Introduction
Now that we understand that Scripture illuminates everything else we read, we’re ready to examine the second category of books a little closer. We’re using Tony Reinke’s definition here of Temporary Books to include everything written that’s not the Bible.
There are innumerable ways to break this sweeping category down into smaller, bite-sized chunks, and a lot of it is based on personal preference. Let me state clearly right up front where I believe the personal preferences lie; we are commanded in Scripture to train up our children, and we’re told that we’re to educate them in every area of life. So I would argue that the imperative God gives us would include teaching our children how to think logically and biblically about every idea our children come across, whether in books they read, in school, in advertising, in music, and on and on and on, and I don’t see any wiggle room that gets us off the hook. How we flesh this out, however, will look different from family to family, and this is where personal preferences come into play. The choices I make for my children (for example, which book series the kids are allowed to read and at what age) will look different than another family. Our children are different, their interests and sensitivities are different, their experiences are different, etc.
My aim here is not to draw rigid lines, but rather to get you thinking and talking about what’s best for the children God has entrusted into your care.
Taking Out the Trash
In an effort to make our task of categorizing easier, let’s just lop a huge chunk of books right off the top . . . or the bottom, to be more exact. We’ll call this category Rubbish, and I’m talking about anything that offers no benefit to us with regards to morality, that which holds vice up as virtue, or causes us to sympathize with wickedness. Some might wish to argue about Christian liberty here, but I would assert that we don’t have freedom to participate in licentiousness, and that there are just some things that offer us no benefit at all. What are some things that I’d throw into this category? Two modern titles might be Fifty Shades of Grey and Game of Thrones. I haven’t watched or read these series, but there’s enough common knowledge of them for me to know that there’s no justifiable benefit to me or my spiritual growth that I could claim. I’d probably throw those grocery-store romance novels into this category as well, especially considering our topic. Some things are simply worthless: these kinds of books refute God’s boundaries and purpose for marriage, reject God’s definitions of femininity and masculinity, call good evil and evil good, glorify gore and violence . . . and that’s enough for me to make the decision to not waste my time on them. If there are titles that you’re unable to read, watch, or listen to for the sake of your conscience, this is the category they’d fall into. There are many more examples, but for now we’re eliminating this genre from our discussion. Rubbish. Gone.
Timing is Everything
We can also, as parents, eliminate certain books from our children’s reading lists based on timing. In our own home, there were two popular book series that we didn’t allow our kids to read at the same time that all their friends were reading them. Those series were Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Our children did eventually read them, as well as watched all the movies, but we wanted to make sure that they were spiritually mature enough to do so, and able to correctly interpret what the author was holding up as good, admirable, and worthy of imitation. This is one of those things that will look different from family to family, but because you know your children better than anyone, you’re able to wisely eliminate certain books based on what scares them, how impressionable they are, how solid their worldview is, etc. Often, these decisions aren’t yes-or-no decisions, they’re now-or-later decisions.
Anyone can be a parent, but it’s the hardest job in the world to be a Christian parent.
We live in a society that wants to thrust everything on our children way earlier than they’re ready for it, but we’re the gatekeepers. It’s easy to abdicate to our children’s wishes here, because it takes intentional time and effort to sort out what popular authors want to sell to our children. But dear parents, remember – anyone can be a parent, but it’s the hardest job in the world to be a Christian parent. If our children need to wait for what they want so we have the time to do the legwork and ensure they’re prepared for it, they’ll be much better off.
