I have a distinct memory of one day when my kids were younger, and I was busy making dinner in the kitchen. As I gathered ingredients and stirred recipes, one of them started singing a song that they had heard on a cartoon. In this program, dancing animals had proclaimed that they were going to do things “their way.” While I had likely heard the song before, it sounded much different coming out of the mouth of my toddler. I quickly realized that doing things “their way” was exactly the opposite of the lessons that I was trying to instill in them. I wanted them to learn and love God’s way and to do things according to His good plan. Doing things “their way” would likely lead to destruction; doing things God’s way would lead to life.
In that moment I had a decision to make about how we were going to deal with this intrusion into the instruction that I had been giving my kids. Would I ban the show forever? Would I push off the discussion until sometime when they were older? Or would I, in age-appropriate language, take time to teach them to think through what they were singing and ask them to consider it in light of what they knew of God’s Word?
Perhaps unsurprisingly (given the subject of this post), I choose the last option. What probably seemed like no big deal to my kids, became a significant moment in how we parented them. Although it certainly took longer than ignoring the lyrics or just deciding that we were going to banish that show, the subsequent conversation that encouraged them to think about what they were singing and whether it was true, good, and God-honoring led to hundreds of other discussions that we have since had. Through these interactions, my husband and I have tried to shape our kids’ critical thinking skills and to equip them to discern truth from lies. We ask them to compare what they hear from the TV, from their peers, from their teachers, and even from professing Christians, to Scripture, and have shown them the faithfulness and integrity of God’s Word. Today, if my kids are watching a show and they hear something that doesn’t conform to what the Bible says, they are quick to point it out. They have started the process of discerning for themselves what is worthy of consideration and what should be ignored or avoided because it contradicts Scripture. We decided early on that we wanted to help them think through their consumption choices, and they have taken the lessons from how we applied Scripture with them to independently consider how it should apply in other situations as well.
This isn’t to suggest that we have it all figure out or that we are perfect at doing this. Nor is this intended to imply that we do not put restrictions on what our kids watch or listen to, because we certainly do. However, I do think there is a tendency to want to shelter our kids from the lies of the world which I wish to address. This inclination is understandable, but it is also important to recognize that we will not be able to shelter them forever. Therefore, we want to make sure that, while we have the opportunity to do so, we help our kids learn how to critically think through what they hear and what they see. We want to teach them that God’s Word is the standard and everything else should be considered in light of the Truth that it contains. We want to not only teach them what the Bible says but how they should apply it to every area of their lives.
As a college professor, I often hear others bemoaning the lack of critical thinking in young adults. While this is certainly concerning in areas of history and English, it is even more concerning if our young people lack the ability to discern how the knowledge and entertainment of the world is often contrary to the wisdom and truth of Scripture. This process, however, starts at home. Let’s teach our children to think – not just so they can understand reading, writing, and arithmetic, but so they can be men and women who recognize and value the integrity of God’s Word. Knowing that as they do so, their lives are likely to increasingly conform to His Ways.
