Give your children tools to make wise choices
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As a pastor, there are some comments I hear certain parents make that I think need to be reconsidered.
Here's a statement made by some parents who are not providing the spiritual direction their children need: "Well, you know, we don't want our children to be robots by trying to control what they think. We want to give them the opportunity to make up their own minds and believe whatever they want to believe."
They may sound good on the surface in today's society in which almost everything is acceptable. But this kind of thinking has several very serious flaws that I hope you will consider if you are a parent or have any other part in helping to shape the minds and hearts of children.
The first flaw in this "whatever" approach to helping children find the right path is that kids don't have the tools they need to make wise choices. That's why I have never heard a caring parent say, "Oh, we don't bother about what our kids eat. We just put the food out there and let them eat whatever they want. We do the same with their toothbrushes. The brushes are there if the kids choose to use them, but we don't believe in making children brush."
Here's another problem with this thinking. The fact is that our children will decide what they believe or don't believe anyway when they become adults. So taking the hands-off approach is really just a cop out to avoid responsibility.
Those are some problems with hands-off parenting. Now let me give you the upside of taking your children's spiritual development seriously. The Bible makes this incredible promise to diligent parents: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." (Proverbs 22:6).
The exciting fact is that if you will take the time to point your children toward the Lord while they are young, the benefits of that commitment will last a lifetime. Besides producing adults who have their heads on straight and their values in the right place, you will actually save yourself a lot of negative effort that we parents so often expend trying to keep our kids away from the wrong influences.
Here's what I mean. If you will give your children a taste of what is real and true and good, and help them develop a hunger for it, they won't be near as interested in sampling that which is false and tasteless. That's the old FBI principle that the way to train agents to spot counterfeit bills is to have them spend 98 percent of their time studying real bills.
If you want to be a parent, grandparent, teacher, or coach who produces spiritually healthy children, it can happen. Begin by checking your own spiritual IQ - and if you need help, a great place to start is by reading a chapter of Proverbs each day for one month. You'll discover supernatural wisdom you never imagined possible.
Jim Graff is the Senior Pastor of Faith Family Church in Victoria. www.faithfamilyvictoria.com
