Day 37 Choosing

"Child Picking a Fruit," Mary Cassatt

“…but to be at the mercy of associations, to have no power to think what we choose when we choose, but only as something 'puts it into our head,' is to be no better than an imbecile.”

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“The Way of the Will should be taught to Children. ––It is something to know what to do with ourselves when we are beset, and the knowledge of this way of the will is so far the secret of a happy life, that it is well worth imparting to the children. Are you cross? Change your thoughts. Are you tired of trying? Change your thoughts. Are you craving for things you are not to have? Change your thoughts; there is a power within you, your own will, which will enable you to turn your attention from thoughts that make you unhappy and wrong, to thoughts that make you happy and right. And this is the exceedingly simple way in which the will acts; this is the sole secret of the power over himself which the strong man wields––he can compel himself to think of what he chooses, and will not allow himself in thoughts that breed mischief.” 

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“But ideas may be evil or may be good; and to choose between the ideas that present themselves is, as we have been taught, the one responsible work of a human being. It is the power of choice that we would give our children.”
  
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“All that reason does for us is to prove, logically, any idea we choose to entertain.”
 
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“There is, as we have seen, only one power in the Kingdom of Mansoul quite at its own disposal, a free agent, able to do what it likes, and that is the Will; and the one thing the Will has to do is to prefer. 'Choose ye this day' is the command that comes to each of us in every affair and on every day of our lives; and the business of the Will is to choose.”

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“…a person be truly a person only as he acts upon the choice of his own will….”

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“Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles. But people with understanding realize that their pre-suppositions should be *chosen* after a careful consideration of which worldview is true.”                                            
                                                   
​                                                   ~ Francis A. Schaeffer
 
 
 
Examen: “Discuss the discipline of consequences, as applied e.g. to the child who does not choose to learn.” “How may children be brought up to 'do as they choose'?” “Why may we choose for ourselves only, and not for others?”

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 ...but to be: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:139.
The Way of: 1:325–26.
But ideas may be:  Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:230.
All that reason: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:116.
There is, as we:  Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:143 Bk.II.
...a person be: 4:145 Bk. II.
Most people catch: Jackson Jeremy C. Schaeffer Francis A, How Should We Then Live, First Edition (Fleming H Revell Co, 1976), 19.
Discuss the discipline: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org” Syllabus II. Examination I.
How may children: Home, 1:367.
Why may we: Ourselves, 4:233 Bk. II.

​Day 37 Choosing meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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