Just recently, however, something profound has started happening in my home. We have been given a complimentary newspaper subscription. And now, every morning my boys are opening up the news and reading to me. They like the idea that it’s helping with their reading skills.
But there’s a very interesting by-product. As they read, they are asking questions — they are starting to understand that we live in a world that isn’t as happy and healthy as the home they are growing up in.
As you can imagine, it has created some very impassioned conversations around the ‘whys’ of all the sadness and pain that exists. They are learning that there are more important issues than needing new toys and not needing annoying little brothers and sisters around them.
And it’s changing what they are filling their night-time prayers with.
The most amazing aspect of this whole thing is that I haven’t done anything except ask them to grab the paper from the driveway; their natural, God-given inquisitiveness is doing the rest.
Right before my eyes, I am seeing my boys develop their own set of caring, thoughtful and passionate Christian values. Values that I pray will shape their thoughts and actions, and form the building blocks of the firm moral foundations that I hope will allow them to stand up for their convictions when challenged at high school, university and later in life.
It’s just as vital that they know what isn’t right, as to know about what is right and why.
And it’s changing the way I think about raising my children too. Maybe it’s actually a good thing for them to see some of the realities of life. I’m not talking about allowing them freedom around drugs, alcohol or the kinds of movies and TV programmes they watch, or about pushing them into situations that are going to test their faith before they’re ready.
But maybe it’s not wrong for them to see pictures of crying children who have lost their parents in floods or wars. And maybe it’s not wrong for them to read about religious struggles and persecutions. Or maybe it’s not wrong for them to grow up with their eyes opened to the realities of a fallen and sinful world.
