It Was the Perfect Opportunity…
I listened recently to a podcast by Josh Mulvihill on how parents can develop a biblical worldview in their children. He got my attention when he said, “Our worldview is kind of like a belly button.” What? He went on to say, “It is like a belly button because we all have one” – a worldview and a belly button – okay, point made.
“You do what you believe,” says George Barna. Regardless of whether or not you can articulate your worldview, you do have one. You make life choices based on what you believe about the major topics of life such as: Who is God? Who is man (mankind)? What do you believe about Jesus? What do you believe about heaven and hell? What do you believe about the Bible? Do you believe there are moral absolutes? How would you define success? What is your purpose in life? Most folks have what is called a syncretistic worldview; Barna’s stats reflect this. His latest research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University states that only 4% of our youngest generation of adults have a biblical worldview. Startling? Yes and no. Our culture is saturated with messages that are aligned with anti-biblical thought. Being in the world but not of the world is certainly a challenge, now more than ever.
Furthermore, we can’t teach children what we don’t know. The ideal opportunity took place in my first-grade classroom. Students were assigned to bring in a picture of a mammal to be glued onto our poster board. As each took his turn, one child proudly showed her picture of a person, and as the Holy Spirit prompted me, I said kindly to the child, “Let’s place your picture in a special location to the side of the poster board, and we’ll discuss it in a minute.” It was the perfect opportunity to teach from Genesis.
Go with me as I give an example of how another’s worldview creeps into the classroom. In an article written by Heather Hall entitled, ‘Are Humans Mammals,’ she states that humans are a type of primate and are related to other primates which include apes and monkeys; therefore, humans are mammals. If Miss Hall were the teacher, she would have placed the picture of the person proudly on the tag board and would have taught that yes, we all evolved from apes. One can zero in on her worldview.
Anyhow, taking advantage of this teachable moment, I turned to Genesis 1:27, where Scripture says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” I went on to explain that God made man on the sixth day to rule over all of creation. It was also an opportunity to search the dictionary for the meaning of image. I was delighted to find that one definition said, “semblance or likeness of another; we are made in the image of God.” Yes, that is what it said! What a beautiful and teachable moment it was for me to tell each child how incredibly special he or she was made! I noticed smiles like I’d never seen. And no, we did not evolve from apes.
That teachable moment during our lesson on mammals was not written in my lesson plans. In fact, at the end of the lesson, I thanked the student for her picture so that we could go to God’s Word in Genesis and discuss the difference between man (human beings) and the animal kingdom. We are in a special ‘classification’ all our own, and we were made for relationship with the God who created everything! The student was perfectly fine to place her picture off the poster board indicating her understanding. This is just one example of how we must teach our children to allow Scripture to inform our worldview: thus, forming a biblical foundation for our beliefs. I hope this example motivates you to dig into your thought process the next time you’re confronted with what to do or how to think. As Barna says, “We do what we believe.” On that day, I taught my students at that Christ-centered school what I believed, trusting that God would sink that biblical truth deep within their precious minds and hearts.
