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106 pages

English

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For readers who long for strong families that know how to truly enjoy life together, there is much to learn from the Amish. Values like community, forgiveness, simple living, obedience, and more can be your family legacy--without selling your car, changing your wardrobe, or moving out to farm country.In Amish Values for Your Family, bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher shows how you can adopt the wisdom of the Amish when it comes to family matters. In this inspiring and practical book readers will find charming true stories interlaced with solid, biblical advice about parenting, marriage, and all aspects of family life. As readers get an intimate glimpse into the everyday lives of real Amish families, they will learn to prioritize what's truly important, simplify decision-making, slow down as a family, safeguard time together, and let go when the time comes.

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 août 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441232632
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0374€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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© 2011 by Suzanne Woods Fisher
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
E-book edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-3263-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
To protect the privacy of those who have shared their stories with the author, some details and names have been changed.
Published in association with Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency, LLC
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the next generation in my family, which started with Blake, who was born as I wrote this book. I am hoping for many grandbabies more to come. May each one of you keep the candle of faith well-lit and passed on.
One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.
Psalm 145:4 NIV
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Disappearing childhood
Section One: Children Are Loved but Not Adored
The Rabbit Hutch
The Mud Hole
Workshop Raising
Family Vacations
Too Much Money
Christmas Day
Bill Coleman and a Quilt
Mothers-in-Law
The Christmas Bird Count
Section Two: Great Expectations
August Pies
Laundry Day
How to Make a Marriage Last
A Teacher’s Viewpoint
Snow Day!
Little Boys and Eggs
The Do-Over Boys
The Girdle
Amish in the City
Read, Read, Read
Interlude: A Year in an Amish Family
Section Three: Daily Bread
God Doesn’t Make Mistakes
Gas Thieves
Sitting on the Front Bench
Calvin and Goliath
Widow Maker
Northern Lights
A Rare Bird
Seventy Times Seven
The Miracle of the Neighbor
Section Four: Letting Go
Bear!
Chain Saws and Worries
Pastimes
A Dog’s Life
Chuck and Henry and Two Eagles
Rumspringa
Singing to Cora
Wedding Season
An Early Good-bye
A Circle of Life
The Rabbit Hutch
Epilogue
Recommended Reading
Notes
About the Author
Other Books by Author
Back Ads
Acknowledgments
The Budget is a weekly newspaper for the Amish-Mennonite community, published in Sugarcreek, Ohio, since 1890. A scribe from each district sends in a weekly (more or less) letter that summarizes community news: who was born, who died, and all of life in between. When I first began this project, editor Keith Rathbun graciously gave me permission to include excerpts from Budget letters that shed light on the Amish: their family life, their work, their rich sense of humor, and their dedication to faith and church. Many scribes end letters with a saying or proverb. Most of the proverbs included in this book are from Budget scribes. I read the Budget regularly to study the Amish life—how the year’s seasons shape the farm, the variety of occupations the Amish are involved in, the values they believe in. Always, always, they point to God’s sovereignty. Great thanks and appreciation to the Budget scribes who chronicle their lives for others to enjoy.
I also want to thank Mary Ann Kinsinger for sharing particular stories from her blog, A Joyful Chaos , to round out this book so nicely.
My thanks to a few special Amish families in Lancaster County who shared their lives and opened their hearts, offering me the gift of a lovely friendship. And to my favorite traveling buddy, Nyna Dolby, for her ready camera and copious notetaking!
My everlasting gratitude goes to my agent, Joyce Hart, and my editors, Andrea Doering and Barb Barnes, for giving me the opportunity to write for Revell. To the wonderful staff of Baker Publishing Group, who put such attention-to-detail into each and every book, you are simply the best.
Last but always first, thank you to the Lord Almighty for letting me write for his glory.
Introduction
The Disappearing Childhood
The kind of ancestors you have is not as important as the ones your children have.
Amish Proverb
N ot long ago, I was asked to speak to a young mothers’ group. The topic focused on incorporating some Amish child-rearing values into today’s modern families without “going Amish.” Later, a woman approached me to share a story. Attached like Velcro to her knee was a two-year-old girl, her curly-haired daughter. “Just last week,” this woman said, “a friend told me that I really need to have more scheduled activities for my little girl. We do attend a Gymboree class once a week, but that’s not enough, this friend said. She thinks I should sign my daughter up for soccer.”
Soccer? For two-year-olds ? They haven’t even learned to count yet. How do they even keep score?
On the drive home, I mulled over the conversation with that young mom—a window into the kind of stress families are facing. Over-the-top pressure to be a success! This mom had been a college soccer player, so there was a part of her that wondered if her daughter might have a better shot at an athletic scholarship someday if she started now. But there’s a cost to that logic—a “disappearing childhood.”
Studies are finding some alarming trends in modern American families. In the past twenty years: children’s free time has declined by twelve hours a week; time spent on structured sports activities has doubled; family dinners are down by a third; and the number of families taking vacations together has decreased by 28 percent.
Additionally, parents now spend 40 percent less time with their kids than they did thirty years ago (that statistic includes driving in the car), and a 2009 study by the Annenberg Center at the University of Southern California found that the higher the income, the less time an American family spends together. [1]
The decline in family time, this study found, coincided with a rise in internet use and the popularity of social networks. Whether it’s around the dinner table or just in front of the TV, American families are spending less time together.
Let’s contrast those alarming trends to the Amish, who maintain one of the strongest and most stable family systems in America. New studies are finding that major depression occurs only one-fifth to one-tenth as often among Amish as it does among the rest of the US population. The Amish have close to a zero percent divorce rate. Harvard School of Medicine recently found that Amish people have a much lower rate of heart disease than do average Americans. Another new study found that they have lower rates of cancer.
Few people are aware that the Amish are the fastest-growing population in the United States. In 1900, there were five thousand Old Order Amish in America. Sociologists assumed they would assimilate into the wider culture. Yet by 2008, according to Donald B. Kraybill, Senior Fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, there were over 233,000 Old Order Amish. And half the population is under eighteen. The growth is coming from large families, with an 85 to 90 percent retention rate as children become baptized into the church as young adults.
The Amish seem to be doing something right.
So should we all “go Amish”? Of course not! However, there is much we can learn from these gentle people about raising our families well: to help prioritize what’s truly important, to simplify decision making, to slow down as a family, to safeguard time together, and when age-appropriate, to let go. Amish Values for Your Family invites you into Amish farmhouses for a hearty meal, to explore the topic of rearing children who are “in the world but not of it.”
So grab a cup of hot coffee, put up your feet, and come inside the Amish world with me.

The best things in life are not things.
Amish Proverb
W henever I speak to a group about the Amish, there is a moment when the audience stills, leans forward in their chairs, and begins to scribble notes. It happens when I make this statement: “Amish children are loved but not adored.”
The Amish view children very differently than we do. They love and value each child—in many ways, they value marriage and family more than the non-Amish do. They consider each child to be a gift from God. The average family has six or seven children. Ten or more is not unusual! Children with physical or mental handicaps are thought of as “special children.” I’ve heard quite a few Amish parents of handicapped children comment on how much they’ve learned from the gift of this “special child.”
The main career focus of couples is to raise children to love God and to remain in the Amish church. The first thing an Amish child begins to learn is that there is always a higher authority to yield to—parents, older siblings, church, and God. But Amish parents believe a child belongs to God, not to them. Such a perspective allows parents to raise their children with clear boundaries and a healthy detachment. Hoped for, wanted, loved . . . but not adored. As a result, children are always involved in the life of the family—but it does not revolve around them.
Few would disagree that an Amish childhood is a special one. The best