I recently heard a news story that perked my ears. In this story, there was a man who had committed a crime and got caught very easily. The crime wasn’t very interesting. I don’t even remember what he did. All I remember is in order to commit this crime, he gave his personal information to the victim. This made catching him easier than catching a heavy footed preschooler who is supposed to be in bed. The thing that really caught my attention was what the sheriff said regarding this case. He was blunt and to the point when he said, “Life is hard. It’s even harder when you’re stupid.”
How many times have you heard the old Proverb, “Train up your child…and they will not depart from it.” Most believing parent’s of unsaved grown children hold onto this verse for dear life. Many think it means that no matter how awful of a heathen there child is, eventually they will turn back to Jesus. I don’t believe that this is what that verse means. I believe that if we teach them, they will have the knowledge to face anything, even if they don’t know Jesus. Let me try to break this down.
We all know the saying, “Knowledge is power.” I have observed that many Christian homes try to avoid giving the “wrong” kind of knowledge to their kids. There are just some things you don’t talk about. Things like sex, death, money, divorce, and even God Many parents’s either don’t know how to talk to their kids about these, or get too uncomfortable that they avoid these topics altogether. The problem with this philosophy is that just because you don’t talk about it doesn’t mean that your kids aren’t learning about it.
I was recently in one of our church programs when a group of girls began to talk about “THE VIDEO” they saw in health class at school that day. You all know what video! The teacher, knowing that not all the girls saw it or had even had any resemblance of the “Talk” with their parent’s quickly diverted the conversation. This is just one example of places that your kids are learning about these topics. Here are a few other places: school, the playground, friends houses, the internet, tv, movies, music, etc. You see the question is not when should they learn? But, how are they already learning it? And, why are they not learning it in the godliest way possible?
There is a great resource out called Talk Now And Later: How to Lead Kids Through Life’s Tough Topics by Brian Dollar. I highly recommend it no matter what stage of life your kids are at. In his book Brian says, “We can prepare them by talking openly—and age-appropriately—so they’re ready when the time comes to process these events.” We need to give our kids knowledge of healthy godly ways to deal with the very topics that most of us try to avoid so they can deal with it. I would rather my kids learn from me than from their friends. I want to train them and empower them because, “Life is hard. It’s even harder when your stupid.”
How does a parent undue the taboo teaching of sex and make it an acceptable topic to discuss in christrian environments without being offensive? In my short experience youth leave topics like sex for their secular environments because they do not want the “filth” brought up in God’s house.
My point is we have to let our children know that the leading edge of the new and hip is actually spoken about in church or Christian people.
Kind of like having a real nice red Subaru and making is shine like glass on a August afternoon. Avoiding the dirt roads, water puddles, fresh tar, the list goes on. Fearing that if the dirt get on the paint it will somehow erode it.