Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 19- Preparing Your Kids to Face the Hard Issues in Culture Today
72 Plays3 years ago
Mentioned in this episode:
Four Simple Truths to Teach Our Kids about Abortion
Know What You Believe by Paul E. Little
Know Why You Believe by Paul E. Little
Connect with Ruth here:
Connect with Pat here:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: The Mission of Root Like Faith
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwenk and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It is our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's word, transformed by the love of Jesus, and moved by his mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more important.
Equipping Children Against Cultural Pressures
00:00:18
Speaker
On today's episode of Root Like Faith, we are talking about how to prepare your kids not to conform to the culture. Sally Clarkson once said, in the absence of conviction, culture wins. As parents, raising children in a peer-centered culture, we must be able to help them
00:00:38
Speaker
develop a firm foundation of faith and teach them the unconditional perfect love of God through studying the Bible as a family and also preparing them to answer the many issues of our culture today. This is going to be good. Let's go.
00:00:55
Speaker
Well, as we are continuing our series on faith in the family, we are talking about preparing our kids to face the many issues in our culture today, which wow, that seems like an overwhelming topic. Really scary. Yeah, to say the
Personal Stories and the Importance of Preparation
00:01:11
Speaker
least.
00:01:11
Speaker
But you know it's so important and I think back to when I first started following Christ when I was in high school and I remember in particular a friend that I had who was struggling through a decision
00:01:30
Speaker
And I didn't know how to help her. And the issue was abortion, and I didn't know what to say to her because I had never been taught. And this was shortly after you became a Christian? Yes, but I was a brand new Christian.
00:01:46
Speaker
And so I was not prepared for this. And to be completely honest, I didn't even know if it was right or wrong. OK, because I was a brand new Christian. And so I just I think back to that in my life. And I think about my kids today. And I think, wow, like it's so important for to prepare them for the many issues that they will face, that they can face as early as middle school, honestly, as early as elementary a lot of times.
00:02:12
Speaker
And it's hard. I understand it's hard because, you know, we just don't even know where to start a lot of times. And so we just thought it would be a really good thing to kind of talk through this with you guys to help you understand how we can prepare our kids to face those issues that they will undeniably face probably pretty soon. There's so much going on in our world today, and it's just so important that we prepare
Challenges in Christian Education
00:02:41
Speaker
them.
00:02:41
Speaker
Well, you're talking about just the things that kids face today in elementary. There's things that are being taught that, yeah, as early as kindergarten, first grade that weren't even on the radar when we were kids. And so as many parents know who are listening in that this is very much a battle.
00:03:01
Speaker
that the Christian family is facing. And so I think as we're talking about this idea of really rooting faith in the family, and we've talked about Bible study basics in the past, and so really kind of taking now a step, going a step further, and really talking about how do we prepare our kids with God's word to rightly apply God's word as they're gonna face different cultural issues and questions. I mean, I remember being in high school, because at some point it will cost them to follow Jesus.
00:03:29
Speaker
and I think beginning to prepare them for that reality. I remember being in high school, this is gonna sound so silly, but I remember being in high school. I was voted, by the way, I don't know if I've ever shared this, but I was voted in eighth grade, I was voted most likely to be an Olympian, which turned out not to be true.
00:03:46
Speaker
But then in high school I was voted most likely to become a monk. So that one was a little bit closer to my world. But I remember being in high school and one of the guys on the school newspaper wrote an article about why Christians shouldn't wear Christian
Teaching Kids the Cost of Following Jesus
00:04:02
Speaker
t-shirts. You know back in the day it was like Christian t-shirts are big.
00:04:15
Speaker
I remember one of the guys on the school newspaper writing an article saying why Christians should keep their faith to themselves.
00:04:25
Speaker
and that, you know, kids shouldn't wear, you know, Christian t-shirts. And so, man, I was just like, I was, you know, I felt like Martin Luther, you know, got my, you know, pen out and wrote a scathing, you know, response to him. But I remember that was like one of the first times that like my faith in Jesus, my conviction, really kind of put me out there. It was going to cost me. So like, I was going to, my name was going to be on that article. And I still remember very vividly walking into the school newspaper room and they were all in there having a meeting
00:04:55
Speaker
And I walked in and gave them, and they said, oh, we were expecting you. And so it was interesting. They knew, I guess, that I would be writing something in response. And so that's kind of what we're talking about today, is just how do we prepare our kids to face some of those challenges that following Jesus, there's a cost.
00:05:13
Speaker
And I would say that increasingly there's going to be a cost to following Jesus just based on where our culture is going. Yeah, and it's hard for our kids because it's hard
Faith Identity Through Biblical Stories
00:05:24
Speaker
for us. I mean, how many of these issues, this actually might be helpful for parents as well because there's so much, there's some really big issues that we're facing today and a lot of us don't know how to respond. And so I think if we as adults can understand, we can help our kids better.
00:05:42
Speaker
understand how to respond. Well, we want to break it down as simply as we can because we know this is a big topic. And I think that the very first area that we need to start with, and we'll just keep it simple here, but it's just helping our kids understand their identity. Like that's the first place that we have to start with our kids. We need to help them see themselves as God sees them.
00:06:07
Speaker
And so what that means is helping them understand that God loves them, that God has a purpose for them, that they are made to be a child of God and just really helping them see themselves as God sees them. That's the place to start because when they rightly see themselves as God sees them, then they can in turn see the world as God does.
00:06:30
Speaker
I think you know passage we've talked about before I mean Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 that they're mating God's image and that you know helping our kids understand that there is a creator who created them that that they're not an accident and they're not the the byproduct of you know a mindless evolutionary process there is a God who loves them who created them who made him in his image that their life has meaning and purpose and value that God wants to work you know in them and through them
00:06:58
Speaker
I think that that is so important. I can't help but think of the story of Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego in the Old Testament. And I would just encourage any parent to go back and to reread in particular Daniel chapter one, like just start there. And that chapter would just be such a great chapter, parts of that, to read together as a family and to begin just sort of taking some of the truths that we see in Daniel chapter one. And if you're not familiar with that story, I mean, that's the story of God's people being taken out of the land that God had given
00:07:28
Speaker
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the land that we would call Israel today. And so God had promised that land to them, and they were to be God's people living for God's purposes in God's place. And right around 586 B.C., the Babylonians come in and attack Jerusalem, destroy the temple, and take many of the Jewish people out of that land into Babylon. It would be like another country invading America.
00:07:53
Speaker
and destroying churches and taking Christian families out of America to live in that particular nation and to be forced to worship their gods and to learn their language and to read their literature. That's what was happening to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
00:08:09
Speaker
and yet what you see in Daniel chapter one is they said no. We know who we are and we know whose we are.
Family Bible Study as Cultural Preparation
00:08:16
Speaker
We know that there is a God who created us. He's the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and we belong to him. We're going to be faithful to him. And so Daniel chapter one is such an important
00:08:24
Speaker
chapter I think is as we're thinking about just helping our kids know their identity and to live out of that identity and how that can cost them at times and so I would encourage again any family spend some time in Daniel chapter one and read that chapter and help your kids understand see themselves in that story
00:08:43
Speaker
And so I think it's so important as we're thinking about rooting faith in the family and just the cost sometimes of what it means to follow Jesus. And now as parents, how do we begin preparing our kids to face some of those challenges, not necessarily exile, but different challenges, whether it's about abortion or sexuality or racism or truth, all of those things and more are just issues that they're going to be facing as they get older.
00:09:09
Speaker
I love that you said help them to see themselves in that, in the story, because I think that's so powerful. And one of the many reasons that we talk about so much about studying the Bible as a family, and we had obviously the episode a few weeks ago, Bible study basics to help teach your kids the Bible. But we want to talk about here, we talked about identity. We want to talk about why also it's very, very important
00:09:36
Speaker
like you were just sharing the story of Daniel there in Daniel chapter one, why it's important that we are helping our kids see themselves in the stories in the Bible, why we're studying through the Bible because this is foundational to preparing them to face those cultural issues.
00:09:55
Speaker
I was just thinking about one of the songs that was so impactful for me when I was in high school, but it was a song by Steve Camp called Run to the Battle. Do you remember that song?
00:10:08
Speaker
I bet that made you just feel like you were ready to take on the world. I would throw my Sony Walkman on, my headphones, my Sony Walkman, and put my Steve Camp cassette in. Totally. And would just jam out to that song in particular. Jam out. That cassette and then CD literally discipled me when I was a freshman sophomore in high school. But I remember being in Sunday school class
00:10:34
Speaker
And I didn't really have a relationship at all with the youth pastor. He was from California. He came in and I would sit in the back. My dad had been a pastor for much of my childhood, but at that time he was not. And so we started attending a church just north of Fort Wayne where I grew up. And I remember going and sitting in the back of that classroom during Sunday school and God used his words in such a powerful way. I was a freshman in high school and I would have already considered myself a Christian.
00:11:04
Speaker
but it was really through his ministry that I feel like God really called me to take following Christ seriously and I understood the consequence of following Jesus and that song in particular I would listen to it was all about you know running to the battle not being afraid of what it means to follow Jesus and so sometimes that that preparation comes through a parent or through a youth pastor or teacher I can name other people
00:11:28
Speaker
that were so influential in my life and I'm so grateful for those men and women that really challenged me and helped prepare me in that way. Yeah, and as you're studying the Bible with your kids or as a family or maybe it's, you know, a youth pastor that's teaching like Pat was talking about, I think what's happening is, well, you're getting grounded, right? It becomes like this anchor and that's really what we're trying to do.
00:11:54
Speaker
is ground our kids in truth, because that's what prepares them. Yeah, I'm just humming that Steve Camp song. We're done. I am going to YouTube and pulling up that video. And I'm going to listen to it this afternoon. Honey, we have to finish this episode first. I know. Let's hurry. Let's hurry.
00:12:12
Speaker
But no, you're right. I was thinking about Matthew chapter four and of course, Jesus being tempted by the devil and how every time he is tempted, he quotes scripture. He goes back to God's word. I mean, he was grounded. He was guarded. He was being guided by God's word. Jesus says in that temptation scene, man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. And he quotes scripture, in particular, the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy over and over again, it was God's word in him.
00:12:39
Speaker
that sustained him, that strengthened him, that was a guard to him. And so it's so important for us, I think, as parents to be doing the same in our own life, but also in the life of our kids. That's good. Well, I want to get really practical here because I think, of course, that's the foundation of it.
00:12:54
Speaker
of it all is understanding identity, our identity, how God sees us, how then God sees the world, how he loves the world. He loves us and he loves the world and he wants to use us to spread that love and hope and light to the world. And then also just the foundational is the Bible itself and understanding the Bible so that it becomes an anchor for us and guards us and guides us.
00:13:20
Speaker
And I think it's really, really important what you were just saying before we get into some of these practical things about preparing our kids to face different cultural issues or questions or pressures. You know, I've oftentimes in my preaching joke that John 3 16 doesn't say for God was so angry at the world that he sent his only son.
Addressing Cultural Issues with Love and Truth
00:13:38
Speaker
And sometimes that's the posture of Christians. It says that God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life that
00:13:48
Speaker
Being forgiven by God, having a relationship with God is through repentance and faith in Jesus. But God so loved the world that He gave His Son, that it was love that motivated God to send Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, to come and to live a life that we couldn't live, to die a death that we deserve, to raise Him victorious over sin, Satan, and death.
00:14:08
Speaker
And so I think that's so important as a starting place for us as we think about preparing our kids and equipping them that we don't see the world as an enemy. But we see the world as desperately in need of God's love and grace and truth. We see the world desperately lost.
00:14:25
Speaker
But the world, I think sometimes we can have the wrong posture, the wrong attitude, and you have a lot of angry Christians. And there is a time to have a righteous anger about some of the things that you see going on in the world. But I think that the heart of really raising our kids to impact the world needs to be motivated with the same love that God has for the world.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, it changes our whole perspective. It changes how we approach all of these issues. And so I think that is a very, very important thing. So how do we, okay, let's get, so we're going to get really practical here. It's my favorite. So how do we actually prepare our kids for what they might hear before they hear it? And honey, I'm going to let you talk a lot in this area.
00:15:09
Speaker
Sorry, I didn't prepare you for this, but just because I've heard you talk about it so much and it's so good. So hopefully our listeners think it's good too. No pressure there, but you know, like really practically, how can we prepare them for what they might hear before they hear it?
00:15:26
Speaker
Well, I think one of the things that is so important, and we won't spend a ton of time on this because we've dealt with it in previous episodes, in particular the Bible study basics, but it's just grounding our kids in God's Word. And so especially when our kids are young, is just teaching our kids the scriptures and helping them understand what God's Word says, what it doesn't say. And so really grounding them.
00:15:47
Speaker
But in particular, as we're talking today, it's not enough. I would say it's not enough for our kids to know the Bible. I don't want that to sound radical or wrong. But my point in that is that there are lots of Christians who grow up in Christian homes and they know God's word. They could win the Bible bowl. And yet when they get into a secular university,
00:16:13
Speaker
They get into a conversation. They get into the workplace as an adult. They're ill-equipped to rightly apply what they know. That's a really good point. And so I think we need to remember that as parents, we're not only teaching our kids the Bible, teaching them truth, teaching them God's Word, but especially as they're getting older.
00:16:30
Speaker
we're helping them reason and defend what it is that they believe. We're helping them rightly apply the truth of God's word to different cultural issues that they're going to face. And so I think number one is teaching them God's word, but number two then is going to be taking some simple steps to begin preparing them to how to face some of those different cultural issues. And so I think just, you know, very simply, I mean, helping, I think as a parent, just go, okay, what are those cultural issues?
00:16:57
Speaker
Right. So what do I need to be thinking about? Well, I need to be thinking about the abortion issue. I need to be thinking about sexuality. I need to be thinking about race. Yeah. I need to be thinking about truth. The truth in our culture is subjective. It's not objective. And so how do I help my kids understand that? No, that's not.
00:17:15
Speaker
the truth about the truth. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So there's so many things you just said there. And so I feel like to get really even more practical would be to kind of talk about, yeah, let's just talk about one of those issues and how do we help our kids understand one of those issues, how we've done that, I guess might be helpful to somebody.
00:17:35
Speaker
We can, let's link to, so let's take the abortion issue. Okay. And so I know that we have written, I've written an article that we can link to on the, or in the show notes, but I've written an article that basically, I think it's titled For Simple Truths, you know, you can teach your kids about abortion. Okay. If it's something, something like that, or close to that, and we've written it, I've written it for our site for the family.
00:18:00
Speaker
And so let's take the abortion issue for an example. One, and I talk about each of these four truths in that article, but one way to begin doing that, preparing your child to think critically and biblically about the abortion issue is to begin at an early age teaching them the simple truth that God loves life. Like that's just a very simple
00:18:22
Speaker
easy truth that a child can begin to understand and see and see applied in a variety of areas but but to begin to say you know what God loves life he's the creator he sustains life that all life belongs to him and so that's one truth that you can just begin teaching your child you go to Genesis 1 to show them that he's the creator and the sustainer of life and you keep coming back to that truth you know over and over again in a variety of ways the second truth
00:18:50
Speaker
that we talk about in that article is that every human being matters to God. And so it doesn't matter who they are, that that's grounded in Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 27, that we really do matter to God, we're made in His image, that's what gives us our worth and our dignity. Now that applies not only to the abortion issue, but that applies to the race issue. It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter your
00:19:12
Speaker
your age, the color of your skin, your size, your level of development, your environment, your degree of dependency. All life matters to God. You can begin teaching that and anchoring that in Genesis chapter one. It's the only reason, it's the only way that equality really makes sense if it's grounded in who we are as human beings, and that's a biblical idea.
00:19:34
Speaker
Here's the third thing that we talk about in that article, that life begins inside the womb. And so again, showing them in the scriptures where God says that, Psalm 139 verses 13 and 14, where the psalmist says, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, you knit me together in my mother's womb, is just one example of that.
00:19:54
Speaker
And then I think the fourth thing that we talk about in that article is that nobody is beyond the love and forgiveness of Jesus. And that kind of goes back to that idea that just having a heart for people, a love for people, that that is our motivation. And so helping our kids understand that there's going to be people that they're going to run into someday who've had an abortion. And so how do you love them? How do you offer the forgiveness and the grace of the good news that only Jesus offers?
00:20:18
Speaker
And so I think those are some very practical ways, some simple truths that as it relates to the abortion issue, you can begin teaching your kids and training them and equipping them to not only know God's word, but to rightly apply it to different questions and challenges they're going to face on a secular campus or someday when they're voting or someday when they're in the workplace. And so that is, I think, a very simple way to deal with a cultural issue. And you can apply that to different cultural issues as well.
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it's interesting how there's crossover there. Like you said, every human life matters. Well, that doesn't just apply to the abortion issue. That applies to racism. I mean, it's so powerful when you see that you're grounding, again, you're grounding your kids in some of these foundational truths of who God is and how he views the world, how it really can speak to so many cultural issues of today.
00:21:15
Speaker
you know i think it's it's about building i think i heard you say the other day little truth upon little truth um because we feel maybe sometimes overwhelmed at you know how do we even approach these issues and i think this that what you just described is an example of little truth upon little truth that you're teaching your kids planting seeds right planting seeds it's that analogy we used
00:21:36
Speaker
a couple episodes ago of the toddler who's eating a bowl of Cheerios. And if you give a toddler a whole bowl of Cheerios, they're likely going to end up on the floor. But if you give a toddler just one Cheerio at a time, there's a far greater chance that those Cheerios are going to end up in his or her mouth. And so it is. It's the truth of God's word. You're just giving them one Cheerio at a time. It's truth upon truth.
00:21:57
Speaker
You're equipping them and training them. You know, the issue of marriage or sexuality is another example. You know, Genesis chapter two, verse 24 is a great verse for a family to memorize. You know, talking about God's heart for a man and a woman to enjoy one life together and for marriage to be between a man and a woman.
Critical Thinking about Media Messages
00:22:17
Speaker
I mean, those are biblical truths that you can start communicating and teaching at a very young age.
00:22:24
Speaker
Right. And you can start showing where God says that in the Bible and why that matters and why that affects our entire life. When we've, you know, in our kids, they kind of roll their eyes at me at times, you know, when we're watching TV and you'll see something and I'll oftentimes say to them, what's the message that that commercial is sending you right now? We're watching a movie and, you know, of course they, you know, the older they get, the more impatient they are. Sometimes they're like, just, dad, just we know, we know, here comes the sermon.
00:22:50
Speaker
But even sort of catching those cultural messages that we see in a commercial or in a song or in a movie and just sort of stopping it there and go, you know, what message are they sending? How is that different from what we know God says about reality or what God says about truth?
00:23:06
Speaker
And so sometimes those can just being alert to the different cultural messages that we're receiving day in and day out and helping our kids to think critically as they're being exposed to that in different forms of art, whether that's music or movies or a book. And so that can be a really practical way too to sort of keep your eyes open and helping them just to be trained and equipped.
00:23:28
Speaker
Yeah, when you were just talking about our kids and them being like, OK, dad. It's funny because, of course, there's times that they say that. But then there's times that you see that click with them. And you see them live that out. And I think that's interesting because, yeah, they might be saying, OK, dad, not another sermon. But then they're going to face that issue.
00:23:51
Speaker
And they are going to have to respond themselves to it. I think one other thing that we didn't mention, and this just came to mind, is something that we have done with our kids, I mean, literally for years, is point out to them how sin affects situations. And I think that's really, really powerful. Like when they can see
00:24:11
Speaker
the consequence of the consequences of sin. So of course, we're in ministry, full time church, local church ministry. And so we have seen so and I'm sure many other people have seen many broken people for all different reasons. And I think one thing that we always try to help our kids understand is that a lot of times, not all the time, but there are a lot of times that a situation that is ruining somebody's life or whatever is a consequence of a choice that they made.
00:24:39
Speaker
Or a way they've chosen to live or something and so when they can see tangibly with their own eyes somebody going through such hardship Because of sin of their own or sin of somebody else that really I feel like has impact on them for their life
00:24:59
Speaker
and for how they approach cultural issues, especially like marriage and sexuality and such. Yeah, I mean, I think it goes back. We, I think maybe talked about before this idea that the Bible presents two ways to live, you either walk in wisdom or foolishness. And you know, Psalm 1 starts in that way. The whole book of Psalm starts in that
Scripture and Wisdom for Life's Journey
00:25:15
Speaker
way. You know, blessed is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
00:25:20
Speaker
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. It goes on to say that he's like a tree planted by streams of water who yields its fruit in season and out of season. And so that idea that the entire book of Psalms begins with this contrast
00:25:39
Speaker
with there's two ways to live. And so choose the way of life, choose the way of wisdom. There's blessing in that. You're like a tree that bears fruit. And so I think helping your kids see the fruit of walking in righteousness, the fruit of walking in holiness, the fruit of obedience looks like this. And here's the fruit of disobedience.
00:25:56
Speaker
Here's the fruit of doing life on your own terms. And so I think that's such a great point in just helping our kids see again, what the flourishing abundant life that Jesus promised that it really is the good life to follow Jesus. Yeah. And again, I feel like we always come back to this, but it's about the consistency.
00:26:15
Speaker
You know, one conversation at a time, one verse at a time. And I love that you brought up Psalm 1. And I just want to tell our listeners that that was like one of the very first passages that we had our kids memorize. And we wrote it down and we had it everywhere all the time. And I would just encourage you to do that no matter how old your kids are.
00:26:35
Speaker
because it's so powerful for them to get a picture of that flourishing life and how God wants us to live. I was gonna say really quickly too because I know we're wrapping up here but this can be really intimidating for a lot of parents because they think well how do I teach my kids about sexuality?
Resources and Community Engagement
00:26:52
Speaker
How do we teach them about truth?
00:26:53
Speaker
or abortion. And I would say that there's so many great resources for free online nowadays. And so my simple encouragement would be to equip yourself first and then simplify it for your kids. And so I think when you're thinking about preparing your kids, you might feel like, boy, I don't even know how I would answer that, let alone my kids.
00:27:13
Speaker
And so I think there's some great resources, you know, this is an old book, but it's still a great book. But, you know, several books by Paul Little, Know What You Believe, and then the follow up Know Why You Believe. And then there's a great, I love Stand to Reason. I think it's str.org. It's a whole ministry and website devoted to apologetics, to defending the faith. And they've got
00:27:35
Speaker
all sorts of topics. I mean, every topic you can imagine, you can go there and search and ask a question. That's a great website, str.org. And so I would say equip yourself and then simplify it for your kids. And that can be just, again, such an important thing for you as a follower of Jesus, but then also for your kids as you're preparing them, you're learning together. And that's the best way. I just think about all the times in college when I was
00:28:00
Speaker
at Indiana University in Fort Wayne for my first year and I was challenged by a professor who was an atheist. It was painful and it was challenging, but it was also the most fruitful year of growth because I had to go and learn and back up what I was saying, I believe. I think as parents we can do the same thing and it's just so rewarding for us, but also for our kids.
00:28:19
Speaker
That's so good. Well, friend, we are so grateful that you have joined us today. Listen, if we haven't met, we want to get to know you. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Patrick W. Schwank and at Ruth Schwank or on Facebook. And don't forget everything we talked about, even like all of those resources we literally just listed.
00:28:40
Speaker
They will be at rootlikefaith.com forward slash podcast. Again, we welcome you into our family here at Root Like Faith. That's how we feel like it is, right? It's like a family. We want you to feel like you're sitting in our living room with us. Would you do us a big favor and leave us a review or rating and share this podcast with your friends? It just takes a second and it's a tremendous help to us as we spread the word about Root Like Faith.
00:29:04
Speaker
Oh, and be sure to tag us on social media when you do that so we can reshare it. We're so grateful for your help in getting the word out. Okay friend, well we will chat soon and we hope you have a great week.