This past year, we’ve completely turned our diet upside down, and now follow the “Trim Healthy Mama[1]” diet that Bonita found as a workable diet instead of my more radical recommendations of the GAPS Diet[2] or Gracie Diet[3]… I’ve found that since I quit eating grains and sugar, (and started drinking kefir and being intentional about my gut health), I’ve been noticeably healthier, with less indigestion, flatulence, more energy and a clearer head. Bonita has had noticeably improved energy and the eczema that she’s had since childhood has diminished significantly.
When we were young and idealistic, we jumped on the QF bandwagon and read a book called “Train up a Child” by the Michael Pearl. (I’d link it, except that might indicate my approval or endorsement of this text.) Let’s just say that our views on the subject differ significantly from Mr and Mrs Pearl’s take on it. I don’t want my children to tremble in my presence out of fear, or to accept things that they haven’t personally vetted or thought through, well into adulthood. My aim is to raise young women and young men who have the foundation to critically evaluate their environment and come to a judicious conclusion about it, no matter what they are faced with.
Furthermore, while we heartily agree that while children are being raised, the wife’s vocation is the rearing of the children, and should not be abdicated or adulterated by another career, the vocation of motherhood isn’t the only legitimate vocation for women, and for someone whose children are grown, or for one who has no children, there is no reason not to pursue another vocation. On that note, Bonita plans to pursue midwifery after our children are grown, and that is awesome! Working outside the home isn’t a sin for women, and leaving home at adulthood to pursue a college degree or a career prior to marriage… is highly encouraged in the Griffing house for both men and women. I expect all my children to be self sufficient before they reach their 20th birthday, and be able to strike out on their own, with only advisory guidance from Bonita and me from that point on.
That builds into my next point, I am not responsible to my father, mother or my in-laws for my actions, and am not subject to their authority. I expect the same of my children when they come of age. Bonita and I are no longer on speaking terms with her parents for this very reason. While I hope and pray that my values will be transmitted on by my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, from this generation until Christ returns in glory, it is not for me to enforce once my children have left my home as adults. They are at that point no longer my minor children, and are responsible adults, subject to the laws of the land and the Law of God, but no longer to the rules of the Steve Griffing house. I have no more right to interfere in the internal affairs of the nuclear family of one of my descendants than any other Christian American. If and only if there is a clear violation of the law of our land, or flagrant moral abuse can I interject at all, and then only in the role of an outsider.
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