At Cross Purposes : Christian Parents and the Postmodern Culture
Ever feel like you're on dangerous ground? I do. With two of my six children in public universities and four on the way up, I'm very aware of the battle for the minds and hearts of our kids. We do our best to teach them about the Christian faith, and we pray it's enough to protect them against all the pressures of the outside world. But it probably won't be if we don't intentionally teach our children a biblical worldview and give them confidence that their faith is intellectually credible. If we neglect discipling their minds, we send them out as lambs for the slaughter.
Most kids in most churches go to public schools. They're tough places to navigate. Only too often hot-button topics of the day -- teen sex, homosexuality, abortion, the origins of life, and ethics -- come from only one point of view. It's no wonder that Christian parents in growing numbers are homeschooling their children or sending them to Christian schools with a solid biblical worldview emphasis.
But wherever they go to school, when they come home in the afternoon, kids watch television, listen to the radio, or surf the web. They are confronted by images that promote everything from materialism to the abuse of women and children to extramarital sex. Just a few days ago, basketball star Kobe Bryant made a splash as the most popular male athlete at the 2003 Teen Choice Awards, in spite of being not only an accused rapist, but also an admitted adulterer.
The cultural voices seem to be saying different things, but the same message underlies them all: There is no ultimate truth, no moral code by which to live our lives.
The message: that God is totally irrelevant if He exists at all. Life is what we make it. We choose. It's an attractive message because it eliminates accountability, and it's coming at our kids from all sides.
The most dangerous thing kids can do is to handle this by "compartmentalizing" the sacred and the secular in their minds. This is a split-level faith. God lives on the top floor; I live in the basement, with no connecting staircase. Instead, we have to help them understand that the Christian faith is relevant to everything in their lives. Jesus knocks on the door of our life and wants to occupy all of our life.
And so one of the most important things we can teach our kids is how to see all of life, not just their home life or the time they spend at church, from a Christian point of view. No matter how hard we try to guard them, they'll hear conflicting messages. We must help them put intellectual muscle behind their faith.
In the Old Testament, God provided the Israelites with a model for passing down His truths to their children. In Deuteronomy 6, He tells them -- and, I believe, us -- to "impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." In other words, no matter what the culture tells us, it's our responsibility in the routine of life to teach our kids that truth exists, that we can know it, that we can live it, and that, in the final analysis, it's all about God. In my next commentary, I'll talk about practical ways to do this.
In their book HOW NOW SHALL WE LIVE? Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey tell the story of a father and his teenage daughter on vacation at Disney World. The man knows his daughter is having some problems, but when he tries to question her about them, he's shocked by what he hears. After hearing her Christian beliefs challenged by her teachers and friends, she's on the verge of giving up her faith. She's come to believe that the only real answers come from science, and that faith is only an emotional crutch. Tragically, her father doesn't know how to help her.
The story is fictional, but unfortunately, this scene is often played out in real life. Faithful, loving Christian parents watch their children drift away from biblical faith and don't know what to do about it. Even worse, sometimes this happens without the parents even realizing it.
The good news is that before your kids start to question their faith, you can give them answers. That's because our faith isn't only based on emotions. Having a Christian worldview means believing that God is in charge of all of life -- the intellectual realm, as well as the emotional. It means that our faith is based on reason, as well as revelation, and that we can use the minds God gave us to understand and explain the reasoning behind it.
There are many ways to teach children a Christian worldview. One of the most important activities any family can do is to set aside time for prayer and devotions. Recently for our family's devotional time in the morning over breakfast, we read from the Bible and then went through Chuck Colson's book ANSWERS TO YOUR KIDS' QUESTIONS. It's adapted from HOW NOW SHALL WE LIVE?, and it's written in question-and-answer format. It is a great book for teaching your kids what a Christian worldview is, engaging them in social issues, and showing how their faith is relevant to every part of their lives -- whether it's family life, classes and school activities, choice of career, political involvement, and yes, even science class. My kids loved it so much we're going to go through it again, and though the book is written at the teenage level, even my youngest -- age six -- enjoyed the stories and learned something from it.
So don't just wait for your kids to come to you with questions about faith and worldview -- they may be too embarrassed or think it's wrong to ask such questions. Parents need to take the initiative, raise the big issues, and provoke the big questions. Ask the questions yourself in front of your kids in a way that makes them feel comfortable talking about these things. To do that you'll need to be prepared for these discussions. You won't know all the answers, but that's okay -- nobody does. But you can learn about the biblical worldview, know how to defend your faith accurately, and how to help your kids look for the answers you don't know.
Believe it or not, our kids really do want to know what we think. That's why we have to be sure that we ourselves have a biblical worldview. So take the time to study, and then pass on what you've learned to the next generation.
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book." -- President Abraham Lincoln
"For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world." --John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630
"America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness, which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scriptures. Part of the destiny of Americans lies in their daily perusal of this great book of revelations. That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by this baptism of the Holy Spirit." --President Woodrow Wilson
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." --Patrick Henry, original member of the Continental Congress
1) For ALL (Americans, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhist, Asians, Presbyterians, Europeans, Baptist, Brazilians, Mormons, Methodist, French, etc.) have sinned & fall short of the glory of God.
2) For the wages of above (see #1) are DEATH (Hell, eternal separation from God, & damnation) but the Gift (free & at no charge to you) of God (Creator, Jehovah, & Trinity) is Eternal Life (Heaven) through (in union with) Jesus Christ (God, Lord, 2nd Person of The Trinity, Messiah, Prince of Peace & Savior of the World).
3) For God so greatly loved & dearly prized the world (Americans, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhist, Asians, Presbyterians, Europeans, Baptist, Brazilians, Mormons, Methodist, French, etc.) that He even gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, that whosoever (anyone, anywhere, anytime - while still living) believes (trust in, relies on, clings to, depends completely on) Him shall have eternal (everlasting) life (heaven).
4) Jesus said: "I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, & THE LIFE. No one (male/female - American, Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, Asian, Presbyterian, European, Baptist, Brazilian, Mormons, Methodist, French, etc. ) comes (arrives) to the Father (with GOD in Heaven) EXCEPT BY (through) ME (no other name).
This wonderful loving GOD gives you the choice - - - (Rev. 3:20)
{Please note that church membership, baptism, doing good things, etc. are not requirements for becoming a Christian - however they are great afterwards!!!}
Jesus said, "Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction (Hell, damnation, eternal punishment), and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life (Heaven, eternal happiness, forever with God), and only a few find it. --Matthew 7:13-14
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Take the best medicine of all for what ails you -- laughter: "Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects." --Arnold Glasow "Laughter is by definition healthy." --Doris Lessing "If somebody makes me laugh, I'm his slave for life." --Bette Midler The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." --Mark Twain "What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul." -- Yiddish Proverb "Laughter is an instant vacation." -- Milton Berle "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -- Victor Borge
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Forward this blog to four people and you will gain 2 new friends. Send this to all the people you know (or ever knew), and you will gain 7 new friends. If you delete this message, you will lose your best friend immediately.
That's why I had to pass this on -- I didn't want to risk it. Howdy
It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
A protest raged on a courthouse lawn, Round a makeshift stage they charged on, Fifteen hundred or more they say, Had come to burn a Flag that day.
A boy held up the folded Flag, Cursed it, and called it a dirty rag. An OLD MAN pushed through the angry crowd, With a rusty shotgun shouldered proud.
His uniform jacket was old and tight, He had polished each button, shiny and bright. He crossed that stage with a soldier's grace, Until he and the boy stood face to face.
"FREEDOM OF SPEECH", the OLD MAN said, Is worth dying for, good men are dead, So you can stand on this courthouse lawn, And talk us down from dusk to dawn, But before any Flag gets burned today, This OLD MAN IS GOING TO HAVE HIS SAY!!
My father died on a foreign shore, In a war they said would end all war. But Tommy and I wasn't even full grown, Before we fought in a war of our own. And Tommy died on Iwo Jima's beach, In the shadow of a hill he couldn't quite reach, Where five good men raised this Flag so high, That the WHOLE WORLD COULD SEE IT FLY.
I got this bum leg that I still drag, Fighting for this same old Flag. Now there's but one shot in this old gun, So now it's time to decide which one, Which one of you will follow our lead, To stand and die for what you believe?
For as sure as there is a rising sun, You'll burn in Hell 'fore this Flag burns, son.
Now this riot never came to pass. The crowd got quiet and that can of gas, Got set aside as they walked away, To talk about what they had heard this day. And the boy who had called it a "dirty rag", Handed the OLD SOLDIER the folded Flag.
So the battle of the Flag this day was won By a tired OLD SOLDIER with a rusty gun, Who for one last time, had to show to some,