My husband has been preaching through James this fall, and his sermon last week on James 5:1-6 especially caught my attention. It's a passage I've glossed over often in the past, since the heading in my Bible says it is a "warning to the rich." I mean, I'm not rich, right? Isn't that title reserved for people like Bill Gates and other celebrities?

​But as I studied it more, I realized that I am rich - simply by virtue of being an upper class, middle class, educated American, I am richer than most of the world, and so this passage does indeed speak to me - and maybe to you as well. Let me share what God has been showing me about things we need to be careful to avoid, and how it applies to us in the 21st century.

James begins by warning the rich of what is coming - misery. The fine clothes and silver and gold that they have worked to acquire will not last, and their temporal nature will actually testify against them and their foolishness - foolishness that led to four specific actions of which they are now accused.

James says they have hoarded wealth in the last days. Remember, the New Testament writers had an eternal perspective in that they believed Jesus would return - possibly very soon! So hoarding wealth on Earth when this world is temporary and passing away was the height of foolishness. At that time, this was represented by their fine clothes and silver and gold that were rotting away. What do we hoard today? Oh, the list is long, isn't it? Just look at the popularity of minimalism and people like Marie Kondo, and you can see we know we have a problem of too much stuff. Clothes, books, toys, electronic devices, cars, kitchen gadgets, jewelry, even money. The idea of "hoarding" is usually one of collecting a large group of objects that is then hidden away - kept selfishly for oneself, and not to be shared with others. It is an attitude of selfishness, of keeping more than I need, and intentionally keeping it for me, not others.

We can certainly see that with physical goods, but I wonder if this can also be an attitude toward other privileges. How many of us enjoy the freedoms we have in this country, but it stops there - with us enjoying those freedoms, not using our freedom to bless others? Do we really believe we are living in the last days, and that we must be focused on eternal things, not on earthly blessings, whether that is physical wealth or even intellectual and spiritual growth? For example, as we homeschool our children, I find myself checking to make sure our focus is not only on building our children up academically, but especially spiritually. While we enjoyed the privilege of worshiping without fear today, I realized that this is not the case everywhere, and that we may not always have that either. And so my question to all of us is this: Am I hoarding physical wealth as well as the knowledge I have about the Bible, or sharing that with others?

I was surprised at the fourth verse. James writes, "The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you." Rich farmers were not paying the harvesters who made their wealth possible.

First, as I said before, this didn't seem to apply to me. I am not a farmer with harvesters, and if I were, I would certainly pay them a fair wage. But I began looking at what else the Bible said about this topic of paying workers, and found it interesting that this theme comes up over and over in both the Old and New Testaments. In both Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 24, the people of Israel are told not to cheat someone of his wages at the end of the day, and in Jeremiah 33:13, the prophet chides Shallum, the king of Judah, for making his people work for nothing to build his palace. God takes this so seriously, in fact, that those who do not deal fairly with their workers are included in a list of evildoers in Malachi 3:5, along with sorcerers, adulterers, liars, and others who do not fear God.

As with many commands in Scripture, I believe we need to look at both the specific action and the attitude behind it. Clearly, those who hire others need to not cheat them out of their wages. To do so in biblical times was to both take advantage of a willing worker and to put that worker at risk, since he depended on his wage to take care of himself and his family.

​But are there other ways that workers can be mistreated and taken advantage of, especially in 21st century America, with minimum wage and federal labor laws? These came to mind:

• not abiding by labor laws in whatever country you live in, whether about wages, benefits, overtime, or legal safeguards
• misclassifying employees because it is cheaper and easier to pay someone as an independent contractor than as an employee
• not paying a fair or legal wage to those who make your wealth possible
• encouraging and allowing people to “volunteer” for a business
• not treating your workers with honor and respect
• putting your workers at risk with either unsafe work environments, or by putting unfair liability on them

Up until this last year, when I began re-evaluating a business I was involved with, most of these are issues I never really thought about. Now, I am realizing now that these are things God cares about deeply, especially when the rich employers are those who claim to follow Him!

Since I'm not hiring people, though, maybe I can skip this after all? Not so fast. I believe another way this applies to us is when we buy goods and services from others. We have choices in using our money to support those who oppress workers or those who deal fairly with them, don't we?

If we learn that a company we support is not dealing fairly with those who make their success and wealth possible, I firmly believe that we should stop supporting them.

Now, when I have said that in a group, I’ve had people object to this idea because you can't know all of the details of a company, and after all, not all companies are run by Christians. And we can't just stop buying things! And what if I need what a company has to offer? What if it is providing something that is good for my family? What if it is essential for my health, or my homeschool, or my business?

In response to all of this, consider - especially in our nation, we have many, many choices. It is a rare circumstance where our only choice is a company that oppresses its workers. And no, we cannot know everything, but I believe that when we have become aware of a company not dealing fairly with its workers, whether it is running a sweatshop in a third world country or an office in the United States, we have a moral obligation to use our money as consumers to speak up in support of God's word - and clearly, this matters to Him.

In some ways, this mirrors the first accusation about hoarding wealth in the last days, but in verse 5, James focuses on the idea of living in luxury, thinking only of themselves to the point of being like a calf fattened for slaughter - having no purpose except to consume. How do we do this today? I believe we are self-indulgent when we make our finances an idol and the maintenance of our financial status a top priority. When we ignore the warnings of others and measure our success by earthly numbers, and then do anything we can to gain that success - that is self-indulgence. This can apply to physical goods, of course, but again, it can also apply to the things that money can buy - education, influence, and power. Do I care more about my personal desires and building up my own little kingdom than on truly sacrificing for God's kingdom?

The final accusation, in verse 6, is that these rich oppressors condemned and murdered innocent people who were not their true enemies. When we are living in luxury and self-indulgence, hoarding our wealth, and using others to get more, it is easy to see those who would get in our way as our enemies, and so to abuse them, or to stand by while others do the same. As with holding back wages from the worker, God condemns this attitude that people who get in our way are disposable. It is a warning for all of us - do we use people and love things, or do we use things and love people? And are we willing to stand up for those who are abused, even when it is inconvenient or risky for us to do so?

James 5:1-6 has given me a lot to think about, especially with the holiday season coming up. I encourage you to think on these action points with me, both for us and as we model a godly attitude for our children and others in our sphere of influence.

1. Through Scripture and prayer, let us keep our focus on eternity, on the kingdom of God, and on trusting Jesus over riches. May we save wisely, but also give generously.
   
2. As God makes us aware, let us refuse to financially support those who use unfair or illegal labor practices, even if it costs us financially or takes away some level of comfort for us and even our children.
   
3. Let us humbly listen to others, holding our personal desires loosely, always secondary to God's word and God's will.
   
4. Let us always treat others according to the second greatest commandment, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and never to see people as disposable in our pursuit of earthly goals, be those physical, educational, or even spiritual.
   

Eighteen years have passed since 9/11 became more than just a date on the calendar. A whole childhood ago for the children who were born that year. My entire married life has been lived in a post-9/11 world. To my children, it is an event in their history curriculum and on a timeline song. And yet my memories of that day are crystal clear.

I remember working as an itinerant ESOL teacher, and having appointments at different schools all morning.

I remember that every time I got in the car, the news on the radio was worse.

I remember the moment that the South Tower went down, and weeping for that lives lost.

I remember the heroes.

I remember “Let’s roll.”

I remember helping the SRO bring two of my Korean students home because their mom was out of town and they were staying with neighbors. She was not able to get home for a week because planes were grounded.

I remember parents picking their kids up from school, in South Carolina, far from the attacks, because no one felt safe.

I remember rumors that the Mall in Washington D.C. was on fire (it wasn’t) and weeping because I used to live near there and it felt like my back yard has been attacked.

I remember praying with a colleague whose dad worked in the Pentagon.

I remember trying to act normal for the sake of my students.

I remember rushing to Columbia International University, my alma mater, when my work day was over, looking for my boyfriend (now my husband) and friends, where I could focus on listening to the news, and on praying for our country.

I remember crying.

I remember trying to find red, white, and blue ribbon at multiple craft stores and that it was sold out.

I remember spending the weekend with my sister-in-law because my brother had been called up with the Coast Guard.

I remember taking pictures of gas stations on my way to their home and all of the signs saying “God bless America”.

I remember the leadership of President Bush, especially in the moment when he was told what was happening and he didn’t want to scare the school children with whom he was visiting.

I remember the cross in the rubble at Ground Zero.

I remember students at CIU going to NYC to help using plans and funds that had been put together weeks before the attacks happened.

I remember Democrat and Republican legislators standing side by side singing God Bless America.

I remember skies eerily silent with absent airplanes.

I remember planes returning to the skies, and cringing, watching carefully, wondering.

I will #neverforget that day and how it changed our world and the heroes who sacrificed everything for others.

Where were you?

With six years of homeschooling behind us, you might think that we've got this thing figured out by now, but nothing could be further from the truth. We are constantly figuring out what we can do better and what curriculum choices will best suit our children and the goals we have for them - spiritually, academically, and socially.

This year is no different, and because of some other changes we have made, it has at times felt more topsy-turvy than ever - but I am thrilled to share that we are now in a really good place and I could not be happier about the curriculum we have chosen for our rising second grade son and sixth grade daughter. Let me share it with you by topic so you can see how what we chose actually flows and works together in the big picture.

My goal in our Bible curriculum is for our children to know the people, places, and events in the Bible, the story of redemptive history, as well as what the Bible reveals about God, people, and the world in which we live. For an overview of the first, I am turning again to Grapevine Bible Studies, which we can use together, since the curriculum includes different grade level workbooks for the same topics. We also use New City Catechism and Big Truths for Little Kids to introduce different aspects of theology to our children.

At the same time, my sixth grade daughter is ready to start digging into the Bible on her own. For that, she will go back and forth between the Discover 4 Yourself series, by Kay Arthur, and the Trek middle school curriculum from Awana. (Having attained the Timothy Award last year for completing four Awana books since third grade, she is eager to keep going with the goal of receiving the Citation Award by the end of high school!) No church in our area has an Awana program after fifth grade, so we will just do this on our own!

Nothing new here! We have been happy with the Saxon Homeschool math curriculum and will continue to use that with Saxon 3 for second grade (we use everything except the "Meeting Book") and Saxon 8/7 for sixth grade.

Like Bible, Science is a discipline that we are still studying together. We are doubling down on science this year, only because I have a plan for my daughter to have a good introduction to all four major categories of science (life, earth, chemistry, and physics) before high school, and while we learned about particular topics in a sort of "unit studies" format, it was not as organized as I would have liked it to be.

This year, we will be using Christian Kids Explore Biology from Bright Ideas Press in the fall, and Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space in the spring. My plan is to do science twice a week, and to do one full chapter each day. We will read the chapter together and do the hands-on activity included. (If we were just using one book, I would be doing the reading on one day and the hands-on activity on the next day.)

That will be enough for my second grader. Later, during her independent time, my sixth grader will do some additional work for her science notebook, including some extra reading and research on the topic.

This will be a group effort, too. We will be using Mystery of History Volume 2, also from Bright Ideas Press, and will follow a similar schedule to science. We will alternate our history days with our science days. Each Week has three readings. On Day 1, we will read two lessons and complete one of the "younger child" activities for those lessons. On Day 2, we will read the third lesson and do one activity. On Day 3, we will review the week's work (including the corresponding geography).

Those activities will be sufficient for my second grader, but my sixth grader will go a bit deeper in her independent time by reading a related book, making memory cards about the events we study, and sometimes doing an additional research activity.

Okay, this is NOT my strong suit, but I do believe it is an important part of a complete education. So I have written in to my schedule a break where we are going to do some fitness activities together (I am going to try to get going again on the Homeschool Mom Fitness Program that I love!). In addition to these, my children are enrolled in a weekly program at the YMCA called "Homeschool Swim and Gym".

I am really excited about this. I have been trying to figure out how to "do" literature outside of just reading amazing books together - not that there is ANYTHING wrong or lacking about that! For my daughter, though, I wanted to start introducing her to literary concepts (character, setting, plot, and theme, etc.) but I didn't want to just give her a book and a bunch of worksheets. A friend introduced me to Center for Lit's approach to having Socratic discussions about literature, beginning in Kindergarten, and I love it. I got the DVD seminar Teaching the Classics and will be using their list of Socratic questions. We will be using the book list in their Reading Roadmaps Scope and Sequence as a starting place, and will be having lots of solid conversations about good books, both together and individually. My sixth grader will also be writing about what she reads - not all the time, but occasionally.

The discipline of "language" encompasses a lot for me.

First, language includes grammar. My second grader will be using First Language Lessons, Level 2 for this, and my sixth grader will be using Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind.

Second, language includes writing. For my second grade reluctant writer, we will be using Writing With Ease, level 1. My daughter is using Writing With Skill, Level 1. (I have heard this is intended for fifth grade, but I have also heard that it is challenging for fifth grade. We are going into this from two years of instruction with materials from Institute for Excellence in Writing, which is good, but different, so I'm happy to be starting from the beginning of this series.)

Third, language includes logic. The formal teaching of logic is something we are saving for seventh grade, so not yet this year, but we regularly include different kinds of "logic puzzles" in week to challenge their brains and stimulate this kind of thinking in the future.

Finally, language includes Latin right now. I am not waiting until third grade to begin a Latin curriculum with my son, but my daughter will be continuing with First Form Latin from Memoria Press, which she began last year in an online class with True North Homeschool Academy.

That seems like a lot when it is all written out! I'll write again soon about how we are working this all in on a practical level, and also about how this fits into our new approach to our classical homeschool!