Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture.
This week in the Wall Street Journal, a writer named Jonah Winter, who is a children's literature writer, and a self proclaimed lifelong liberal, he says, he wrote a lengthy commentary on the children's publishing industry. He claims that it's being controlled by mobs of social media and cancel culture. He expressed his dismay that publishers now demand writers be of a certain identity to have their books published. I try to avoid getting sucked into the vortex of all these culture war fights, but I think we need to note that the battle for the heart, the soul and the identity of our kids starts early. This is raising joyful children in an angry world. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. I mentioned winter because at my age, as you get to the 55 plus camp, you meet. Lots of parents who discuss and say, I can't understand how my kids got to be adults. And then suddenly they rejected all my values. Now, I don't know people's children. I don't get into this with them, but I suggest that if the children's publishing industry, the entertainment business, education systems are invited to freely roam in the hearts and minds of our kids. Without the wisdom of God and the apostolic teaching, it seems kind of obvious as to the direction they will go. Last time we started in the apostles creed, I believe in God. That's a, that's a very fundamental very profound question. Will your children believe in God? And today we want to talk about grasping. I believe in God, the father, almighty creator of heaven and earth. It is a belief that drives our Christian identity. What does it mean? We'll talk about the attacks on this belief, and then how do we pass it down to our kids? If you listen to the podcast we had, many, many episodes ago regarding kids finding their God given talents, we looked at the parable of the talents. To conclude that our view of God has a lot to do with how we discover and use our gifts. I believe In God, the father, God being a spirit and the person of the trinity being the father reveals to us what he wants to give us, Psalm 65 expresses this in saying that God is a father to the fatherless. In other words, God fathers us regardless of our earthly father's status, whether they were great, whether they were not so great, whether they were absent. Our father in heaven fathers us a James 1 16 verses through 18. Do not be deceived. My beloved brothers, all good giving and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights. And then of course, in first John three, Verse 1, See what love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God, and that is what we are. See the belief and the identity? Ah, the reason the world does not know us, says John. Is that it did not know him. So first of all, in this, in this part of the creed, we don't want our kids to see God as a boss, as a task master, but instead as a father who has adopted us, who loves us, who takes pleasure in rescuing, redeeming us and giving us good gifts. He is a father, however, a father who is almighty. In fact, he is. The almighty, his fathership comes with this term, the father almighty, the Hebrew word El Shaddai, God almighty. And in that he defends me against all danger and guards me and protects me from all evil. We live in an anxious society. It is riddled with anxiety, fear. And so understanding this Word of God being almighty and what it is meant to comfort us and to give us confidence in life That is not based on our own strength on our own wisdom on our own power But on the power of God one of the first resistance to this Belief of the father being almighty is his almightiness. And what we're going to see is that our kids want to be almighty, right? They want to be in charge. We're going to, that's something that comes out very early. And so the first resistance to this, and I think the first way that we have to understand teaching this is the giving children too many liberties. Too early has a way of instilling the idea of planting the seed that you have an almightiness. You choose what you want to eat all the time. You choose what you want to wear when you go to bed. I mean, there are reasonable options that we can give to our children. And then there is the other side of it in which we are creating independent souls who will. actually resist and act, and potentially resent the almightiness of God. And so there's a parental role of authority that is involved with giving good gifts, but it comes with instruction and correction, which is part of the way we try to align life in our home to grasp the Father Almighty. Now this, the father almighty must also be the creator of all. So the creed says, I believe in God, the father almighty creator of heaven and earth. God created the world and God created me. Luther in his shorter catechism brings this together in a way that is really the because after he ties these texts and he ties this, this first, Part of the creed. He then goes to the question. What does this all mean? This is The old way of teaching you would ask a question before you give the answers and he gives this beautiful answer. I'll try to summarize it, but he says God made me. He starts right off in the middle of this by talking about the fact that I see my identity in the fact that God made me. And then I see that God made all creation. He says, God made me, my body, my soul, all my members, all my senses. He gives me all my earthly needs. He talks about your home, your clothes, your shelter, your food. Luther says he defends me from all evil, and he does it, and this is where it's the catchy part. This is where the gospel comes in, and he does it out of his goodness and love, without any merit from me. And because of this, because of God's goodness and love, then my duty is to thank, praise, serve, and obey. Luther personalizes this and, and by telling us that because of what God has done for us. Then we can respond in gratitude and service and obedience. You will notice it is not on personal performance, but rather despite my personal performance or my lack of it. The gospel is in this creed and it is another place that is counter to the world. So much of the world teaches that we are accepted. We are measured because of our merit, our ability to behave in school. Almost all schools have these behavior charts now. Oh, you, are behaving at a, at a green level versus a yellow or red level. Our sports teams have tryouts, even friends groups seem to have this performance stuff going on. And it's one measure of human performance. It basically says, you do this first, you do it well, and then you are accepted and praised and you belong. And yet our God says, I first loved you when your behavior missed the mark. God says, I did this because of who I am. I adopted you. I ransomed you. Now go and do, because you can trust me. You are in my family. I father you. Go be free and do so without fear. That's an amazing understanding that we are trying to counter culturally give to our kids. Now this issue of God being the creator of heaven and earth, Really, the entire universe is a second piece of pushback that is going to come from society that has enthroned science. The old science pushback comes and It's coming to weaken our trust in the gospel and too often Christians do not know the creation story and they get pulled into debating science and all these things that nobody can prove And we miss the forest over the origins of the tree argument Stuart Briscoe who has written the book on the Apostles Creed, I think brings some insight. He tells us that the creation story is primarily about the Creator. That story is reflecting who is God and then secondarily, the creation. It's silly to get into this as though it was a science. paper or a building material of some engineering document. And Briscoe makes a great point about the folly of creation by science or evolution. He says, we can be certain about what science teaches in the present. We can be reasonably sure about the immediate past, but the distant past is largely speculation. And so we can't let science speculations take our attention from the creation story on what is unscientifically demanding that we do. It's a very interesting way of seeing it. And then he also points out that really the foundation, and he points to several evolutionists, the foundation of evolution is the belief That we and everything on earth is the subject of chance. The evolutionary theory requires that chance alone is the source of our existence. This is in direct contradiction to our faith. In fact, it conflicts with much of our human existence, and it further strips your authority as parents because you're random and the more we buy into this random chance. Ideology, the less purpose and meaning that life has. I mean, it just even goes against common sayings. Oh, that guy, he was built for this. What does that mean? Well, it suggests design. The creation story of who God is and how God commissions us, gives us purpose, how he designs our family, explains our relationships, even goes on to define what freedom is. And the love of his holy constraint, it's all about our life and our enemy comes using the same old temptations that he tried on our Lord, but unlike Jesus, those who see life as chance and themselves as almighty or partially almighty are vulnerable to the temptations of it. He tempted him on provision and the provision, when he came off of the fast, Luther points out in, in God being the father, he provides for us. He tempted him on doubt. Remember, jump off this cliff and see if the angels, can catch you. It's, it's sort of a sowing seeds of doubt. Luther points out as to the scriptures that God, the father almighty protects us. We don't need to doubt. And then. Satan tries to steal his identity. Oh, if you'll worship me, I'll give you control and power over all the world. He already had power over all the world. And so this same thing, the father who created you and made you, has given you your identity. He has adopted you into his family. This part of the creed is something that we should memorize and we should teach. We see it in our foundations of our prayer life. Just a simple grace before dinner helps us to understand that our father is our provider. We can request God's protection when we travel and for our soul. And we could be asking God to help our kids find their talents, as we've said in previous episode. I see many parents are concerned about the cultural rot of society, but history tells us what we face is not new, nor is the cause of the rot or the effects on children growing up new. What is somewhat new is how many are surrendering the belief in God the Father Almighty for some code of personal goodness that develops by chance and human accomplishment. How on one hand people see the rot caused by humans and yet hold on to the idea that they can fix it, rather than surrendering to the idea that all have fallen short and only God can redeem what he has created. It's a question few people, consumed by the concerns of cultural rot, ever ask. The creed is meant to be memorized and to be taught. It is also meant to be lived out. I fear sometimes we get caught up in our kids meeting the standards of society, and we miss God's invitation of acceptance. Before we get worked up about the behavior chart at school, and there's nothing wrong with, wanting our kids to behave at school, but we need to ask, what will redeem the heart that causes the chart to be needed in the first place? It's not an empty Ted Lasso, just believe. No. It's I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. The ultimate battle for the heart and soul is a fight for identity. Our king invites our kids to know who they are, what to believe, and where they belong. Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven