Teaching Christ to my kids

"Some of us grew up in hate filled "Jesus-loving" families and churches and got it ramrodded down our throats in a most ugly and abusive way. No, it is not OK to do that to kids in the name of God or Jesus. If you think it is you are no different than Bin Laden!"  ~ Anonymous

Boy, that'll make you pause to catch your breath.  An actual quote, by the way.

I hear this more and more.  It goes something like this. 

Parents have no business telling their kids what religion to believe.  It's tantamount to child abuse.  Let them figure it out for themselves.

I suspect that most who advocate that kids need to discover it for themselves are also the same ones eager for greater and greater government involvement in the raising of our children.  Let's see, parents can't do it but Big Brother can?

Sorry, I'm off point.  Back to parents teaching their kids about God.  Do I let my children play in the front yard without supervision, trusting them to choose wisely when it comes to the street?  Or, as the parent, do I provide the guidance, wisdom, and boundaries of experience?

We have guns in our house.  Lots of 'em.  Do I let my five-year old have her way with my .40 caliber Springfield XD as she would with her Leapster?  Or will I, when the proper time comes, train her in the proper handling of a weapon?

Many would like to compartmentalize God within the lives of his followers in 2010 America, but God will not be compartmentalized.  We must bow to him as God of all.  If he is only God of my Sunday mornings and my private prayer life and he's not the God of my job or the God of my marriage or the God of my entertainment or the God of the universe in my thought, word, and deed, then I do not honor him as God.  The rich, young man walked away from Christ dejected because he would not submit to Jesus (Mark 10:17-22).

God created me.  Science points that way, but the Bible tells me so (Psalm 139).  Mankind is broken.  The newspaper points that way, but the Bible tells me so (Romans 3:10-18).  I am broken.  My own heart points that way, but the Bible clearly tells me so (1 John 1:8). 

But that's not where we're left.  Jesus' death, burial and resurrection provided the solution to that brokenness (Romans 3:23-26).  History points in that direction, but the Bible tells me so.  It also tells me how that solution can be appropriated by me (Romans 10:9-11).  And my kids.  And it tells me how the God who loves me would have me live my life.  ALL of it.  What kind of parent would I be if I did not teach my children these things?

A final point.  We are independent moral agents responsible to God for our conduct.  Cutting to the root, our children, when grown, will have a choice.  They will choose whether or not to follow what dad and mom have taught them.

But for these few short years, God has delegated the responsibility for training up my children to me and my bride.  And so I will take up that enormous and terrifying mantle.  I am to teach them diligently to my children (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).  I am to not "provoke them to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).

No threats to lop off their heads.  No surprise detonations on the playground.  No burqas for my girls.  Just exposing sin, disciplining when necessary, and teaching them about the freedom and joy of walking with Christ. 

Yeah, that's the modus operandi of Osama bin Laden.  All I need is the beard.