NRS17 DFO780 5-10-78

1. BY THE TIME OUR KIDS ARE EVEN SIX YEARS OF AGE AND ARE COMPELLED TO GO TO SCHOOL some place‚ they ought to be so well taught and so insulated that they can sneer and laugh and make fun of evolution and all that kind of stuff! Why should Timothy and Rachel's kids be ashamed? (Maria: Our children should not only be insulated against these evolutionary lies but all the practices of the System.) Amen!—Why weren't they?

2. DIDN'T TIM AND RACHEL TELL THOSE CHILDREN BEFORE THEY WENT TO SCHOOL WHY THEY EAT HEALTHY FOOD and why they had nuts and raisins for snack instead of candy and junk? (Maria: But they did! That's in one of the big Letters, "Food or Poison.") Then why were they embarrassed? They ought to have felt superior—not inferior!

3. WHEN I WAS IN SCHOOL I DIDN'T FEEL INFERIOR. For one thing, I made better grades than anybody else, and I knew I was superior mentally. And I knew I was superior spiritually, because those people believed stupid things like evolution and they did stupid things.—I knew I was superior in the Lord and my faith and outlook!

4. I DIDN'T FEEL THE SLIGHTEST BIT INFERIOR‚ EXCEPT PHYSICALLY. I was a skinny little runt, and I had an inferiority complex about my being skinny and thin and ugly and that the girls weren't flipping out over me.

5. ONLY GIRLS LIKE MARIA WOULD FALL IN LOVE WITH ME! Only the nice, good, sweet little girls, very aesthetic and very delicate and ladylike, would like a good little boy like me—the kind who didn't like the great big rough tough bruisers. But they weren't always the prettiest girls, of course. Pretty, sexy girls always seem to fall in love with football teams and the beasts, the monsters, cruel tough bruisers—all flesh and muscle, few brains!

6. (MARIA: THEIR BOYS ARE BEAUTIFUL BOYS. THEY ARE SMART CHILDREN, and they have even witnessed in front of big crowds. They have had opportunity to be different. Now the other side of the story:

7. (THEY HAVE NEVER MIXED WITH CHILDREN IN THE WORLD. They have always been sheltered and protected. The social pressure is so great that it is just natural that they are going to be somewhat embarrassed. So they just have got to be taught and they've got to learn step by step not to be ashamed of the Lord's ways!)

8. A STRANGER AMONG STRANGERS ALWAYS HAS A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF FEELING DIFFERENT and a little embarrassment‚ particularly from being a foreigner, a minority, and not knowing the language. You are always going to have that certain feeling like you are not at home.

9. BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THINGS LIKE THEIR LUNCH OR BELIEFS, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE ANY FEELING OF INFERIORITY at all! They ought to feel superior! "Look at all that junk food you're eating! Look! You ought to eat decent food like this!" How come they didn't?

10. I WAS NOT EMBARRASSED IN SCHOOL ABOUT MY FAITH. I wasn't embarrassed about my mental capacity, I made better grades than anybody. I wasn't embarrassed about my faith, I knew it was better than anything they had. The only thing in the world I was ever embarrassed about in school was that I was a skinny little runt that always got picked on!

11. I WASN'T EMBARRASSED, BUT I KNEW I WAS IN THE MINORITY. In fact, I was about the only one most of the time. I was certainly a minority and I felt like a loner, but I wouldn't say I was embarrassed.

12. (MARIA: WELL, I CERTAINLY FELT ASHAMED AND EMBARRASSED when I had to tell people I didn't dance, and I didn't go to movies. But I didn't have any Scripture on which to base why I didn't do those things.) Well, it wasn't difficult for me to tell people why I didn't drink and I didn't smoke. It was obvious. Everybody knew it wasn't good for you.

13. (MARIA: BUT 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. Aren't they taught sufficiently so that they shouldn't have to be ashamed?)

14. I DON'T SEE WHY THEY SHOULD HAVE TO BE ASHAMED AT ALL! I can't imagine a communist in a capitalist society being ashamed of his views! I can't imagine one of these evolutionists, even in a church, being ashamed of his views. They are usually militant and belligerent and fighters!

15. IN SCHOOL I WAS A FIGHTER FOR MY FAITH! I frequently stood up for my faith and spoke out against what was being taught, and spoke out against the teachers and spoke out against the textbooks. And believe it or not‚ usually the kids would be on my side!

16. THE KIDS WOULD STICK UP FOR IT WITH ME because they liked it if you could say the textbook was wrong about something, or the teacher was wrong. If anything‚ they ought to be able to get the kids on their side when they are bucking the System or the textbook or the teacher.

17. THE ONLY PRESSURE THAT I FELT WAS ALMOST PHYSICAL, OR EVEN SEXUAL, because I wasn't big and strong and wasn't exactly the type to appeal to women. I wasn't a football player and wasn't on the athletic team and blah, blah.

18. I WAS EXTREMELY ATHLETIC AND I COULD ALMOST OUTDO ANY OF THE GUYS in swimming, climbing, hiking or anything that required a lot of breath. I was always the winner in any kind of a blowing game, believe it or not, like blowing a ping–pong ball across the table and stuff like that. I'm very windy!—As you too well know!

19. BUT I WASN'T A BIT ASHAMED OF MY FAITH, nor being a Christian. When we went to places, I wasn't ashamed to say‚ "No, I don't smoke‚" when people offered me a smoke, or "I don't drink." In fact, maybe I was a little self–righteous about it.

20. (MARIA: DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE FIVE OR SIX YEARS OLD FIRST STARTING SCHOOL? That's where we get the comparison. You hadn't really been exposed to too many worldly children before. You were just starting out. Now is there any legitimate reason why these two little boys should have been ashamed?) I don't think so.

21. THE ONLY THING THAT GOT ME WAS THE BULLIES WERE ALWAYS MAKING FUN OF ME. "Oh, the preacher's kid, the preacher's kid‚ the goody-goody!" You know, they were always making fun of you that way.

22. I THINK THE THING THAT EMBARRASSED ME WAS HAVING THE ATTENTION OF THE WHOLE CLASS or group of kids called to me at all because I was shy. I just didn't like attention, for whatever reason it might be.

23. I FELL A BIT INFERIOR ECONOMICALLY A FEW TIMES. Some of the kids brought a lot of money to school and wasted it and spent it and treated other kids. Whereas I brought my little 25 cents for my lunch and that was it. But I had a lot of company on that.

24. THERE WERE KIDS WHO WERE POORER THAN I WAS and they were always ashamed of what they brought for lunch. But if our kids bring it, it's not just for economic reasons, but because it is good healthful food and better than that junk that the other people are eating. That's nothing to be ashamed of!

25. (MARIA: OUR WHOLE FAMILY, ALL THE LETTERS AND 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 and have a feeling of superiority, and I think I was when I was a kid at school.

26. I THINK I WAS THANKFUL, AT LEAST, IF NOT ACTUALLY PROUD OF MY FAITH and my mental prowess. Maybe I was a little self-righteous about the fact that I didn't smoke or drink, because I thought the people who did were pretty silly. (Maria: Did you witness at school when you were a very small child, five or six years old?) (Sara: give out tracts?) Well, we weren't quite so active along that line in those days.—But I sure stood up for my faith in class and to others!

27. THE ONLY THING THAT MADE ME FEEL BAD WAS THAT I WAS KIND OF ISOLATED. I FELT ALONE because I was different. I was not like the rest of the kids. But I had no feeling of inferiority about it. In fact, if anything‚ I felt superior but alone, which was kind of a sad state to be in. But I don't think I was ever ashamed of my convictions or my faith.

28. IF I MET ANOTHER BRAIN, I WAS KIND OF HAPPY! We had something in common, we excelled in studies. They were usually skinny runts like me, only they wore thick glasses or were a bit ugly, but we were always on the honor list together, and all that sort of thing.

29. 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 and you weren't told why. You couldn't get up and give your class a reason why.

30. (SARA: I REALLY THINK THAT THOSE BOYS ARE A DANDY EXAMPLE OF KIDS WHO HAVE BEEN IN OUR FAMILY SCHOOLS ALL THEIR LIVES. From the time they were babies they have been away from their parents in our schools and have only seen their parents on the weekend and at night.—Which almost all of our kids did, up until the RNR.

31. (THERE WAS A LARGE STRESS ON BUSY-NESS IN THOSE SCHOOLS AND NOT ENOUGH EMPHASIS ON THE WORD AND THE SPIRITUAL and on verses. How many verses had they memorized before they were five years old?) Boy, I tell you, that was one thing which the Holy Spirit used and which stood by me all through those years, and that was my knowledge of the Word! I was made to memorize the Word from a tiny tot!

32. MY PARENTS HAD DRILLED THE WORD INTO ME. I had heard the Word from the beginning, and time and time again when something came up in school, some false doctrine of evolution or astronomy or whatever, I would question it and instantly I would get a Scripture! I would get the Word, and that is one of the most strengthening things, if they know the Word!

33. I DON'T SEE HOW OUR KIDS COULD POSSIBLY MISS ENOUGH TRAINING IN THE WORD! How could they miss the training in the Word? (Sara: That's the thing people are raving about in the Dito series, that he could accept spiritual principles when he was just a tot, that we could actually pray for him when he was stammering and he received it and he learned verses about faith.) What the hell are they teaching them if they aren't teaching them Scripture?!

34. (SARA: BEFORE THE RNR‚ IF YOU COULD EVEN SQUEEZE IN A TIME FOR THE SCHOLASTIC YOU WERE DOING GOOD! But I could almost guarantee you that the Word was secondary.) Well‚ what was primary? (Sara: Deborah's whole thing was school and scholastic and not even reading so much as Montessori. They didn't even get flannelgraphs and stuff until they were 2 1/2 and 3, and the Word was not the foundation of their learning. But now that is what everyone is just rejoicing about, is the freedom and the emphasis on the Word and spiritual things.) I can't understand them not getting the Word!

35. THEN THE FAMILY HAS NOT BEEN RAISING THE CHILDREN THE WAY THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO‚ NOR THE WAY WE SET THE EXAMPLE with our children. Our whole emphasis with our own children‚ with myself when I was a child and then with my children when they were small, was to memorize the Word‚ the Word‚ the Word!

36. THEY LEARNED THE WORD FROM THE TIME THEY COULD TALK. They heard the Word all the time. They learned the Word‚ they memorized the Word, they could quote the Word, they sang songs that would really sing the Word. They could quote you chapters and chapters of the Word. We just made the Word absolutely primary!

37. LOOK HOW FAITHY USED TO GO AROUND WHEN SHE WAS JUST A FEW YEARS OLD AND QUOTE THE WHOLE 11TH CHAPTER OF HEBREWS! She was a phenomenon, and people would just absolutely flip out over her and rave about her and want her to go here and go there just to quote the 11th Chapter of Hebrews!

38. THEY WERE BROUGHT UP MEMORIZING AND QUOTING THE WORD and learning and singing songs. That was the main thing! What the hell has our Family been doing? (Sara: Well, I've been talking about the Blob Family schools. The kids who have missed big Family schools usually do a lot batter along that line.)

39. 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! If they haven't been getting it, then somebody has really been screwed up somewhere! Was it Deb or Rachel?

40. THE THING THAT STRENGTHENED ME AND STOOD WITH ME WHEN I STARTED SCHOOL WAS I KNEW THE TRUTH, I knew the Word, and the Scripture would come to me. The Holy Spirit was faithful to bring Scriptures to mind about every situation on every occasion. I would think of actual Scriptures or Bible stories or Scriptural examples to fit everything that happened.

41. (MARIA: IF THEY DID GET GOOD BIBLE TRAINING, BUT THEY WERE ISOLATED AND SHELTERED SO THEY NEVER GOT OUT, would they be able to stand up for their convictions, when suddenly thrust into association with the world?) I don't see any reason at all for them being ashamed of their faith or their convictions or their beliefs or their health food or anything!

42. THEIR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE LOCAL LANGUAGE CAN BE SOMEWHAT EMBARRASSING, and the fact that they are a foreigner or stranger can be embarrassing. But I don't see any reason for them being embarrassed for their faith or their convictions or their health food or anything else the Family lives and teaches!

43. YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I FELT LIKE WHEN I FIRST WENT TO SCHOOL? I had been very sheltered and had not had very much contact with evil children until I finally started kindergarten. All I can remember was that I didn't particularly like school because it was bedlam!—All noise and confusion and loud rough Americans!

44. IN SPITE OF ALL THE STUFF THEY HAD TO PLAY WITH‚ I DIDN'T LIKE IT because it was so noisy and such bad kids. I'd just look at them in horror, like I can imagine David would his first day at school, because he has been taught to be quiet and taught to be thoughtful and considerate and behave and obey and learn!

45. I CAN REMEMBER FIRST GRADE IN KENTUCKY WITH THE HILLBILLIES, AND THEY WERE A ROUGH TOUGH CROWD! All the boys talked about was fighting, who could beat up everybody else in school. That's the American's standard: The big boy on the block is the guy who can beat up all the other boys. He's the big shot—the toughest and cruelest!

46. AMERICA IS BUILT ON VIOLENCE! VIOLENCE IS ITS RELIGION from start to finish! From the time the kids get to school and beat each other up, till the time they go to war to kill each other, that's America's religion!

47. FIRST AND SECOND GRADE I LIKED BECAUSE THE TEACHERS REALLY CRACKED DOWN AND MADE THEM STUDY. They had to work, they had to read, they had to study and had to write. I liked that. The only thing I didn't like about it then was that I liked school work and most of the kids didn't, and they were horsing around and bothering me when I was trying to study.

48. IF THEY FOUND ANYONE WHO LIKED TO STUDY, THEN THEY BEGAN TO PICK ON THEM right away. The big bullies would pick on me, not only because I liked to study and was good at it, but also because they knew I was the preacher's kid.

49. AS A RESULT OF THEIR PICKING ON ME I GOT IN QUITE A FEW FIGHTS. I'm afraid I wasn't exactly the kind of Christian who liked to turn the other cheek. I put up with as much of it as I could. I turned the other cheek a couple of times, then I would sock'em back! (Sara: Good for you!)—After all, I only had two cheeks!

50. I REALLY GOT IN A LOT OF FIGHTS WHEN I WAS A LITTLE KID BECAUSE I JUST GOT MAD. I didn't like to get picked on. I tried to ignore it as long as I could, but if the guy just insisted on a fight, I gave it to him! And I always got the worst of it because I was little.

51. I REMEMBER GETTING IN FIGHTS FOR GIRLS.—Not all the girls, usually the very good little girls who also liked their studies, and the little delicate refined types like Maria. They liked me and they stuck up for me.

52. IF I CARRIED A GIRL'S BOOKS HOME THAT I LIKED, THE BOYS WOULD MAKE FUN OF ME and tease me and pick on me, and I would let loose and let them have it! I didn't like injustice. I guess I was a fighter, even though I was a little runt and skinny, and I usually got the worst of it!

53. ANYHOW, I FIGURE IT HELPED THEM KEEP FROM PICKING ON ME TOO MUCH. They found out I would fight if they just pushed it too far. Well, I'm still a little bit like that.—I guess I'm still a fighter!

54. BUT I NEVER FELT INFERIOR, I JUST FELT LONESOME because there were not many other kids like me. 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. Of course, I didn't have the problem of not knowing the language.

55. WELL, I DIDN'T KNOW A LOT OF THEIR LANGUAGE!—THEY USED PLENTY OF FOUL LANGUAGE, dirty words and stuff, even in the first and second grades! When I got there, I didn't even know what they were talking about. So they would laugh at me because I didn't know their language.

56. I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY MAYBE OUR KIDS MIGHT FEEL A LITTLE INFERIOR BECAUSE OF LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES, and that they are a foreigner and feel a little embarrassed and insecure and inferior on those counts. But not on account of faith and food and things like that. If anything, they ought to feel superior—I know I did.

57. I FRANKLY HAD CONTEMPT FOR THE POOR DUMB STUPID IDIOTS WHO DIDN'T WANT TO STUDY and were always playing around and acting silly and foolish. I just thought they were ridiculous! I even felt sorry for the poor, stupid, idiotic teachers who taught evolution. I thought they were ridiculous.

58. (MARIA: SO OUR AIM IS TO BE PREPARING OUR CHILDREN TO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND STAND WITH CONVICTION and be able to give an answer to everyone who asks us.)—Amen! I didn't hesitate to stand up in class and question the teacher or question the textbook and make fun of the stuff.

59. I WASN'T PURPOSELY TRYING TO EMBARRASS THE TEACHER‚ BUT I ALWAYS FELT LIKE I OUGHT TO CORRECT WHAT WAS NOT RIGHT. When the teacher said something wrong or the textbook said something I didn't believe, I would say so! I presume some teachers thought I was a troublemaker‚ because I didn't always agree with them.

60. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, I WAS A GOOD STUDENT AND I COOPERATED WITH THE TEACHER ALL I COULD‚ so most of my teachers liked me. I think I had the most trouble with my history and biology teachers, because I disagreed with all the evolution which they always worked into both history and biology and everywhere they could.

61. (MARIA: IT REALLY TAKES THE HOLY SPIRIT TO GIVE THE LITTLE KIDS BOLDNESS, because some children are just shyer than others, or a different personality. Some children are very, very shy and just normally want to flow with what everybody else does. But the Lord still has the victory in which the Holy Spirit can cause them to stand up for all these different things.)

62. 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 and the conviction and be taught by their parents that they are better than other people.

63. (MARIA: WHAT ABOUT THE QUESTION, "WELL‚ WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS DO!" "Oh‚ my father goes out litnessing." "What's that?" "Well, he gives out MO Letters on the streets.") Instead of that kind of an attitude, they could either give his System job for security, or

64. 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 and take the offensive and be the aggressors instead of backing down and being ashamed that their father is a preacher‚ and put on the defensive.

65. I CAN HONESTLY SAY I DON'T THINK I WAS EVER ASHAMED THAT MY MOTHER WAS A PREACHER, even though women preachers were rare, because I knew she preached the Gospel and I was proud of it, so why should I be ashamed? They tried to make me ashamed, "Oh, there's that kid whose mother is a preacher, can you imagine that?—A woman preacher!" It just made me mad! Made me want to fight!

66. IT MUST BE BECAUSE THE PARENTS ARE ASHAMED. My mother was not ashamed to be a woman preacher. My father was not ashamed of being a preacher. It must be the parents who are giving the kids that idea of being ashamed of Family ways, for they're ashamed!

67. MAYBE THE PARENTS ARE ASHAMED OF GOING OUT ON THE STREETS AND LITNESSING and preaching the Gospel! If they are, then they are going to give the kids that impression and the kids are going to be ashamed. Tim and Rachel themselves must be ashamed of the Family or its ways!

68. I REMEMBER HEARING A STORY ABOUT A POOR WASHER WOMAN WHO EARNED THE MONEY TO PUT HER SON IN COLLEGE. She just washed clothes and was a widow. She earned the money to put her son through college, and in college he lived pretty well and was popular and had everything he needed.

69. BUT WHEN HIS MOTHER CAME TO SEE HIM, HE WAS ASHAMED OF HER and was ashamed to acknowledge that it was even his mother! He told the kids that it was some neighbor friend or someone that was visiting him. He didn't want to admit it was his mother! Well, kids like that have no guts, and they have got no convictions!

70. I DON'T THINK I WAS EVER ASHAMED OF BEING A CHRISTIAN and not believing in evolution, or believing in God or having parents who loved the Lord and preached the Gospel. I felt a little lonely sometimes and I was a little sad, but I was certainly never ashamed!

71. I WAS A SAD LITTLE BOY A LOT OF THE TIME, BECAUSE I WAS PRETTY MUCH OF A LONE WOLF. But I certainly wasn't ashamed of it, and I wasn't ashamed of my own mental prowess. I was smarter than any of the kids in school‚ and I wasn't ashamed of my faith either.

72. I WAS PROUD OF MY FAITH! If anything, maybe I was a little self-righteous, because I knew I was better than the other kids. So why should Rachel and Tim's kids be ashamed? The parents must be ashamed!

73. ANY OF OUR KIDS WHO LOVE POPULARITY and love to be the "big man" on campus back home in System schools are going to have it tough being witnesses. But persecution's probably going to be good for them.

74. PEOPLE WHO DON'T STAND UP FOR THEIR CONVICTIONS AND WHO ARE ASHAMED OF THEIR FAITH or their Family or anything like that, I cannot stomach! I just cannot stomach people who haven't got the guts to stand up for what they believe!—I never could! I don't know, maybe I'm some kind of a fighter or something. (Girls: You are!)

75. AND I CERTAINLY CAN'T STAND PARENTS WHO MAKE THEIR KIDS ASHAMED of us and what we believe and the way we live. They must not have any convictions themselves! I never could stand half-hearted double-minded gutless compromisers and cowards! Gutless parents make gutless kids!—Not the Word nor the Lord nor the Family!—What kind are you?!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family