Notes from “Raising Kingdom Kids” Session 2
- Why is it important for our kids to think in terms of the Kingdom? Why is it important for parents to teach this?
- Daniel 1 shows us teenagers who have been influenced to operate at a high level in the secular culture.
- Secular culture: the esteemed values that Daniel & his friends had grown up with were not held as important to the Babylonians.
- The environment of Babylon was one in which they picked out young people with potential & indoctrinated them to advance that pagan culture. They put them in a relocation, reeducation, & reorientation training process. This is the same situation our kids are faced with today.
- Verse 5 tells us that Daniel & his friends were educated with a Babylonian worldview. They were trying to de-Israelize them & pro-Babylonize them.
- Notice their names: all of their names in Hebrew either ended in “-el” or “-iah”, which are both names for God. From the time they were born their mother & their father put a God-stamp on them, so that every time they heard their name, they also heard the name of God.
- The new names that Daniel & his friends got were names of Babylonian gods. The Babylonians wanted to reprogram them so that they forgot about God.
- Our culture wants to remove their God-consciousness & secularize them.
- What are some of the ways that we try to stamp a God-consciousness on our kids mind?
- Why did Tony Evans say that was important? Let me ask you this: What trials/temptations are your kids going to face in the future?
- What are some of the ways that the culture is trying to strip the biblical worldview from our kids (“change their name”)?
- We must put such a stamp on our kids that they will remember the way we raised them when the world tries to secularize them.
- “Eating the king’s choice food” was synonymous with being entertained by or being comfortable with the culture.
- The further God has been removed from the culture, the more rapid the decline.
- A biblical culture or worldview is a biblical value system and awareness of God’s presence and worthiness in daily life.
- God will show up when your kids make righteous decisions. It doesn’t work the other way.
- We must teach our kids to make God-honoring decisions & then trust God to work.
- Illustration of an oxygen tank >> it is our responsibility to install within our children something that will allow them to survive in a world that is not their home.
