Eternally Significant Evaluation of Parenting

By: Johnathan Todd

My sixth grader’s assignment consisted of a 2-page report on ten different religions – Judaism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and others. She dutifully searched, read and deciphered information concerning all ten religions and finished the report.

As her father, I experienced a concern over her exposure to false religions, but held firm to my parental philosophy of allowing my children to live in the world while training them to define the world based upon the truth of God. So, I never vocalized my concern and when she needed help deciphering what she was reading, I participated in her grasping an understanding of the material – even when it was material on a false religion.

On the morning the report was due, she brought it to me and excitedly encouraged me to look at her finished product. As I was looking through the material, she commented, “It seems like all the other religions are all about good deeds and trying to make yourself good. Christianity is the only one that is different.”

Here is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in my child. As the truth of God is planted (at home and at church), the Holy Spirit is growing that truth and her faith.

Parents, let us keep on presenting the truth “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:7). For we have been instructed to train our children in the truth of God and to rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit for salvation. An eternally significant evaluation of our parenting asks whether our children are being exposed to God’s truth, not whether our children are happy.