E6:4

Of course, children belong in Sunday school. Children and school go together like peanut butter and jelly. But some have suggested that faith is caught more than it is taught. If this is true, children also belong in worship, though there are Sunday mornings when we would rather this were not so. Like it or not, children should be in worship every Sunday, alongside their parents, catching faith. It follows, though, that if they are learning from us what it means to worship faithfully, that we must be worshipping faithfully, also.

In his book Will Our Children Have Faith?, John Westerhoff puts it this way:

The challenge facing the church is in the bland, unconverted, ignorant lives of its members. Until adults in the church are knowledgeable in their faith, have experienced the transforming power of the Gospel, live radical lives characteristic of the disciples of Jesus Christ, no new curriculum, no new insights on learning, no new teacher-training programs, and no new educational technology will save us.

Remember the parables of Jesus about the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price? The question we need to ask is this: Do I have in my experience anything to offer for which anyone would conceivably want to sell all they have to obtain? The quality of our faith will always reveal what we are. And what we are will in the end determine the value and effect of what we do. We must, therefore, pay attention first of all to ourselves.*

Ouch. Tough words. That line about living a radical life "characteristic of a disciple" is particularly convicting. Do I? Do you? Have you found the pearl of great price?  

Lord, give us the courage and teach us what we need to know in order to live radically and faithfully.

*Will Our Children Have Faith, John Westerhoff, Morehouse, ©2000. p. 85

Read this first — "Just put your mind to it."

then read this: Supersize it?

Do they or don't they? No one seems to know for sure. Namely, do violent movies affect us or don't they? What's your take?

This week in the news there was yet another story about a violent, horrible murder. We really don't want to know the details, but just try to check CNN online without seeing the headlines. This time, a man strangled his wife and then dismembered her body, no doubt in an attempt to get rid of it. Neighbors are saying that he must have snapped. While the first part could have happened that way ("But officer, I just lost control of myself"), it's hard to see how the second piece of the deed could have been done in a fit of rage.

This statement by Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel caught my attention:

“It’s very horrific. What he had done to her was one of those things that I think people can only imagine by watching a movie or television or actually seeing and reading about in some kind of a novel.”¹

So I did some research. Some studies have shown that even though the number of violent acts shown on television has increased over the years, the crime rate has not. In fact, sometimes, it even went down… that is, until last year, when the rate of violent crime went up noticeably for the first time since 1991.²

Because the crime rate has mostly held its own over recent years, some experts assert that the stuff we watch on tv has no effect on us. 

It's kind of odd, though. Every year, advertisers spend huge amounts on TV commercials (about $60 billion in 2004³). They wouldn't spend all that money if commercials didn't produce results. If TV ads have influence, it seems safe to assume that programs would, also. Perhaps Sheriff Hackel knows better than some researchers.

¹ Husband gives details of slaying

² CNN on the crime rate and TV

³ TV in the dark

Okay, we know we're to use eye contact, provide physical affection and listen to our children attentively. But after nurture, then what? Pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton says that "discipline is the second most important thing you can give a child. Love comes first, but very close on its heels comes discipline."

Yes, it's time to talk about the D word. We really don't like doing that. Somehow, discipline sounds sort of mean.

Read on » »

Public tantrums. They are indeed every parent's nightmare. Six or seven months pregnant with our second child, I once left a full grocery cart right by the check-out lines and walked out of the store with an out-of-control 2-year old. She had had a terrible, awful, no-good, very bad day. This was extremely unusual for this normally sunny-tempered little daughter, but she was beyond reasoning or comforting and there was nothing to do but go home.

Read on » »