Husbands & Fathers, Joy-filled Limitations, and Small Beginnings: Quotes from My Current Reading Material {February Edition}

“What you are searching for…is a woman who is submissive to God Himself, to His holy Scriptures, and then to the way that God made the world, and then last, as a consequence of all the preceding, to you.”

–Doug Wilson, “The Value of Gender Stereotypes“

(I also sent Doug Wilson a letter in response to a different article in the same series. Here’s his response to my letter.)

“I don’t want to rehash years-long arguments, but it’s worth noting that stoicism, competitiveness, and even aggression can be virtues. They are not inherent vices. Each can be toxic in the wrong context. Each can be dispensible in the right time and place…a healthy masculinity seeks to channel these characteristics (which are often, but not exclusively found in young men) towards virtue and away from vice.

In other words, you’re not asking boys to reject their nature, nor are you asking them to indulge their impulses. Instead, the process of character formation shapes a young man from the inside out, to make the very best of who they are. And then, ideally, as a boy grows into a man, he connects his virtue to a sense of purpose–a calling into which he pours his energy and effort.”

–David French, “Only a Man Can Be a Husband. Only a Man Can Be a Father.“

“Humility isn’t a matter of beating yourself up for your failures; it’s a matter of receiving joyfully the limits within which you live, learning to be the beneficiary of gifts that are beyond your ability to produce, control, or manipulate.”

–Jonathan Rogers, “Productivity Shame and the Joy of Limits“

“If we love God with all of our minds, we will be safe wherever we go. If we do not, we will not be safe anywhere. In the meantime, it is our duty to love Him with all our minds, and this includes our study of the history of our language, culture, and people.”

“It is important that you not be ashamed of small beginnings, and at the same time, you must recognize that they are, in fact, small beginnings.”

–Doug Wilson, Repairing the Ruins, “The Why and How of Latin”

“Nearly every capable educator in the history of the human race has realized that the least important thing we educators do is disseminate information, which is (especially now) widely available in less expensive formats. What capable educators have always attempted to do is to infect their students with a love of learning and a hatred of parochialism.”

“Further, I am very self-aware of a value issue here: is something worthy of my (limited) attention merely because it occurred recently?”

–T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns

“Dazzle your child with Christ, and then encourage your child to obey the Lord. Your goal is to combine love and limits–to give your child law and gospel, not just rules and regulations.”

“Feelings make good servants but poor masters.”

–Josh Mulvihill, Preparing Children for Marriage (I highly recommend this book!)

Josh Mulvihill also quotes G.K. Chesterton: “God gives us rules so that good things can run wild.”