Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. — Deuteronomy 6:4-6 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? — Deuteronomy 10:12-13 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" […]
Worldview
586 posts
“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” Hebrew 13:4 In the last post we looked at a USA Today article regarding the way that Americans view sin. The article contained a survey listing various activities and the percentage of Americans who thought these activities were sin. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed thought that adultery was a sin. However, only 45% of this same group thought that having sex before marriage was a sin. This difference says much about how our culture uses the Bible to determine what is sin. The actual title of the article in USA Today is “Has the notion of sin […]
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7 The cornerstone of a biblical worldview must be the fear of the Lord. Understanding how this world really works is impossible without the fear of the Lord. Recall the definition of worldview from the last post: the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. If your children interpret their world without the fear of the Lord they will never be wise. Practically speaking, this means that the observations and conclusions that they draw from their experiences will be flawed. If the fear of the Lord is absent, love of self will dominate a child’s life. His choices will […]
Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. (Psalm 4:6-7) Several recent posts addressed the concept of worldview and children. The American Heritage Dictionary defines worldview this way: The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. Do you see why teaching about worldview is an important part of parenting? Your children are born interpreting their world from a fatally flawed perspective (Eph.2:1-3). Your job is to teach them a worldview that sees reality from God’s perspective. One way to build this biblical worldview is to use the Psalms creatively […]
Doing what comes naturally 17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. Eph. 4:17-19 This passage is seldom applied to child-training and to toddlers. However, there is much to learn from Paul’s words regarding training children. This passage illustrates what happens when children are not brought […]
Toddlers and worldview are not concepts that appear to be compatible at first glance. The image of a 3–year-old sitting down at a computer to type a paper on worldview evokes humor, not reality. However, a toddler does have a worldview. It may be limited, but it is a worldview nonetheless. This worldview is expressed in statements like – I’m thirsty, he took my toy, I want a cookie, I’m tired, I’m hungry, I don’t want to. Do you see a pattern here? A toddler’s worldview tends to begin and end with him. This is not surprising given that we all start life gratifying the cravings of our flesh (Eph. 2:3). Left unchecked this limited, self-centered worldview will produce a […]