Open Season Answers from Brent

Answers from Brent

pkjammers55@yahoo.com asked:
Hi Michelle and Brent, What part of Oklahoma do you live in? I am from Denison, Texas. I love you and your family. thanks, Laura
We live south of Norman out in the middle of nowhere. I've been told several times that I need to live as far away from real people as possible. Not sure how to take that...

Rachel asked: This is my first time asking a question! I hope mine makes the *cut!* What are your thoughts on egg donation? Do you think it is something God approves or disapproves of? Do you think it is a moral and/or ethical thing to do, both for the woman donating and the woman receiving?
We believe that any time an honest and full effort is made to protect the life of a potential person, it is acceptable as long as no CLEAR and UNDENIABLE moral grounds are tread upon, or direct commandments of God ignored.

As far as I know about egg donation, every effort is made to protect the eggs and none of them are squandered or casually discarded. If that is indeed the truth, then we would have no problems with the practice. It fall squarely into the realm of conscience and Christian liberty because, obviously, we have no specific references to it in Scripture.

Sioux asked: Our children are 6, 3, and 2. Is there are particular family daily devotion or children's daily devotion that you are partial too? Or what do you do at your home to help teach these topics. Most of the Bible stories in our childrens bible still scare our kids, floods covering the whole world, people being thrown in fiery furnaces or to lions, talking serpents, brothers sending their brother away, giants, I'm sure you get my drift. Any suggestions would be great!

We have a children's Bible story book that I read to the kids each night. To be honest, it's pretty pitifully written so I just follow with it as a guideline and I mostly ad lib the stories.

As far as reading the stories you believe are scary, the Bible is the Bible. The stories are there to teach our kids about real-life and in particular, the scary stories often reveal the truth about sin.

I would not shy away from sharing those stories as they can be told in an age-appropriate manner. There many things in this world that we should protect our children from but the stories in the Bible are not one of them. Again, it takes parental and spiritual discernment to tell those stories appropriate for their age.

For example, we tell our three and four year olds, "Jesus died on the cross" but we don't say "he was horribly tortured and beaten, nails driven through him, skin ripped to shreds...". That is not appropriate for their age but the truth of the story is. It's a little scary to hear "Daniel got thrown in with the lions" but that's the whole point... it was scary.

On another point, unless your children are VERY sheltered nowadays, they are going to see, hear and be told things that are much more violent, and certainly more damaging than any Bible story ever could be.

Kate asked: What do you know or think about the Gothard ministry? My brother-in-laws family is a part of it (though he is not), as are the Duggars (who are gaining popularity), and I've found it difficult to find info about it online. What I have found is disturbing doctrinally, but it's kind of few and far between...

I have not researched them and so really cannot speak with any certainty or authority on what they believe or teach. If anyone out there has well documented material about them, I would be grateful if you would send me a copy.

Emma asked: As a longtime reader of your blog, I've noticed some changes. This *is* titled *the riggs family blog* however, it seems to me that lately, it has become the *ask and answer questions* blog. While I have no problem with this- and in fact look forward to these posts- i wish the posts would shift back to their original focus: wonderful family stories, great pictures and updates on Abby. Please don't misunderstand- I enjoy these q and a posts-- but they seem to have taken over this blog.

I addressed this in a previous answer but in short, we just go through different phases. When my wife has less time or desire to write much of course I tend to write more. I also enjoy the question and answers quite a bit, and I figure as long as people are asking questions and there is a demand to hear the answers. We've got a lot of things going and we just do whatever it is we feel like God would have us do at whatever point in our life we are in.

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