Children need to see that God exists outside of their Sunday school classroom or youth group and beyond the pages of their Bible. He is connected with everything in their lives at school—including the academic subjects they are learning.
Predict and Pre-teach
Author and Gateways friend Linda Moran explained to me how she prepares her children for what they might learn at school. She calls it “Predict and Pre-teach.” Explain to your children what they may learn at school (predict). Then, before they encounter it, teach them God’s truth on the topic (pre-teach).
We’ve applied this technique with our own children. For example, when our daughter was in first grade, we noticed at a school open house that the children would be reading a book about nature that referred to Mother Earth. Rather than protest the use of the book, we explained to her that she may be reading books that mention Mother Earth (predict), and we talked to her about God being the creator of all things (pre-teach).
We made it the subject of joking (“Can you believe how silly it is that some people think the Earth is our mother?”). We read the Creation Story from the Bible and talked about how beautifully God made the Earth and everything on it.
One day she came home with a big smile on her face. “You won’t believe what we read today in class,” she said. “We read about Mother Earth!” We all had a good laugh. That was years ago, yet she still rolls her eyes when she sees something written about Mother Earth.
You can use this practical way of teaching discernment with any age. For example, parents are rightly concerned with their teenagers being taught evolution as a fact. Using the “Predict and Pre-teach” method you can arm them with the thinking tools they need. Look at their textbooks to find out how the topic will be taught, then provide them with access to helpful websites and books.
Have your children begin every day with this question in mind: “What will Jesus think about what I learn today?” This means applying 2 Corinthians 10:5, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” You can help your children think like Jesus while in class by helping them make the connections between their academic studies and God’s Word.