When Elisabeth Elliot died in June of this year the church lost a dear, wise treasure. EE was the author of over 20 books (if you’ve never read any of Elliot’s books, start with Through Gates of Splendor) and a marvelous theologian. Her first husband, legendary missionary Jim Elliot, was martyred in 1956 in the jungles of Ecuador by Auca Indians. For the next several decades Elisabeth spoke and wrote to the benefit of the evangelical church.
Much of Elisabeth’s writing was very personal: self-discipline, gender roles in the home, and relationships between husbands and wives. But it was her wisdom on parents and children that was most helpful for me. Following is an excerpt from her marvelous book, Keep a Quiet Heart:
When we were growing up our parents taught us, by both word and example, to pay attention to little things. If you do a thing at all, do it thoroughly: make the sheets really smooth on the bed, sweep all the corners and move all the chairs when you sweep the kitchen, roll the toothpaste tube neatly and put the cap back on, clean the hair out of your brush each time you use it, hang your towels straight on the rod, fold your napkin and put it into the silver ring before you leave the table, never wet your finger when you turn pages. They kept promises made to us as faithfully as they kept those made to adults. They taught us to do the same. You didn’t accept an invitation to a party and then not turn up, or agree to help with a Vacation Bible School and back out because a more interesting activity presented itself…
When I went to boarding school the same principles I had been taught at home were emphasized. There was a hallway with small oriental rugs which we called “Character Hall” because the headmistress, Mrs. DuBose, could look down that hall from the armchair where she sat in the lobby and spot any student who kicked up a corner of the rug and did not replace it. She would call out to correct him, “It’s those tiny little things in your life which will crack you up when you get out of this school!” In the little things our character was revealed. Our response would make our break us. “Don’t go around with a Bible under your arm if you didn’t sweep under the bed,” she said, for she would have no pious talk coming out of a messy room.
It is not easy to find children or adults who are dependable, careful, thorough, and faithful. So many lives seem honeycombed with small failures, neglectful of the little things that make the difference between order and chaos. Perhaps it is because they are so seldom taught that visible things are signs of an invisible reality; that common duties may be “an immeasurable ministry of love.” The spiritual training of souls must be inseparable from practical disciplines, as Jesus so plainly taught; “the man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great. If then you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches! And if you cannot be trusted with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?” (Luke 16:10-12, Jerusalem Bible).
- The Well-Ordered Home - May 16, 2017
- Grace-Based Parenting - March 8, 2017
- The Civil Government Has Asked Us to Pray - November 16, 2016
