In The Word

One thing that greatly concerns you, as you would be a happy people, is the maintaining of family order.
We have had great disputes how the church ought to be regulated; and indeed the subject of these disputes was of great importance: but the due regulation of your families is of no less, and, in some respects, of much greater importance. Every christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief of the means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful.
-Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume One: A FAREWELL SERMON

Christian Carnival is a blog-magazine. The host collects posts for the week and displays them on his or her blog. This week the carnival is hosted at Chasing The Wind.

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I posted earlier about how teaching our children scripture is a double blessing: we are teaching them the word of the Lord and we are learning it better ourselves, having the opportunity to recite it and explain it to them. In our nightly routine my 5 year old and I also spend a few minutes going through a catechism for girls and boys. This has been an amazing experience for both of us for the same reason. She opens up with all kinds of questions and I’m put on the spot to try to explain theological truths in a manner she can understand.

Drinking from the Fire Hose

This is not to say she understands all that we talk about, or even 10% of what she has memorized, neither is it to say I do a great job explaining it, but as she gets older these things begin to sink in. Recently she has been very interested in how “God is spirit and has not a body like man” and how “God is everywhere”, which has led to many long discussions about how God is always present and knows everything yet is separate from his creation. She is totally blown away by this concept and we’ve talked about some of the many implications (he is always there when you are afraid, he knows every thought, he can hear prayers, etc.)

Here are some techniques I’ve been using when dealing with her questions:

1. Think through your answer
   Does it make sense to her age? Is there something about it she is obviously going to misunderstand? Is it theologically accurate? When we blurt things out without thinking it through, we may cause more problems than we solve.
2. Keep it simple & age appropriate
   Remember, you don’t have to expound on every aspect of theological significance. Summarize it and boil it down for her.
3. Don’t be afraid to tell her you need to think about it.
   If it’s a doozy (Daddy, where do people go who don’t beleive in Jesus?) and you just don’t know how to answer. Tell her you need to think about how to explain it and that you will talk about it later. This will buy you some time to work out a good answer, but do not use it as an excuse to avoid the question.
4. Never deliberately misrepresent scripture to your kids.
   We’re dealing with the Word of God. Difficult subjects don’t give us an excuse to twist scripture. If you misrepresent scripture to your kids not only are you a false teacher, but you’re undermining the authority of scripture to your kids, which could be devastating to their Christian walk later in life.

How firm a foundation

This kind of theological relationship with my daughter is one that I hope to cultivate through her life. When she gets older she is going to get the dose of real world and when she does I pray that this time spent with her discussing the word of God becomes her foundation for the decisions she makes as she grows up.

Jeff de Ruyter from Worlds Apart shared this video today , published by the Dove self esteem fund. What a great perspective!

It got me thinking self esteem in our culture, and how, really there are two forms which often get mixed up.

“But everyone tells me I’m a great singer”
We have one type of self esteem movement which says “everything you do is good”. It’s encouragement beyond reality. We see this illustrated on American Idol all the time. That’s what makes it funny. We can’t believe these people are serious, and inevitably they are shocked when they hear the judges responses. Then comes the line…..“But everyone tells me I’m a great singer” And the camera cuts to shots of mom and dad outside of the audition room comforting their broken child saying “there there honey, I don’t care what they say you ARE a good singer”.

The point is that the encouragement given by the parents is misleading, and in my opinion is doing much more damage than good. I want my girls to find their gifts and develop them, but I’m shouldn’t coddle them and tell them things just to make them feel good. As a dad it’s my job to make sure they grow up with an accurate picture of the world and a sense of where they fit into that.

“Fool me once…”
The dove ad highlights the good type of self esteem. I think the key is that if we are distorting reality in order to build our children up we’re on the wrong path. That’s why I think this campaign ad is great. It brings our minds back to reality in a culture where we are constantly being lured into a fantasy land, constantly being fooled by billboards, TV, radio etc. about what is important in life.

John 17:15-17 (Listen)

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (ESV)

This is the card I got from my wife. It’s funny because it’s true.

The girls got me a basketball, here are some shots of us playing on the brand new court.

Now that’s what Father’s day is all about!

The best thing I ever did for my scripture memory routine was to start memorizing scripture with my 5 year old. Today was a big day because she just went through Psalm 1 by herself. It’s such a blessing hearing her speak the word of God at such a young age. As she gets older and the reality of life comes flying at her she will have hidden in her heart the deepest wisdom, the most important words, the only true rock on which she will be able to lean. She will be like a tree planted by streams of water.

This has also done wonders for my own scripture memory for obvious reasons. Day in and day out I’m reading, explaining and reviewing scripture with her. Here is the general format we’ve been using:

1. She tries to recite the passage alone

2. We focus on reviewing the verses she knows and once she has them down cold we add a single verse at a time (or half verse).

3. I explain some of the key concepts of the verse we are reading, then discuss what she has learned ( what does standing in the way of sinners mean?).

4. Don’t push too hard, there will be some weeks where progress is very slow and that is OK (it gives me time to catch up with her!)

Feel free to comment about how you approach scripture memory.