Dr. Crain's Classical Comments
Everyday Talk
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Oct 24 2006 at 1:55 PM
At Covenant Christian School, we really do want to teach students to see God’s world through God’s eyes so that parents and their child(ren) can have enriching conversations when they sit and rise; when they walk and lie down (see my last post on this here).
Does this mean that we always have to mention the Lord in every sentence in order to have enriching conversations with our children? Not really. What it does mean is that every word we speak is informed by God’s Word.
Our everyday talk will shape our children no matter what we say. The question is not whether we will shape our children with our speech. Rather, it is how we will shape our children with our speech. Godly talk shapes in a godly way and ungodly talk shapes negatively.
What we don’t comprehend, sometimes, is that even our casual talk sets forth our perception of God. In his excellent book, Everyday Talk: Talking Freely and Naturally about God with Your Children (which I recommend highly), John A. Younts challenges us in this regard. What if you have a special day planned to go see the mountains with your family but rain forces you to stay home. You complain, “Why couldn’t it have rained tomorrow? Now we can’t go to the mountains. Our day is ruined!”
Younts says, “These comments communicate to your kids just how well you think Jesus Christ, the Lord of the wind and the waves, is running his world. You are complaining against His decision to bring rain when you didn’t want Him to. Whom are you pleasing? Whom do you think is cheering you on, saying, ‘Go for it, keep it up, couldn’t have said it better myself, atta boy!’ (Hint: it’s not the Holy Spirit.)” (16).
So, one way to begin having enriching conversations with your children is to watch what you say in everyday talk. How we verbally react when our children sin says as much to our child about our beliefs in God as how we sing in church on Sunday. As someone has said, learning is often caught not taught. We will pass on to our children what we teach and how we live but if our teaching is contrary to how we live then why should we be surprised if our children don’t heed our wisdom.
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