Christian Apologetics

Engaging young minds to think about worldviews

What are your expectations for children?

When children are young, they usually follow their Christian parents to church and attend Sunday school. Sometimes we wonder if our children attend church merely out of obligation because as they reach adolescence, we notice their church participation become somewhat more reluctant. And when they eventually turn into legal adults, they make haste to drop completely out of church. What can we do but pray and hope we have done enough to launch them into adulthood?

But then, what precisely do we hope our children will become when they grow up, regardless of whether or not they continue to attend church? I have asked Christian parents what they hope their children will grow up to be. The typical reply usually sounds like this: "I hope they will grow up to be happy, confident, successful, well-adjusted, etc., etc." Sounds familiar? These qualities are apparently so promising that parents often rush off to do all they can to develop them in their children. And so, we send them to the best schools, put them into after-school tuition, sign them up for music lessons and athletic programs, and bought them books on "The Seven Habits of..." or "...Best Life Now". We nourish them with vitamins and health supplements and even make sure they read the Bible and attend Sunday school in church. And then we "cross our fingers" and pray they will grow up, not only to be well-adjusted, but also to excel in life. But what does it even mean to possess such qualities? We know different people define such qualities very differently. To one person, to excel in life may mean living as an upper-middle-class member of the community. To another person, success may mean the opportunity to live out his or her lifelong passion, even if it entails sacrificing his or her personal comfort. To yet another, success may mean having all the wealth, health and fame to the envy of others. But even then, after having attained such a measure of success, there is no guarantee the person can be assured of being content. So, what is it that we hope our children will become? There is hardly any consensus in this area, and we as parents are sometimes advised not to impose our personal agenda onto the next generation. And so, some of us refrain from doing so. We simply do the "best" we can. We send them to the best schools, empower them with music lessons and athletic abilities and social skills, and every night before we sleep, we beseech God to just lead them and to guide them into a future over which we seemingly have no control and about which we know little.

May I suggest that perhaps we could teach our children how to think coherently about worldviews?   What is a worldview anyway?