I have been weaning my mother goat from her kids. It is a process that is emotionally painful for both mother and kids. It is at least for them what they instinctively feel is unnatural. The kids want the milk and the mother wants to give it to them. Goats are heard animals and carry in their genes a high level of (emotional) dependence upon the whole.
It has set me to thinking about the separation of a parent from his or her children. The child sees it as natural and normal to wean from the care of their parents. But I don't think a parent ever gets fully weaned from their children. I am not even sure it is really God's will for them to be "weaned" in the sense that American culture insists upon. The American family, and especially the Christian family in America, would be much better off if family members not only loved each other but stayed physically together through generations. The American model of moving families around the continent has served to disband the fabric of family and effectively kill the faith of their fathers within one or two generations.
In much the same way American Christianity accepts a sort of weaning of its offspring that is unhealthy to the cause of Christ. I have, for instance, several men who have been trained under me in the ministry but believe they have outgrown me and my doctrine. Though they seem perfectly comfortable with the separation that is the result of their adventures into doctrines and practices I preach and taught them against, I still pine for them in a fashion similar to my emptiness for my children. My sons in the faith have forgotten me, but I cannot forget them.
And this laissez-faire attitude towards making their own way at the abandon of that which I preached contributes to the downhill slide of true faith. They think they have found something I (and preachers like me) were not aware of. In fact what they have found is the error we stood opposed to. And rather than humbling themselves and submitting to their fathers in the faith, they have let slip those things we hold so dear.
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
It has set me to thinking about the separation of a parent from his or her children. The child sees it as natural and normal to wean from the care of their parents. But I don't think a parent ever gets fully weaned from their children. I am not even sure it is really God's will for them to be "weaned" in the sense that American culture insists upon. The American family, and especially the Christian family in America, would be much better off if family members not only loved each other but stayed physically together through generations. The American model of moving families around the continent has served to disband the fabric of family and effectively kill the faith of their fathers within one or two generations.
In much the same way American Christianity accepts a sort of weaning of its offspring that is unhealthy to the cause of Christ. I have, for instance, several men who have been trained under me in the ministry but believe they have outgrown me and my doctrine. Though they seem perfectly comfortable with the separation that is the result of their adventures into doctrines and practices I preach and taught them against, I still pine for them in a fashion similar to my emptiness for my children. My sons in the faith have forgotten me, but I cannot forget them.
And this laissez-faire attitude towards making their own way at the abandon of that which I preached contributes to the downhill slide of true faith. They think they have found something I (and preachers like me) were not aware of. In fact what they have found is the error we stood opposed to. And rather than humbling themselves and submitting to their fathers in the faith, they have let slip those things we hold so dear.
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
