February 2010 New Horizons

Faith and Child Rearing

by Mark S. Melton

Raising our children in the Christian faith is important to us, isn't it? We talk about it a good deal in our churches, don't we? Dads and moms are regularly seeking out advice and counsel from others. Why? Because we want to make sure that we do it right! We want to do the best we can to raise children who trust Christ, who love God, who are led by the Spirit, who serve the kingdom of God. Our desire is to raise godly children, not merely good kids. We've all heard the refrain "Oh, he was such a good kid" bandied about when someone gets into trouble. But our longing is to raise godly offspring who will bring glory to our God. The Fear of Failure Sadly, not a few of you are concerned that you are not doing the best you can, that you are not doing it right! In fact, it is likely that an underlying spirit of fear afflicts some—fear of failure, fear of not getting it right, fear of doing an inadequate job with our children—not too unlike the fear that afflicted the fathers in Mark 9:24 and ... Read more

Forming Covenant Identity in Children

by Benjamin W. Miller

Covenant identity" is a particular way of answering the hard questions, "Who am I? Who or what defines me as a person? Who or what makes me who I am?" To see what is so particular about the "covenant" way of answering such questions, it may help to reflect on how people in our world generally tackle the problem of personal identity, how they go about answering these hard questions. It is a fairly sacred idea in our world that each individual (including each child) has a "right" to self-discovery, self-definition, and self-determination. I have a right not just to find out who I am, but also to define who I am and to determine what I shall be and what I shall do. The biblical view, by contrast, is that God, as the Creator of human life, defines what it means to be human. He determines what is right and good for his human creatures in general, and determines the personality, potentials, and destiny of each human person in particular. It is thus the duty of each person to discover God's defining purposes ... Read more

A Lord's Day Handbook for Practical Parenting

by G. Mark Sumpter

Wise parents search continually for help and encouragement, for counsel and guidance, and maybe we've been overlooking a glorious gift from God that is right under our nose each Lord's Day. Fathers and mothers are sitting on the proverbial gold mine with lessons for nurture and training from public worship. Just as the force of gravity provides energy—pulling objects toward the ground, whether we've planned it that way or not—so worship provides energy for parental nurture. By faith, this energy can be harnessed for godliness, for world-and-life-view training for our children and youth. Worship as Dialog Perhaps you've heard of the dialogical principle of worship. Parents, you might explain it to your children as the friendship principle of worship. God speaks to his people, and then we respond. Like two friends, God and his people take turns speaking and listening through the parts or elements of public worship. He welcomes us and tells us who he is and what he has done, and we return ... Read more

The Coddling of Children

by Carl R. Trueman

I recently had the pleasure of reading Albert R. Mohler's new book, Culture Shift (Multnomah), in which the president of Southern Seminary takes a long, hard look at aspects of modern American life. In chapter 11, entitled "A Coddled Generation Cannot Cope," Dr. Mohler takes aim at the way in which parents have developed the habit over recent decades of overprotecting their children. A generation is rising, he claims, which has been so coddled and protected by parents that it is incapable of taking its place in the real world but is doomed to remain emotionally dependent upon parents, and thus at a stunted level of emotional and psychological maturity. The article is hard-hitting. As a professor and an academic administrator, I am quite used to the occasional student behaving like a five-year-old. Hey, I did it myself often enough when I was younger—but there is a new phenomenon which I have come across recently and which I do not recall from my student days: angry parents, threatening to sue ... Read more

Church Power

by "Uncle Glen"

Dear James, I stole a glance at the college newspaper when your folks had us over for dinner last week. It left me persuaded that the two constants in the story of my alma mater are the sorry fortunes of the basketball team and the dubious quality of student journalism. One feature of the latter that seems to be a rite of spring on many college campuses is the student uproar that ensues when a maverick though popular professor learns that his services will not be required the following year. Of course, I cannot speak to the wisdom of the decision to terminate Dr. Donovan. But I was struck by how the editorialist described this miscarriage of justice. The writer ventured that this was far worse than excommunication, because Dr. Donovan's livelihood was at stake. This seems to be but one more example of how church power is underestimated in our day and age. You will recall that the session excommunicated Mr. Taylor last summer. Understandably, that came as a great shock to you, given your pleasant ... Read more