Q & R

Q:
In one fairly recent post, you wrote:
"Maybe we should spend more time helping our children to love the right things. One of the most unfortunate things in our world is the fact that there are a lot of people that believe in God, yet love ungodly things."

This is something I think about a lot, in fact I feel very gripped by it--how can we, in the day to day nitty gritty of life, help or actually inspire our children to love the right things? Obviously our example is one major thing, but how else can we combat both the attractiveness of 'the world' and the attractiveness of complacency? How can we (especially when we are so far ourselves from where we really ought to be/want to be) help our children see the breathtaking reality of God and His Kingdom, and help them want Him more than anything else?

R:

This is a very astute question that I received from a reader recently. First of all...this is a very good question that I don't have the answer to...I only have some theories and uninformed ideas.

Administrative/Root Change
I really hope that the older and wiser men of our communities band together and begin to grapple with this question at a deeper level(what do our young people love?). These answers should be birthed in a community conversation, not individual dynamism or inspiration. The older men of our communities should really be directing the loves of our young people.

I really don't think this can happen until the older men in our communities are as free to critique our young people's loves as they have been to critique our young people's beliefs/doctrine. (what we love and what we believe are at times a universe apart) Can you imagine a community where the old call the young to love certain and very specific things? For years our elders have been expelling from the church those who have honestly struggled with inerrancy of scripture and happily communing with those who love money more than God!

In short...just being a good example isn't good enough...there are administrative roots in our communities that need examined....

Music/Worship
I also think that the music of our communities is very powerful in the formation of what we love. While I am not a globe trotter, I have traveled enough to pick up on a very disconcerting pattern. Mennonite communities where Dad doesn't sing, are Mennonite communities where the young people love the world...Mennonite communities that don't love the beautiful music of the Lord are Mennonite communities that struggle with their young people. I don't know why this is...it just seems to hold true. We MUST be communities that love to sing to the Lord....TEACH YOURSELF TO SING THEN.... TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO SING!!!!!

Give Children FLESH and BLOOD
Thirdly I think we need to give our communities PEOPLE to love. I didn't know that I really wanted to be a teacher until I had my own students that I loved. I decided that I wanted to teach when i was 18. I spent several years in school training for this vision, but the vision never lived until I loved real flesh and blood. After my first year of teaching I almost gave up. I told God that something had to change. God promptly brought several students into my life that I really came to care about.

When I was growing up I heard that I should love the Bible. Love for highly compressed wood fibers and ink wears out in a hurry...its just plumb unsustainable. I also heard that I should love God...but that basically meant loving nitrogen, oxygen, and other things I couldn't see. Our young people need flesh and blood put to their loving. When we say love the poor....give them a chance to love a real poor person with a real name and a real chance of suffering. Its harder to love yourself when you actually know these people...when their not just a word on a page...when they are a real face.

GET CREATIVE
There is more, but this post is already too long. We all need to get creative in a day when machines tell us they can be creative for us. If you have creative ways to create a culture of love for God please share them....our communities may fail lest we address a faltering love for the Kingdom. People WILL love...the question is, "WHO is informing our children's loves?"