Making SenseDeep ThinkersBelieve or not, your kids are thinking ALL the time. While it may seem like they are doing lots of things without giving any thought before hand, they actually are thinking. The thoughts of their hearts shape the way they live their lives. The Bible puts a great emphasis on our thoughts. It has a lot to say about truth and falsehood, wisdom and foolishness, belief and unbelief, revelation and human tradition, light and darkness, and good and evil. God says there is a right way to think about life and a wrong way to think. The outcome of either direction of thinking will be our actions. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) Making Sense of It AllOur children will try to organize, interpret and explain the things going on around them and the things going on in their own lives.They are trying to make sense out of life based on their interpretations of what is happening. They will typically respond not on the basis of the facts, but on the basis of the sense they have made out of those facts. Whether those interpretations are true or false is extremely important because it will shape everything they do. A Biblical WorldviewA recent Barna poll found that only four percent of Americans had a Christian worldview. So what is a worldview? It is the framework from which we view reality and make sense of life and the world. “[It’s] any ideology, philosophy, theology, movement or religion that provides an overarching approach to understanding God, the world and man’s relations to God and the world,” says David Noebel, author of Understanding the Times. When Christian parents recognize that their children are interpreters, we should do everything we can to get them to think out loud and help instill in them a distinctively biblical view of life. We need to be good listeners and ask good questions so that they can interpret what is going on around them and come to believe the truth. I’m praying for you! Let me know how I can help or better serve you and your family. in HIS service, Pastor Mark P.S. The themes and main ideas come from Paul David Tripp’s book “Age of Opportunity”. I’m summarizing what I read, adding my own thoughts and Scripture too. You can read past posts on our church website HERE. |