“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 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.” Deuteronomy 6-6-7 NIV
The car rides to school with Abram and Callie usually involve normal kid chatter and some silly songs on the radio from XM Kids. Today was different. I took the opportunity of our 15-minute car ride to talk to them about Holy Week, the most sacred time of remembrance and celebration for followers of Christ. Once again, I told them the story of Jesus’ arrest, his death and his resurrection and why Easter is more than chocolate eggs, pretty dresses and bigger than normal crowds at church.
I wonder sometimes how much of our belief system is rooted in sound theology and how much is based on experiences that produce good feelings. Please don’t misunderstand, I am in favor of good experiences and I even prefer them over bad ones. I just want my two children to have some understanding of basic theology so they can defend what they believe and not rely solely on how they feel at the moment.
Recent studies from numerous sources all prove that most children and students today are ignorant of basic theology. Most have a difficult time explaining why they believe Jesus was the son of God, why the death of Jesus paid for our sins, why the resurrection is factual and why Jesus is the only way to heaven. It is not surprising then, to hear that over 80-percent of high school students leave the local church once they leave their parent’s homes.
The reason they are confused is because parents are confused. We have become consumer Christians who view the church as a place that meets all our spiritual needs. We assume that children’s pastors and youth pastors are teaching our children all they need to know, when that is simply not the case. Parents play the biggest role in influencing their children to follow Christ and I believe we have missed the mark many times.
So, I think I will talk more about these ideas on future car rides to school and at night when we are getting ready for sleep. Obviously, Abram and Callie will have to decide for themselves if they believe these things to be true or not. My challenge is to be passionate about the truth of Scripture and to talk about such things at every opportunity. I believe we can do this while singing lots of silly songs out loud together and enjoying every moment of the innocent years of childhood.
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