Resources for Parents in the Spiritual Formation of Children
Last week, I gave you an example of how I incorporated my biblical belief or my worldview through a science lesson in my first-grade classroom. Click here for the link.
This week’s M.M. is a short summation of Josh Mulvihill’s podcast on how to form a biblical worldview in your children with day-to-day conversation and with teachable moments and books as possible tools. I can’t possibly do it justice in this posting, but I’ll try. George Barna’s research has found that a child’s worldview is primarily shaped by the age of 13 (that is 7th or 8th grade). Therefore, a child’s worldview, Barna says, is primarily formed during the preschool and grade-school years. Does this surprise you?
It seems that many of today’s cultural topics deal with items related, in one form or another, to creation. In Genesis chapters 1-3, God speaks to these modern-day issues. These topics have to do with God’s creation of a man, of woman, His plan for marriage, sanctity of life, and so forth. Today’s children see evidence of current cultural beliefs everywhere from events held at sports stadiums, to merchandise on store shelves, from magazines positioned conveniently at checkout lanes, to visual and print advertising. From the visual arts to films, screens, and books, our culture is saturated with messages that push a non-biblical worldview.
To get ahead of these anti-biblical messages, parents must be “the first and loudest voice, early and often.” For example, talking with your preschooler about God’s view of marriage, which is one man, one woman, for life, can be a topic of short conversation with a 3, 4 or 5-year-old. In Genesis 1, we see where God created man and woman. If your biblical worldview guides your beliefs, you know that a person cannot change his or her God-given sex. It was a sad day when one candidate, being vetted to the Supreme Court, could not give an answer to Senator Blackburn for the definition of the word, ‘woman.’
Some resources of which pastor and author Josh Mulvihill speaks are as follows:
“Long Story Short” and “Old Story New.” Both are devotional books appropriate for 4–9-year-olds and 5-11-year-olds, respectively. Perhaps good reading/discussion at dinner or bedtime.
For personal reading, he gives his 10-year-old “What Does the Bible Say About That.”
For his 17-year-old, he gives “Social Justice is Not Biblical Justice” by Scott David Allen. I have read it, and it is an excellent read for you or an older child.
C.S. Lewis “Chronicles of Narnia” are a must to be read to every child, I think. Ripe for discussion.
“Little Pilgrim’s Progress” (ages 6-12) and “Hinds Feet on High Places,” children’s version (ages 5-10) – are both allegories. These are two of my favorite suggestions to read to your children.
Here is a list of trusted Publishers: Harvest House, New Leaf Press, New Growth Press, and Rabbit Room Press which published “The Dragon Lord Saga” and the “Wing Feather Saga.” I have not read either series, but he recommends.
We know stories teach morality, so I encourage you to be selective with books.
He says he and his wife have decided that their five children will not gain access to social media until past the age of 18. Parents, this is a topic you should discuss; research it before the teen years.
I recently purchased George Barna’s “Raising Spiritual Champions, Nurturing Your Child’s Heart, Mind and Soul,” copyright 2023. If there were one book I would encourage parents to read together, 30 minutes each evening, this book would be it! Based on extensive national research, Barna outlines a biblical approach to raising children with “seven cornerstones of a biblical worldview.”
