Archives For Parenting

Why Catechism?

samluce —  May 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

CATECHISM

Why Catechism?

Catechism in my mind has gotten a bad rap. The reasons I believe that is because people equate catechism with a nun walking around with a ruler. While this may be a bit of a caricature I do think the idea of Catechism in a classroom is less than ideal. As a father and a pastor I believe there is strong biblical support for parents teaching truth to their kids (Deut. 6). Catechism was never meant to be a classroom subject but was meant to be lived out and learned in the context of life. Parents you live catechism before you teach it. I love how Tim Keller describes the Biblical basis for it. I can do no better so I won’t try.

A BIBLICAL PRACTICE

In his letter to the Galatians Paul writes, “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor” (Galatians 6:6). The Greek word for “anyone who receives instruction” is the word katechoumenos, one who is catechized. In other words, Paul is talking about a body of Christian doctrine (“catechism”) that was taught to them by an instructor (here the word “catechizer”). The words “all good things” probably means financial support as well. In this light, the word koinoneo—which means “to share” or “to have fellowship”—becomes even richer. The salary of a Christian teacher is not to be seen simply as a payment but a “fellowship.” Catechesis is not just one more service to be paid for, but is a rich fellowship and mutual sharing of the gifts of God.

If we re-engage in this biblical practice in our churches, we will find again God’s Word “dwelling in us richly” (Colossians 3:16), because the practice of catechesis takes truth deep into our hearts, so we find ourselves thinking in biblical categories as soon as we can reason.

When my son, Jonathan, was a young child my wife Kathy and I started teaching him a children’s catechism. In the beginning we worked on just the first three questions:
Question 1. Who made you?
Answer. God
Question 2. What else did God make?
Answer. God made all things.
Question 3. Why did God make you and all things?
Answer. For his own glory.

One day Kathy dropped Jonathan off at a babysitter’s. At one point the babysitter discovered Jonathan looking out the window. “What are you thinking about?” she asked him. “God,” he said. Surprised, she responded, “What are you thinking about God?” He looked at her and replied, “How he made all things for his own glory.” She thought she had a spiritual giant on her hands! A little boy looking out the window, contemplating the glory of God in creation!

What had actually happened, obviously, was that her question had triggered the question/answer response in him. He answered with the catechism. He certainly did not have the slightest idea what the “glory of God” meant. But the concept was in his mind and heart, waiting to be connected with new insights, teaching, and experiences.

Such instruction, Princeton theologian Archibald Alexander said, is like firewood in a fireplace. Without the fire—the Spirit of God—firewood will not in itself produce a warming flame. But without fuel there can be no fire either, and that is what catechetical instruction is.

Timothy Keller, October 2012

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How do I send my kids to school on monday?

samluce —  December 17, 2012 — 3 Comments

sandy-hook-elementary-shooting-10

After the unspeakable events of last friday there are not words that make sense of what took place. There are no words that can be said that would help bring comfort. Our nation is overcome with a collective sense of grief. Any time a child dies it is hard to understand, digest or explain. When multiple children die it’s horrific.

The question I hear most parents saying and I find myself thinking. “How do I send my kids to school on monday?” My wife asked me this very question here is how I responded perhaps it will help another parent out there. Here is why I am sending my kids to school tomorrow.

1. We as parents must create an environment where our kids can thrive and can become all that God has designed them to be. We can not however protect and shield our kids from everything. We have to demonstrate to our kids through any way that we can that ultimately we trust God more than anything. Christ is our cornerstone he is the reference point of our life. When life is good He is that reference point when life is painful He is our source He is our life. Our hope as a parent can never lie wholly in our ability to keep our kids from harm, our hope has to be ultimately in Jesus alone.

2. See Christ as more valuable than anything else. – Paul says in Philippians “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He understood something we so often forget. If Jesus is truly most valuable to us if we lose everything in life we are ok because we have Jesus. If we die we win in death because we get Jesus.

3. Sin produces death. I believe more than any political stance that the events of last friday are more about us seeing the results of us trying to live our lives apart from Christ. What gives me hope is that Jesus came to bring us hope and He is coming again to make all the sad things untrue.

The last thing I believe we should do as parents is boil this horrible event down to a republican/democrat thing. Our roll as a Christ follower is to point people to Jesus, to pray for those effected and to not pull away from the world or shield our children from the world  as it grows darker but to do as exiled Jews were commanded in Jeremiah “seek the welfare of the city, build houses, plant gardens….take wives and have sons and daughters.” In times like these we need to demonstrate to our kids what it means to draw near to God.

 Jeremiah 29:4-14
4“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,a9for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD.

10“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfareb and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Here are two great posts from John Piper who is exactly one million times more eloquent than I.

How does Jesus come to Newton?
A Lesson for all from Newton.

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How to teach kids to live a prayer filled life.

samluce —  November 29, 2012 — 3 Comments

prayer-old-man-praying-with-bread

I recently bought a book on kindle called “A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life” I assumed it was a traditional systematic theology book from a Puritan perspective. It addresses all the traditional topics you would find in any systematic theology book but it also has a section called “theology in practice.” In that section they have a chapter on “Walking Godly in the home” Such a great chapter so much great stuff in there. I wanted to pass on to you the chapter on teaching your kids how to pray such practical instruction but so helpful. I found myself nodding my head and convicted. I hope you find it as helpful as I did.

  • Be short. With few exceptions, don’t pray for more than five minutes. Tedious prayers do more harm than good.
  • Don’t teach in your prayer; God doesn’t need the instruction. Be simple without being shallow.
  • Pray for things that your children know something about, but don’t allow your prayers to become trivial.
  • Don’t reduce your prayers to self-centered, shallow petitions. Be direct. Spread your needs before God, plead your case, and ask for mercy.
  • Name your teenagers and children and their needs one by one on a daily basis. Be natural yet solemn. Speak clearly and reverently.
  • Be varied. Don’t pray the same thing every day; that becomes tedious. Develop more variety in prayer by remembering and stressing the various ingredients of true prayer, such as calling upon God to hear your prayers, adoring God for His titles and attributes, declaring your humble dependence and need, confessing family sins, asking for family mercies (both material and spiritual), interceding for friends and churches and nations, giving thanks for God’s blessings, and blessing God for His kingdom and glory. Mix these ingredients with different proportions to get variety in your prayers.

Beeke, Joel R.; Jones, Mark (2012-10-14). A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life . Kindle Edition.

 

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Great app to help with your child’s spiritual development.

samluce —  November 20, 2012 — 1 Comment

New City Catechism

One of the things I want my kids to do is to know is to own their faith. We often fail to teach our kids about their faith because we don’t know what to tell them or how to tell them what we do know. One of the things we have been trying to do in our house is teach our kids the catechism. I love the fact that my kids can learn the basics of their faith. I believe the place in which catechism is best received is at home where it can be modeled.  Tim Keller has done an amazing job compiling questions and adding content around them that engage the whole family. It’s a free app so if you have an iPad I strongly suggest you download it today

The New City Catechism app provides a set of fun, simple, and elegant tools to memorize this catechism that has been adapted by Timothy Keller and Sam Shammas from the Reformation catechisms. The app allows kids to track their progress and view kid-friendly versions of the catechism answers. It also allows adults to see rich, expanded content, and dig into the depths of each question and answer.

Some app features:
+ Navigate 52 catechism questions and answers for adults and kids
+ Watch videos from preachers (e.g. Don Carson, Mark Dever, Timothy Keller, John Piper, etc.) exploring the catechism answers
+ Track your progress and the progress of your kids—or Sunday school class—as you memorize the catechism together
+ Show/hide answers or select between child/adult answers to help in the memorization process
+ Choose between NIV or ESV for Scripture text
+ Read a teaching from a historical preacher (e.g. Augustine, Edwards, Spurgeon, Wesley, etc.) for each question and answer
+ Pray suggested historical prayers for each question and answer

New City Catechism comprises 52 questions and answers—therefore there is only one question and answer for each week of the year, making it simple to fit into church calendars and achievable even for people with demanding schedules.

Because parents who teach their kids a children’s catechism, and then try to learn an adult one for themselves often find the process confusing (the children are learning one set of questions and answers and the parents are learning another completely different set), New City Catechism is a joint adult and children’s catechism. In other words, the same questions are asked of both children and adults, and the children’s answer is always part of the adult answer.

New City Catechism is a joint project between Redeemer Presbyterian Church and The Gospel Coalition.

(Taken from http://www.padgadget.com/ipad-app-details/564035762/6/1/2)

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Are your kids to materialistic?

samluce —  November 5, 2012 — Leave a comment

materalism

The problem with kids and parents who are materialistic most often don’t think they are. Materialism is when we are focused on things we can buy our earn to bring us happiness. We live in a society that pushes consumerism. We in many ways are defined by what we buy. Do you shop at Gap, Goodwill, or Hot Topic each of those store say something about you. Our need as adults to fit in drives who we are and what we do, unfortunately it can spill over into our kids.

What are the causes?

1. Parental example. – The first place you have to start when you feel that your kids are materialistic is by looking at yourself. Do you compare yourself to others. Are you driven by a need for acceptance by a certain group of people that dress a certain way, that drive a certain car. When you get home from work what do you talk about with your wife in front of the kids? Do your kids see you constantly buying things that you want rather than need?

2. Cultural influence - Marketers are not stupid they know that kids hold much of the purchasing power for the family. Parents cave to parents on everything from food, to clothes to toys. Marketers market directly to kids bypassing the parents because they can so they do. kids today make more decisions that I believe is good for them. If your kids watch an hour of TV 20 minutes of that hour culture is telling them what they must have to have a happy life.

3. Friends - This starts off a non-factor and grows into the greatest of the three. By the time your kids are in HIgh School the influence to be like everyone else to have what everyone has to compare yourself to  others hits full force.

How do you help your kids avoid materialism?

1. Help them have a proper view of material things. – Begin teaching your kids at a young age that their responsibility as someone who trusts Christ fully is to use the resources they have to help those in need. People matter more than things. I remember growing up hearing a song my parents would listen to by BJ Thomas it said we need to “Love people and use things not the other way around”. It was true in the 70′s and it’s even more true today.

2. Train your kids to compare themselves to the right things. – The problem with materialism is who decides who is materialistic and who is not. I can point to a family because they drive a certain car or dress a certain way and at the same time another family is pointing at me calling me materialistic. I have heard a definition of materialism as being “Where your paycheck stops and theirs keeps going.” It’s more than just a paycheck thing, I believe its a worship thing. Materialism is minimizing my idols by comparing my idolatry with my neighbors. So what then do we stop comparing ourselves all together? Actually when we first compare ourselves to Christ we see the things in our lives we value more than him. In doing so we see what He has done for us. We see the price He paid to set us free from the trap of things and are able to help others because of what Jesus has done for us.

3. Teach them to treasure Christ. - This is the reason materialism exists. We treasure something more than Christ. Help your kids see the value of Jesus the same value that Jesus expressed in his parable in Matthew 13. The reason our kids find their security in things is because they have a sin problem which CS Lewis discribes as a miss-ordered love. When we treasure Christ he reorders every love in our life. Ask for wisdom from God in identifying those things in your kid’s lives that they trust more than Jesus. As the Holy Spirit brings those things to your attention in the life of your kids, confront them every chance you get. Help your kids see the beauty of Christ in doing so the power of things loses it’s luster and supreme value of Christ is magnified.

The problem of materialism comes in when we hear the gospel in church but preach another gospel at home. We need to continually trust God with everything we have. Our kids see us respond, they never stop learning from our example for better or worse. Lets demonstrate to our kids the power of God perfected in the weakness of man.

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