Truth & Questions

My husband and I were discussing some current events earlier this week. We were commenting on how they relate to a moral issue that we feel strongly about--an issue that is quite polarizing in our culture.  Our older two children were perceptive enough to pick up on our conversation, and our son, in particular, was very attentive.  As the conversation wound down, he quietly asked me a question--hesitantly, as though he feared it might be out of bounds:  "Mom, I totally agree with you and Dad and everything you said, but...have you ever wondered if you might be wrong?  I mean, I don't think you are!  But...how do you know for sure?"

Such an important, pivotal question.

I decided to pull a move out of Jesus' playbook and answered his question with one of my own:  "How do you know, son?  How does a person search out what is true?"  The mention of truth jogged something in his mind that we've taught our children since they were very small.  There is only one place to find truth, and he knows where it is.  "Well, you would look in the Bible, Mom, to see what God has to say about it."

Bingo.

"That's right, bud.  We always need to consider the possibility that we might be wrong.  And we find the truth by searching God's Word.  Your Dad and I have done that on this issue, and we believe that what God has to say is very clear.  I'd be happy to show you those passages so you can see for yourself."  "Yeah, that'd be good," he replied.

As a parent, there is a small part of my heart that skips a beat when my children question our beliefs like this.   Are they approaching ground where even angels fear to tread?  What if they start questioning and never stop?  What if they question, reason, and come to the wrong conclusion?  Yikes!  But a much larger part of my heart argues back:  Your fear implies that you, yourself, somehow control the faith of your children--that the determining of the convictions of their hearts lies within your hands.  Rubbish!

It is my job as a parent to present the truth to my children--consistently, authentically, clearly, and with conviction.  It is also my duty to fervently pray that they walk in it.  It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convince them of the veracity of that truth and to lead them to a point where they choose to base their entire lives upon it.  The Holy Spirit will not do my job, and I cannot do His.

I have come to believe that my children's spiritual maturity hinges upon them considering the possibility that what their parents believe is dead wrong.

My heart beats faster to even put that in print.  But what other way will it ever become truly theirs?  I don't want them to have my faith, I want them to have their own.  To fear the wrestling process they will undergo as they work out their faith is to presume that God's grace doesn't reach far enough to capture them.  Foolishness!  It is God who leads us to repentance; it is God who draws us to Himself; it is God who fashions our hearts individually.  He's got them, questions and all.

God commands us to teach our children His truth--to talk about it when we sit down, when we walk along the way, when we lie down and when we rise up.  To the best of our ability, we have done this.  We continue to do this.  But reaching the deepest recesses of the heart?  That's God's territory.

So, go ahead and question, my children.  Wonder, ponder, wrestle, debate.  And in your wrestling, seek truth in the one place it is always found:  the Word of God.

"Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth."

~John 17:17