Parenting Principia

In reading Scott Oliphint’s latest article on his second tenet of a covenantal apologetic, I realized that the implications of the principia of Scriptural authority go beyond what we think of when we think of apologetics. After a proper defense of this tenet, Oliphint pleas:

Why would we want to establish our apologetic, make our case, defend the faith, on the basis of ours (and others') reasoning capacity, or inferential abilities, or empirical data, when the very Word of God always and everywhere hits its target with full, unmitigated, sovereign and powerful authority? Confessing Scripture as our foundation for knowledge provides the proper kind of confidence in our defense of the Christian faith. It is a confidence that finds its home in the Triune God, and His character, and not in anything we can muster.

Our unbelieving friends need to hear that Word in our defense of Christianity; it alone can change their hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. The unbelief that remains in our own hearts needs to hear it as well. It alone has the power to tear out that unbelief by its roots and to grow real and lasting fruit, a bumper crop of beatitudes, all to the glory of the One who alone is able to give the increase.

These words have immediately reminded me of some disciplining issues that my husband and I have been discussing. We now have a daughter in high school, and we realize how little time we have left to prepare her for adulthood. Along with this, we are facing new challenges as we navigate through the social issues of a teenager. Matt and I can learn a wealth of information about the people our daughter calls friends in just a short perusal of her phone. We can also get a good idea of who she interacts with the most. Social media can give you quite a digital resume, and we have learned some things about her classmates that raise concern. Of course, it isn't always her friends and classmates that raise concern, on occasion it is our own daughter. It has brought up some discussions in our house about character. Sometimes our daughter gets defensive, accusing her dad and me of making a big deal out of nothing. For the most part, I think we are pretty good at discerning which battles to pick. We may be old in our daughter’s eyes, but we still remember being her age. But that scares us even more! Anyway, Matt and I were just talking about how effective our reasoning with our daughter has been. Does she think we don’t “get it”? We recently talked to her once more about how as a Christian, she is called to a much different standard, a different way of thinking all together. We addressed the whole being made in the image of God thing, and all it’s implications. And we reminded her with Scripture. Afterwards, Matt and I had a good conversation about whether using Scripture in these sensitive talks turns her off to engaging with us. We don’t want to come off as preaching at her, and not meeting her where she is as a teenager. But reading Oliphint is a wonderful reminder that God’s Word is living and active. One thing Matt and I resolved in our discussion is that we are responsible to bring our children up in the faith, in the covenant community of the confessing church, and to lovingly remind them of their baptism and their own profession of faith. Our daughter will be shaped in the means that God has promised to use. Bringing our children under the preached Word and sacraments is effective parenting. So is shepherding and nurturing her with that Word in the home. While we wade through boundaries in social media, activities with friends, and counsel and discipline in the process, I am confident that God’s Word is doing its work in her through his Spirit. The scary part is that there is also a responsibility on our daughter, as a professing believer, when we remind her with the Word of God. I am thankful for the relationship that we have with our children. But sometimes I get a little too worked up trying to combat what the world tells my children with the power of my own reasoning. Oliphint’s reminder, “Why would we want to establish our apologetic, make our case, defend the faith, on the basis of ours (and others') reasoning capacity, or inferential abilities, or empirical data, when the very Word of God always and everywhere hits its target with full, unmitigated, sovereign and powerful authority?” is also a good reminder to me as a parent. My daughter’s reasoning capacity has its good days and bad days. Sometimes Matt and I nail it when we are trying to connect with some wisdom, and sometimes we see we are getting nowhere. But we do know that God will accomplish his purposes with his Word. And when we remind her what the foundation of our knowledge is, she cannot deny it. The unbelief that is in her heart needs to hear it. And so do we.