Introduction
Once, in a cozy house nestled on the edge of blustery farm fields, sitting precariously close to a busy road, lived a happy little family. Mother and Father loved their young son and daughter dearly, and endeavored to raise them up faithfully in the fear and admonition of the Lord. They were careful to teach their children diligently, only setting those things before them that were honoring to God; movies, television shows, music, and video games were limited and monitored closely to ensure that nothing unwholesome entered the children’s view, and books were read by the parents and carefully chosen before the children set their own eyes on them. The children were voracious readers, you see, a characteristic valued highly by these Christian parents.
One day, the fair daughter approached her mother, begging for a new book to read. “But daughter, you just started a new book yesterday! Surely you haven’t finished it already?”
“But I have, Mother! And I have nothing else to read!”
It was at this very moment the mother realized that she couldn’t possibly keep up with her daughter’s reading habit – nor her son’s, for that matter. She no longer had the time to pre-read every book to ensure it was free of offense and mirrored their own family’s values. Cold horror stabbed her heart; what if her children picked up a book and read something in it that was sinful? Offensive to God? That mocked Christian virtue and lauded vice? In her mind’s eye, the terrified mother saw her ability to shield and protect her children from the world slipping quickly away.
Back to the Real World
I hope you can forgive me for my obvious lack of talent writing fairy tales, but actually that sad example of a story recounts my own experience about 10 years ago. Our children had reached an age and reading level where they were consuming books faster than we could vet them. We had always been diligent to control the quality of media our children took in. At about the same time that my daughter’s reading pace overtook my own, we found ourselves becoming increasingly frustrated with television and movies as well; we were careful to choose only those shows and movies that we “approved,” but had no control whatsoever over the content of the commercials or movie trailers that the networks or streaming services threw in. To cap it all off, watching the evening news became a sordid fiasco too; the Jerry Sandusky trial was the main headline of both local and national news for several months, and there were many times that we had to turn off the television and have some very frank conversations with our children.
What’s a parent to do? “We could get rid of the television altogether,” one of us suggested. “But football,” said the other. It was at this moment that we both realized it would be impossible to shelter our children from the world’s influences forever, and that we would be wiser to instead begin training them up to think critically about whatever form of media they were ingesting. And so, a long and tedious process began, and continues to this day . . .
To the Task at Hand
I love literature, especially classical literature. This is evident, I believe, in the books that constitute our church library. There is a wide variety of genres, reflecting a wide variety of opinions and preferences regarding what makes a book good or valuable or worth reading.
If we can learn to think critically about literature, we can apply the same careful thought process to other types of media as well. Over the course of the next few weeks, I’m going to lay out an argument for why – and how – Christians should read books. I’ll establish:
- some definitions for various kinds of literature,
- some guidelines for choosing them,
- an argument in favor of including secular literature (as in, not explicitly Christian) in our reading lists,
- the benefits of reading together as a family,
- how to handle all the scary bits,
- the importance of storytelling and what makes a story “good,” and
- how to encourage your children to think biblically and critically about what the author is telling them.
You may be wondering how this topic fits under the heading of “Children’s Ministry.” It’s a fair question, as these topics certainly deviate away from Sunday school lessons. Think of it, rather, as Children’s Education. It’s our responsibility as godly parents to train our children up to become godly adults who will go on to train up their children to become godly adults, and so forth down the line. Our children’s theology, or lack of it, will impact every area of their lives. In this media-saturated world, we must teach our children how to wisely interpret everything that passes in front of their eyes and through their ears before it enters their brains. What they believe about God will directly affect what they believe about what they read and see and hear. So we need to be intentional in helping them to connect their theology with the real world.
I hope that you’ll stick with me through this. We are instructed to glorify God in all things (I Peter 4:7-11, Colossians 1:10), and to take dominion over His creation (Genesis 1:28). We are told that we are not of the world (Philippians 3:20-21), but we are to be a light unto it (1 Peter 2:9-12, Philippians 2:14-16). We are to be wise and bold (2 Timothy 1:7, Colossians 4:5-6), not foolish and fearful (2 Timothy 3:1-7, 1 John 4:18). We are raising up our children during a time of war, and one of the greatest battles will be fought over words. Words have great weight, and great influence. Let us not view reading merely as entertainment or amusement, rather, let us understand the skill for what it really is . . . as preparation for war.
