My Generation Non-Sense

The prince of this world offers many memberships   to our kids, in an attempt to rob their Christian identity. The most common is seeing yourself as belonging to a unique generation that is superior to past generations. The benefit of this club is you don't have to follow the boundaries or values held in the past. At best you ignore your citizenship in the kingdom, at worst you deny it.  

Transcript

Ethan: 0:02

Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast dedicated to faithful parents navigating their families through a stormy culture

0:09

This is raising joyful children in an angry world. I'm your host, Paul Osborne. Well, it's Christmas Week 2025, and this will be the last podcast for this year. And I wanted to touch on a subject that I've been running into quite a bit in conversations with people around my neighborhood and coffee shops and in especially when I go to what I call the writer's meetings, these meetings. Whether they be the children's literature or fiction writing, what we will often do is each person will read a little piece of what they've written and then we critique one another. And one of the things that I hear largely from people in their twenties and thirties who would be a childbearing age and raising kids, and even in their forties, is they'll say something like this, the phrase you used in the story, and then they'll name the phrase, nobody in my generation would know what it means. Now, nevermind the context of the time and place, the story is happening, or the quest that the character is on. No. The value of the words and phrases must be in the contemporary vernacular because it is of the ultimate importance. And the thing that really strikes me about this statement, and I hear this often is that it's not so much that the person even is expressing their preferences or even say something like, well, I might have to stop reading the story if that kind of term might stop me. But the person holds a belief that their reaction not only speaks for themselves, but they have an authority to speak for an entire generation. You, you can see, can you see how this is like, you gotta do it on my terms. And by the way, I represent everybody that is my age and my generation. The inflation of that ego and the demand for it. I would suggest that if you believe you hold such an authority, man, there's a real gap in in how you were raised. And I could go on about this, but it is counterproductive. Even in the literary world to building the brain muscles to go and look up words and be a better reader and learn and build your vocabulary. But as a Christian, this is where I really think this gets scary. That if you hold this view, that everything must be framed in contemporary conversational style. Well, you're walking into a world. That will not benefit your child's faith. In fact, they will be in danger of holding strange and strong beliefs about whatever it is, generation X or Y or Z, and they will begin to use this against you. Oh, I get what your boundary is. Your mom, dad. Yeah, but you see, that's for your generation. This is what took place in the sexual revolution in the 1960s. Christianity has to be able to deliver and has to be understood as timeless wisdom that applies to our current life, and it has to understand that God is timeless and eternal. He. Is the thing, the supreme being, in other words, he is and never changes. He knows all from the past. He knows all about the future. He is, as the creed says, the God the Father Almighty, who speaks to all generations. So when you get into these kinds of conversations and you start to demand teaching and worship and language, and it has to meet this modern vernacular. I fear we end up building a wall that blocks a lot of faith's. Great wisdom. Because at the same time you're saying to the heart and the mind, the child, well, you know, these are the filters you have to have and, and if you say them and you believe them, then they will adopt them. I think we end up putting the wrong question at the port of entry. The wrong filters, the screen of modern. Thinking has a way of preventing the important words of wisdom and, and leaving them out and, and this then leads to destructive ideas that get in the second thing that happens. When you start down this path, you know, this is my generation, and see, we think this way and you, you start down this path, well, you end up creating a social construct, which is a fancy word, but what you actually are doing is you are creating segregation of people based on age. And it's not any different than the segregationist who created it by race or ethnicity or gender. And segregation leads to a mindset that this is my identity. I identify because I'm a particular generation and I put a, a letter or some alphanumeric identity behind it, instead of I'm identifying myself as a Christian. This segregation also, it then says, well, you elders, you teachers here. You, you are in a different group, so you, you're not with me. And, and suddenly you start to break down the entire understanding of the, of the Christian family and, and what we are all about and the timelessness and all of the attributes of God. We end up giving the devil a tool to dismiss teaching that is not served on the plate of preference. The devil says, oh, that's not your preference. You don't have to listen to it. You don't have to hear it. And, and all of this is happening at the same time that this modern invention of social media is. Driving this kind of same all you see people in your group, people in your friend's space, people that use whatever social media app you use. Old people use this one, young people use this one, and all this stuff is being a massive driver of anxiety and a mental health crisis in our country. When the child reaches their teen years, I will tell you they are going to use this concept against you, and they're gonna do it regardless of what you do. So don't hear that. This is like if you do it, but if you do it, I think they'll use it more. Because they're gonna see you and your authority, and your boundaries and your beliefs and your faith, as something that has authority to only people in your 20 year age group, maybe even less than that. So for 2026, let's be careful about. My generation and oh, I've gotta make something that only applies to the kids. Let's push kids to understand classic stories. Let's push them to push their vocabulary higher. Let's push the Bible stories. And yeah, I think we have to say them meaningfully and we gotta try to tell them sometimes in a I. Entertaining way, but sometimes you just gotta get down and accept that this is what the eternal God, the Father Almighty has through the Holy Spirit, given us through His word. And we will benefit from it for all generations. Any rate, that's my rant for the end of 2025. I hope the audience has a Merry Christmas and a blessed New year.

Paul: 7:34

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.

Paul (2): 7:47

Until next time, let's remember the words for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.