Day 34 Child-like Enthusiasm

Source Unknown

                                                       (see also Bird-Stalker)
 
“Our only means of true intimacy with a child is the recovering of our own childhood.”
 
                                                    *
 
“Generosity at its highest level, and with a certain added tincture, becomes Enthusiasm….”
 
                                                   *
 
“In a school, you must have an enthusiasm, must strike a note that vibrates in every breast to secure the common feeling without which there is no life.”

                                                   *
 
“The Certificate (House of Education Certificate) will be awarded only when the student shows herself possessed of – to adapt a phrase – the enthusiasm of childhood, which makes all work of teaching and training heart-service done to God.”

                                                  *
 
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

                                                   ~ G.K. Chesterton

 
Examen: Set a timer and write for 10 minutes on “my enthusiasm.”  Don’t evaluate, just keep the pencil moving. Now write for 10 minutes on “recovering my own childhood.” Do this as often as it seems fruitful.

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Our only means: Charlotte M. Mason,  Home Education, 1:184.
Generosity at its highest: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:104 Bk. I.
In a school:  Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:149.
The certificate will: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org,” accessed September 25, 2024, https://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR03p651HofEd.shtml.
Because children have: G. K. Chesterton and Charles Colson, Orthodoxy, New edition (Moody Publishers, 2009), 91–92.
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Childhood Enthusiasm meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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