Philip Dearmore's Library tagged atheism → View Popular

25 Mar 09

I’ll finish with a few suggestions. Although there’s nothing a parent can do guarantee that his kids will remain in the faith, you can take some precautionary measures:

i) Choose your battles with care. Don’t give your kids too many things to rebel against. The more things you give them to rebel again, the more likely they are to rebel. Don’t load them down with unbiblical restrictions.
ii) In the nature of the case, happy people are not as restive as mad or sad people. For example, some parents treat church attendance as an onerous duty. Like eating your turnips and parsnips and spinach.
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- Are you kids miserable in church? Why? Try to find out. Try to do something about it.
- iii) The world likes to glamorize evil. By contrast, you should expose your kids to the ugly underbelly of evil. Do so in a controlled environment. Take them to shelters for battered women. Or prison ministries. Or night-watch ministries. Expose them to the violence and despair of a godless lifestyle.
- iv) Teach them basic reading skills. They should read some of the following books:
  
  Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
  
  V. Philips Long, The Art of Biblical History
  
  Leland Ryken, Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible
  
  Meir Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative
- v) And, of course, they should become acquainted with some standard apologetic literature. There’s a lot of find online material.