Back to School with a Flock of Wild Turkeys

Follow the leader....

These wild turkey's were God's analogy to me during my quiet time this morning....OK, not so quiet because my 3-year old was awake witnessing God's handiwork as well....

Six little baby turkey's...goslings I suppose... scampered across the lawn following mama and daddy turkey.  They happily puttered along.  Sometimes they formed a straight line, other times they all spread out.  They arrived on my front lawn in a wild frenzy, having been separated by a car zooming by.  They regrouped, calmed down and continued on their journey. 

The night before they were roosting in our neighbor's gigantic fir tree.  As I've observed these wild turkey's in the past few months I've noticed that they travel everywhere... together...teaching and learning together.  Their day to day life experiences are the training ground for success for the next day and so on and so forth.  They are learning about safe places to roost at night, how to cross the road, where to find food, etc.

It reminded me again of God's command in the OT to teach and train up our children as we rise up, sit, and walk together, going about our daily work and duties.  Daily life provides ample training grounds for a well rounded and solid background for...ahem....daily life which all added up together create history and future. 

Do you ever wonder how the masses of people from 1000's of generations back taught and trained their children for the disciplines and duties of adult life?

(I have three teenagers this upcoming school year, as well as two elementary aged children who happened to learn to read over the summer, a 3-year old not far behind and a toddling one year old) I ponder a lot these days....

Did the generations before us have the tools and resources that we have today?  We share something in common...we all have a brain...we are learning from birth....growing and maturing with the aid of curiosity.  We were all born into a family or lack thereof, and someone made a decision for us, regarding our care.

So we don't share modern day teaching resources, what of it?  Is it all the resources, books, and learning opportunities that make us smart?  Or could it be...simply that the fear of the Lord is truly the beginning of wisdom? 

Strangely enough, 22 years ago, I spent some time helping out on a huge turkey farm in Canada.  To make a long story short, these farm turkey's had absolutely NO sense.  Instinct was bred out of them.  They reacted to life....from being herded with a long handled push broom to laying eggs in neat little nests provided for them in rows and rows of boxes. 

The turkey's couldn't respond, they could only react.  They never questioned why their eggs disappeared every day.  They just knew the easiest and cleanest place to lay them. (They are turkey's, of course they wouldn't, you say...yet for the sake of analogy, stay with me.)

They never understood freedom.  They never experienced life like those wild turkey's in the above photo, who were guiding and teaching their children to be wary of all the dangers of living life day to day.  Those turkey's were so obviously a real family having a grand adventure out in the real world and lived.....really lived.....yes in real danger and real victory....they lived.

Let it be said that we really live.  Whether you choose, as a parent for your children to be educated at home or educated abroad, or educated in the local public or private school, you are free to choose.

Let it be said that we Christians really know how to live.  Yes, in real danger...in real victory...in hard times and in good...we know what it means to be content.  We know what it means to forgive and love.  We know what it means to endure fiery trials and come out unscathed by the grace of God. We know what it means to serve our neighbor, our country, or the globe and do it joyfully!

The same grace that saves us is the same grace God wants us to operate in as we work for him.  We are his workmanship created to do good works which he prepared in advance for us to do.  Are you walking today in that same grace that you first experienced at the cross?  That grace doesn't change and it's bottomless, never ending.  I just learned that literally, the word works means, "the results of grace."  Have you found God's grace today?  Did you find it years ago and get distracted?  It's never too late.

I'm finally reading a Bible study guide that my husband's sister gave me years ago, "Using Your Spiritual Gifts," by Eddie Rasnake and published by AMG Publishers.  One of the verses I read today was a charge from I Peter 5:2-4 to, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.  And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Let's teach our children daily what it means to follow God and sense His voice amidst the noise and clamor of the world.  He's a gentle teacher, a "chief Shepherd" as I Peter 5:4 proclaims.  We are to be examples to our children, modeling what it means to be a follower of Christ.  As God leads us, so we lead our children.  What a blessing and privilege to be a parent...we should do it willingly, wake up early, ready to serve, not ready to lord it over them.  Ready to be a living sacrifice and example to them of day to day Christian living in the 21st Century. 

Are you In?