Method In The Madness - Susanna Wesley

1669–1742

She was the youngest of twenty-five children, so she wouldn’t think it unusual to bear nineteen children herself. Nine of them died in infancy (not uncommon for that time), but Susanna Wesley still had a house full of kids. Her husband, Samuel Wesley, a minister, left the child rearing to her. There’s some irony in the fact that Samuel spent most of his life and finances writing a commentary on the book of Job. While he was studying Job’s sufferings, Susanna was living them. Besides the deaths of those children, there was a house fire that nearly killed her young son John, and Samuel was thrown in debtors’ prison twice, leaving her to scrape by as best she could.

Still, Susanna managed not only to care for her children, but also to teach them. She had learned the Bible, theology, and languages from her minister-father, and she passed all this on to her progeny. Amid the madness of this overflowing household, there was a strict method. At one point Susanna scheduled special times to spend with each child during the week (a method still suggested by parenting experts). The family also had devotional times together, especially on Sundays, sharing in Bible reading and psalm singing. Beginning at the age of five, each child would spend six hours a day in homeschooling, with Mom as the instructor.

Much later, when asked by her grown son John to describe her child-rearing process, Susanna responded with a lengthy essay, including eight “by-laws.” Some of her rules would be considered strict by modern standards, but there’s wisdom in them . . . and compassion. Consider her fifth bylaw: “That if ever any child performed an act of obedience or did anything with an intention to please, though the performance was not well, yet the obedience and intention should be kindly accepted, and the child with sweetness directed how to do better for the future.”

It’s hard to argue with the results of Susanna’s method. Two of her sons grew up to change history. John and Charles Wesley both went to Oxford University, where they gathered other students into a “Holy Club,” and they were soon mocked as “Methodists” for their methodical approach to Christianity. Hmmm. Where do you think they learned that?

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.

Proverbs 22:6