CHILDREN IN THE WORLD    DFO780   5/10/78

         1. BY THE TIME OUR KIDS ARE EVEN SIX YEARS OF AGE & ARE PERHAPS COMPELLED TO GO TO SCHOOL, they ought to be so well taught & so insulated that they can sneer & laugh & make fun of not only evolution, but all the practices of the System!
         2. When I was in school I never felt inferior, I just felt alone because I was different. I felt like a stranger in a strange land, probably a lot like our kids do when they are in System schools in a strange country.--They might feel a little inferior because of language difficulties, & that they are a foreigner, but not on account of their faith or convictions or health food or anything else the Family lives & teaches.
         3. (Maria: Our whole Family, all the Letters & all our beliefs are based on the fact that we are a chosen people, we are a small minority.) If anything, we ought to be proud of ourselves! I wasn't a bit ashamed of my faith, nor being a Christian, nor having parents who loved the Lord & preached the Gospel. I knew I was superior in the Lord & my faith & outlook!
         4. In school I was a fighter for my faith! I frequently stood up for my faith & spoke out against what was being taught, & spoke out against the teachers & spoke out against the textbooks. And believe it or not, usually the kids would be on my side! I wasn't purposely trying to embarrass the teacher, but I always felt like I ought to correct what was not right.
         5. I THINK ANYBODY WHO IS ASHAMED OF THEIR CONVICTIONS MUST NOT HAVE ENOUGH FOUNDATION for their faith or why. Why do I believe this way, why don't I believe in those things? It could be that you were just taught that those things are bad & you weren't told why. You couldn't get up & give your class a reason why.
         6. Boy, I tell you, one thing which the Holy Spirit used & which stood by me all through those years was my knowledge of the Word! My parents had drilled the Word into me. I had heard the Word from the beginning, & time & time again when something came up in school, some false doctrine of evolution or astronomy or whatever, I would question it & instantly I would get a Scripture! I would get the Word, & that is one of the most strengthening things, if they know the Word!
         7. Our whole emphasis with our own children when they were small was to memorise the Word, the Word, the Word! They learned the Word from the time they could talk, they memorised the Word, they could quote the Word, they sang songs that would really sing the Word. We just made the Word absolutely primary!
         8. (Maria: And our kids should know the Scripture from the time they are tiny tots. They should know why we eat health foods, why we do this, why we do that, so that they shouldn't have to be ashamed.) I don't understand why any of our kids have not been given enough Word, because that has been the basic building block of our whole educational system!
         9. (MARIA: SO OUR AIM IS TO BE PREPARING OUR CHILDREN TO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD & STAND WITH CONVICTION & be able to give an answer to everyone who asks us.)--Amen! (Maria: But it really takes the Holy Spirit to give the little kids boldness, because some children are just shyer than others, or a different personality. But the Lord still has the victory in which the Holy Spirit can cause them to stand up for these different things.)
         10. I see no reason why any of our children should be ashamed of their faith or their food or their Family or their background, anything like that. They ought to have the guts & the conviction & be taught by their parents that they are better than other people.
         11. (Maria: What about the question, "Well, what do your parents do?") They could boldly say, "My father's a preacher of the Gospel! He's working for Jesus!"--That's the attitude they ought to have! Attack, attack! They ought to go on the attack & take the offensive & be the aggressors, instead of backing down & being ashamed that their father is a preacher, & put on the defensive.
         12. IT MUST BE BECAUSE THE PARENTS ARE ASHAMED. It must be the parents who are giving the kids that idea of being ashamed of Family ways, for they're ashamed! People who don't stand up for their convictions & who are ashamed of their faith or their Family or anything like that, I cannot stomach!--I never could!--Maybe I'm some kind of a fighter or something.
         13. And I certainly can't stand parents who make their kids ashamed of us & what we believe & the way we live. They must not have any convictions themselves! I never could stand half-hearted double-minded gutless compromisers & cowards! Gutless parents make gutless kids!--Not the Word nor the Lord nor the Family!--What kind are you?!