictionary: The right use or exercise of knowledge; the choice of laudable ends, and of the best means to accomplish them. This is wisdom in act, effect, or practice. If wisdom is to be considered as a faculty of the mind, it is the faculty of discerning or judging what is most just, proper and useful, and if it is to be considered as an acquirement, it is the knowledge and use of what is best, most just, most proper, most conducive to prosperity or happiness. wisdom in the first sense, or practical wisdom is nearly synonymous with discretion. It differs somewhat from prudence, in this respect; prudence is the exercise of sound judgment in avoiding evils; wisdom is the exercise of sound judgment either in avoiding evils or attempting good. Prudence then is a species, of which wisdom is the genus.
5:12- What did Charlotte Mason say about wisdom?
6:00- Wisdom shows up in all of her volumes, but especially in volume 4, ourselves, which was written for children to be a map of human character.
"It is difficult to find a name which covers what we are and what we may become, but let us call it philosophy; for to know ourselves is wisdom." Ourselves
7:50- I know you are reading Ourselves right now, and I'd love to know what you're seeing about wisdom in this book?
9:57- "It is, indeed, true that Mansoul is like a great and rich country, with a more or less powerful and harmonious government; because there is a part of ourselves whose business it is to manage and make the best of the rest of ourselves, and that part of ourselves we shall call the Government." Ourselves
11:00- The second part of the book goes into a long section on the conscience.
"We are not our own; but God, who has given us life, and whose we are, has planted within us Conscience, to remind us continually that we owe ourselves to Him, and must order our ways to please Him, and that He is the judge who will visit every offence surely and directly, if not to-day, then to-morrow. Conscience informs us, too, of the reason of this judging of our God. Judging is saving. It is the continual calling of us back from wrong ways, which injure and ruin, into right ways of peace and happiness. All this Conscience testifies to us; morning by morning, hour by hour, he witnesses that we are not free to do what we like, but must do what we ought." Ourselves
12:20- We all have a conscience that is helping us judge rightly and leading us in the way of wisdom.
12:55- What difference do you see here in what Charlotte Mason calls conscience and our modern-day interpretations of conscience?
14:17- Now I think conscience refers to how we're feeling.
Jeremiah 17:9
15:30- I think what we're missing is a moral code aligned with God's word but now it's a moral code aligned with ourselves. What Charlotte Mason said is that we need an instructed conscience.
16:53- "But evil is specious and ready; and it is well for each of us to take pains that we may recognise misrepresentations brought before conscience. An instructed conscience rarely makes mistakes."
17:35- How do we instruct a conscience?
Education is a life.
Education is an atmosphere.
21:00- Living books instruct our conscience.
The purpose of reading living books.
22:34- When you miss a book and have never read it before, people say, "Oh, you haven't read that yet?!" like you aren't part of a club. I wish I had read certain books sooner, but a friend told me, "God wanted you to read that book right now for a reason."
"Happy is the household with few rules." Parents and Children
24:55- Common parenting tactics include a list of rules, binary rules. But my gut instinct says that a rule against hitting doesn't teach a child respect for someone else's body.
Pingback: Parenting Philosophy: Notes from 2/5 – Mother Culture