Raising Children
Raising kids is hard.
I have heard it said that raising teenagers is like trying to nail Jello to a tree.
Raising kids is even harder when you have two competing worldviews between parents.
My wife and I had recently attended a "convention" on home schooling our kids. I am really glad that they make venues like this available to those who don't want their kids to be corrupted by the politicization of the public schools and for those who don't want to have to take on a third job to pay for a private education. The difficulty that I have with the home schooling avenue though is that most of it seems bent toward the other extreme. Many Christians today want to keep their children safe from the evils of being taught about evolution, multi-culturalism, homosexuality and much more. But the trouble comes in the pendulum swing effect.
Much of this curriculum is centered around a more religious base, which with its own bias, can sometimes neglect other forms/uses of common logic and the sciences. I think that I saw just as many books on "how to raise godly kids" as I did books about math, science, history, and art; and even then the titles of the books primarily lent themselves to teaching these things through the eyes of faith. A book entitled Numbers In The Bible is one that comes to mind. Is there something extra special about the numbers in the Bible over any other form of numbers?
Well, my wife bought some books on dealing with discipline with children. The overall principles in the book are not bad. It speaks of the consequences of lying, stealing, discord, and many other things...but what it doesn't take into account is theological diversity. Most of the books there would probably not sit well with a Calvinist Christian.
When my daughter does something wrong, my wife deals with her and then usually follows up with having my daughter apologize to whoever she has offended [which I can totally agree with her on] and then she has her pray and ask Jesus for forgiveness and help not to do it again. Now, if I was still looking at things as a Christian, I would have to side with the Calvinist. Where in the Bible does it say that children should pray to Jesus...or that anyone should pray to Jesus? I suppose if you were to just take the words of Christ then you could account for the Kingdom of God belonging to children and God hearing their prayers- but if you heed the words of Paul, God does not hear the prayers of sinners; which is what he says that all of humanity is...until God lifts the veil of blindness off their eyes.
So doesn't it seem counter-intuitive to have a child pray to a God who very well may not hear them until he chooses to manifest his calling of them to salvation? It is a tough call for me as to how to address this with my wife. I know that she only has the best of intentions, but I see things very differently.
Apology and restitution are things that one can never go wrong with. The Bible does teach these, but I guess you just have to read the right parts to find them. But I am more of an Agnostic or Deist.
What if a child grows up with such a religious upbringing only to later walk away with certain senses of disillusionment?
I have heard it said that raising teenagers is like trying to nail Jello to a tree.
Raising kids is even harder when you have two competing worldviews between parents.
My wife and I had recently attended a "convention" on home schooling our kids. I am really glad that they make venues like this available to those who don't want their kids to be corrupted by the politicization of the public schools and for those who don't want to have to take on a third job to pay for a private education. The difficulty that I have with the home schooling avenue though is that most of it seems bent toward the other extreme. Many Christians today want to keep their children safe from the evils of being taught about evolution, multi-culturalism, homosexuality and much more. But the trouble comes in the pendulum swing effect.
Much of this curriculum is centered around a more religious base, which with its own bias, can sometimes neglect other forms/uses of common logic and the sciences. I think that I saw just as many books on "how to raise godly kids" as I did books about math, science, history, and art; and even then the titles of the books primarily lent themselves to teaching these things through the eyes of faith. A book entitled Numbers In The Bible is one that comes to mind. Is there something extra special about the numbers in the Bible over any other form of numbers?
Well, my wife bought some books on dealing with discipline with children. The overall principles in the book are not bad. It speaks of the consequences of lying, stealing, discord, and many other things...but what it doesn't take into account is theological diversity. Most of the books there would probably not sit well with a Calvinist Christian.
When my daughter does something wrong, my wife deals with her and then usually follows up with having my daughter apologize to whoever she has offended [which I can totally agree with her on] and then she has her pray and ask Jesus for forgiveness and help not to do it again. Now, if I was still looking at things as a Christian, I would have to side with the Calvinist. Where in the Bible does it say that children should pray to Jesus...or that anyone should pray to Jesus? I suppose if you were to just take the words of Christ then you could account for the Kingdom of God belonging to children and God hearing their prayers- but if you heed the words of Paul, God does not hear the prayers of sinners; which is what he says that all of humanity is...until God lifts the veil of blindness off their eyes.
So doesn't it seem counter-intuitive to have a child pray to a God who very well may not hear them until he chooses to manifest his calling of them to salvation? It is a tough call for me as to how to address this with my wife. I know that she only has the best of intentions, but I see things very differently.
Apology and restitution are things that one can never go wrong with. The Bible does teach these, but I guess you just have to read the right parts to find them. But I am more of an Agnostic or Deist.
What if a child grows up with such a religious upbringing only to later walk away with certain senses of disillusionment?
Labels: discipline, raising children, religion
posted by The Raging Paradoxidation at
18:38
1 Comments:
I think that a child can have an advantage in life if their parents have diverse points of view but the family is still strong. They'll develop a sense of perspective and tolerance, and they'll learn that people can believe differently without hating each other or being deeply offended. However if the parents ridicule each other it could all break down.
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