The Bible Speaks to You December 9, 1967 Issue

[The above is an abbreviated, postproduction text of the program released for broadcast the week of December 1-7 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You." Heard internationally over more than 1,000 stations, the weekly programs are prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 02115.]

RADIO PROGRAM NO. 296 - What Are You Giving Your Children? Part I

Questioner: It's hard for parents to keep up with the many different ideas about freedom and responsibility, about life and love, and so forth that are being presented to young people today. Is it really practical to expect that we can pass along our values to our children?
Speaker: It is practical to pass along worthwhile values; but that's not to say it's easy, it's not a responsibility that parents can delegate to others, either inside or outside the home.

What values do you feel are the most important to pass along to your own children?
Questioner: Well, there are the usual ones—a sense of responsibility, honesty, consideration for others, selflessness.
Speaker: They're pretty much the same values that Paul spoke about —things that are honest, and just, and pure. He said (Phil. 4:8), "Think on these things."
Questioner: It's one thing, I suppose, to want to pass along values to children; and it's another thing, of course, to do it.
Speaker: I think this passing along of values has got to be recognized as a two-way proposition. If we want young people to be interested in what's important to us, don't we have the obligation to keep up with what's important to them? If we want them to accept and to hold on to the values we say we want them to have—integrity, responsibility, genuine love and affection— why, these must be values that we ourselves really do cherish and live by.

Don't you find that of all people you deal with it's the young people, it's children, who are very quick to detect any discrepancy between what you say and how you act?
Questioner: Yes, I do indeed. In what way is the Bible a practical source of help to parents who want to communicate more effectively with their children and encourage them to adopt these values?
Speaker: It's going to be individual with any student of the Bible. I myself have found the symbol of wells that's used throughout the Bible of great help to me. Christ Jesus used it as an opportunity to illustrate a great spiritual fact to the woman of Samaria. You recall she was drawing water at Jacob's well. And he said that if she would have asked of him he would have given her living water. She missed the point at first and didn't see how he could draw water from the deep well when he didn't have anything to draw with. But his response to her was (John 4:14), "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." I think that's a verse that any parent would find useful.
Questioner: What would it tell a parent?
Speaker: Wouldn't it say that there is a source of living values that's spiritual, since "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst"? And isn't this what we want to give our children? We want to satisfy their hunger and their thirst for real values. They can find that that source is in them, it's within each of us, "a well of water springing up into everlasting life," an unending effervescence—all the qualities of Life springing up.