RADIO PROGRAM NO. 297 - What Are You Giving Your Children? Part II

Questioner: Last week we discussed what true values are, and you said that God is the source of all worthwhile values, such as genuine love, integrity, and freedom. Today we might discuss how we communicate these values to our young people.
Speaker: Yes. You remember we spoke about the way the Bible refers frequently to wells, often in a symbolic way. A well was very important in the dry Biblical lands, and a well needed to be deep. We are challenged today to see that our values go deep. We can't be satisfied with talking about values to our children; the need, rather, is to make these values a deep part of our thought and lives. In other words, drink of the living waters Jesus spoke of.

We can, if we strive to, live a life that reflects divinely inspired values or qualities as Abraham did and give to our own children values similar to those he gave his son Isaac. Then our children will want to come back and redig our wells, as the Bible account shows Isaac did; that is, adopt proven values—values that have their source in God.
Questioner: How do we best communicate these values in our lives so that they're attractive to our children? Speaker: I recall when one of our children, who was quite young, forced us to learn something about communication. No matter what the occasion or how great the need, she simply refused to listen to or to learn Bible verses. Her lack of response to words placed an even greater demand on her parents. We saw that the only way we were going to impart truth or love was by self-disciplining ourselves better. We had to learn so to live the love and obedience and order we were talking about that these would communicate their values to her. And it was interesting to see the good results.
Questioner: Some of the most difficult problems parents have with their children concern the values a youngster often picks up from those around him. Perhaps the child is thoughtless, self-centered, careless with other people's property, unappreciative, and so on.
Speaker: I think a very important thing is not to push the panic button. Let's look below the surface in such a situation and see what's really going on. Certainly John had to be looking deep into reality when he wrote (I John 3:2), "Beloved, now are we the sons of God," and we can join him in this present recognition of man's spiritual nature as the perfect image of God. True, John was quick to acknowledge of humankind, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

This kind of love or understanding of God and man enables us to separate wrong thoughts or bad character traits from the individual and indeed from all young people. The effect will be universal—a greater awakening on their part to the fact that God is a very present help, a present force of unfailing love and strength to see them through these rather difficult years. And then as they mature, their eyes will be opened to the difference between a right value and a wrong one. So let's not feel that they've got to be model children all through the years.
Questioner: Are you implying that they'll grow out of it?
Speaker: I don't want to leave the impression that a child will somehow just grow out of troubled attitudes. More is needed than just sitting back calmly. It's never the attitude of Christian Science that evil left alone will in time disappear. Every circumstance and condition is directly responsive to thought. And so the demand is always to spiritualize our thinking.