“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4
History, probably the best school subject out there. Okay, it IS the best school subject if you ask me. But why do we study history and how can we learn to love history?
The verse above from Romans shows us that reading history is for our learning. When we read the Old Testament which is filled with the history of our universe we can learn from it. We can learn how our world started (no, it wasn’t with a big bang). We will learn about the start and fall of man and the creation of a new earth after the great flood.
God had the history of the world written down in the Bible for our benefit. We will see from reading the Bible that man was hopelessly lost in their sins but gloriously redeemed by a Savior. We can learn that throughout history powerful leaders arose in Bible times to lead godly men on treacherous journeys to places unknown. The Bible is rich with history.
The Holy Spirit led men to write the Bible through the first century only but the world’s history carried on. Why know history? When we start studying each century, we will see God’s hand throughout them. He was (and is) weaving a story together and showing us many things. One thing He shows us is His Word has stood the test of time. Another truth we can observe through history is the spread of the Gospel throughout all the continents. It is a fascinating study.
One of those treks was made by Pilgrims fleeing England and a tyrannical king. They wanted to worship God freely without the king’s ungodly rules. It was a difficult trip close to winter in 1620. A small group came to America and an even smaller group survived that first harsh winter. Our country was starting to form way back then.
Hurry on to the late 1700’s and our ancestors believed they needed to break politically from England. We became a nation with our own leaders. We called them Presidents.
“History is important because it teaches us about past. And by learning about the past, ypu come to understand the present, so that you may make educated decisions about the future.”
I wanted Melanie (she is in 5th grade) to study the Presidents and their First Ladies this year so I wrote a book for her. When you are young, long books with bunches of facts don’t speak to you so I wanted something quick and easy to absorb.
We have enjoyed starting the school year learning first about our Constitution and then about the Declaration of Independence and the White House. Now we are on to the Presidents. I have multiple books about the Presidents that we look through. We read facts that jump out to us but mostly we stick with my book which chose fun facts.
History is an important subject because we all know, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It is why God told the children of Israel to each history to their children. Deuteronomy 6 is a rich chapter full of promise that we, too, can claim as we teach history to our children. It doesn’t need to be a dry nor a boring subject. We can bring it alive to our children. But bring it alive we must. History is a subject not to be left on the shelves of our schools but to be taught richly to the minds of the next generation.
A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future. (Roberta A. Heinlein)
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