What Our Children Need to Know

Noah Webster defined Education in his 1828 Dictionary as:

EDUCA’TION, noun [Latin educatio.] The bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.

Doesn’t the first part of the definition, “The bringing up, as of a child” remind you of  Proverbs 22:6, which in the Geneva Version (the “Pilgrim’s Bible”), says “Teach a child *in the trade of his way, and when he is old he shall not depart from it.”

* The footnote in the GNV says: “Bring him up virtuously, and he shall so continue.”

I used to think that “Virtue” just meant to not do bad things, and it does in part, but the 1828 Dictionary helps us find glorious revelation in the third and fourth definition:

3. Moral goodness; the practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice, or a conformity of life and conversation to the moral law… The practice of moral duties from sincere love to God and His laws, is virtue…

VIRTUE is nothing but voluntary obedience to truth.  ~ Dwight

4. A particular moral excellence; as the virtue of temperance, of chastity, of charity.

If we are concerned that our children are not acting virtuously, what can we do about it? Reading biographies from original documents is a great place to start. Let’s see an example from Providential History to help us obey Psalm 78, “to the generation to come we will show the praise of the Lord, His power also, and His wonderful works that He hath done…” so that they can “set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.”

An excellent Providential story is about Saint Patrick who was kidnapped as an English teenager by roving, plundering Irishmen and enslaved for about ten years. Patrick was forced to shepherd in the hills where he was terrified. In his The Confession of St. Patrick, he admits:

“I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many… I was then about sixteen years of age. I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people—and deservedly so, because we turned away from God, and did not keep His commandments, and did not obey our priests, who used to remind us of our salvation…

“But after I came to Ireland—every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed—the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountains; and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me—as I now see, because the spirit within me was then fervent…”(1)

God eventually gave him a dream to escape, which was an adventure filled with danger and miracles. He then finished his education in England but could hear the call of God on his life to return to Ireland to teach the slaves. He baptized them and taught them to be pure and holy. Then he discipled the chieftains, using the Pentateuch. He eventually wrote the “Liber ex Lege Moisi, which emphasizes biblical civil law, and played a major role in transforming Celtic Christian society.” (2) He even discipled Laeghaire, king of Ireland.

“The Liber ex Lege Moisi had a long-term impact: it ‘apparently played an important part in the framing of the laws of Ina, and hence of those of Alfred the Great and later legislators.’ ” (3)

We can encourage and equip the younger generations by learning and teaching the Mighty Deeds of God. Let’s obey His Word and teach His Children at the same time, fulfilling His promise to us that:

“All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” Isaiah 54:13 ESV

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1. Saint Patrick, The Confession of Saint Patrick, (Translated by Ludwig Bieler) Catholic Planet, 1-5 catholicplanet.com/ebooks/Confession-of-St-Patrick.pdf
2. ibid.
3. https://theonomyresources.blogspot.com/2013/04/patrick-of-irelands-saint-patrick.html

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The Judicial Branch 2  

In our last lesson, we discussed that the Founding Fathers had Founding Fathers. This is an affectionate appreciation of how God Almighty has taught us increasingly over centuries and generations to reveal Himself and His ways. The Framers did not come up with these brilliant ideas themselves, they studied and built upon revelation from God’s Word to previous generations.

In considering the three branches of government that are found in Isaiah 33:22, NLT, “For the Lord is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king” the Framers were fine with God Almighty having all power, but when delegating some of these aspects of their self-government to representatives, they were mindful of what God’s word says of man in Jeremiah 17:9, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

This is why they divided up these powers with limited, enumerated responsibilities with checks and balances on each branch. In writing to Abigail Adams, President Thomas Jefferson explained, “… The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch.”(1)

He explained to William Jarvis, “When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuse of Constitutional power”(2)

Father, we cry out to you! Forgive us for forsaking our civil duties. Grant us repentance and anoint us to steward them faithfully, in Jesus’ Mighty Name, amen.

(1) Bergh, 11:50.

(2) Bergh, p.277.

Listen every Saturday to WCNO at 8:30 am EST at 89.9 FM.

I have learned many of these quotes from The Making of America by Cleon Skousen.    You may purchase it here.

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“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 NIV

© 2026 Mrs. Brenda MacMenamin, All Rights Reserved. Permission given to share pages and posts in entirety.

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