Value The Strenuous Life

Teddy Roosevelt preached the doctrine of the strenuous life as the way to win the ultimate triumphs in life. We need stories and balance to help our kids see the value as we raise them. In a world of over affirmation and helicopter parents and institution that remove every difficulty, our kids ability to strive is out of balance. 

Transcript

Ethan: 0:01

Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

0:09

This is raising joyful children in an angry world. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. I was reading a speech this week by Teddy Roosevelt when he was in Chicago, and the title of it is called In Praise of the Strenuous Life, and it is so counter-cultural. But important if we're going to have children who, who grow into adults of courage and live confidently in the world. He was speaking to a group of men in Chicago, as they say. He opens up the talk about Lincoln and Grant, but he says this in the speech, I wish to preach to you not the doctrine of noble ease. But the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil, effort of labor, strife to preach that the highest form of success does not come to the man who desires ease and peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, from bitter toil, who out of these wins, the splendid ultimate triumph. He went on to say that the life of ease, it springs from a lack of desire. Or a power to strive for great things. And I would say that starts early in life by not having a worldview, a moral imagination, a story world that's filled with the idea of a splendid ultimate triumph through toil. He goes on to say, and this is particularly interesting to us'cause we live, whether you believe it or not, in a very wealthy. Time in this country, if you compare yourself to previous generations, uh, in the Great Depression or post-war, post World War ii, we did not have the kind of wealth and leisure that we have today. It's not uncommon for someone to get three weeks, four weeks vacation in starting a job within the first year or two. This was not the case in previous generations. And he goes on to say that those who who have wealth and, and their sons are free to have leisure, shouldn't spend it in idleness, but they're even more compelled to strive for something That's great in science, exploration, writing, and the arts, right? Because. They don't have to strive for for money. So they should even be more in inspired to do this. And of course, the question becomes, in these days of ease with all of our technology, you know, push a button, buy a house. how do we instill this in our kids? How do we show the benefits of the strenuous life that will help us win the ultimate triumphs? And I wanna say to you, I think we have to start in the early years in the stories we tell of those that advance humanity and science, those that have great war stories, those that overcome obstacles. And I think it starts in children's literature, which sadly, if you go to a bookstore, you're going to find a lot of this is missing and it's, it's hard to find. One of the things that I have been, spending some time on with my grandsons particularly is. The whole stories of the Great Knights. I'm, I'm reading a little kind of picture book called Ology and I like what it has to say. It's not just about learning how to be a good horseman or fight with a lance or a sword, but it is the love of chivalry and nobility as a protector of the poor and defender of the weak. It is not an easy task yet. Be of good cheer in this book. Uh, the Wouldbe Squire, that's one that's training for the night, will find all that he needs to guide him. In the stories of the Knights King Arthur, and the Round Table, uh, sir Lancelot and all of that, you're gonna find some great stories that the deal with this issue of the strenuous life and the ultimate triumphs. I wanted to share a couple that I will point out today. One is called the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson. If you've seen the movie Frozen, she borrows from this. As does CS Lewis's Lion witch in the wardrobe. There's a snow witch I believe in that story. But this is a great story about evil infecting a young man and he's captured by a snow queen, and his rescue and restoration comes from his prayerful friend, Gerda. It's an incredible. Explanation of how sin and evil kind of come into the world. It talks about a demon that builds a mirror that's trying to play tricks on the angels. It shatters into a million pieces and little shards get into our eyes and into our hearts, and it poisons the way this boy, Kay starts to see life. He gets captured by this snow queen on her false promises. And then the rescue of this boy is by his friend Gerda, she has to overcome many obstacles to reach him, and it's, it's just a wonderful redemption story, uh, of love. Another is Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson. I think this is a particularly good story for, for young men. It's something that's probably gonna have to be read over a number of days. But it's a coming of age book about a young man who's in a town of courageous men, and now it's his turn to sort of stand up to the bullies. And of course it also has pirates and adventures and treasures and all of that in the story. But it's a great story of what it means to strive and to take risk and to not fear danger. And I think these are the kinds of stories when are, that are outside the scripture, that help form a worldview. And inform the moral imagination of kids inside the Bible. We could look at Joseph. We could look at Daniel. The lion's den as well as Shad drag Meshach and ab Bendigo in their, in their captivity in Babylon. We could look at the stress between the David's facing as Saul is trying to attack him. These are classic stories of difficulty that God uses to shape men, and, and there's also Esther and others that shape men and women in the Bible, and, and the key in our scripture has to be though, that how they do it. Where the power comes to strive for something that's dangerous or risky, that's the ultimate victory, is by trusting the promise of God. That thread has to be sewn into that story. So, so the stories of the snow queen and others are, are excellent, but we need to also have that, that thread in which this courage and the power comes from the promise of God to shape us. I thought this, this speech and this concept was, was something that was important to share, uh, particularly in a, in a time and days where we, we often over affirm, we overpraise, we run out to remove the obstacles. That's the temptation that, that every parent has. No one wants a hard road for their child. But we've gotta see there's a balance to this and the praise of the strenuous life. You can see that I'm sure online through Theodore Roosevelt's speech has something to say to us. And I think what it says to us is we've gotta have stories and explanations and a worldview that have been informed by this concept.

Paul: 7:52

The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong.

Paul (2): 8:04

Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.