Having spent the last couple days getting solo time with my kiddos, I’ve never been more convinced that the way we raise the next generation will be our greatest contribution to healing a broken world. The stakes are high.
Let’s not shelter our kids, but invite them into the beautiful and broken realities of our world.
Let’s not hide them from the darkness, but accompany them into the midst of it.
Let’s teach them to lead with curiosity, ask great questions and be discontent with the status quo.
Let’s help them not be color blind, but color competent.
Let’s give them the gift of community that keep them rooted in an interdependent network of relationships and specific place that shapes their view of God and others.
Let’s teach them to have their lives marked by what they’re for rather than what they’re against.
Let’s teach them to identify their inherited privilege and choose to leverage or give it away for the flourishing of those who don’t have it.
Let’s give them the freedom to question, doubt and wrestle with their faith and inherited narratives.
Let’s create a safe space for them to identify our blind spots and help us reframe, reform and renew the stories we tell ourselves.
Most importantly, let’s live the kind of lives we would want our kids to live by not only passing along a set of ideals, but modeling a set of practices in every day life.
And, in the end, when we inevitably screw up, may we have the kind of grace on ourselves as has been given to us.
This is a our best “weapon” against the pain, violence and division of our world.
Great advice, we want to make sure that we encourage our children to question what the world is giving them.
There is so much more to discover out there and I hope that my children follow the ideas you have put forth in your article.