“How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you!” 2 Samuel 7:22 (NLT).
Our children are exposed to information on a regular basis that has the intent of influencing them in a specific direction. Parents are in the position of being “gatekeepers” to protect the hearts and minds of our children. How do we equip them to recognize what information is good, honest, and truthful and what is not? Do we as parents know what our children are being taught? Do we know how they are influenced outside the home on some of the hot topics of our day?
Many of the contemporary issues are from a political platform and come with an underlying agenda. They are also encumbered with misinformation, biased information, false information, and unfortunately find their way into classrooms. How can we educate our children at home to be able to discern right from wrong and to think critically, but not be swayed in the wrong direction by every tidbit of information that comes their way? We want our children to be critical thinkers, consider opposing views and facts, and not adopt the shallowness of a floundering culture. We want them to uphold an allegiance to God as Creator.
God begins His Holy Word in Genesis 1:1 (NLT), “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” In order to recognize that which is false, we and our children must have some knowledge of that which is Truth. “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him. For He laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths” “Psalm 24:1-2 (NLT). We can model for our children the discipline of reconciling everything back to a Holy and Righteous Sovereign God who has All Authority and All Power over the earth. The earth will last as long as God allows it to.
We must explore with our children how one can respectfully challenge or contradict a topic that has two opposite and opposing views with those who exercise authority over them. Too often information presented has a bias that is bent in one direction. When that direction is in opposition to our family values or Holy Scriptures, we must seek wisdom from the Lord on how to deal with it.
When a political platform can predict things like the end of the world without considering a sovereign God’s power and authority over mankind, then we must see it as hype and scare tactics and no more. Mankind has never been able to predict the future. We must be students of the Bible and seek Truth. We do this by staying close to God and to His Word as individuals and as a family. In Deuteronomy 5:33 (NLT), God directs us to “Stay on the path that the LORD your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.”
