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Faith Topics
Nurturing Your Child’s Spirit
A Lesson from Nature
“I don’t think I should cram religion down my child’s throat!”
Sound familiar? Many of our era were raised by parents who found church boring while growing up, so they decided not to put their own kids through the same experience. “After all,” went the rationale, “they can decide for themselves when they grow up.”
Child psychologist and best-selling author Dr. James Dobson disagrees. When asked whether children should be allowed to “decide for themselves” on matters of faith, he responded …
Let me answer the question with an illustration from nature. A little gosling (baby goose) has a peculiar characteristic that is relevant at this point. Shortly after he hatches from his shell he will become attached, or “imprinted,” to the first thing that he sees moving near him. From that time forward, the gosling follows that particular object when it moves in his vicinity. Ordinarily, it becomes imprinted to the mother goose who was on hand to hatch the new generation.
If she is removed, however, the gosling will settle for any mobile substitute, whether alive or not. In fact, a gosling will become most easily attached to a blue football bladder dragged by on a string. A week later, it’ll fall in line behind the bladder as it scoots by.
Time is the critical factor in this process. The gosling is vulnerable to imprinting for only a few seconds after it hatches from the shell; if that opportunity is lost, it cannot be regained later. In other words, there is a brief “critical period” in the life of a gosling when this instinctual learning is possible.
Coming back to your question now, there is also a critical period when certain kinds of instruction are easier in the life of children. Although humans have no instincts (only drives, reflexes, urges, etc.) there is a brief period during childhood when youngsters are vulnerable to religious training. Their concepts of right and wrong are formulated during this time, and their view of God begins to solidify. As in the case of the gosling, the opportunity of that period must be seized when it is available… When parents withhold indoctrination from their small children, allowing them to “decide for themselves,” the adults are almost guaranteeing that their youngsters will “decide” in the negative.
Our generation is raising kids in a culture that has almost totally rejected this perspective. Debate over what is true has diminished due to the commonly held view that all truth is relative. Each person decides for himself what is true. Rather than looking up for understanding, this perspective compels us to look within. We are encouraged to become our own source of truth, and our own god.
No matter how strongly we believe that our view of truth is right for us, if it is inconsistent with reality, it isn't right! The law of gravity is just as tough on the guy who thinks he can fly as it is on the rest of us. Individual belief does not alter absolute truth.
Our children must discover truth for themselves. But that does not mean that we should allow them to create their own truth. Absolute truth is real. Our role as parents is to guide our children in its discovery, and nurture their teachable spirits toward God.
—Kurt Bruner
Do you have thoughts, questions, advice on this topic? Post your stories and comments in the forum for other parents to respond to. Enter the forum now.
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