In The World

October 31, 2007 queenmom

I felt like a falsely-accused woman during the Salem witch hunts. The conversation turned to the soon-to-be released movie, The Golden Compass. My sisters in Christ were quite upset about the movie and the subsequent books in the series. (Go to this link to see why–http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp) I share in their concern and dislike for the whole mess. However, their tone greatly concerned me, because if I would have shared that our Little Miss had read the books, a great hush would have fallen over the room and I would have been labeled a “liberal” mom. The atmosphere was not one of room for various view points. Please know I am not condemning my dear friends. Plenty of times I have reacted just as they did. However, this time I was on “the other side.”

A few weeks ago Little Miss was given this triology to read. Little Miss reads constantly and we do our best to keep up on what she is reading. After she finished these books she told me, “Mom, these books were terrible.” Then she went on to list the lies of Satan, misrepresentations, offenses, etc. She knew what she was reading and why it was wrong.

I believe our job as parents is to prepare our kids for the real world by getting them in the Word; by talking about the Word; by interacting the Word with what we see on the news and TV and the culture. This is how we teach them a Christian worldview. I talk at the TV to the local and national news anchors as they are reporting the news. I challenge the politicians when they speak lies and twist the truth. I do all this while the girls are with me in the kitchen. It helps the girls see how to apply the truth of the Word to what the world is throwing at us. Teaching them the truth immunizes against the “germs” of the world while we are living in the world.

Jesus told us to be salt and light in the dark world, not to hold up in a holy huddle until He returned. Please don’t take this to the extreme. Of course, I don’t want or allow my kids to be in places that are dangerous or where kids are doing what they shouldn’t be. I am saying that we need to prepare and train our kids to interact with the world; to be able to offer a solution to the hurting and troubled; to know the Real Deal and not shake in their boots when confronted with junk from Satan. We have the Lord in us.

I’m not telling anyone to go or not go see the movie; to read or not read the books. My daughter read the books quite by accident and I believe she is a stronger believer for it because she exercised her biblical knowledge muscle to discern garbage from truth. No I don’t want her having a steady diet of this stuff, but when she ran into she was prepared. As believers we should be about the business of knowing the Word and then being relevant to a hurting, searching world. They need our knowledge and they need our love.