Helping Kids With Difficult Passages of Scripture

Christianity,

We have highlighted several resources produced by our friends at Focus on the Family intended to help you teach your children and your church about important truths found in scripture.

Today, we want to share a resource intended to help parents teach their children about difficult passages of scripture.

There are plenty of stories in the Bible that, especially if taken out of context, appear confusing or downright evil. In fact, arguably much of the books of Genesis and Judges falls into this category.

Jessica Thompson at Focus on the Family’s “Thriving Family” magazine writes,

It’s easy to look at a lot of Bible stories and imagine them in some sleazy supermarket tabloid:

“War hero vows to sacrifice first thing he sees after deployment. It’s his daughter!” (Judges 11)

“King takes soldier’s wife as his own. Has her husband killed.” (2 Samuel 11)

“Jealous brothers sell their younger brother into slavery, tell father he was killed by wild animal.” (Genesis 37)

The headlines could go on. Rape, incest, homosexuality. Murder and polygamy. It can be difficult to answer our kids’ questions about these troubling scriptural passages. What is the moral? Where is the hero? Can God be both good and in control of this mess?

So what are we supposed to do when our children ask us to explain these confusing or difficult passages of scripture? Again, Jessica writes,

We need to help our children learn how to read God’s Word — how to understand what’s going on in individual stories and how to frame those tales within the big picture. This isn’t a collection of moral stories meant to inspire us to be better people. Rather, the Bible is a realistic depiction of the condition of the human race. While there are moments of heroism and moral clarity, the Bible isn’t about larger-than-life people making flawless decisions and reaping the reward for their perfection. Humanity has an ugly history, and the Bible doesn’t ignore it, but rather takes hold of it, owns it and gives us a Savior who makes things right.

“Thriving Family” lists age-appropriate talking points you can use in discussing these passages of scripture with your children. I hope you will check them out; besides equipping you to educate your children, they may help you gain a deeper appreciation for God’s word as well. Click here for more information.

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Christians Are To Promote That Which Is Good, Not Evil

1 CommentReligion, , , ,

A_Cross_of_Candle_LightThe following is a guest post by Luke McCoy.

Many LGBT advocates often misunderstand people of faith who oppose homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Many of those advocates invoke verses like Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” (KJV) or Matthew 22:39, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” (KJV). They sometimes accuse people of faith of being hypocritical, judgmental, or lacking compassion.

However, Scripture tells Christians to do many things, one of which is to cling to what is good and abhor evil. Is it possible to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” not be judgmental, and still be against sinful activity? I believe so.

(more…)

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Denzel Washington: “Put God First”

Christianity,

The following blog post is by Family Council staff member Deborah Beuerman.

Each spring there are thousands of commencement ceremonies all around the country, and thousands of addresses to graduates.  One of the memorable ones this year was given by the actor Denzel Washington at Dillard University in New Orleans.

Mr. Washington offered four main points:

“Number one:  Put God first in everything you do. Everything you think you see in me.  Everything I’ve accomplished, everything thing you think I have – and I have a few things. Everything that I have is by the grace of God, understand that. It’s a gift. I didn’t always stick with him, but he stuck with me.”

“Number two:  Fail big. . . . Do what you feel passionate about.  Don’t be afraid to fail. . . .  Have dreams, but have goals. . . . To achieve these goals you must apply discipline and consistency. . . Hard work works.”

“Number three:  You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. . . . You can’t take it with you. . . .  It’s not how much you have, it’s what you do with what you have. . . . That’s where the joy is—in helping others.  That’s where the success is–in helping others.”

“Finally, I pray that you put your slippers way under the bed tonight, so that when you wake up in the morning you have to get on your knees to reach them.  And while you’re down there, say thank you.  for grace, thank you for mercy, thank you for understanding, thank you for wisdom, thank you for parents, thank you for love, thank you for kindness,  thank you for humility,  thank you for peace, thank you for prosperity.  Say thank you . . .

Mr. Washington intentionally made his speech short.  You can watch his speech below.

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