I just received my Fall 2009 issue of TEACH Magazine, and was reminded to write my review for the Summer issue which focused upon purity.  In truth, I have been slowly savoring this thoughtful issue for months – it’s obvious that much prayer and careful contemplation has gone into this magazine for daughter’s of God who are busy building His kingdom through their roles as wives, mothers, homeschoolers, and homemakers (often in that order!)

If you aren’t a current subscriber to Teach you might be surprised.  This periodical lacks the full-colour, crammed full, glossy, advertisement laden pages of other homeschooling mags.  In fact, it is mostly filled with heartfelt, thoughtful articles, poetry, essays on spiritual development, and updates from the family of ediatrix Lorrie Flem.

The formal theme title is “Purity: In the “Purest Sense of the Word”, and focuses not only on the simpler issues of modesty, but on the deeper issues of cleansing from sin, emotional purity, and filling our hearts with the word of God so that we can think His thoughts after Him – surely the highest degree of purity!  Contributors young and old, from teens to grandma’s shared their hearts and the wisdom that the Lord has graced them with – wisdom that readers such as myself can in turn learn from.

It can be tempting (for me) to slip into religious bondage that focuses more upon external purity than upon the purity of the heart and soul.  God’s desires to turn us from dross into gold in the most secret, hidden places of the heart is so much more important to him than our external appearance – however modest that may be.  Please note that I’m not devaluing modesty – we certainly seek to dress in a way that doesn’t lead others into temptation – but I really appreciated the hearts of the TEACH contributors to draw out the fact that purity is much more than what we wear.

Some of the inclusions that I found the most helpful in the summer issue (ah, summer is almost gone) were Marilyn Boyer’s article about using the word of God through the book of Proverbs as a tool in lighting the path towards spiritual purity, and an anonymous free-form poem “A Portrait of Christ”.  I’ve been aware of the emphasis on teaching Proverbs in the homeschooling community, but it never really ‘clicked’ for me until I read Marilyn’s article.

Now that my Fall copy of the magazine is here I’m so excited to dig in and read the gems that the Lord has led Lorrie and her team of writers to bring to the table in this new issue.