Hello friends. Today's question says, how do we explain complacent Christianity to our children? For example, love of wealth, lack of love for God's word and the poor, no hospitality, etc.
In our home, we are reading and trying to show the truth from God's word about what the Christian life should look like. We have experienced this problem in multiple churches. It's a really interesting question.
How do we help our children understand biblically what the Christian life should look like when many of the families around us, maybe even in our churches, their lives don't look like what the scriptures represent. How do we do this well? How do we help our children taste and see what Christianity truly should look like? That's the question we're going to dive down deep into answering today here on the Foundation Worldview Podcast. My name is Elizabeth Urbanowicz.
I'm the host of this podcast where we seek to answer your questions. so that you can equip the children that God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the biblical worldview. Now, as we think about this question, I am going to respond with a question that faithful listeners of this podcast will already know what this question is. And this question is, what is the goal?
So when we think about wanting our children to see Christianity as it truly is presented biblically versus what they're going to encounter a lot. within the culture and even within the church. I think our goal here is threefold.
And so I'm going to present the threefold goal that I think we should try to shoot for. The first part of the goal is to have our children taste and see what biblical Christianity should look like. We want our children to actually taste and see that they're actually experiencing this. As the questioner wrote in his or her question, that this is things that they're trying to do in their own home.
So that's the first part of the goal. The second part of the goal I would propose is to explain why biblical Christianity is not what our children will see, even within many Christian families, that we have to prepare them for this and explain biblically why is this so. And then the third part of the goal I would say is that we want to cultivate hearts of gratitude in our children instead of a spirit of judgmentalism.
that we want to make sure that as we're helping them see what true biblical Christianity is like, why it is that they're not seeing that in many of the Christian homes and families that they know and love, and then making sure that their hearts are focused on gratitude instead of a spirit of being judgmental towards others. So before we dive down deep into each of these three goals and how we can accomplish this, if you have found the content of this podcast beneficial, please make sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Also ask that you would invest the two seconds that it takes to rate this content.
Rating it just helps it get in front of more people so that we here at Foundation Worldview can really reach our goal of equipping as many Christian adults as possible with the skills they need to get their kids thinking critically and biblically. Now, as we think about the first part of this goal, that we want to have our children taste it. and see what biblical Christianity should look like.
It sounds like the questioner is already doing this in his or her home, but just for the questioner and for everyone else who is watching and listening, here's some tips for things that you can be doing in your home to make sure that you are helping your children experience what Christianity is actually like according to scripture. And if you'd like more information on this or just a more in-depth teaching on this, Highly recommend that you check out our parenting series at Foundation Worldview. You can get the first video, which goes in depth into this for free. So just go to foundationworldview.com and you can check out our parenting series. The first thing that we need to do is we need to make sure that we are cultivating our children's hearts, the relationships that we are establishing with them, because the gospel is all about relationship, that God the Father sent God the Son.
to live the perfect life that we could never live, to die in our place, to rise again to new life, to return to him again in heaven. So then he could send our, his, sorry, not our, he could send his spirit into us who are now redeemed, who are now reconciled to him. So the gospel is all about relationships. So if we want our children to understand what biblical Christianity is, we need to make sure that within our homes, we are cultivating strong relationships, that we are reflecting the heart.
of God, the father to our children. So some things that we can do to make sure that we are cultivating these strong relationships is just spending time with our children, working towards common goals, you know, working on projects together. I know that around the house, it can be a lot of work to have our kids do tasks instead of us or have them do tasks with us, because it's just quicker if we can do them ourselves. But if we actually partner with them in cooking meals, in cleaning, in doing fix it projects at home, We're actually working towards a common goal together, and that helps build relationships. It's also really important that we play with our children.
Now, those of you who have listened to the Foundation Worldview podcast for a while, you know that I myself am not a parent. My experience with children is within the classroom setting, but I know just even from my time in the classroom that I would try to make it a goal once a week to just play with my students during recess. And it was during those play times that our relationships grew so much stronger because they just loved getting to play. together. So it's so important that we just spend some time playing or if our children are above the ages of playing, you know, just recreating with them.
And it's also important that we make sure within our homes, we're practicing confession and repentance, that sin always cuts down relationship. And there's going to be sin within our homes because we are sinners. We're going to sin against our children.
Our children are going to sin against us. They're going to sin against one another. So we need to make sure that we're practicing biblical confession and repentance so that those relationships are restored.
So that's the first thing we need to make sure we're cultivating their hearts, the relationships that we have at home. Then we need to make sure that we're cultivating their hands, the rhythms and routines that we have in place at home, that they understand not only what Christian relationships look like, but what Christian practices look like. So we need to make sure that on a daily basis in our home, we're reading scripture. We're praying together. So these are just daily rhythms in our home.
You know, it doesn't have to be for a half hour together every day. You know, even if it's just five minutes around the breakfast table that we are incorporating scripture reading and prayer together. We need to make sure that we are making corporate worship on Sundays a priority so that they understand that the life of the Christian is done together with the body of Christ.
We need to make sure that sports are not taking a priority over. corporate worship on Sunday. If our churches have an online option, we need to make sure that we're not taking advantage of that option unless we're sick and it would be unhealthy for us to be around others because online church is not church. Because church is not a building.
Church is not a service. Church is the body of Christ. And so if we are watching that take place on a screen, we are not actually participating in. the body of Christ. We are just watching a corporate worship service.
We need to make sure we're prioritizing corporate worship. We need to make sure that we're practicing hospitality, that the rhythms in our home are regularly inviting people from the body of Christ over so that our kids see this daily life together. We need to make sure that we're serving together, that we're talking about the things of God together, so that just the daily rhythms of our home model what biblical Christianity is.
Okay, so we need to make sure we're cultivating their hearts, their relationships, their hands, the rhythms and routines we have in our home, and then their head. We need to make sure that we're equipping them with biblical literacy and biblical thinking skills. If we want our children to truly understand what it means to live as a Christian, if we want our children to truly understand who God is and what his grand plan is for the world, we need to teach them how to soundly read, interpret, and apply scripture.
So that they are equipped on their own to dive into God's word and to discover who he is and the truths that he has revealed to us. If you're listening or watching this podcast and you have children ages eight on up, highly, highly recommend that you check out our studying the Bible curriculum at Foundation Worldview, because that is exactly what we do in that curriculum. We actually give kids the skills that they need to soundly read, interpret.
and apply scripture on their own so that they are equipped to seek God through his word all the days of their lives. Now, just as a fair warning, this curriculum is not for the faint of heart. This curriculum is for families that are serious about discipleship, for families that are serious about getting their kids in God's word, for families that are serious about equipping their kids to seek God through his word. This curriculum does involve a lot of work.
It is not for the faint of heart, but for families that are serious about discipleship, this is a curriculum for you. And it will be a game changer in your kid's life in equipping them with biblical literacy. And as our kids are equipped to dive into the scriptures and to understand how to soundly read, interpret, and apply God's word, that is where they're going to truly see, okay, how is the Christian life described? What does it look like to be a faithful Christian?
in a hostile world. Okay, so this is the first step to have our children taste and see what biblical Christianity should look like. The second part, step for meeting the goal, is explain why Christianity is not what we will see in many Christian families.
And we want to make sure that all of this is anchored in scripture. So rather than just coming up with some explanation of why we're going to see many Christian households not... look like what is described in the New Testament, we want to actually take our kids to scripture to see why is it, what expectation does God's word give us?
And a great passage I think we can take them to is the sixth chapter of Ephesians, sorry, specifically verses 10 through 18. And Ephesians 6, 10 through 18 says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.
So we can read this passage with our children, probably have to read it two or three times, and then ask, what does this passage reveal about the Christian life? What truth does this passage reveal about the Christian life? Well, it reveals that the Christian life is a battle, that this is not just one of enjoying our time in our neighborhood and enjoying our time at our school or at our classes or at our job, you know, and just ho-humming it through every day.
It is a battle to actually fight for living the way that God wants. us to live for remembering the truth that he has revealed in his word, that we will all be tempted by the world around us. We will all be tempted by our own flesh, by our own sin nature, and we will be tempted by the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
So why is it that many times we're going to see people around us who claim the name of Christ, and sometimes we're even going to see ourselves not living according to what the Bible has said? Because this is a spiritual gospel. battle. And the enemy of our souls is doing everything that he can to keep us away from the things of God.
Another important passage of scripture we can take our kids to is James chapter one verses 22 through 25. And this passage reads, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. So then we can read this passage several times with our children and ask, what truths does this passage reveal about Christians? Well, it reveals that we can hear God's word, but not follow it. that sometimes we will do that.
And sometimes, or even many times, others might do that. However, when we read God's word and follow it, we will be blessed when we obey. And not all Christians experience the blessing of obedience, but we want to seek God through, or sorry, we want to seek to love God through obeying his commands.
And so just so our kids get this picture that scripture is clear that we're not going to see everyone who claims the name of Christ following the commands of Christ. In fact, we are never going to be able to follow those commands perfectly. That is why we need Jesus.
But we want them to understand that this is actually the expectation that the New Testament gives us. And we don't want to miss out on that blessing of actually loving God by obeying his commands. Okay, so we've covered the first two parts. First, that we want to have our children taste and see what biblical Christianity should look like.
Then we want to explain why biblical Christianity is not what we will see in many Christian families. And then third, we want to cultivate hearts of gratitude instead of a spirit of judgment. Because it's really easy when we're explaining to our kids, you know, why we make certain decisions in our home.
You know, why we don't attend sporting events on a Sunday morning. you know, why we're prioritizing reading God's word above other things, why we're having people in our homes often to practice hospitality, you know, why we don't allow them to spend a long amount of time on, you know, television or why we don't let them have social media accounts or, you know, all of these things when we're explaining it to them, it would be very easy for them to then develop a very critical attitude towards others, you know, oh, others aren't doing this. as well as we are doing. And we want to help them see that it's not our job to go around and judge and to say, you know, what everybody else is doing is wrong, but we should have a heart of gratitude because it's God's grace that has allowed us to make these decisions.
So when our children ask why other families do things differently, we want to always point them back to God's word. And we want to place the focus on the goodness. of God's commands, not on the incorrect behavior of others.
Now, when I say we don't want our children to have a spirit of judgmentalism, I don't mean that we can never judge in determining whether an action is right. or whether an action is wrong. You know, if we see another family in our church, you know, who misses half the Sundays out of the year because they're at a soccer tournament, you know, soccer tournaments or baseball games, we can know, we can make the judgment and say, okay, you know what, according to scripture, this is not correct because we are commanded not to give up the habit of meeting together.
And if we're missing half the Sundays out of the year to go to soccer, we are neglecting meeting. together. And so we can say, okay, that's not the right thing to do, but then we don't want to go and cast judgment on that family.
Instead, we want to say, God, you know, help us to honor you, help us to love you more. Thank you for the goodness of your commands. And a passage of scripture that we can take our kids to, I think to help cultivate this gratitude and help them see the goodness of God's commands is Psalm chapter 19 verses seven through 11. And this passage reads, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. So this is a passage we can actually spend a lot of time on with our kids. You know, what truths are revealed about God's commands?
You know, that they're perfect. They revive the soul. They're sure. They make the wise simple.
You know, just go through verse by verse, all the things that are revealed about God's commands. And then we can thank God for his commands. Thank God that he has given us this.
good commands that are for his glory and are good. And we can thank him that Jesus fulfilled all of those commands perfectly so that we might be clothed in his righteousness. And then we can pray and ask that we would be strengthened to obey him more and more each day, not as a way of gaining his favor, but as a way of loving him. And this is what we want to leave our children with. Just this understanding that following God's commands is not burdensome.
It is a blessing. And when we follow God's commands, we are living according to his design. And that is where true freedom is found. Well, that's a wrap for this episode. If you have a question that you would like for me to answer on a future Foundation Worldview podcast, you can submit that by going to foundationworldview.com forward slash podcast.
As we leave our time together, my prayer for you is that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care, find yourselves that you would trust that God is working all things together for your good. by using all things to conform you more into the image of his son. I'll see you next time.