By Nicholeen Peck

Recently, I came across a quote that said that the “spiritual solidarity of the family” would determine the success of many things, such as churches and societies.  This inspired a lot of thought.  We all know the family’s role in society is crucial.  In fact, the whole of society pivots around the family.  We know that if the family isn’t pivotal and valued the society decays.  Could spiritual solidarity be the answer?

What is spiritual?  In Webster’s 1828 Dictionary spiritual is defined as “consisting of spirit; refined from external things; not sensual; holy”

So, according to this definition, a spiritual family would focus on keeping the spirit of love, of unity, of God with them at all times.  Their hearts would be knit together in love, which is a spiritual expression.  They would know what this feeling felt like and would deliberately invite this spirit into their communications and relationships.

This definition also makes it clear that a spiritual person is not the same as a worldly person.  They have been refined.  The spiritual person, or family, would focus more on the internal workings of themselves and the family than on the external.  As the family focused on inviting the spirit of love into the interior of their relationships and home life they would not give in to the sensual, often selfish, desires and cravings we all experience in life.  They would know that the spiritual is more important than the sensual and would choose not to act upon those sensual voices.  The process of choosing the spiritual voice over the sensual voice makes a person self-governed and holy.  This is the kind of person who learns to listen to the Spirit instead of the cravings of the body is a powerful person indeed.

What would happen if each person in a whole family had this kind of self-government; if they understood spirituality and lived spiritually solid?

Let’s talk about solidarity.  Online solidarity means, “unity or agreement of feeling or action within a group.” For further understanding, I searched in my Webster’s 1828 Dictionary for the word solidarity, but couldn’t find it.  Apparently, the word was not used in 1828.  But, the root of the word, solid, was in the dictionary. Understanding the word solid helps the word solidarity make much more sense.

Solid means, “firm; compact having its constituent particles so close or dense as to resist the impression or penetration of other bodies…parts are not easily movable or displaced.”

How Can The Family Change The World?

Eureka!  The definition of the word solid is a gold mine for societies, governments and the world. Most people don’t like change.  In fact, no one is happy when major things in life, like family relationships, change or deteriorate. If the family is solid it cannot be changed by outside sources.  When the family is solid it cannot be destroyed, altered or penetrated by distractions or dysfunctions.

The unity of the family is powerful, but the spiritual unity of the family is unconquerable.

To create a spiritually solid group the family must be united in principles, beliefs, purpose, and practices. To have this kind of unity each family member must know and desire the feeling of the Spirit of love, they must understand and respect the roles of each person in the family, and they must have an effective method of communication, teaching and correction that connects the family instead of divides  the family, as is common in modern times.

I Don’t Understand

If the families in our communities become spiritually solid the damaging messages that cause so much concern to parents now days would have no effect. We live in a time when people are concerned about governments defining and controlling families, agendas forming the minds of our young people in negative ways which are contrary to the happiness of the family, and the roles of family members are being misrepresented and misunderstood.

Why do we put up with this treatment of the family?  Why are people trying to restructure the family and break it apart?  What is to be gained by this?  I don’t understand.

These are real concerns.  People, like me, spend countless days trying to stop the micromanaging and damaging of the family.  But, the real power to combat these concerns, the real answer, lies in the family. The family must heal itself.  It must become spiritually solid again, as it once was in times of old.  Then, we will be happy and impenetrable.

What To Do

To create spiritual solidarity in the family we need to:

1. Be firm in our beliefs.  Be religious.  Practice our faith each day alone and as a family.
2. Strengthen relationships by having regular and frequent family time.
3. Decrease distractions to the family
4. Have a pre-determined, common vocabulary for basic family communication and correction that the whole family uses.  (The most common reason parents are ineffective is because mothers and fathers and children do not have a unified vocabulary for problem solving and respecting roles which leads to communication frustration and isolation.) Common vocabulary will decrease contention and increase unity and respect.

Never in the history of the world has every family believed that the family benefits from spiritual solidarity.  There has always been opposition to this idea. But, if we look back through history it is easy to see that the families which were spiritually solid always accomplished more than those who were not.  They were also more independent of government involvement, contributed more positively to their societies, and were more attached to family and community than those members of families who were not spiritually solid.

What kind of future do you want for your family?  Socially influenced mediocrity or spiritual solidarity?

If you need help with steps 2, 3, and 4 on the list above go to https://parentingselfgovernment.com/store

If you want to see a video illustrating the differences between families who are not spiritually solid and one that is, watch this BBC show. 

By Nicholeen Peck

On May 6th, 2014 I went to a viewing of the new documentary, Irreplaceable, produced by Focus On The Family. This documentary took on some of the big issues facing the world in our times such as abortion, population decline, the importance of mothers and fathers in families, and general social confusion related to misunderstanding the family. They said if people don’t respect sex then they don’t respect marriage. And, if they don’t respect marriage then they don’t respect women or fathers. And, if they don’t respect women or fathers then they don’t respect the role of the parent, which leads to not respecting children. They were ‘right on’ and their proof was compelling. The main message of the show was that each person in a family is irreplaceable and the institution of the family cannot be replaced by government or a substituted version of the family either. I highly recommend seeing this documentary if it shows again or when it comes out on DVD.

After the movie my father said to me, “I hope I did okay in my role as a father. I was gone a lot with my multiple jobs to ‘make ends meet’ for the family that I missed a lot of things.” I assured him that even though he wasn’t there physically all the time, we all felt his love and presence in our lives and we all learned to work hard from his example. The messages about the importance of fathers really had an impact on the men in the movie theater.

The women were equally touched and inspired to live their roles better and to examine their daily actions to see if they are having the impact on their families that they want to have as well. One woman who was interviewed on the movie from prison said that she used to allow men to use her sexually because that was what she thought her role was. But, after some time in prison she had turned her life over to God and found greater purpose which has encouraged her to fulfill her God-given role instead.

The Role Of Mother

If you ask anyone, especially on Mother’s Day, what the role of mother is they will give answers like: caretaker, nurturer, guardian, protector, teacher, parent, etc. Historically speaking, the role of mother is probably the most noticeable and regarded, but it is probably the least understood. We can all list the things mothers are and the things they do, but we don’t often acknowledge the power they have.

To understand mothers is to understand their power. Some people think that women are only powerful if they become less like women and more like men. Many women would abandon their God-given gifts, their divine natures, and their innate qualities which control and inspire the world such as their moral authority and influence, their compassion, understanding natures, connective qualities, and abilities to relate to and teach all in their spheres of influence in the pursuit of the qualities and characteristics of manhood. The notion that womanhood is only completely realized when women are exactly like men is a false notion that would destroy the most powerful force of teachers on the planet, mothers.

Poet William Ross Wallace described each mother’s influence on family, society and government with his often quoted poem, The Hand That Rocks The World.

              The Hand that Rocks the World  by William Ross Wallace

Blessings on the hand of women!

Angels guard its strength and grace,

In the palace, cottage, hovel,

Oh, no matter where the place;

Would that never storms assailed it,

Rainbows ever gently curled;

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

Infancy’s the tender fountain,

Power may with beauty flow,

Mother’s first to guide the streamlets,

From them souls unresting grow—

Grow on for the good or evil,

Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

Woman, how divine your mission

Here upon our natal sod!

Keep, oh, keep the young heart open

Always to the breath of God!

All true trophies of the ages

Are from mother-love impearled;

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

Blessings on the hand of women!

Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,

And the sacred song is mingled

With the worship in the sky—

Mingles where no tempest darkens,

Rainbows evermore are hurled;

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

Whether mothers use their power to create good, moral children and citizens, or whether they use their power to create selfish, morally corrupt people who will fill our prisons it is un-disputable that mothers are powerful.

Mothers are so powerful that the lack of their presence or love can devastatingly alter the life of a child. Children who don’t have mothers present in their lives often struggle morally, socially, and spiritually. Mothers are the first doctors, the first therapists, the first teachers, the first dieticians, and the first ministers. And, because they are the first instructors on every subject they are also the foundation for comparison of all data that will be learned after the child leaves her care.

At the end of the movie, Irreplaceable, the director of the show talked about what families can do to help support and strengthen families around the world. The answer was simple really. Each person in the family needs to recognize the power that comes from living their roles and start living them better. They gave families hope and a vision of what families are capable of being no matter the troubles they face. They made it really clear that since families now days aren’t perfect they need to start fixing relationships by taking their roles seriously.

This Mother’s Day don’t forget to honor your mother for her role and her power. And, if you are a mother, magnify your power like never before. Not in the feminist, battle of the sexes, way that is so common now days to assert power, but in the way God made you powerful. Reach out with love, compassion, joy, and wisdom to all you see on your special holiday. Each mother is a mother of the year if they want to be. The mother of the year award isn’t really something that is given to a mother. It is something she focuses on becoming each minute of the day. She knows that she is the mother who will change the year and the world for the better, and she takes action in the only way a mother can. Mothers are irreplaceable. Families are irreplaceable. And, the more mothers we have who know that, the more social, familial and political ills we will correct.

Changing the family and strengthening the roles starts with each of us. We must learn self-government. Start learning to govern yourself and teach your family self-government here: Teachingselfgovernment.com

By Yvonne Averett

Maternity by design is wholesome and good, and is divinely intended to benefit the mother in countless ways and at so many different levels: emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, behaviorally, biologically, etc.
All good things get challenged, so it comes as no surprise that contradictory and counterfeit ideas against maternity are promoted even institutionalized, which are not wholesome, not good, and not divinely intended, which end up harmful to women. A few days before Mother’s Day, a perfectly timed debut, Cosmopolitan published 25 year old abortion doula, Emily Lett’s essay, “Why I Filmed My Abortion.” The story has spread quickly throughout the media. Emily posted on YouTube a video of her alleged abortion. There is no verifying that what is taking place in the video is real, that part is assumed. In her essay, she says she was introduced by her administrator to Angie AntiTheist, obviously an alias, another YouTube poster who wanted to show the world how positive taking RU486 is. This became Emily’s inspiration for her clinical abortion video.
The idea of promoting abortion as positive has been the strategy of pro-abortionists for a while now. This is good news in the sense that at large, abortion is no longer accepted in society as a good choice, nor as something positive. Those who promote the dignity and rights of each individual from conception have made great headway, so much so that the pro-abortion lobby NARAL has felt threatened enough to pressure Google into blocking pro-life ads on all searches tagged “abortion clinic”-and we all thought our searches were objective. They argued that abortion industry revenues were being negatively affected by the pro-life ads.
Despite their well- funded lobby, research continues to reveal truth of the “not good” and “harmful” when it comes to abortion such as in a recent Chinese meta-analysis that links induced abortion and breast cancer.
On the flip side, one little known benefit of maternity is no breast cancer. It was known as early as mediaeval times that breast cancer was a disease resulting from not experiencing maternity; it existed primarily in nuns, and found rarely in the aged. Only in recent years has breast cancer become a disease in women of child bearing age. Research is catching up to what we already knew, maternity is the healthy, good and beneficial choice for women. WOW will be exploring and sharing research in a continuing series of articles addressing maternity and the biological effects of its expression and suppression.

By Nicholeen Peck

Mar 12 2014

In James Madison’s essay “Property” it says, “…a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.

“He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions and in the profession and practice dictated by them…”

This is a piece of the philosophy of the founding of the United States.  So, when the founders said that we have a right to property, not only does that mean physical tangible property, but the right to conscience.  Sadly, many people do not see that their right of property is under attack each day by media, politicians, schools, and special interest groups. The demographic of people who are the most unaware of the deliberate transforming of their thoughts is children.

Multiple years ago I heard a presentation given by a university professor from Brigham Young University that said that for years the main target audience of media and business was teens, but that at that time the audience had noticeably switched to tweens, those youth ages eight to twelve.  The reason this professor gave for this switch in target audience was money.  He reasoned that the sooner the messages are received about pop culture, trends, and social acceptance the more money businesses would make from them.  Just simple marketing right?

As I prepare to speak at the United Nations, I am more and more convinced that marketing might only be one reason that children are targeted by a tremendous amount of public messages and legislation recently. Let me be very clear that this action of changing the minds and hearts of our children is done in a spirit of concern.  It isn’t always easy to see.

Protecting Conscience: There Is A Way 

With this onslaught of attention being paid to our children, coming from every angle imaginable, what can we do to protect their consciences?

1. Parents must be the first source of information! Present things to your children in your way with delicacy and with your religious perspective. Their ability to use their conscience depends on you helping them form it.  God gave children to parents to train.  That fact is self-evident. Training involves helping children understand what is right and good and true and teaching them how to honor parents, God and conscience.  We need to teach them about how to know what voice to follow and how to recognize truth.  This takes deliberate training.
2. Parents must stay informed about what is happening at school. Since schools have become the stewardship of government in recent years instead of the stewardship of parents as they once were, the core values presented cannot be blindly trusted.  Also, the social environment becomes increasingly more selfish and disconnected from virtue and family as the years go by.  So, parents must get involved with their children’s education and present correct information and wisdom. Look closely at any class, program or activity that is new or mandatory before allowing your child to enroll.
3. Parents must be with children when they are reading books, on media devices, or watching TV. And, don’t stop there, discuss all you see and hear. Talk more. Daily. Life must be discussed. Discussing with children is not only good for properly training a conscience, it is essential for forming a relationship.  Do hobbies together, discuss and read together.  Your relationship will strengthen you both.
4. Parents need to have meetings with their children each week. Every Sunday evening my husband and I have a family meeting and then a mentor meeting with each child.  Both parents sit down with each child individually and a notebook and talk about their goals, their thoughts, their friends, their school work, and their ideas.  It is amazing how much focus this one fifteen minute meeting can give to parents and children each week.  It also starts an ongoing conversation in a safe, connective way.
5. Strengthen the children spiritually. They need to be protected by truth so that they will be able to recognize when a lie surfaces in their lives. Virtues, morals and religious beliefs and practices are the back bone of conscience. Without virtues, morals and beliefs the child could easily be fool by a others.

The Alternative

If we don’t help train the consciences of our children, who will?  Because all consciences are trained. This is why I think focusing on tweens as a target marketing audience will do more than simply make companies money. They are so impressionable at this age.

Recently I have met children who tell me they want to be activists for various causes. Where did they get this idea? Why are so many children wanting to save the animals, stop global warming, and fight for rights? Well, they are the next hero generation according to The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe. They were born to fight. I think it would be very cunning of someone to give them a cause to waste their time on so that they don’t spend their efforts fighting for the good cause they were born to fight for: usually freedom, faith, or family. For these are the topics that really are under attack each day, in so many settings around the world.

Any business man knows that whoever owns the most property has the most power. This applies to real estate, assets, and I think it also applies to controlling the conscience of others. Protect the conscience of your children. God gave them to you so that you would train them up for goodness and to fulfill their purposes in life. The power of conscience is the power of truth. As the old saying goes, “the truth shall set you [them] free.”

HB286   This is the mandatory child sexual abuse education for children ages K – 12. This bill passed the House and the Senate and will be implemented in two years.  Hopefully, next year it will be repealed.

On the surface this bill looks like it helps children. But, on closer observation it is easy to see that this bill is a violation of conscience for the children.

Children should not have to be exposed to talk about sex and  mutilation with anyone other than the protector of their spirits; their parents.   The statistics they have been publicizing are not correct.  They have said that 60% or so of abused children are abused by their parents.  That sounds huge.  But, they are only talking about the children that ARE abused.  And the statistic changed multiple times over the course of the argument so it isn’t consistent.

The statistic they should have listed was that only about 1/2% of children in a school are mistreated by their parents.  This means that 99.5% of children who are not mistreated at all by parents would need to listen to information about how their parents are scary and are perpetrators.  Grandmas and grandpas are portrayed as not safe in the educational materials, and the trainings are usually administered by Planned Parenthood supporters or agencies.  The only out on this mandatory class is opting your child out of it.