What is Deliberate?

“Why can’t you listen to devil?” Aileen asked. 

We were reading the Bible where Jesus was tempted by the devil and conquered all its tests.

 

Her eyes were pure curiosity. There was no judgment, preconceptions, or sarcasm, of course. In her thoughts, devil wasn’t mean or asked of hard or bad things. In that short instance, I took a moment and thought about how I was going to answer this question.

 

What I did and did not want from the conversation was very clear. I wanted Bible reading to be about learning and thinking and not about getting embarrassed and self-conscious about asking wrong or silly questions. 

 

I finally answered, “because we listen to God only and nothing else.” 

 

Now she took a moment and seemed to be thinking. At the end of her short processing, she said, “Because we’re Christians?” 

 

Was my answer the best? I’m not sure, maybe it could be better. But I can say I did not turn off my daughter’s curiosity and passion to learn more about God and how to live his ways. 

Now, she learned devil is opposite of God and we don’t listen to it. More than that, we only listen to God which can mean we don’t listen to any of the other voices that disrupt her course of life as she gets older. 

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This is what ‘Deliberate’ is about. We teach our kids to be strong thinkers with healthy Christian frame, a lens to see the world and themselves. 

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Unlike previous generations, our kids have so many options. Whether to marry, have a child, have a 9-5 job, and more; building a course of life is not set or guided like older generations.

 

Multiple options sound amazing. It’s like painting your own life pictures. Yes it can be beautiful creative process but also it can create many unnecessary hesitations and worries about whether we made the best choices.

 

In the flood of different ideas and freedom to pursue whatever, we need to make sure our kids have Christian lens. This will equip them with frames they base their important decisions on. Strong thinking skills will strengthen their inner selves, knowing what ideas/teachings to accept or refuse. Filtering unhealthy and wrongful thoughts and ideas are not just helpful but essential for this new generation.