Parents—Don’t Leave Teaching to the Church

In addition to ensuring that their children receive meaningful instruction from church, parents are responsible to build a biblical worldview in their children on a daily basis.

Parents, you can become more involved in many ways.

Get Involved in the Classroom

Vondale S., a father of three, frequently drops by his children’s school. The teachers allow him to sit in the classroom and listen. That way, he’s able to monitor what his children are being taught and discuss it with them after school.

Checking the textbooks your children bring home is also helpful. Note antibiblical philosophies and discuss them with your children at the appropriate time in the school year. Contrast what the textbooks teach with the Word of God. Show them how science confirms biblical truth.

Look for Everyday Moments

When your child asks about finding a baby bird killed by a cat, rather than brushing it off as the “natural order of things,” you could use this opportunity to explain the connection between Adam’s (and our) sin and death in the world.

Road cuts exposing many rock layers provide ample opportunities to discuss how the global Flood of Noah’s day (and its aftereffects) left its mark on the world—the watery catastrophe most likely caused the layers. When you marvel at a mountain peak, teach your children how God brought such beauty out of judgment. Today’s mountains were not all a direct creation of God; most came as a result of God’s judgment in the Flood.

Watch What Your Children Watch

Help your children connect the Bible to the real world by using everyday moments to talk about biblical principles.

Even supposedly “innocent” media have a message to convey. The cartoons SpongeBob Squarepants and Bugs Bunny, popular movies such as Ice Age, Jurassic Park, and the Star Wars series, and innocuous television programs like Gilligan’s Island have reinforced the idea of millions of years of evolution.

As you watch such programs with them, teach discernment by pointing out anti-God philosophies.

Minister to Other Children

Barb Martin used the Seven C’s of History with her neighborhood children (ages 2–13) during a summer Bible club. (See Backyard Evangelists for more details on how to conduct a backyard club.) Invite other children to your house for a snack and a fun lesson.

Supplement Their Learning

You don’t have to homeschool your children to educate them at home. Parents can supplement what their children are learning in school (in science, history, math, etc.) with brief daily or weekly lessons at home. The lessons don’t need to be long. A half-hour session on a different subject area each week can go far, over the course of a year, to help your children connect the Bible to the real world.

Study as a Family

The dinner table and bedtime provide opportunities to spend time as a family studying God’s Word every day. You can use this family devotion time to teach your children ways to answer the questions of the world and to think biblically.

Of course, children need to do more than read the Bible; they need to learn how to study the Bible and how to use the Bible when confronted with skeptical attacks on the Word of God and Christianity.

Ask your children what negative comments they’ve heard others say about the Bible or Christianity, and then teach them how to respond during your family time over the next days or weeks (after you’ve had time to learn the answers). News accounts also make great springboards for discussing a biblical perspective on such things as global warming, war, etc.

In all of this, encourage a true passion for the Lord and His Word (this starts with you!). Children are never too young to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8) and to see that the Bible is worthy of our trust and obedience.

Visit AnswersMagazine.com/go/family-resources for a list of resources that can help you on these points.