R.C Sprouls Goals For His Sons

[debrand]

My sister has restless leg syndrome and apparently I do also. Even though I am exhausted, the weird urge to move is keeping me awake. So, I decided to look up articles that R.C. Sproul wrote about his family.

I found this one and discovered some interesting quotes

homeschooltoday.com/news/125/30/A-Hope-and-a-Future.htm

his first dream was to be a heavy equipment operator. He had sundry plastic trucks and bulldozers that he loved to play with, as well as an assortment of videos showing how such tools worked. I gently tried to squelch that dream this way, “You know, Campbell, heavy equipment operators have to get up early in the morning, and often work late into the night. They are not left with a great deal of time to be with their family.†He adjusted his vision. He told me he was planning to hold off on that particular career choice until after his wife died. My career goal for him was that one day he would be a farmer. I’m afraid he didn’t take to that dream, in large part due to my own failures as a chicken farmer

The child was four. Why try to squelch a dream that will change over time. And what does it matter what R.C's goal for his child's career is? Fathers arent' supposed to pick their children's career.

All of my children are taught to respond, when asked, “What are Sprouls?†to reply, “Sprouls are free.†I ask them, “Whom do Sprouls fear?†and they reply, as I have taught them, “Sprouls fear no man; Sprouls fear God.†With Campbell I added this. I taught him to reply when I, or anyone else asked him, “What do you want to be when you grow up?†simply this— “A godly man.â€

First of all, if a child answered me that he or she wanted to be a godly man or woman, I would immediately know that the parents had trained him. I'd much rather hear a child respond with, "I want to be a superhero." At least that is the child's own thoughts. What R.C is doing is teaching his sons to have no original thoughts or ideas of their own.

We ought to raise up sons who will subdue the earth, and rule over it.

If their father doesn't encourage independent thought, how does he expect his children to take dominion over anything?

R.C has daughters but in the article he concentrated on sons.

[Vex]

That's sick. Why doesn't he want his son to be a truck driver? Why give him the toys and videos if he can't do it? You wouldn't buy a diabetic child sugar cookies and put them on their plate but expect them to not eat them.

Also: He's a baby. Kids change their dream career on a practically daily basis - at least, most do. I am the only person I know who is doing almost exactly what they wanted to do as a four-year-old. How dare he steal his child's dream?

[Kate]

My sister has restless leg syndrome and apparently I do also. Even though I am exhausted, the weird urge to move is keeping me awake.

Ok, got nothing on the Sprouls except that I expect you could have a job and....ALSO be a Godly person! Novel, I know.

But about the restless leg syndrome--this I know very well and suffered from on and off for about 25 years, but it completely went away when I started taking magnesium supplements. If nothing else, they're cheap and easy to find at just about any grocery or drugstore, might be worth a try, anyway?

[CanadianHippie]

When I was 4 I wanted to be a whale scientist, then superman, then a vet, then a whale, then a horse breeder, then a teacher, then a doctor... Um you get the point. This Sproul guy doesn't, but you do.

[formergothardite]

My sister has restless leg syndrome and apparently I do also. Even though I am exhausted, the weird urge to move is keeping me awake. So, I decided to look up articles that R.C. Sproul wrote about his family.

I found this one and discovered some interesting quotes

homeschooltoday.com/news/125/30/A-Hope-and-a-Future.htm

The child was four. Why try to squelch a dream that will change over time. And what does it matter what R.C's goal for his child's career is? Fathers arent' supposed to pick their children's career.

First of all, if a child answered me that he or she wanted to be a godly man or woman, I would immediately know that the parents had trained him. I'd much rather hear a child respond with, "I want to be a superhero." At least that is the child's own thoughts. What R.C is doing is teaching his sons to have no original thoughts or ideas of their own.

If their father doesn't encourage independent thought, how does he expect his children to take dominion over anything?

R.C has daughters but in the article he concentrated on sons.

:roll: Teaching your small child to anticipate the death of their future spouse so that they can get to do what they really want to do is beyond creepy.

[AnnoDomini]

I got the impression that the little boy had that thought all on his own.

[dawbs]

"“You know, Campbell, heavy equipment operators have to get up early in the morning, and often work late into the night. They are not left with a great deal of time to be with their family.†He adjusted his vision. He told me he was planning to hold off on that particular career choice until after his wife died. My career goal for him was that one day he would be a farmer"

Does this man KNOW farmers?

Because I can't think of a single farmer who doesn't work MORE hours and spend MORE time away from family than the equipment operators I know. (not long distance truckers--they're in a different category)

So...he kinda lied to his kid to shape this. that irks me.

[turquoise]

"“You know, Campbell, heavy equipment operators have to get up early in the morning, and often work late into the night. They are not left with a great deal of time to be with their family.†He adjusted his vision. He told me he was planning to hold off on that particular career choice until after his wife died. My career goal for him was that one day he would be a farmer"

Does this man KNOW farmers?

Because I can't think of a single farmer who doesn't work MORE hours and spend MORE time away from family than the equipment operators I know. (not long distance truckers--they're in a different category)

So...he kinda lied to his kid to shape this. that irks me.

Maybe that's why he's a "failed chicken farmer."

[dawbs]

I thought because we're all going back to the land and raising them in the back yard, that chickens didn't count?

;)

[MamaJunebug]

One of the most bombastic, lazy persons I knew said he wanted to be a farmer. He was 30 and regularly fell asleep at his desk in the comfortable but hardly plush office where we worked. He couldn't moves wing chIr in the boss's office bcz of his"bad back" and when he realized there weren't shovels as a standard piece of equipment in company cars hebpitched a hissy to end all hissies -- my point being, he had no idea how to improvise.

And he wanted to be a farmer. My point: A lot of know-it-alls know zippola about farming and what it requires, but they still want it. I think they saw the Monsanto commercial where the farmer gazes thoughtfully past his office computer through the window at the barn and fields while sipping on a cup of coffee.