Legal(istic) Eagle

The last couple of years have been times of great spiritual growth and awareness for our family. That statement might sound haughty at first but let me lay it out and say that while I wish I could take credit, I can not. It is The Lord who removes blinders and reveals the truth.

J and I have have many way too late at night discussions on all things spiritual and our mutual desire to make sure we aren't falling into the ditch of legalism on one side of the narrow road or into the ditch of permissiveness on the opposite side. I know we have so much work to do in this area. Right now we are in a season where we are tempted to be pulled more by the "legalistic" ditch. Suddenly, a lot of things look terrifying and evil at first glance (at least they do to me--I'm more of a "Chicken Little" type of person in general).

The "legalism" fairy (close relative of the "pride" fairy, if you will), wants the t.v. shipped off to some heathen's house. But...that would leave the door open for the "pride" fairy to come and do her dirty work ("We have no t.v.! We are one more degree holier than we were when we had the t.v. and two more degrees holier than people who have a t.v.! Praise the Lord, it's good to be us!").

Maybe this isn't the most bestest example, but Matthew 15:1-10 says it. Getting rid of the t.v. isn't going to make our hearts any cleaner. God changing our hearts and us desiring to please Him is going to guide us in what entertainment we allow in our home. Not saying that families who choose not to have a t.v. are being prideful and/or legalistic, just saying that at this current time those would be the reasons our family would take an ax to the beautiful flat screen sitting innocently against the wall. We would still have the same ugliness but would be minus a television.

(Would it be prideful to mention right now that we don't have cable and only have the boob tube on for an hour in the morning while Momma gets herself caffeinated and awake? Lest anyone believes that we are permissive about the t.v., I'm going to leave this little paragraph in. I really hate the t.v. because I think our time is better spent doing just about anything else on earth than staring at the television. But yeah, we have a t.v. and we do watch it...sometimes. Even me, the hypocritical tv hater)

I love the people that God has placed in our lives. All of them. But I am extra-extra-extra thankful for the families we have met who seek to glorify the Lord with their lives and to conform to God's standard. They don't all look the same--they all come with with their own unique family style. We all have our little differences (family-integrated church/traditional church, vaccinate/non-vaccinate, hospital birth/homebirth, tv/no tv, "small" families/"large" families, vegetarians/carnivores, etc). But the thing I admire about these godly families is that we know these little differences do not validate or invalidate us. Legalism would definitely put a wedge between us if each felt justified by their standards.

And not to get off subject, but I am so challenged by families who are different from us. Not to copy them so to speak but I love that many times God has stirred our hearts to change by the fellowship with other families. We each have our own styles, true, but godliness in action is a beautiful thing to see and a worthy thing to imitate. If we get defensive and seek to justify ourselves when we see godliness in the lives of others, there isn't a whole lot of opportunity to grow. God forbid that we allow Satan to steal the seeds that were just planted.

Anyhow, in the pursuit of the "narrow road," Jason and I have tried very hard to keep our eyes on Jesus. What this means for us is that we seek His will for our family, we try to be challenged by the wonderful godly families in our lives, and we don't cling to feelings of insecurity because they are lies designed to get us to look away from Jesus who is at the end of the narrow road. The truth is that we are not justified by homeschooling, family devotions, super smart kids, any of our abilities and/or talents, or even our marriage. All of those are things should be used to glorify God alone because we are justified by Christ alone.

Love this page on legalism. Completely worth the time to check out. So convicting...and yet, so reassuring!

http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/06/what_is_legalism.php