Truth Beauty and Goodness

A Three Part Blog Series

Part 2: Beauty

How can we incorporate “beauty” into our homes?

This is vital for us because we can find joy in beauty. I could paint for you a philosophical foundation on which to define beauty. However, what use would that be for a home schooling mother? I will start by saying that beauty in our lives is vital.  The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:4 that a gentle and quiet spirit brings an incorruptible beauty. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 we learn that God is making everything beautiful in His time. The Lord is beautiful as said in Psalm 27:4. As we are being formed into His image through humility and submission, we are becoming more beautiful in the sight of our Heavenly Father. We can conclude then that God must treasure beauty and we therefore must seek it.

How can we bring beauty into our homes?

The following ideas have been sourced from:

•      A presentation given by Celeste Cruz at the CMEC Summer Retreat in the summer of 2022 entitled “The Source of Our Joy: A Christian Conception of Beauty.”

•      PR article – “Beauty as an Educational Force” by Margaret H. Bulley (1913)

•      The Bible

I pray that these ideas are helpful in your own homes as tools to bring beauty to you and your children’s lives.

The following quotes have been taken from “Beauty as an Educational Force” by Margaret H. Bulley. This article appeared in Volume 24 (1913) of the Parents Review magazine:

•      “In teaching a love of beauty, as in everything else, we must begin with the child. To him the world is still a fairyland. His imagination has not yet had time to be dulled by his education and environment, and he is quick to receive each beautiful impression…There is only one way to set about this training, and that is constant association with great art and objects of beauty or failing that with the reproductions of it.” (p.376)

•       “There are so many practical ways in which we can help a child to a love of beauty. We can see that the necessary objects of his everyday life are good and well made. He must learn only good poetry, only good songs must be given him to sing, and good pictures only must be hung on his walls. Our early associations become part of the fibre of our being. They are full of romance and unforgettable. The boy or girl whose mind has been stored with the poetry of Milton and Blake; who has been taught to find delight in the art of former ages and the melodies of Beethoven and Bach, and who has learnt to reference nature in all her myriad forms, will be rich for life, and will have a source of joy that nothing in the world can take away.” (p.376-377)

•      “Bring a love of beauty to the elementary school children of the town, by means of school concerts and exhibitions.” (p.377-378)

•      “As far as secondary education is concerned, all who have influence should urge for lessons on the history of art to be added to the curriculum.” (p.378)

The following quotes and ideas are a presentation given by Celeste Cruz at the CMEC Summer Retreat in the summer of 2022 entitled “The Source of Our Joy: A Christian Conception of Beauty.”

•      Authors from the Romantic period, John Keats (English poet) and Charlotte Mason all agreed that “the epitome of beauty is found in nature.”

•      “True sincerity is beautiful to others and is beautiful in the eyes of God…Sincerity comes from self-forgetfulness mostly. An interest in the other, a love for the other, drives us to be our true selves. In fact Christian thought says that truest beauty is found in self-giving, in sacrifice.”

•      “Selflessness…a key quality of beauty.”

“True beauty is sincere and selfless.”  - We need to encourage our sincerity and selflessness in our children’s lives and practice it ourselves

•      Our duties towards beauty as said by Charlotte Mason —“The duty to recognize it as a gift from God or from man. The duty to appreciate its great ideas. The duty to preserve it in a posture of humility. And as we try to bring this kind of beauty home into our real lives with our very real children, we can remember too some related duties encumbered upon us as Christians – The duty to see beauty in the ordinary and even or specially in the painful. The duty to create a serene atmosphere from a calm spirit routed in God. The duty to bring beauty to places where it is not. This seems to be a special role for mothers, as co-creators of life with God.”

Practical Advice:

• Play classical music right from birth

• Teach music appreciation to your young children

• Art Appreciation – art gallery trips, art appreciation lessons

I conclude with my own words:

I pray that there are some practical tips on how to bring beauty into your lives. As we started with scripture, I would like to finish with a scripture, for it seems that the idea of ‘beauty’ can not only be attributed to man’s creativity, but more importantly to the giver of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, the author of the Word.

Isaiah 52:7

“How beautiful upon the mountains

Are the feet of him who brings good news,

Who proclaims peace,

Who brings glad tidings of good things,

Who proclaims salvation,

Who says to Zion,

‘Your God reigns!’”

Here, Isaiah is saying that the feet that bring good news, peace, glad tidings, good things and salvation are beautiful. Even though this verse is about Jesus our Messiah, we are also called to bring those things that are good and proclaim peace. So, what then is another way to bring beauty into our home school and lives? Not just through the study of God’s creation and man’s creation, but also through the entities that encapsulate what is good and speaks peace. Those creations that speak “God reigns…Jesus is our Saviour…peace… good tidings” should be a part of our home school and life.

Let’s spread the feast through a study of ‘beauty.’