When ten-year-old Roberta's beloved grandmother died, her parents decided that the child was old enough to attend the funeral and subsequent burial. They thought it would her a sense of closure and a realization that Grandma would not be coming back. They were not prepared for the alarming results.
Roberta was troubled with bad dreams for months after. She relived the moments when Grandma, in a box, was lowered into a hole in the ground. What a horrible way for a her grandmother's existence to end! Awake, Roberta pushed aside thoughts of Grandma in the cold, dark silence of the grave, but in sleep, the terrifying visions would not allow her to rest.
Roberta's parents were baptised Christians but they had not practised their faith once they had grown up and left home. Consequently, their child had no spiritual training. All she knew of life was the here and now. She had no concept of the ultimate reality that exists beyond that which the five bodily senses can perceive.
Most parents desire only good things for their children. One of the greatest gifts a child can receive is knowledge of an almighty and loving God. As the young person grows up in a committed Christian family, knowledge becomes faith and with this armour the child is able to confront the storms of life with hope and equanimity.
There are many other benefits to bringing up a child with a knowledge of God. Belonging to a family of believers, the child should grow up within a Christian community. He will have the opportunity to associate with peers of similar beliefs and attitudes. He will have worthwhile role models in the adult members of the congregation.
He will encounter virtue not just in sermons and lectures, but through experience with the other Christians in his environment. As he is attracted by the wholesomeness and fun he enjoys with his peers within the church community, he will be encouraged to imitate and ultimately absorb the moral and ethical values they exemplify. The virtues of honesty, dependability, kindness, and integrity will stand him in good stead wherever his lifetime journey on earth will lead him.
And when he confronts the death of a friend or loved one, as we all must do, these same friends will be there to comfort, console, and remind him that the departed soul has merely gone ahead, relieved of pain and illness, to be received into the loving embrace of God, our Heavenly Father. The young Christian can cherish a very real hope of being reunited with his loved ones again someday in heaven.
How much more fortunate is he than poor, troubled Roberta, who can only envision the slow, horrible disintegration of her beloved grandmother in a dark, cold, lonely grave.
Should we teach our children to know God? Certainly yes! And, if we're wise, we'll accompany them on their quest.
No comments:
Post a Comment