It takes intentionality and purpose these days to create Christ-centered homes that teach and train our children well. In this fallen world, the default mode is most definitely NOT biblical.
A huge part of that training is equipping them with a biblical worldview.
But what exactly is biblical worldview? Why is it important to teach it to our children? And how do we go about doing that?
A worldview is simply our perspective, or assumption, on how the world works. Everyone has one because it’s the way we see and experience the world through the lenses of our beliefs.
Most of us aren’t even aware that we operate from a particular worldview, since it was formed uncritically and informally, but it influences everything- values, behavior, culture, entertainment, relationships, government.
Simply put, worldview matters!
In a postmodern society growing with disillusionment, it’s critically important that our kids develop a persuasive biblical worldview and learn to defend it logically. Already by age 13, they will have formed most of their basic opinions and decisions about things… like God.
Teaching them a Christian Worldview is absolutely essential in building their faith, becoming Christ followers, and confronting the culture with the truth of the Bible.
We are not responsible for the salvation or sanctification of our children. That is the job of the Holy Spirit.
However, we are called to cultivate the soil of our children’s hearts and the environment of our home, diligently planting the seeds of the Gospel. And teaching them a biblical worldview is a large part of that work.
It is helping them to build their house on solid rock and not the shifting sand of popular culture. It is also teaching them discernment, helping them to identify differing worldviews in daily life, the public arena, and world history.
It’s not as easy as just giving them a book to read, or signing them up for a camp or workshop. It is a skill that must be taught, a process where children and parents are actively searching and discussing things learned from the Bible.
It is as much about the parent/child relationship as it is about obtaining biblical facts!
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1. Protect Their Environment
When a good gardener places seeds in the soil, he does so with the utmost care to ensure that the soil is healthy for the seed to grow toward its end goal. Jesus explains just how important soil is in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-9).
As parents, we need to be mindful about the type of environment we place our children in.
Protecting and guarding their environment can ensure it represents the Christian values you desire them to have. Be watchful for those influences that will overtake the work you have already begun. Evaluate the books, movies, television, and music your children consume to see how they compare with the truth of Scripture.
There is a danger in sheltering our kids too much, but there is also a danger in telling them too much about our harsh world too soon.
Unfiltered access to current events, especially seen through someone else’s viewpoint, can be harmful to our kids. It can also undermine all the things you’re trying to teach them about God.
While there is no avoiding the fact that we live in the world, we need to do our part to ensure the world is not our children’s teacher. Peers, pop culture, and public schools are increasingly displacing parents’ influence today.
It may mean making some hard choices for a season, such as the financial sacrifice of homeschooling or private school, or removing your children from relationships that are creating “weeds” in their lives.
If your children attend public school, I would encourage you to be proactive by studying some subjects at home that are void of God’s truth in the school systems.
Adding Creation studies as a family, along with Church History and early American History (including the founding principles of our government and the lives of the Founding Fathers), can help with those things that are pulling Christian children away from their faith.
I would also recommend talking to your kids about what the Bible says about sex, before the school system and other students educate your children about it.
2. Expose Them to Christian Literature & Entertainment
Baptist preacher and theologian Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “The only way to keep chaff out of the child’s cup is to fill it brimful with good wheat.” Don’t work so hard to keep worldly influences out that you neglect to replace them with biblical ones!
These (no longer cheesy) alternative media choices offer a helpful, biblical perspective of issues that are most relevant to children today. They place God as the source of Truth, and teach kids how to handle their problems in a way that honors Him.
My kids love watching Superbook and Owlegories, and my son has devoured series like The Prince Warriors and The Chronicles of Narnia.
3. Establish a Faith Culture in Your Home
There is this spiritual/secular dichotomy we tend to live in as American Christians. We leave the spiritual stuff at church on Sundays and Wednesdays, but don’t really integrate it into our homes or schools other days of the week.
Our children are watching us, and they will know whether our faith is authentic or not based on what we devote our time and resources to. They should know that while they’re living in our home, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15), regardless of what the world says.
Making the scriptures a regular, natural part of your family life will go far in this. Not only will your children be hearing God’s Word, but family discussions about how to handle real-life situations in light of God’s truth will be an invaluable treasure.
Incorporate daily Bible reading together into your schedule. Discipline your children using key verses from books such as Proverbs.
Make it a simple part of everyday life so that it creates a natural rhythm of growth, rather than being something you have to do for X amount of time each day.
Foster an open environment in your home where your children are free at all times to ask questions and have conversations surrounding life and faith.
Ideally both life and faith should be intertwined, so that there is very little difference between the spiritual and secular.
Seeing you living out your faith in front of them, imperfectly and authentically, will help your kids establish the Bible as something to live rather than just read.
4. Teach Them Discernment
Laying a foundation for a biblical worldview involves training our children to “examine everything carefully”.
By having already created this home culture that leaves room for questioning the authenticity of the Christian faith, you help your children learn how to recognize lies from truth, so they won’t just blindly accept the commonly held beliefs of our day.
They should leave your home “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks [them] to give an account for the hope that is within, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).
They may believe God created the world and that He flooded the whole earth because they’ve read this a million times in Genesis, but do they know how science actually supports the Creation Account and the Flood?
We need to connect the dots for them as to how the Bible really can be proved by scientific, logical, and historical evidence. Check out my post on the Top 6 Apologetics Resources For Young Kids for helpful tools to get started!
Examining the claims that skeptics make against Christianity now prepares them to stand up to any challenges to their faith they’ll face later. This knowledge, without any presuppositions from school or entertainment sources, will inoculate them against it.
Investigate other major worldviews together, like Humanism, Islam, Animism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and compare them against the Bible’s teachings. They should neither be surprised by, nor fearful of, these viewpoints.
In this way, our children will “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Without thoroughly knowing what God’s Word says and how to defend it logically, your child’s spiritual development will be significantly compromised. They’ll learn to depend on what other people tell them about Christianity, whether it’s true or not.
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