Time for another installment of “things my children should know about me.”  The topic this time?  Ten people who have influenced me.  I’m going to assume that God is a given and we’re talking human influence.

Ten People Who Have Influenced Me

You’ll notice as you read through these that many of these are authors.  These men and women had a profound impact on my life because books they wrote challenged my thinking and were ultimately instrumental in the formation of my worldview.  Since worldview affects our lives at a fundamental level, that’s pretty significant!

Let that encourage you that you may not even know the extent of the impact you have on the world; your influence may be strongly felt by people you’ve never even met.  (These authors’ books aren’t necessarily my favorites.  They’re certainly not close to everything I’ve read!  But I can point directly to these as influential.)

1. & 2. Dad & Mom

These are probably a given.  They influenced me in so many ways, I’m not even sure I can recognize them all.  They trained me first of all to love God and trust His Word.  They modeled obedience, even when it means counter-cultural choices.  They showed me what a godly marriage looks like.  They taught me.  They put me under the teaching of Scripture, and other wise instructors.

They showed me that homeschooling doesn’t have to be “school at home,” but can be a lifestyle of learning.  For that matter, they prevented me from ever losing my love of learning.  I’m sure the list could go on and on, but the bottom line is that Mom and Dad were my first and some of my strongest influencers.

3. my sisters (and brothers)

Okay, so that’s way more than just one person.  But then, that’s more than ten, too, so it would wreck the list completely if I listed them individually!  These guys taught me to get along with people.  They gave me experience in adapting to people whose personalities and preference are much different than my own.  They taught me that family isn’t about who’s born into your house or shares your genes.  They also kept me company, ensuring I always had friends around.

4. Mary Pride

Despite growing up in a home with a stay-at-home-mom, it had never even occurred to me that not having some outside-the-home answer to “what do you want to be when you grow up” was an option.  Unbeknownst to me, my attitude toward women, home, and family was very much like the world’s attitude toward these things.  The Way Home was an eye-opener for me.

5. Rick & Jan Hess

Technically, this is two people, but we’ll just count them as one.  A Full Quiver is another book I read that had a strong impact on my thinking.  Mr. and Mrs. Hess merely laid out a biblical argument for the blessing of children – but it was an argument I had never heard presented clearly.

6. Carol Balizet

Although Carol Balizet and her team are considered rather extremist, the fact remains that her book, Born in Zion, was my first real introduction to the idea of homebirth in our day and age.  Reading this book sent me on to further research that has ultimately resulted in four homebirths.

7. Lynda Coats/Robin Scarlata Sampson

It’s probably only fair to consider Lynda Coats (or Robin Sampson; there’s been some chaos and confusion regarding who originally authored FAR) as influential in my life, even if it was somewhat indirect.  The three books mentioned above were all required reading for me in my last two years of high school – because we used the Far Above Rubies curriculum.  If it weren’t for Far Above Rubies, I might not have read those, and would have missed out on their impact on my life.

8. Michael

Then I met and married Michael.  Discussions we had before we were married helped me think outside my own church experience and adjust my thinking accordingly.  More significantly, after we were married, he’s the one who introduced me to Reformed theology in a systematic manner.

9. Uffe Ravnskov (or Sally Fallon?)

I can’t tell you exactly where or how I started learning more about natural health and whole foods.  For the most part, this has been such a gradual process that I don’t really know what happened when or where I learned what.  However, I do know that The Cholesterol Myths was particularly eye-opening in terms of how the “establishment” often misleads us, and how data can be twisted to portray what they want us to see/hear.

But I’m sure I heard about The Cholesterol Myths as a result of reading Nourishing Traditions, so maybe I should attribute this influence to Sally Fallon.

10. Ariel (my children)

My children – and particularly Ariel, being the first – have been influential in a variety of ways.  Of course, they had a good deal of influence simply by making me something I wasn’t before: a mother.  In the day-to-day, though, we learn from each other, and we grow in ways too numerous to count – and often too subtle to even recognize.