Framing Your Foundation
One year my family had the unexpected pleasure of hosting a nest belonging to a lovely pair of Carolina wrens. The couple, who mates for life, worked together to build a home for their nestlings. The male gathered a diversity of building supplies and brought them to his mate who fashioned the twigs, leaves, weeds, and various other materials into a firm foundation upon which she then laid her eggs. Each morning and afternoon I would greet her as I climbed into and out of my car. Once the nest was completed, I watched as the mother bird kept her eggs safe and warm. Then came the seemingly never-ending task of the parents flying to from from the nest trying to keep the quickly growing brood fed. I loved watching the babies grow until there was no room left in the nest for them, and then one day I came home to an empty nest.
When the birds left that year, we didn’t have the heart to take down the nest so we left it perched on the eaves of our garage. The next spring, I came home to find the nest was being renovated. New supplies were being delivered by the father-to-be, and the mother bird was quickly freshening up the place. Perhaps our guests were the parents we had hosted the prior spring, or maybe we were witnessing one of our babies returning with a mate of its own to fulfill its part in God’s plan. Either way, I was thrilled to have another year of nestlings, but my expectations of chirping, fluffy babies were quickly dashed when I came home one day to find the nest lying on the floor of the garage. The birds recovered quickly and started building a new nest within days. This time the nest held together beautifully, and before long, we had new babies growing up and leaving their home to fulfill their destinies.
Not having learned our lesson, we left the nest intact at the end of the season. The next spring, we once again had our sweet birds return to that nest to reuse it. This time the nest seemed to be holding up to the stress of a growing family, but sadly, the nest, this time filled with eggs, fell again, destroying all of the eggs. Being ever resilient, the prospective parents found a new spot along the ledge to build a new home, and once again, the new nest provided a firm foundation for the building of a family.
I am happy to report that my husband and I finally learned from our past failures. Last winter, I asked my husband to remove the remnants of all of the previous nests. This year when the birds returned to our garage, there was no premade foundation there to tempt the birds into taking a shortcut. Their nest had to be built from scratch. Each blade of grass, leaf, and twig had to be personally selected and woven together to form a sturdy structure specifically designed to support their future family, and this year, we have had no mishaps. As of this moment, our sweet birds are the proud parents of the five beautiful eggs pictured in this post.
Being the mom of a college-aged son, I could easily hop into a bittersweet empty-nester metaphor at this time, but I am choosing to fly a different direction with this analogy. I want to talk about the nest as a metaphor for our intentionality in framing a worldview for our children. When the birds decided to use my garage to build their nest, they picked a location that would not only provide a solid foundation but would also protect their nest from predators and the elements. With the base selected, the male began gathering building materials suitable for constructing a foundation to support not only eggs, but also quickly maturing babies. When the birds built the nest from the bottom up, they produced a brood of fledglings every time. It was from the perspective of this nest, a literal bird’s eye view, that the baby birds encountered the world around them and developed an understanding of their place in that world. When the birds tried to attach their nest to the foundation laid by other birds, that foundation could not support the eggs no matter how well the new additions had been attached. Foundation building must be intentional to be successful If we take shortcuts, we will fail our children.
A worldview is our philosophy of life. It is the foundation upon which we build understanding of the world and our place within its structure. Our worldview defines our truth, and it defines who we are, what we believe, and how we see the world around us. I was raised with a biblical Christian worldview. The Bible was the truth upon which my worldview was formed. I read the Bible. I was taught by pastors and teachers who taught exclusively from scripture. I had parents who raised me with biblical principles as my standard for truth, and it is this worldview that has guided me as I have made decisions and navigated my way through life.
Proverbs 11:3 says “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.” When I became a parent, I wanted to raise my son to be a godly man of integrity so I strived to bring him up with a strong biblical worldview. I have been a far from perfect parent, but I have tried to keep the Lord first in our home. I have taught him that the Lord is the creator of all, and we were created to serve and glorify God. When we saw a beautiful sunrise or sunset, we stopped what we were doing to marvel at God’s beautiful gifts, and my son grew up knowing he was uniquely made by God to worship and serve him. We have lived in awe and fear of God’s majesty and power. We celebrate His love for us, and we strive to live a life of service to and for Him. My son learned we love others, we forgive, and we treat others with respect and kindness because the Lord commands us to do these things. I hope as an adult, he will continue to live his life on the foundation upon which he was raised.
In the world today, it is not easy to raise children with a biblical worldview, Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” As a teacher, I see the results of trying to raise a family on a borrowed foundation. These foundations are not made of straw and twigs, but of a media slowly pushing its agenda, blurring the boundaries between good and evil. Rather than birds singing the songs that God has ordained them to sing, music tells our children that hate and violence are justified, sin is to be celebrated, and godliness is all inclusive. Instead of seeing themselves as a unique and divinely designed part of God’s creation, social media convinces our children that they are either insignificant or the center of their own universe. So my question is how can Christian educators combat the influence of the deceptively built borrowed nest?
Colossians 2:8 says “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” As Christian educators we must meet our students where they come to us, but we cannot allow ourselves to take shortcuts by trying to educate godly young men and women on an insecure, borrowed nest. In order to combat the deceptive philosophies which the world thrusts upon children, we like the birds, must be very intentional in our nest building. Our purpose must be different than that of secular education. Our goal is to shape young men and women into disciples of Christ who are well-educated and prepared to do the work that God calls them to do. To accomplish our goal, our framework for curriculum, behavior, scheduling, and extracurricular activities must all be deeply rooted within the framework of a biblical worldview. A Christian education must be based on the immovable foundation of scripture if we are to teach students that truth is not transitory. Students must know that learning does not take place alongside God’s word, but rather it is a means for seeking truth within God’s creation.
It is April. I have less than two months left with my current batch of students. Soon my babies will be taking flight and moving to the next grade. Some will return to me next year, others I will see in passing, and sadly, some I will never see again. I hope I have taught them some subject material, a few life lessons, and the truth of who God is and His overwhelming love for them. My classroom has been a nest of sorts for them. From that perch, I pray they have been able to get a glimpse of God’s amazing creation and His calling for them within it. .It won’t be long until my wrens hatch and grow and then fly away. We will remove the nest next winter to welcome them back to start all over again, and the same will happen in my classroom next fall. I pray for strong nests that can withstand the attacks of enemies and the elements, and I pray that my students, like my birds, always remember how to get home to a God who loves them immeasurably.
“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” 1 Corinthians 2:12
